Chris Dessi - Vice President zanox, Inc

As the summer winds down with Labor Day weekend upon us it's a time to reflect on the great summer AzoogleAds had.

Our whole team did a phenomenal job, and the month of August will be a record for my own personal book of business (OVER $3million!).

We need to acknowledge all of the great work our Affiliate Managers, and Sales Managers did, slap the backs of the compliancy team, give a big round of applause for the executive team, and then get back to work all over again in September! LOL

There are a few constants in the interactive space; one of them is that there is never any down time....ever. While this is something that I love about it, this is also something that could potentially wear on you a bit. So what the heck are you supposed to do?

For me, I've started to get really involved in structured extracurricular activities. So instead of just going home and watching TV, I've scheduled guitar lessons, a helicopter ride around Manhattan Island, Golf lessons, and trips to visit friends and family.

My golf lessons seem to help my stress level the most. I rush to get out of the office by a decent hour, run to Chelsea Piers in the oppressive NY heat, and spend a blissful hour hitting a little white ball with an iron club into the Hudson (or in the Hudson's general direction)...if I'm lucky...but man...do I love it. Tomorrow I'll be out on the links as well as Saturday, playing golf and recharging my battery. I'll spend time at a BBQ with family and friends on Saturday, and look forward to fresh start on Tuesday!

The summer is over, and I'm ready to take on the fall!

Wedding vid

Over the past two years here at Azoogle, we've seen tremendous growth. Part of that growth includes growing internally with our process, etc. One of the most simple yet effective ways of avoiding any sort of trouble down the line with any client has been the trusty weekly conference call. I've been luck to have some of the best clients out there (GE, Scholastic, Blockbuster, Netflix, Nutrisystem, Stamps.com, IAC/Ask.com) to name a few. These guys are at the top of their game, and expect their vendors to be as well.

Recently Karn Aquilino, our "rock star" Account Manager and I spent 4 hours meeting with Scholastic up in Connecticut. We had a phenomenal meeting, with lots of "Take-aways"....so far the easiest to implement with the greatest impact has been our very simple, yet highly effective weekly con call.

The client gets to review their "to do" list, we get to cultivate a relationship with our client, and get to know how to best service them, all while we have some fun on the call.

Recently the guys at IAC/Ask.com decided to play a joke on Karen and tell her that the whole campaign was being pulled....in a panic Karen IM'd me to jump on the call...where I heard the team laughing hysterically....wow....can't wait to see what they do on April Fools day if this was just a hum drum Monday in August!

Ever notice you do your best thinking while getting ready in the morning? Those few minutes to yourself while soaping up your hair with nothing else to think about other than wondering why, in 2007 we still can't get AM news radio reception while listening to the the whizzing and buzzing of 1010WINS??

ANYWAY.....This morning, while listing to said whizzing and buzzing of 1010wins, I was thinking about the fact that come Oct, I'll have been with AzoogleAds, Inc for a Whopping 2 years! Now, to the untrained eye this may seem like only a small blip on the screen in what I hope is a very long career. The thing that struck me is that in this day and age, and especially in this industry (Online Advertising) 2 years is like an eternity (kinda like Dog years I suppose)?

At first glace on linkedin.com you can see the trend. The 30 something counterparts of mine in this industry that have been around since working for a "Dot Commer" was the "It" thing to do in thate 90's have hopped around more than Paris Hilton in the VIP lounge of the hottest club.....but why?

I have a few theories so let me start out at 10,000 feet and then I'll drill down to what I think may be at the heart of the situation.

Reason #1 Get out before they get me out
While I was at Mediaplex in 1999 there were a few rounds of layoffs before Valueclick came in and bought the company. There were young, fresh faced, hard working bright people just out of college (or in my case Grad School) that wanted to make their internet millions. Well, those same fresh faced kids got caught up in some serious downsizing. Some of our parents were lucky enough to never see that kind of company overhall in an entire career. We saw it in the first few years of ours. This was of no fault of our own, but non the less, we were unemployed at 24 years old. Many of us left the industry (I went to a design agency for 3 years). Others kept moving along, but would never have the same loyalty they felt with their first company.

Reason #2 The market is fantastic
If you're good at what you do, and people know about it, they'll offer you a job. Every conference like Ad:Tech is certainly the hotbed for this kind of activiity. Other companies seek out the Rockstars, and try to hire them away. Lots of times it works.

Reason #3 You can
When you send in a resume with 10 differnet positions at 10 different companies over the past 10 years. It's more than likley that at least one of the Sr. Executives at your company may have a similiar type resume.

Sometimes hopping around is the only way to take your career to the next level.

I have to say...at this point in my career, it's nice to finally find a spot to call home. For the first time since the early days when I was at Mediaplex I feel like we're onto something here. Maybe something big that we can say we were a part of. Soemthing worth sticking around for...

Only time will tell!

Last night a few of my co-workers said goodbye to one of our own, Chris Mentzer. Chris is not only making a career move, but a life change, as he heads to the Mid-West to live in Chicago. Chris is leaving our New York office for personal reasons, and we're all really happy that he'll be closer to his daughter, and won't have to rush to catch flights every weekend just to see her!

But this is one guy that I'm really going to miss. I don't know about you, but I consider myself really lucky to not only work with smart great people, but I feel lucky that I've become really good friends with a lot of these people.

This October is my two year anniversary here at Azoogle. Chris and I started at Azoogle on the same day. In fact, we met in the lobby because we showed up at the same exact time. Chris and I had both worked at Mediaplex, but at different times. So we both "knew of" each other. Immediately we became friendly. We were two guys in an office of 5 or 6 people. We sat next to each other, and shared lots of jokes and headaches throughout his tenure. We saw our office explode, and hire 50 or so new employees, and saw us move into our new office space in less than two years.. We closed lots of business, and of course shared a lot of cocktails.

I think it’s rare these days to be lucky enough to truly enjoy Co-workers company inside and out of the office. Chris was always the social ring-leader. I’m bummed to see him go, and consider myself luck to call him a friend.

Keep in touch Mentz….we miss ya buddy.
-Dessi

Things are hopping around here at AzoogleAds, Inc. When I first started at Azoogle we worked in a great office space on 55th and Park. At the time of starting I remember looking at the 5 other people in the office, and thinking...there is no way we are ever going to fill this office space. It's HUGE!!

A year later, we'd officially outgrown the office space! So here we are, still growing, still expanding. Lot's of saws and drills in the background, but I'll take progress over stagnation any day of the week. Maybe by the time we fix up our new space, we'll be ready to move into a new space? The skys the limit!

I just returned to New York from lovely Chicago for this years Ad:Tech show. Although the show is much smaller in scale than the San Francisco, or New York shows I always love any Ad:Tech event.

Some highlights: Chris Anderson's Keynote on the Longtail. I loved being able to hear Chris speak. He kicked off the whole event, and had a captive audience. Some of the newer things Chris spoke about had to do with a new case study he's reviewing for Zapppos.com the online shoe retailer. The results coming from his research is facinating, and I feel shaping the way we all do business online.

The Longtail certainly applies on our network as well. Sure, there are certainly verticals that may drive any online business, but it seems that some of the smaller trends with advertisers drive the majority of any networks' bottom line.