About Mitch Speers

What I Do

I ship product, whether it’s a new website, a new campaign, or a new digital strategy. Smart marketers are becoming publishers, because stories are far more powerful than ads. After more or less equal time spent in marketing and media, I have a pretty killer perspective on how to make the most of that convergence.

I get the best out of cross-functional teams because I understand marketing and tech, and I respect the contributions both can make. I’ve spent the last two years immersed in mobile and social media and the ways they are transforming brand relationships.

I know a lot, but I have no problem admitting someone else has the better idea, and then getting on with it. A brilliant idea that never gets shipped does nobody any good.

I am an utterly inept politician, so I stay away from corporate cultures that work like shark tanks. It’s what I love about my company, Vital Business Media; people I love to work with, zero backstabbing.

Things I Know

Tools & Platforms:

Drupal CMS, Dart for Publishers, Google AdWords, Google Analytics, various ESPs, and enough HTML & CSS to know the value of experts. I’m a fair hand with a spreadsheet as well.

Disciplines:

Online product development, social media marketing, branded content, conversion optimization, lead nurturing and ad operations.

Digital Experience:

I’ve worked exclusively in online businesses or divisions since I took over Panasonic’s corporate Web initiative in 1996. I set Panasonic’s early digital strategy on a path that was held up as a model for the company’s operations globally. This is when I realized that I had a knack for being the bridge between developers and business people.

Since 1999 I’ve worked at five digital startups, co-founding three of those. In that time I also built a lot of new business for the digital groups at Primedia Business, PRISM Business Media and Penton Media.

Education:

MBA Marketing Management, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business

BA English Literature, The George Washington University

What Others Have to Say

Here are some kind words others have had for me and my work. There are more on my LinkedIn profile.

Mitch headed the team at Penton that worked worked with internal clients to introduce and improve online products; my technical group wrote the code for those products.

Mitch is fluent in both business and technical languages. He is good at communicating requirements to the techies and at explaining issues to the clients. He is an excellent presenter and trainer.

Most important, he starts from the perspective of “what do we want to accomplish here”. By focusing on business goals, he doesn’t get locked in to a particular technical solution — helping the client arrive at what will really work, rather than what they thought they wanted at the beginning of the meeting.

Wade Leftwich

****

Mitch worked for me in the crucial year that the Web became a reality for Panasonic. In that very exciting, but confusing time, I gave Mitch the Internet ball and he ran with it. He made key analyses and took ownership with a very sharp and focused mind.
We also had a very difficult personnel problem in our department then, and Mitch handled himself with great diplomacy and professionalism.

David Chapin

****

Mitch filled a very demanding role at brandwise.com that required creativity, leadership, and the ability to understand technology and operational issues. He was very effective at describing his vision of how the Information Architecture for our product search wizards would work, and building enthusiasm for that vision among our technical and data operations folks.

Webster Paton

****

I had the opportunity to close a deal with Mitch that was profitable for both our companies. Throughout the deal process, I found Mitch to be a top-notch professional – a straight forward negotiator, with a deep understanding of online marketing, focused on crafting a relationship that would endure economically and deliver a high quality product to our respective customers. Highly recommended.

Will Hunsinger

****

I had the opportunity to work with Mitch in a highly integrated manner on a project where we shared the client. Not only did Mitch’s professionalism eliminate all of the normal ‘client politics,’ he proved himself to be a sound marketer with compelling ideas and solutions.

Ed Bardwell