Q: What new technology do you think will have the biggest impact on advertising?
A: Probably social-network marketing. MySpace.com has surpassed Google and Yahoo for most traffic to their sites. And I think video is going to become a huge component. But things online change in a heartbeat. The whole idea of blogging was so big a year ago, but now we all have bloggerrhea.
Q: What’s the biggest challenge in online marketing and advertising?
A: This is really hard work because the Web is so fluid. It’s not like a print ad, where you get it done and it sits in magazines for six months. We’re doing new things every day for Qwest’s website. It’s nonstop.
Most corporations in general have gone from looking at a website as something like a brochure, where you put it up and it sits for three years. Those days are gone. The Web is where people go first now for marketing.
Q: You spent several years working in traditional marketing, including a four-year stint at Coca-Cola, before coming back to Denver to start an interactive division at your father’s agency, Barnhart/CMI. What was that like?
A: Anything where there is perceived nepotism can be a challenge, but everyone at the agency was really cool. I think that if you’re good at what you do and you respect people, you’re going to get the same treatment back.
In 1996, people didn’t really understand what new media was. I was recruited to come in and try to do this new thing that they really didn’t know how to do.
Q: That agency downsized significantly following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Was it hard to be let go by your father?
A: It sucked for everybody who got laid off. None of it was fun. But it was a good thing for my partner Laurel (Malenke) and me, because we went out and started our own thing.
It was a rough first couple of years – we had no money; we were totally bootstrapping it. But now it has gone beyond what we were expecting, which is a cool thing.
Q: How big would you like to grow your agency?
A: A couple of years ago, we thought it would be great if we had 10 people. Now we have 30. But our core vision hasn’t changed. We always want it to feel familial, like it does now. We hang out together all the time – we play kickball together; we go out to bars together. That doesn’t happen very often in business, so we want to keep it going as long as we can.
Q: You write music and play the guitar and keyboards. What is your band’s name?
A: We’re called Veto. It’s impossible to come up with a good band name. Our first real legitimate gig was earlier this year. We opened for the Fray, which is one of the biggest bands to ever come out of Denver.
The funny thing is we have a pretty crappy website. It’s pathetic, but none of us have any time to do anything with it. At least it’s there. And we have a MySpace page, of course.
Edited for space and clarity from an interview by staff writer Julie Dunn.
