Eric Mayville

Bio:

Eric brings the pure heart of a midwesterner to the City of New York where he works in the dynamic world of problem solving. He was formally trained as a designer and front-end carpenter. Eric's commanded the position of interactive designer, motion designer, front-end developer and strategist. He's not stopped using the Internet since the days before AOL discs, chatrooms and screen names like SuBLiM6190. His main goal for creating products and experiences online is to make sure people give a shit.

• Title: Strategy Director, agencynet
• Age: 26
• Location: SoHo
• Contact: @ericmayville

You’ve worked on a number of campaigns for big brands such as MTV, Westin, Mercedes, Dr Pepper, Comcast, Samsung, Atlantic Records, and Adobe.  What are some of your favorite clients and/or projects that you’ve worked on?

I've loved a lot of the clients and projects that I have had the pleasure of working on. Helping transform Dr Pepper's approach to social media and digital marketing was pretty rewarding. Social is perfect for seeing immediate results and some of the feedback from Dr Pepper fans was pretty great. Atlantic Records was another great team and project. We were tasked with redefining what a record label website should be. The Atlantic team was open and extremely receptive of our concept that moved them into the world of producing content that gives people a deeper look into a pretty interesting industry. Lastly, Calvin Klein was a blast. When clients tell you that they would love to 'get in trouble' then you know you're going to have fun coming up with ideas to make that happen.

What’s a typical day like for a Strategy Director at a marketing agency like AgencyNet?

Load up Rdio, move through some Google Reader articles, open up Wunderlist and get cracking. I think Strategy is pretty different from strategist to strategist. My role is heavily focused on asking the right questions to validate our point of view on digital experiences. Once that's done, I try to work as closely with the creative team to design and develop an experience that is on strategy, compelling to users, and hopefully as awesome as can be. My background is in design and development and the insights that I gained from actually practicing what I preach has been invaluable. I've seen a lot of people that only know how to pitch pie-in-the-sky initiatives or ideas because they don't understand the realities of making their plans come to fruition. I like to think that I can help move from the 50,000 foot view that might start in the beginning of a project to the ground level realization of how to make something new and innovative come to life. Oh yeah, back to my day…after a couple hours of work I get on the ping pong table to get the blood flowing. Lunch follows pretty shortly after that. Working in SoHo means uncountably delicious food options, but I am a big fan of Despaña. After lunch, cross more things of the to-do list. Another pong game. Twittering. Then home. I can't complain too much about any of the above, it's pretty fun.

You recently tweeted that you just traveled more miles than the earth is round.  Have you been traveling for business or pleasure?  Recommended destinations?

I've been traveling a bit for both. I just got married and spent the honeymoon in Maui. I could get used to that. AgencyNet is based in southern Florida, so I see myself down there a lot. If you're ever down there make sure to hit up Fat Cats, they have an amazing beer selection. I've also been in SF a lot lately. It's a great break from the hustle of NYC and it still offers some of the conveniences of being in a big city. Not to mention, any taco in the Mission is going to blow away anything you can find here. I go back to Ohio a lot too, gotta love the buckeye state! If you ever go to Columbus then stop by The Thurman Cafe and get The Thurmanator. You won't be disappointed.