We’re happy to announce the appointment of Leland Means as vice president and general manager of Springbox. Previously serving as director of business development and account services, Leland will oversee daily operations and will continue to lead global business development. Leland took some time out of his busy schedule to talk with us about his background, his interests, and his vision for the future of Springbox.
Tell us a little bit about your background.
I’m a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, so I’m a long-time Austinite. Before Springbox, I was a German translator in the Air Force (this has actually come in handy twice over the past year with some of our global clients), a General Manager at Whole Foods, and an executive at Dell. I’ve always sought out roles that combine marketing, business, and technology, and this role definitely fits that profile.
What do you love about working at Springbox?
The people. It’s inspiring to work with a team of wildly talented and passionate people who eat, sleep, and breathe their craft. We seek out the very best, and I take advantage of the fact that I work with true interactive marketing experts. I’m constantly in learning mode, always asking lots of questions.
The way we’re structured drives our work—we have an open office layout in the heart of downtown, we’re the right size, and we have all the talent in-house under one roof, which drives collaboration and innovative solutions for clients. The “labs environment” doesn’t stop there: the team is constantly developing new internal tools to streamline our workflow and free external tools like Mobilizer we want to share with our peers.
We also have a lot of fun and take great pride in our company culture. Let me put it this way: I got to wear a kilt to our last Halloween party.
What trends in interactive do you have your eye on?
I have a great appreciation for infrastructure—I recently watched Long Distance Warrior, a documentary about MCI’s CEO Bill McGowan, and how MCI was the first to lay out a microwave “line” from St. Louis to Chicago for long-haul truckers. I'm fascinated by the infrastructure that enables interactive: for example, cheaper storage that supports greater cloud utilization and mobile devices, which allow us to access the cloud from wherever we are at the moment.
A short list of other interests: responsive design, mobile and the adoption of tablets and smartphones across mass market, social commerce, and gamification.
Read anything good lately?
For fun, I just read the Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner, a teen literature fix after my teenager got me to read The Hunger Games earlier this year. Futuristic, dark, and full of adventure and human race survival sort of stuff.
I also recently read The Idea Hunter by Boynton, Fischer, and Bole. The book was about being intellectually open and available to consider alternative options — both professionally and personally. Easy, quick read that I will come back to regularly.
For those who care about their professional future and/or the professional future of their children, I recommend The Coming Jobs War by Jim Clifton. I don’t agree with all of his assertions about cause and effect; however, I do agree with his overall assertion that good jobs drive the economic and psychological well-being of a nation.
How do you see Springbox moving forward in the next year?
Interactive marketing is constantly evolving — remember when email marketing was cutting edge? Our agency is structured in a way to respond quickly to new marketplace dynamics and trends. Clients seek us out as partners to intelligently and responsibly navigate this space in service of their marketing goals — we don’t simply plug holes or do technology for technology’s sake.
Without giving away the farm, there are three major interactive trends and forces underway that continue to come up in current client and prospective client engagements: 1) marrying physical and virtual 2) social audience and measurement and 3) organizational enablement on a global scale. We’re seeing high growth in social media, mobile and tablet experiences, digital experiences in retail environments, and building internal tools to help solve global brands’ internal challenges, and I think we’ll continue to do more and more of that work in 2012.