David O’Brien talks about SafeCount. March 22, 2010
Posted by Mark Blei in : Safecount, Staff posts, industry news , 2comments
Hello, my name is David O’Brien, and I have been a project manager with www.Safecount.net for almost two years now. Being a project manager at SafeCount probably doesn’t mean much to you (especially if you’re on here expecting to learn more about the people behind Dynamic Logic, on a Dynamic Logic blog). Often there is a misconception that SafeCount and Dynamic Logic are the same company. What you should know is that if you are planning on doing research with Dynamic Logic using AdIndex or AdIndex Mobile (which you should), you will find that a SafeCount project manager will play a vital role in gathering the results you need to present to your clients.
Before I go into my background and what I do at SafeCount, let me give you a little bit of info about myself. When it comes to online media and all things digital I have over ten years experience on the publisher side, and now two years on the research side. I have worked my way through the dot com bubble, interactive content, and now social media. As my career evolved, I have watched how online media has evolved. Since I have kept my finger on the pulse in this medium I am constantly finding myself on various social networks exploring what new and exciting things are out there, and what could be possibly “next”. So, yes, I am on most social networks, blogging, and twitter. I recently stumbled upon this social networking site called Vark.com. Vark.com (Aardvark) describes their platform as being, “conceived as the first Social Search engine: a way to find people, not web pages that have specific information.” So, basically, you and many other people sit on Vark.com and show each other how smart you are by recommending Hungarian restaurants in the west side of Greenwich Village of New York City or where in Paris you can get your iPhone replaced. However, I have found that most of the answers come from people who have searched on Google, so you end up with the answers you could have found on Google anyway.
Out of curiosity I asked the Vark.com users (I like to call them Varkers) the question, “Does anyone know anything about SafeCount surveys?”
To which a random Varker replied, “Its main purpose is to collect addresses for Dynamic Logic.”
Are you kidding me?! If a SafeCount project manager’s main purpose were to collect email addresses, we would be the best paid employees on the planet! Alas, Dynamic Logic doesn’t collect email addresses unless you enter into a sweepstakes associated with one of their surveys. Those email addresses are for winner notification only, and are then disposed of.
SafeCount has been growing a very powerful panel of people who have opted into receiving request to participate in surveys and who span a wide range of demographics that aren’t always easy to find, and that can be used on their own or to supplement web based intercept recruitment on traditionally difficult targets. So, SafeCount collects email addresses, we just don’t collect them for Dynamic Logic, but rather we collect them for any of our clients who might need a panel or a panel to supplement a web based recruitment project.
SafeCount is a digital data collection company. We do live intercept recruitment for research purposes. We are a Dynamic Logic spin-off backed by WPP and Kantar. If you are with another research company, ad agency, or brand, reading this blog, we could collect data for you.
We are separate profit center and a company that specializes in collecting data for all various research companies, including Dynamic Logic, but not solely to Dynamic Logic or other WPP companies. If you have spent enough time on any of the predominant search portals or leading sports websites, you have probably seen our “Your Opinion Matters, Take a SafeCount Survey!” invite spawn leading you to a survey. That’s us!
We develop the technology to help research companies find ways to measure campaign effectiveness; be it web, mobile, video games, blogs, podcast, just about everything digital. Depending on the agency, publisher, and their media plan, a SafeCount project manager can be in contact with approximately 20 – 30 internal and external clients ranging from account managers, traffickers, ad ops managers, and policy developers so we are in constant contact with today’s leading digital pioneers. Of all the portals and publishers we work with, not all are in agreement on which recruitment method is the best way is to collect this information on their sites. Therefore, we often find ourselves negotiating with many of our clients and contacts on how to best achieve this. After which we spend countless hours coordinating, monitoring the implementation of our technology, and making sure we are meeting all parties’ expectations. Overall maintaining the integrity of our data is our number one priority because its accuracy dramatically effects how our clients invest online and helps keeps many of us employed.
So my point is that we do a little more than collect emails for research companies.
In the interest of fairness with the Vark.com user, if you wan to learn a little more about Safecount I encourage you to visit us at www.Safecount.net or Safecount’s Viewpoint Community http://safecountcommunity.com where online users willingly have come together to help us with our efforts.
In conclusion, when I am not collecting data for Dynamic logic (or searching myself on Google) or I like to see live music, make up smarmy voices for my cats, and take every possible moment to enjoy New York City; my new home.
A younger David O'Brien does some early consumer testing
David O'Brien jaded and older. Faced with a childhood that is defined by his repeated defeats at the hands of Milton Bradley's Simon , now spends his nights roaming the web in search of the killer social networking application and taking pictures of himself leaning to the right.
Madeline Mulero- Keywords that translated to actions will help you build client and team relationships to bring results March 22, 2010
Posted by Mark Blei in : Safecount, Staff posts , add a commentHi my name is Madeline Mulero and I’m a privileged project manager for Safecount’s Puerto Rico office. As a SC project manager I’ve had the opportunity to understand the real deal behind publisher relations, advertising, data collection, optimization, but most of all how to keep up with all the work. It’s been well known that measuring online advertising represents one of the biggest challenges of all times; mostly because it depends on technological advances and in finding creative ways to be innovative on a regular basis. Why is this necessary? It is important to understand that part of being able to demonstrate transparency is to bring a formal data collection process and ensure that the data gathered is both defined and accurate and that further decisions based on the arguments in the findings are valid (which also helps on acquiring more and new business).
Organizations are well known as machines because of their structure and behavior that tends to be predictable but having to deal with demanding clients is like a roller-coaster, most of all if the team you are working with at the corresponding client is new or adventurous enough. This doesn’t mean that it has to be a total headache or that you have to sacrifice your sleep, it will just require extra-time to organize yourself. There are always new ways and options that will lead you to a reasonable solution for a certain issue and that is the fun part, but what about how to do it?
Easy! It is extremely necessary to have always in mind what do you want, need and how to accomplish certain task in a timely manner without losing perspective (or mind). This how to can be easily answered by defining: what (is needed), who (is responsible) and why (reasoning behind it) in a certain project or task. Once you have all that broken out then communicate with your team your thoughts and recommendations. You should feel that you can rely and trust in your team-mates, everything else will solve almost by itself.
So let’s: Plan ahead, Organize, Prioritize and Communicate what your client needs and how to make it work. Because at the end of the day is not about gathering enough control, building robust sample, follow your methodology and making things happen by all means; but about gathering more experience, building better client/team relationships, following your principles and making a client happy by solving an issue with the help and support of your WHOLE team. This is what makes a huge difference to the project management work from being hectic to entertaining. These simple words become key factors when dealing with last minute request for important clients and of course to keep your sanity.
At the moment I’m studying, working and planning a wedding all at the same time, whatever spare time is left is spent enjoying the movies or spending some time at the beach and I’m known for my penchant for re-organize things (yeah I know).
When I’m not doing that I like to read every single non-work related article or magazine I can find and of course there is always shopping.
