Mediaboss Marketing

LA QUINTA, Calif. June 5, 2023 Big Rig Media, the recognized leader in providing high-growth modern marketing solutions to the outdoor hospitality industry, announced today the recent hire of Scott Wilson as Vice President of Digital Marketing.

Scott Wilson

Wilson brings 20 years of marketing experience to the team with extensive leadership in strategic planning, management, operations and sales, and specializing in everything digital including search engine optimization, Google Ads, content development, messaging, social media, analytics, media buying and production. In addition to the digital space, he has managed large scale print, theatrical, television and other traditional marketing projects both domestic and international.

As Vice President of Digital Marketing, Wilson will lead digital marketing strategy, account services and project management for Big Rig Medias client portfolio.

Wilson most recently served as Senior Vice President of Internet Marketing with Scorpion, a technology marketing company serving over 14,000 clients, for over ten years. His responsibilities included providing leadership and strategic development, while implementing best practices in digital marketing platforms.

Prior to his tenure at Scorpion, Wilson served as a Senior Account Manager for Deluxe Media Management where he coordinated and executed marketing efforts across all media platforms, while managing day-to-day fulfillment operations for large studio clients, as well as serving in other capacities. He oversaw clients in the motion picture and television industries both domestic and international.

We are excited to announce the addition of Scott to our organization to head our digital initiatives, said Big Rig Media Founder and CEO Jeff Beyer. His vast experience and knowledge in this industry make him an instrumental member of our leadership team, and we look forward to him complementing our client services.

Boasting only five-star reviews and remaining on the forefront of the latest integrated technologies, Big Rig Media is committed to delivering a rapid digital transformation for enhanced sales efficiency.The firm proudly acts as an extension of a clients team, providing unparalleled personalized service with a staff possessing incomparable expertise in this market.

For additional information and client case studies, visitwww.bigrigmedia.com, or call 866.524.4744.

See the original post:
Scott Wilson Joins Big Rig Media as VP of Digital Marketing ... - RV Business

Talking with US Senator Edward Markey (Hon.04), Vivek Murthy says smartphones and social media apps exacerbate young peoples mental health challenges

Nearly one in three high school girls in the United States seriously contemplated suicide in 2021, and nearly three in five teen girls felt persistently sad or hopelessthe highest level reported in nearly a decade, according to recent data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy noted during an appearance at the School of Public Health June 5.

One in three adolescent girls who consider taking their lifethat is an extraordinary number that we should never allow ourselves to get used to or numb to, Murthy said.

He joined US Senator Ed Markey (Hon.04) for a Public Health Conversation at the school to discuss solutions to the urgent mental health crisis that is plaguing the nations youth at a level unlike any previous generation of young people. More than 1,000 people attended or tuned in to the event, which was held in person and online.

In addition to gun violence and climate change, excessive social media use and social isolation are contributing to the worsening mental health among todays children and teens, said Murthy, who along with Markey has prioritized improving youth mental health. In extraordinary moves last month, the Surgeon Generals Office issued separate public health warnings about the harms of social media driving insecurities, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, as well as the nations growing epidemic of loneliness.

In speaking with youth across the nation, Murthy said, teens have told him that using social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok makes them feel worse about themselves and their friendships, and that they cant seem to control the time they spend on these sites.

These platforms are often designed to maximize the amount of time that our kids are spending on these platforms, he said. One in three adolescents are now saying that they stay up to midnight or later on weeknights on their screens, and thats predominantly time using social media. What I care about as a parent and as a doctor is maximizing the health and well-being of my kids and all of our kids, and these platforms need to be designed for that outcome.

Markey noted that he has secured $15 million in funding to support research by the National Institutes of Health that will address the impact of technology and media on children and teens, but said much more needs to be done. He recently reintroduced the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), which would prohibit internet companies from collecting personal data of users aged 13 to 16 without consent, ban targeted advertising to children and teens, and establish a Digital Marketing Bill of Rights for teens and a youth marketing and privacy division at the Federal Trade Commission.

Big tech is a big problem, Markey said. Big-tech CEOs leverage data about kids and teens and use it against them, serving up an endless stream of toxic content that grabs their attention and keeps them scrolling. We need a definitive statement by the federal government of the impact that social media is having upon the children in our country.

Both officials said the onus should not be placed on parents to address these issues on their own.

Parents everywhere are seeing kids in crisis. We cannot put the entire burden of managing social media on the shoulders of parents, Murthy said. When a child is ready to drive, we dont tell a parent, Why dont you go out and inspect the brakes by yourself? because thats not a reasonable expectation.

The two speakers urged a number of legislative solutions to increase mental health resources and improve access to care, including training more mental health providers, expanding insurance coverage for this care, reducing stigma around mental health, and training kids to maintain healthy relationships.

A lot of our kids dont get training or the skills to handle conflict or to understand emotions, Murthy said, adding that it takes on average of 11 years from when a child exhibits mental health symptoms to receive treatment in the United States. I actually think those skills are just as important as learning to write and do math in terms of your success in life and your overall health and well-being. And weve got to make it easier for people to recognize that theres no shame in admitting that you need help.

Originally posted here:
US Surgeon General Sounds the Alarm on Harmful Social Media ... - Boston University

Take a look at Kleins new website, and youll notice clear section headings, consistent text colors and fonts, concise information and a comprehensive tool to help prospective students find the majors they are interested in. These features enable easy navigation and access to information, creating a seamless user experience.

In a vast internet landscape it can be difficult to establish a distinct digital presence. Thats where Temples web collaboration center (WCC) comes in. Since 2016, it has been tasked with improving the infrastructure of the universitys web presence by ensuring it contains accurate information, displays a consistent brand identity and uses a single content management system (CMS).

You know youre at a Temple site no matter what school youre looking at, said Rhoda Charles, associate director of web content in Strategic Marketing and Communications. Temple has a great presence here in Philadelphia, and going forward people beyond our region can use our site as the key to getting to know us.

Prior to the existence of the WCC, Temples web presence consisted of hundreds of independently operated websites, which meant millions of web pages published using dozens of different CMSes. Important academic information appeared in multiple places with sometimes inconsistent or outdated information, creating a headache for all members of the Temple community.

The WCC is a collaborative effort of teams from both Temples Information Technology Services (ITS) department and the universitys centralized communications department, Strategic Marketing and Communications. ITS creates web services; the web technology team codes and develops tools; the user experience (UX) team conducts user research; web content producers write web page copy; and project managers organize it all.

It's great that we are leveraging core Temple systems and data to drive real-time information on the web, said Joshua Wharton, director in Information Technology Services. This collaboration between Strategic Marketing and Communication and Information Technology Services led to an immediate and substantial jump in interest in Temples programs and is setting the university up for future success.

One of the WCCs most important projects has been to transition degree program information to a university degree search tool to make it easier for prospective students to find it. In partnership with Temples 17 schools and colleges, the WCC is in the process of migrating academic content from roughly 100 sites to this one centralized tool and hopes to complete the migration by November 2023, with Klein College of Media and Communication and Fox School of Business having recently made the shift.

Drupal 9 is the central CMS being used. It is an open-source CMS that allows users to directly log in, manage their content in a user-friendly interface and publish real-time changes. Working with a few schools and colleges at a time, the WCC has assisted these campus partners through increasing the visibility of programs in search, ensuring programs are properly vetted through the universitys data hub, and benefiting prospective students by providing web-friendly, easy-to-read, actionable content.

Weve established a foundation that allows Temples digital presence to speak with the same voice and visual language thats reflective of Temples broader brand expression, said Tom Cassidy, senior director of web technology in Strategic Marketing and Communications.

The WCCs work has significantly improved the universitys online presence and user experience. Temple ranks high in search results for many different keywords, as well as for schools and colleges and certain topics.

How all these pieces work together and look alike creates continuity and a great experience for users, said Olga Dressler, associate director ofUX strategyin Strategic Marketing and Communications. Theyre finding us more easily and feeling more confident that theyre getting the information theyre looking for. Research shows that people before were having trouble finding information because of the inconsistent and differing sites, but now users can complete the expected tasks and see we have a modern, consistent experience.

Schools and colleges benefit from the WCC as well by eliminating the cost of an external vendor to build and update their webpages, playing an active role in the development of their content and presence and maintaining their individual look and feel while still falling under the general Temple brand.

This spring, a new financial aid websiteFinancing Your Educationlaunched, creating more transparency early in the enrollment cycle around financial aid types and the financial aid process for prospective students and their families.

In addition to finishing the degree program pages and continuously updating the content and framework, the WCC is working with Temples various administrative units to get them on Drupal. The teams ultimate goal is to bring every Temple page onto it.

What we do on the web enhances what we do elsewhere within our marketing and advertising, Dressler. The way we make decisions based on data and research is not how a lot of other universities approach similar work. Were a unique presence in higher education.

Visit link:
Temple's web collaboration center strengthens brand and user ... - Temple University News

By Jennifer Weiss

How Matt Choon, the founder and CEO of Bowery Showroom, turned his interests into revenue

Matt Choon got his first taste of investing with sneakers.

He started trading them for fun when he was around 12. As a teenager, he didn't have much money, and he recalled the rush of taking $200 in birthday cash to SoHo to buy a used pair of statement sneakers from a stranger on Facebook.

"Teenage Matt definitely was obsessed with the internet and looking cool," he said.

When he came home with his 2003 Nike SBs, his mom "flipped out" at the price he'd paid, he recalled. But as he bought more sneakers to resell or trade for a profit, "she realized it was me becoming an entrepreneur."

Choon, 26, went on to found multiple businesses: Potion, a CBD brand; Bowery Showroom, a retail space and hub for creatives in Lower Manhattan; and Bowery Agency, a marketing firm. The showroom and agency are part of Choon's Lower East Ventures LLC and have pulled in five figures of revenue per month in recent months, according to records provided to MarketWatch. Choon said all three businesses are consistently profitable and gross five to six figures per month combined.

A native New Yorker, Choon grew up on the Lower East Side and went to elementary school in Chinatown and middle and high school in Chelsea. In middle school, he met his best friend Takeshi Fukui, now his business partner and roommate in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

After high school, Choon got into CUNY's prestigious Macaulay Honors College, which allowed him to study tuition-free at Baruch College. He switched gears there from studying finance to entrepreneurship, and got his feet wet starting an app and hustling through business competitions.

He tried and failed at day trading, and recalled the pain of losing a hard-earned $3,000 by the time he closed his Robinhood account.

His luck changed with crypto. Choon told MarketWatch he sold stocks and put the cash in his bank account into Ethereum -- most of what he had at the time. He saw the low five figures he invested soar to more than $100,000 and then fall, he recalled, still landing, at the time, at more than double what he'd invested. He went on to earn much more.

He worked as an economics tutor during college and said he took $1,000 of his earnings from that job to start his CBD brand, Potion. The brand started in fall 2018 when he bought a bunch of CBD gummies from a local deli, which he repackaged, rebranded and resold for a profit at the Hester Street Fair.

He went on to get a 9-to-5 digital marketing job at a crypto firm and sold CBD gummies on the weekends at parties and street fairs, growing the business. He was earning enough from Potion that he decided to leave his full-time job in August 2019.

Fast forward to 2020 and the pandemic era. Choon owned a pair of vintage Air Jordan 4s that he took to a shoe repair shop in Bushwick. He recognized the owner as a shoe designer who used to have a store in the East Village. After a conversation, Choon said the man took him to the back, where he had a slew of vintage designer clothes, and told him there were even more in a warehouse. Choon bought a black garbage bag stuffed with clothes for $300.

"We're talking about like $500 T-shirts that are crumpled up, smelled like bleach, dirty, disgusting," Choon recalled. "But to me it was like a treasure." He bought many more bags from the seller, and washed, ironed and tagged them to get them ready for sale. He posted what he was doing on TikTok.

He returned to the Hester Street fair with cannabis products and this time, vintage clothes. Interest exploded thanks to his TikTok posts.

"So now I'm this micro influencer overnight," he said.

As he continued to buy more clothes to sell at fairs, he needed a place to store them. He found a store on Craigslist, "really cheap because it was still during Covid," and in serious need of repair.

He used some of his crypto earnings to get the space ready for a sample sale, and at that sale, he sold enough to fund renovations.

These days, the Bowery Showroom is a retail space for clothes and cannabis products, and Choon is CEO. Brands pay to have their clothes displayed in the store, which attracts creatives and influencers. A tattoo artist and a direct-to-garment printer add to the offerings.

Through his marketing agency, Choon offers services from concept ideation to completion, employing videographers, editors and social media writers to make content. There's also a hospitality component.

Looking back, Choon noted he never had business plans for his businesses before he started. He learned as he went along.

"My biggest teacher is the experience itself," he said. "Understanding what my customers wanted, what I wanted, what performed well, trial and error, those are all things that got us to this point. But my professional background, things I was interested in when I was young, provided me the foundation."

Julia Barrett-Mitchellcontributed to this story.

-Jennifer Weiss

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-05-23 1538ET

See original here:
This 26-year-old went from trading Air Jordans to starting three ... - Morningstar

The following article was written by Scott A. Snyder, a senior fellow at Wharton, adjunct professor at Penn Engineering, and chief digital officer at EVERSANA; and Hamilton Mann, group vice president, digital marketing and digital transformation at Thales.

In recent months, the rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), exemplified by OpenAIs software ChatGPT, has propelled AI into the global spotlight. However, amidst the fascination with the new super-human capabilities offered by AI, there is an emerging algorithmic divide fueled by both disparities in technology access and literacy, along with cognitive biases inherent in AI models trained on available data. Bringing these challenges to the forefront will allow us to openly manage them across industry, creators, and society.

While the ubiquity of AI in our lives is evident, it is important to acknowledge that its impact is not uniform across the globe. Beyond the well-known digital divide, the development and proliferation of AI have given rise to an algorithmic divide. This divide separates regions where AI thrives from those where it remains largely unexplored. Brookings Mark Muro and Sifan Liu estimate that just 15 cities account for two-thirds of the AI assets and capabilities in the United States (San Francisco and San Jose alone account for about one-quarter). As humans increasingly interact with algorithms, we are bound to undergo adaptations that could reshape our thinking, societal norms, and rules. And while new AI technologies such as large language models are poised to disrupt white-collar jobs maybe even more so than blue-collar jobs, professionals from underserved communities face a major gap in access to broadband and computing technologies that are vital to upskilling ahead of this shift. The algorithmic divide needs to be front and center for business and political leaders as we navigate this new wave of AI-driven transformation so this disparity does not get worse.

As AI becomes an integral part of our lives, its imperative to examine the ethical and responsible principles associated with its presence in society. While the focus often rests on biases transmitted from humans to machines, it is essential to recognize the vast array of biases ingrained in human cognition. These biases extend far beyond our individual or collective awareness and include confirmation bias, survivor bias, availability bias, and many others. Acknowledging these biases is crucial because attempting to eliminate them from the intelligent systems we develop is an unattainable goal for humanity. Just as data privacy has become more of a universal right for citizens, proposed legislation like the European Unions AI Act and The Algorithmic Accountability Act in the U.S. are attempting to add transparency and protect consumers against AI bias.

Eliminating one bias often introduces another. The impact of AI on human existence becomes a paramount concern, surpassing the issue of biases themselves. Creators of artificially intelligent entities bear the responsibility of continuously auditing the societal changes caused by these systems and optimizing positive effects while minimizing harm. As cognitive biases can have profoundly negative consequences, their amplification through AI raises critical questions. What are the potential negative effects of artificially augmented cognitive biases when computing power acts as an amplification factor? Are companies prepared to take responsibility for the unintended consequences that AI-based agents may impose on humans as we rely more on machines to augment our decisions? Can AI aid in reducing biases in datasets, and how do we determine which biases are tolerable or dangerous?

The algorithmic divide needs to be front and center for business and political leaders as we navigate this new wave of AI-driven transformation so this disparity does not get worse.

A vital concept for AI creators to grasp is that the introduction of one AI in society inevitably gives rise to another a counterpart or alter ego. As AI advances and achieves unprecedented efficiency, a complementary AI emerges to restore equilibrium. This Dual-Sided Artificial Intelligence (DSAI) effect ushers in an era of machine-to-machine interaction and competition. It is crucial for AI creators to ensure that human agency remains central in this landscape. The defects and qualities of AI, which derive from their human creators, present a superhuman challenge due to the often-invisible biases inherent in these systems. OpenAI has developed its own classifier to allow users to understand if a written response was generated by a human or AI and also the ability to reference where the underlying data was sourced from.

As the new wave of AI technologies propels us towards a new paradigm for work and life with both promise and peril ahead, what can leaders do now to head off the looming algorithmic divide that will grow if left unchecked?

The algorithmic era, already unfolding in various parts of the world, necessitates contemplation of humanitys role in the face of AI-driven machine-to-machine interactions. Developing responsible practices that prioritize humans is not merely a competitive advantage or a localized endeavor. It is not a competitive advantage that would be the exclusive property of any specific company. Any other practice could not, and should not, be contemplated.

Just like any other disruptive tech wave like the internet, it will be critical for society to guide the evolution of generative AI in a direction where the benefits are available to the full spectrum of innovators and end-users who want to leverage this powerful technology, especially those with the least access today.

Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and notable scientists are asking for a break on the development of artificial intelligence superior to version 4 of ChatGPT. Now is the time for leaders to define the fundamental and universal principles to guide their organizations use of powerful AI technologies in the future, to ensure we shape an ethical AI landscape that serves humanitys best interests.

View post:
The Looming Algorithmic Divide: Navigating the Ethics of AI - Knowledge@Wharton