Howdy Viewers! A quick note…

For those of you viewing this portfolio feed on my personal landing page, MattLeiker.com:

I recommend clicking here to view my portfolio and all it’s rich formatting on Tumblr. 

For those of you viewing this portfolio feed on Tumblr:

Tumblr seems to be experiencing some big bugs with regards to pagination and backdated posts. There are just shy of 30 portfolio entries, only 15 of which on the first page (and even those aren’t necessarily the newest). Please see page 2 for additional entries until I’ve got this resolved.

MattLeiker.com, v4.0

Retired January 2012, you were simple, clean, and served me well. But you weren’t very easy to update and had no dynamic qualities. Shame on you. Rest in peace.

View the archived version. (My apologies in advance for any broken links.)

∂isney Creative Lab Voce Communications; launched Jan. 2011, ongoing support/updates throughout year The Creative Lab is an internal brainstorming and “cool sharing” site that allows cast members the opportunity to share “buzz” with the Imagineering team, executives, and peers. This could include internet memes, humorous YouTube videos, or outlandish images. Employees can then create an “idea” from a buzz by sharing a suggestion or concept as to how it could be similarly actioned or modified by the company. Fellow users can comment, vote up their favorites, and engage in discussions around ideas and concepts. Similar to sharing a link on Facebook, the system would automatically grab text and images from a link to a website or video. Ideas and buzz could be sorted by a popularity metric. Users could even be ranked against each other by an engagement metric. The Lab also featured some great editorial tools for idea generation such as a homepage carousel, blog, a moderated Brainstorm area, bookmarklet, and a live feed of activity across the site that could be monitored. It even further integrated with various systems by incorporating hooks into the company authentication system and internal share tools.  primary client contact, project management, drafted & maintained SOWs, created product & technical requirements documents, development QA, post-launch support, on-site client meetings & presentations
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∂isney Creative Lab

Voce Communications; launched Jan. 2011, ongoing support/updates throughout year

The Creative Lab is an internal brainstorming and “cool sharing” site that allows cast members the opportunity to share “buzz” with the Imagineering team, executives, and peers. This could include internet memes, humorous YouTube videos, or outlandish images. Employees can then create an “idea” from a buzz by sharing a suggestion or concept as to how it could be similarly actioned or modified by the company. Fellow users can comment, vote up their favorites, and engage in discussions around ideas and concepts.

Similar to sharing a link on Facebook, the system would automatically grab text and images from a link to a website or video. Ideas and buzz could be sorted by a popularity metric. Users could even be ranked against each other by an engagement metric. The Lab also featured some great editorial tools for idea generation such as a homepage carousel, blog, a moderated Brainstorm area, bookmarklet, and a live feed of activity across the site that could be monitored. It even further integrated with various systems by incorporating hooks into the company authentication system and internal share tools. 

primary client contact, project management, drafted & maintained SOWs, created product & technical requirements documents, development QA, post-launch support, on-site client meetings & presentations

Fujitsu ScanSnap Community Voce Communications; retainer upkeep 2010-2011 Already existing in the Voce PR network as a WordPress blog, the Platforms team was charged with iterative upkeep and feature development for the ScanSnap Community site. Major enhancements include adding internationalization language support (i18n) and support video carousel. project management
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Fujitsu ScanSnap Community

Voce Communications; retainer upkeep 2010-2011

Already existing in the Voce PR network as a WordPress blog, the Platforms team was charged with iterative upkeep and feature development for the ScanSnap Community site. Major enhancements include adding internationalization language support (i18n) and support video carousel.

project management

Popdust.com

Voce Communications; November 2010

Contracted to advise as WordPress development consultants and overhaul the design, we had a lot of fun with the Popdust music portal redesign.

project management, editorial strategic advisement

The Pioneer Woman Voce Communications; site redesign launched July 2010, updates through year end One of my favorite examples of a self-made blogger (empire?), The Pioneer Woman blog — arguably better titled a ‘portal’ — showcases Ree Drummond’s life on the ranch. Her incredibly regular reporting spans the gamut from her personal life, cooking, photography, home & garden, and even tales of homeschooling her kids. She has a rabid avid fan base, where any one of her weekly KitchenAid Mixer or iPad giveaways will garner tens of thousands of comments, often in the course of a few minutes. (It’s a constant headache for our SysAdmin to keep her giveaways from melting servers or imploding WordPress.) As one of the team’s hands-down favorite and most consistent clients over the years, we’ve been incredibly proud to watch Ree’s self-made success grow into her second (sure to be) best-selling cookbook and an amazing new show on The Food Network. (Yes, she really is as genuine and sweet as she seems.) Just read a few of her posts. Go ahead, I’ll wait. You’ll be back (well, after about 40 minutes disappear into thin air). The 2010 major redesign was one of my first projects when I officially joined the Voce team. The design was (mostly) approved and it needed to be executed. As Ree was a seasoned blogger and WordPress extraordinaire, we took the opportunity to leverage the automated and hierarchical goodies that WP has to offer, creating some simple automated “super widgets” that automatically display content from different areas, categories, time periods, or tags. We made the archives and category pages easier to browse. Her luscious photos are now featured even bigger (and more automated for her Flickr process). Check out Ree’s “new blog” announcement post for more information (she even thanks us all by name halfway through). project management, created requirements documents, development QA, post-launch support, authored tutorials
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The Pioneer Woman

Voce Communications; site redesign launched July 2010, updates through year end

One of my favorite examples of a self-made blogger (empire?), The Pioneer Woman blog — arguably better titled a ‘portal’ — showcases Ree Drummond’s life on the ranch. Her incredibly regular reporting spans the gamut from her personal life, cooking, photography, home & garden, and even tales of homeschooling her kids. She has a rabid avid fan base, where any one of her weekly KitchenAid Mixer or iPad giveaways will garner tens of thousands of comments, often in the course of a few minutes. (It’s a constant headache for our SysAdmin to keep her giveaways from melting servers or imploding WordPress.)

As one of the team’s hands-down favorite and most consistent clients over the years, we’ve been incredibly proud to watch Ree’s self-made success grow into her second (sure to be) best-selling cookbook and an amazing new show on The Food Network. (Yes, she really is as genuine and sweet as she seems.) Just read a few of her posts. Go ahead, I’ll wait. You’ll be back (well, after about 40 minutes disappear into thin air).

The 2010 major redesign was one of my first projects when I officially joined the Voce team. The design was (mostly) approved and it needed to be executed. As Ree was a seasoned blogger and WordPress extraordinaire, we took the opportunity to leverage the automated and hierarchical goodies that WP has to offer, creating some simple automated “super widgets” that automatically display content from different areas, categories, time periods, or tags. We made the archives and category pages easier to browse. Her luscious photos are now featured even bigger (and more automated for her Flickr process). Check out Ree’s “new blog” announcement post for more information (she even thanks us all by name halfway through).

project management, created requirements documents, development QA, post-launch support, authored tutorials

CBS Radio Interactive Music Group

RocketFuel, Inc.; 2009-2010

Under the strategic leadership of RocketFuel, Inc. and with a variety of partner vendors, we created a WordPress-based content bureau delivery engine and ecosystem of interconnected websites of 100+ radio stations across the US for CBS Radio Interactive Music Group (CBSiMG). This large-scale project spanned the course of 3 major phases over 2009 and 2010:

Phase 1: discovery, comparative analysis, requirements, strategy, schedule, vendors secured
Phase 2: content & programming plans, sales materials, org chart & job descriptions, marketing strategy, system design
Phase 3: finalized build, testing, training, launch rollout

KROQ.com was the first station to go live, with the remaining stations launching on a 2-week cycle throughout 2009 and early 2010. Additionally, we defined the vision for the Radio.com syndicated content portal to sit above the different genre and geographic categories of station sites. In one year the system doubled UVs and quintupled PVs / ad impressions.

Acting as both lead project manager and product manager, I tracked timelines and dependencies, managed scope, drove client decisions and development progress, defined deliverables and project requirements (PRDs), as well as managed eight distinct vendors. I also standardized and facilitated the rollout, content migration, and staff training (via nationwide training tour) of the station sites.

Examples of materials I created:

2 week cycleSample sites:

project management, product management, created business / product requirements documents, publishing strategy, development QA, post-launch support, on-site client meetings & presentations, led on-site training across US, authored robust training site documentation

National Hockey League’s NHL.com

RocketFuel, Inc.; launched September 2008

Nominated for a Webby Award (for whatever that’s worth), our work on the NHL.com redesign is still in production, faithfully serving a slew of hockey fanatics. RocketFuel was brought in to rethink the NHL web experience, improve the editorial toolsets for the newsroom, as well as increase sales and analytics opportunities throughout the site. We worked in partnership with vendors such as AKQA (design), CISCO, and NeuLion.

As my first major project with RocketFuel, I was quickly thrown into the pool. Working mostly on-site with the NHL internal staff I led the project management efforts for the redesign during its six month gestation period. Beyond typical PjM duties of timeline tracking, deliverables management, and constant dev task prioritization, I also produced product comparative analyses, evaluating potential integration partners on various offerings. I also worked on the team site and social network integrations, as well as on content and partner relationships for NHL’s mobile offering in the US and Canada.

Examples of materials I created:

project management, technical liaison to analytics lead, assisted mobile partner integrations, development QA, post-launch support, on-site client meetings & presentations

Absolut Truth & Proof Bartender Initiative

Great Works, America; Winter/Spring 2008

With the goal of tying bartenders closer to an online brand experience, as well as learn more about their behaviors on the internet, the Absolut Truth & Proof initiative was born. An on-premise sampling engagement was coupled with an online follow-up activity so that bartenders could craft their own cocktail, have it added to the Absolut recipe database, and gain a personalized drink certificate boasting their achievements as a Truth & Proof bartender.

Bartender education and sampling sessions were conducted in the field, giving them a short quiz/survey afterward as “eligibility” to the T&P bartender initiative (generating an engaged mailing list). Participants received a follow-up email welcoming them into the Absolut community and urged them to create their unique bartender-branded drink using Absolut’s online drink creation tools.

I was in charge of bringing this digital activity online, creating all the necessary tools to facilitate the fulfillment process. After the planning and executive approval process was cleared, I facilitated the creation of back-end card entry mechanism, the bartender emailing tool, the front-end drink creation experience, certificate maker, and submission to the approval queue and printing partner. As an added bonus, I presented at a few bartender “training” sessions for Absolut’s in-market reps, getting to sit in on the training session myself. To this day, I still use the bloody mary recipe and bartender toolkit that I received.

project management, microsite publishing, drafted SOW & scope documents, on-site client meetings & presentations (east+west coast), managed development vendors in US & Sweden, contractor acquisition and management

Absolut / Live Earth Short Film Series

Great Works, America; Winter/Spring 2008

From the release:

Sponsored by ABSOLUT Vodka, the Live Earth Short Film Series – which debuted in July 2007 – will tour major film festivals in 2008 throughout the U.S. to generate a legacy of inspiration that will further underscore the need to act now.

To illustrate what an ABSOLUT World would look like, we harnessed some of the world’s most creative minds to create our Short Film Series to inform and inspire people across the globe to help solve the climate crisis. Partnered with Live Earth, we’ve created an experience where you can view these films in the digital ways which you’re most accustomed. Launching one film per week, all on the subject of climate change, and ranging from factual and dramatic to fictional and comedic, these films are directed by many of the industry’s most prominent filmmakers. 

As the digital lead for this project, I developed the overall concept, execution plan, created the technical requirements, as well as hired and managed the necessary contractors. Utilizing the WordPress platform as the editorial foundation for this weekly series, I tracked traffic stats through Feedburner, YouTube and Google Analytics. In a time before the value of YouTube had really caught on with corporate America, I urged Absolut to republish the 30 winning Live Earth short films on their own branded YouTube channel. Users could subscribe to the microsite, YouTube channel or even an iTunes podcast. I managed the designers, developers, copywriters and client approvals from Absolut and partner Live Earth.

I’m especially proud of this wacky job posting that landed me some wonderful talent for the WordPress development and maintenance.

project management, microsite publishing, drafted SOW & scope documents, on-site client meetings & presentations (east+west coast), managed development vendors in US & Sweden, contractor acquisition and management


AMC Pitch

Great Works, America; September 2007

Written for the pitch book:

We have created three campaigns that, although different, share a common goal of making AMC famous. All of them use iconic imagery to celebrate classic movies and drive home the point that AMC is the source for classic movies — that AMC is “the future of classic.” All of the following campaigns have a bold visual theme that will make the campaign seem bigger than it is. It will appear to blanket the city. Lastly, all the these campaigns are meant to be slightly “inside”— they reference classic movies visually in a way that you either get or you want to get.

The first campaign, entitled “outlines and shadows”, used subtle outlines that suggest classic movies. The second campaign was called “movie posters” and simply mixed classic movie posters with the AMC quotes branding. The final campaign pitch was entitled “artifacts”. Taking recognizable props from classic movies, we displayed them in ads as if they were in a museum on the street. 

On a short, two week timeline, I oversaw the pitch-creation process, ranging from developing and distilling the ideas, selecting and managing contractor talent, to printing and prepping the presentation. The on-air motion promos created by Joe Encarnacion at Hatchback Studios really brought the campaigns to life:

project management, art direction, contractor acquisition and management

Absolut 100 Campaign

Great Works, America; Fall 2007

Just admit it: everyone with agency experience has probably created a banner ad or twelve at some point in his career. I’m no exception. As part of a promotional campaign for Absolut 100, we created a digital marketing strategy coupled with an offline component to generate buzz for the new, higher-proof vodka.

Working with partner OMD for media placement and post-buy analysis, we managed mailers with Urban Daddy, Very Short List, Thrillist, Rare Daily, and Flavorpill to create campaigns that “went well beyond the standard banner ad, using emails to establish a one-on-one connection with the consumer.” Going past the typical newsletter, we created a tangible experience through interest in attending an exclusive Absolut 100 Halloween party in either NYC (TriBeCa’s Bogardus Mansion) or LA (Les Deux). In preparation leading up to the event, I managed the hiring of contractors to create the banner ads, as well as authored and published the RSVP microsite. Working with Absolut’s legal department for all necessary approvals, I packaged and delivered these ads for the mailers and sites.

Garnering 1800 RSVPs as well as a sizable press bump and word-of-mouth intrigue (and even celebrity attendance), 1400 fans joined us for a prohibition-themed costume party on either coast.

Pictures and press:

Examples of materials I created:

project management, microsite publishing, post-buy analysis, on-site client meetings, contractor acquisition and management


AOL’s AIM Pages Social Network

AOL; 2006-2007

Considered an evolution of “the first ever social network” — AOL’s Member Directory —AIM Pages was more than just a social network tied to your AIM Buddy List. While only AOL employees really considered Member Directory the first social network, it was clear that AOL was a bit behind the curve to only just be considering investing in the social networking space in 2005/2006. (Remember that Friendster was on its last breath, Facebook was still private-ish, and MySpace was king.)

Weighing in on the AIM Pages team’s efforts from the perspective of my position with AOL Music, I was young and opinionated and of the impression that the great majority of executives working on the project hadn’t really even used MySpace, Friendster or Facebook the same way teens and college students had. Frustrated with what I was seeing, I eventually shot a 4 page “Matt’s Guide to What AIM Pages Should Be” document off to a listserv. Not twenty minutes later, I got a call from the head of Product Management, asking if I’ve ever heard of it. I hadn’t. Thus began my career as a Product Manager.

Tasked with the typical duties of a ProdM, I managed the product requirements, task tracking, bugs, UX/UI development, and overall progress of pieces or subcomponents of the overall initiative. I was responsible for Search, friends component (Buddy Gallery), the Buddy Feed (an early response to Facebook’s News Feed), settings pages, privacy and rostering, and the media modules. Working with operations, marketing, programming, legal, advertising, and corporate communications, I gathered feedback from various executive stakeholders as well as integrated focus group and user testing feedback. As one of the more rewarding aspects, I managed teams of developers in the US, Ireland, and Bangalore, getting to visit them regularly. I also travelled to train and support AOL’s various help desks and call centers.

AIM Pages featured a robust AJAX drag-and-drop modular publishing system, intending to grant publishing freedom to users stuck with a typical form-field layout like MySpace and Facebook. While ultimately a bit too ambitious (read: buggy) for a first- or second-iteration product on such a massive scale, AIM Pages was eventually abandoned and profiles were migrated to AOL’s costly 2008 acquisition, Bebo. I think mine even still exists there in some Frankenstein form.

Press:

product manager, managed international dev teams (US, Ireland, India), focus groups & user testing

AOL Music’s “The Biz”

AOL; Fall 2005

Considered one of the first online reality shows, my first professional gig out of college was acting as the Lead Web Publisher for AOL Music’s “The Biz”. Wait, you never heard of it? That’s ok:

The Biz is a Web-based reality show where 9 finalists from across the country compete to prove who’s got what it takes to be America’s next music mega-mogul. These contestants — who were chosen from 9000 entrants — will undertake a variety of music business jobs to see who can rise to the top of The Biz ladder and ultimately win the show’s grand prize: The opportunity to found and run their own record label at the Warner Music Group. Along the way, they’ll get guidance from music industry legends like Lyor Cohen, Chairman and CEO of U.S. Recorded Music, Warner Music Group. These execs will also decide who has the chops to win the prize and make it in the music business.

Despite its relative obscurity and never really gaining a significant audience, this AOL / Warner Music partnership still managed to drum up some pretty impressive artists and executives: Fallout Boy, Panic! At the Disco, Jason Mraz, Paul Wall, TI, and Russell Simmons.

web publisher, digital producer