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Describe your office atmosphere.
It’s casual. I use music as a background and
have a wide variety of tastes, everything from
the Beatles to Neil Diamond to the Ramones
to Metallica to Foo Fighters … to my all-
time favorite, Van Halen. My office is deco-
rated with pictures of my family, a common-
sku skubot, a Dwight Schrute bobble head,
Batman, an Indiana Jones Lego, and a
Groundskeeper Willie action figure from
“The Simpsons.”
I also present the brandivate “Adult
Beverage of the Week” every Friday after-
noon. It’s been a blast to engage with people
through social media and see how they
unwind after a successful week. Bailey the
Branding Dog—who is also the company’s
CDO (Chief Distraction Officer)—is always
close by.
How do you collaborate with co-
workers?
I work with my dog and I’m pretty good at
making sure she is fed and has water at all
times. I wouldn’t call that collaboration as
much as I would her dependence on me. But
she is a
really
good CDO.
What do you love about your
company?
I love that it is built on the foundation of
serving the underserved. There are countless
promotional products distributors who need
strategic and tactical support but really don’t
have anywhere to turn. Through brandivate, I
am able to help clients build their business
whether it’s through sales, marketing, training
or employee engagement.
What changes or improvements
have you recently implemented or
do you plan to implement in the
future?
I tend to be very active on all social media
platforms, and managing those accounts can
be a time vampire. Recently I’ve begun
automating my email blog delivery through
mailchimp, and my tweets through tweetjuke-
box—both of which have been amazing time-
savers. Moving forward, I plan to automate
more of my social media activities so I can
remain fully engaged without sacrificing time.
What makes brandivate a valuable
member of the promotional prod-
ucts community?
I’m a member of the board of directors for
my regional association (Promotional
Products Association of the Mid-South) as
well as a volunteer through PPAI.
Additionally, I am a mentor through
PromoKitchen.
I am positioning brandivate to start and
participate in conversations that we need to
have in the promotional products industry:
supply chain breakdown, eroding margins, the
difficulty of distributor differentiation,
attracting the next generation of profession-
als, and how technology will continue to dis-
rupt how we conduct our business. These and
other important topics need to be addressed
for us to be fully recognized as the serious
marketing medium we are.
Jen Alexander is an associate editor for
PPB
.
104 •
PPB
• SEPTEMBER 2015
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