Latest / Frap Rap with GDogggggggg / Ep 17: Pranav Pandit (MediaMonkey18)

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Ep 17: Pranav Pandit (MediaMonkey18) · Frap Rap with GDogggggggg

• The Mediaocean Podcast Network: All right. I actually think I'm gonna try this off the top of my head now. We're on episode seventeen, so I should have it down by now. let's see if I got this. all right, here we go. Welcome to FrapRap. I'm your host, Aaron Goldman, aka G, and the artist formerly known on AOL Instant Messenger as G Dog with eight G's. Yes, one through seven were taken. Twenty-five years ago, I was an AE in an ad network called L90, and my biggest client was StarCom IP. Every Thursday, I'd invite everyone in Chicago at 35 West Whacker to meet me down the street at Cozy for coffee. And for each person that came, I would do a freestyle rap about them, hence the name for Rap Rap. Each episode, I track down another OGIPer to reminisce about the good old days and see what they're up to now. My guest today is Pran of Panit, Big Pern. Welcome to FrapRap. What's up, what's up? Great to have you. I can't believe I nailed it. I it only took 17 episodes for me to memorize that script. I think the the the the memory is full from all the memories trying to to to pull back over all these years. So to try and get new stuff in is always tough. Maybe one episode we'll flip it and I'll actually turn the intro into the freestyle and then we can have we can have some real fun. but thanks for coming on. I know you've been listening. You've also been number one fact checker for Frap Rap. So anytime like someone's like, Wait, did that really happen? or What was that ad unit called that floated around the screen? I bet Pranav will know. And sure enough, you always come through. So thank you. It's funny because I I was just telling you how terrible my memory is, but there's certain things will just like pop into my head. So yeah, happy to happy to help where I can. It's great. Yeah. This has been like an eighteen week therapy session, I think, for for lots of us as as we kind of you know dig through our past, unsurface lost memories and just, you know, kinda I mean, I don't know how f fr from your standpoint having you know, a lot of these folks, I don't know how how in touch you are with them. I've I there there's some folks I haven't talked to literally since that time and some folks who I mean you and I are have a pretty good cadence going. So it's it's it's been a it's been a trip for sure. For sure. I agree. Well let's start of course as we always do back at the beginning and when did you start at Starcom and what was your role the time? So here goes the start of my terrible memory. So it was sometime in It's either very late 2001 or probably sometime early 2002. yeah. So I I actually started, and it I think maybe some other people have a somewhat similar story. I actually started with IP through a temp agency. and so I was an internet coordinator. That was my first job. but I was a temp and I was doing I was on the trafficking team and I worked, I think, predominantly on Miller campaigns. what ended up happening is because I was working so much overtime, I was racking up as much money as a salaried employee. So I think after maybe just like two months, they ended up hiring me. because they're like, Well, it's actually more cost effici efficient to just hire the guy. I ended up within when I got hired, I was also promoted to an associate. So Had a a a brief stint as a internet coordinator, but then off to the world of being an associate in actual planning. Yeah, I do remember that kind of being the path for a lot of folks. And it was, you know, super smart, overtime payments notwithstanding, to, you know, sort of bring folks in on a temp basis, a little bit of like a try before you buy scenario. The ones who are really good, put in the work, seem like, you know, they're they're capable and and have potential, convert them to full time and and work them through the system. the ones that aren't, you can sort of just weed out pretty quickly without a lot of strings attached. right. And and I will say, like I I actually had a couple years of experience coming into that role. Unlike people that just happened to know eBay or whatever the stories were. Like I I worked for my first job out of college was I worked for 24-7 media. and then I I did digital marketing for a small web development firm in Chicago. In fact, I have one of my first interesting artifacts, which is my Twenty four seven media business card. I don't know if you can see that. Yeah, but that is that is circa nineteen ninety nine when I started there. Impressive. and so twenty four seven, was that Dave Morgan's company? Was it it was Dave Moore was the CEO when I was there. I think it got bought. Yeah. Well then it became 247 Real Media, right? Then they they they merged. I feel like Rigsecker was probably in the mix there too. Was he Real Media, maybe? And they're I d I mean, I I feel like he was he rapped a few things. In fact, I have one of his original integrant business cards. I brought I I brought it all, man. So I don't know if he was twenty four seven. I I that's where the memory is lost. All right. Well we'll have to we'll have to unpack that one. I I do so yes, I remember Integrant was kind of the name of the company before it became Central, before it became basis. And Integrant had their office on Huron in River North in Chicago, and we were literally right next door at Resolution Media. And so there'd be times where like When one person's Wi Fi would go down, we would go into the other office or just kind of like hack it through the walls. I remember there'd be times where Sean would be locked out of his office and he would just come and hang out with us for a little while. So yeah, definitely, definitely the good old days. All right. See, so we're two thousand one ish. we've moved from IC into associate. You were working on Miller. what other accounts did you work on and and what was your progression like from there? Well, I was doing trafficking for Miller. And maybe even maybe even Hallmark. but when I when I was hired and then became an associate, I was most notably on the Nintendo account. I may have had some other little stragglers that I spent a few minutes on, but the vast majority of my thirteen, fourteen hour days were were Nintendo. Yeah, I definitely remember and and associate you with with that account. I think it it probably worked out well too, because you were kinda in the demo for you know for for the for the client. I On my side at L ninety, we had Star Wars dot com and so we did a lot with Nintendo and basically gave you license to like take over the site and do whatever whatever you wanted. what do you remember about like the types of plans you put together, the the executions? it felt it felt like a pretty good, you know, t a ton of like branding type stuff, but I'm sure there were some performance components, right? I mean, it was mostly branding. I mean 'cause we were doing excuse me, we were doing Hardware campaigns, software campaigns, so games, as well as things like, you know, GameCube and stuff like that. and it was right up my alley because my, you know, if if I had to sum up my entire career in one word, it's creativity. And I'm not like a, you know, I'm not a creative per se, but I think I bring a certain creative flair to media. So that was an account where it was just a playground for me because we were doing campaigns where You know, you would take over the whole screen, the rails or whatever they were called, or like literally the entire screen would shift and shake and and stuff like that. so a lot of that type of work. And like I said, like it was a grind. Like Nintendo was, you know, probably eight, ten campaigns all at once in some form of planning or execution or optimization or whatever it was. but it was fun. It was definitely like a little boot camp. but yeah, right up my alley in terms of creativity. Yeah, I definitely that's another one I'd I associate with you cre creative and we'll kind of walk through your whole career, but I feel like that's kind of a common thread that, you know, bringing creative media together, bringing creative ideas to media has always kind of been your forte. For folks who may only be listening on the audio and not seeing the video, of course you you you fit the the mold for creative. We've got the the Mohawk in full effect. that's come and gone throughout the years, but it's nice to see that it's still in play here. Yeah. It's at I wanna say circa 2008 or nine is when I experimented with this thing and it's been there ever since. And some form or fashion it has thinned a little bit, as a lot of us can attest to. But it's still there. I don't know. I'm about to hit fifty next year, so we'll see we'll see how long this thing will last. Love it. yeah, keep it going as long as you can. Actually have a a fun little surprise plan before we get to the apartment crawl round. but I've I've got some old picks that I'm gonna pull up and we can see We can trace back the varying hairstyles that that you've had over the years. but before we do that, let's let's continue building the career here. So at what point did you leave StarCom and what was your next move? Yeah. So I left IP. I wasn't there for very long. I I was there less than two years really. I I left to go over across the street, as everyone's been saying, to OMD. in I wanna it was mid to late two thousand three. It was when OMD had won the Dell Computers account and they had snatched up like a group of us. There was probably, I don't know, across the entire account, there was probably twenty, thirty people. But from a digital standpoint, I feel like there was eight or nine. It was like me, Kyung, Mike McGuire, like we all kind of started around the same time there. So yeah, mid to late two thousand three is when I jumped ship and got lured over by Mr. Finnegan. Yeah. God bless. And for Dell, I so I'm working on that account with y'all, you know, that that was pretty direct response focused. you know, there was definitely a a feeling of like, at least on my side, being held held to very strict accountable metrics. And you guys were spending a ton of money. so beyond the differences between IP and OMD, which of which I'm sure there were many, talk about some of the differences between working on an account like Nintendo and then going over to Dell. Well, I'm for anyone that's only watching on audio, I'm I'm I'm chuckling here in the background. I didn't work on it very long as as as everyone kind of famously knows, like I was only at OMD in that stint. Now I've been at OMD three times over my career, but that stint was pretty short because of a little famous incident. Yeah, are we gonna are we gonna get into that story? We we can get into it. I mean, it is so long ago, I don't care at this point. But Yeah, so I I wanna say I probably started at OMD that first time. Let's call it July, August, somewhere in there. And then I was out the door in in January of the next year, so 2004. So justin I mean, I'll go back to your question very briefly. Like working on big brand type campaigns was was pretty damn cool. what I was doing and supposed to be doing on the Dell account at OMD, I was part of a team that you would get assigned like, hey, we're gonna have certain people focus on certain relationships like AOL or Yahoo or or you know, these big portals. And you would set up, you know, because we would do all the homepage takeovers and stuff like that. So that's the work I started to do. So not totally big brand in certain in terms of creativity, but certainly big dollars and sort of big exposure things. So it continued to be sort of part of my forte. Yeah. Right on. All right. And then you know, so we were in January-ish, or was it December? Well, actually, let me start by asking what when's your birthday? January eighteenth. January eighteenth. All right. And so somewhere around then, there was a little incident. Can I tell my fur recollection of it and then you can fill in any gaps? Absolutely, please do. So it must have been a couple weeks before. w w maybe it was an evite or maybe it was just an email. that came out from Pranov saying, Hey, there's gonna be a bunch of us getting together for my birthday. it's gonna be a good media crowd, people both from you know from from a number of different shops, you know, sort of like an unofficial SEMA event of sorts. And just like in SEMA fashion, you said, Hey, if there's any reps that would like to sponsor the event and and you know buy drinks for all the agency peeps that will be there, you were entertaining offers. again, my language and and memory on that maybe maybe fuzzy. and then I actually think you got some takers, but what I don't remember is if the party actually happened or at some point somebody reported and was like, this doesn't seem right, and all of a sudden you had to take a fall. how how close was that? You pr you basically nailed it. I mean it it was that. I mean, I'll I'll give you a little bit of the lead up. you know, being hired at OMD, there was there was a there was a point where the the account hadn't quite fully transitioned to the agency. So there was a little while where Some of us were kind of sitting around or we were just prepping for the account to really get going. this became like just a magical moment for a lot of us, in the sense that sales reps were falling all over themselves to entertain us and really get in our good graces. So, me being the young punk that I was, it just I I got really cocky about it. I think a lot of us did, because we were treated to like steak dinners every night and you know, any sporting event you could even think of we were there. so it it started to become this notion of like, you know, the world is our oyster. And so as I was thinking about my birthday, I was like, I'm gonna throw this party. And I'd, you know, at the time I was kind of a club kid and I knew all the cool clubs and owners and all that stuff. So I'd found this club that was opening around that time. and I struck a deal with them. It was like 10 bucks a person that would get my guests like, you know, cover open bar for a couple hours and things like that. and so I think I'd I had a guest list of like 150, 160 people, industry people and then all my brown people and college people and whatever. so, you know, 10 bucks ahead, 150 people, that's fifteen hundred dollars, which I didn't really have at the time. So I was like, look, I'll put five hundred, six hundred of my own money in there. And then, you know, people are taking us out to thousand dollar dinners. Like if someone could chip in a hundred bucks, two hundred bucks Pick up some drinks, like that'd be fantastic. And basically it's covered for everyone. I think one of my major mistakes was using the word sponsor. and then certainly emailing a bunch of people through my OMD work address. That was not a smart move. I should have used I think I had Yahoo or Hotmail at the time. So anyway, you you basically nailed it there where you know, people committed, they're like, of course, I'll throw down my credit card for a couple hundred bucks. You're you're fine, man. so I had sent out the e bite for the party. and a couple of days before HR had called me in and was like, Hey, we heard about this party. We find that to be a conflict of business and personal, and you're basically propositioning reps to, you know, pay for your guests and whatnot. And they're like, it's grounds for termination. and I only really sort of appreciated what I'm about to say until just a couple of years later. They did sort of admit to my face, they're like, look, a lot of this goes on. There's a lot of, you know. People going on trips and being treated to this, that, or the other. We're quite frankly making an example out of you. Someone that's a little bit high profile. Like I was an up and comer, and they're like, if someone like you kind of gets beat down a little bit, it it might stop some of that behavior. So they admitted that to my face. I didn't love it. but I I sort of get as I've risen through the ranks and I'm a lot more wiser than I am now, like, you know, I I get it. I get it. I took my I took my medicine. Yeah, that that was Pran of one point as we lovingly referred to to that era and you you've certainly up up leveled since then. So and by the way, the the party didn't happen. So they I I basically had to cancel it. I mean they it's not like they could have forced me to, but they were like, Yeah, well certainly all the people you tried to contact, we've asked them not to participate. So I like, you know what, kill it. And, you know, by the way, I just lost my job. So I was like Not a I don't have 1500 bucks to pay for it myself. Right. I'm like, hmm, maybe later. Yeah. all right. So now here we are. unexpected detour on the career trajectory. so what happens next? So there was there was a few weeks where I mean, boy, was I scared because one, I mean, you know, in the greater scheme of things, who cares? Some dude got, you know, let go, but it became kind of a little buzzy thing, and I was like, crap, like it's not a good look, obviously. it really sort of struck me the gravity of it. and I don't remember names, which is a good thing, but someone had referred me down to GSD and in Austin. They're like, you went to school there. Maybe, you know, maybe they have a job for you. So I got introduced to someone down there. We emailed four or five times back and forth just about my experience or whatever. And then they emailed whoever that was at GSD and emailed me and was like, I just heard what you did in Chicago. I would never hire someone like you. And I was like, crap. Meg maybe I'm being, you know, sort of blacklisted in the in the in the eight in in the industry. So I got real scared. So anyway, that sucked. So then I ended up landing a interview at what was effectively J. Walter Thompson. and they went through a bunch of names. It was like JWT Digital. at one point it was called JWT Connect and then RMG, RMG Connect. Anyway. So I got an interview. and at the time I think, and this is where some of my timelines don't quite, you know, the memory. like Sam Wares was over there. I think Chris Negron was over there, but they had since left. And I think I was coming in to maybe replace one or two of them. And I interviewed with a guy named Doug Rosen. And the interview was fine. And then his last question was, So tell me about this party. And I was like, crap. But at this point, I was like, look, I'm I'm taking the punches. I'm gonna roll with it. And I gave him the answer that he really wanted to hear, which I I only learned later. I was like, Look, I I'm a young man, I made a young man's mistake, and I'm, you know, clearly I'm sort of paying for it now. And if that's a reason that I wouldn't get hired, I understand. However, it's a learning experience and I'd like to, you know, grow from it. And he's like, That's that's what I wanted to hear. So he hired me. So I was out of a job for no more than a month. And this is insanity, but I got fired as like a senior associate or senior, I don't know what they called him, senior specialist maybe. and I I got hired as a associate director. So I like literally leap I leapfrogged positions. So it was actually a little bit of a stepping stone in my career. Yeah, that's wild. yeah, definitely it it was a derailment, but then it turned out to be a a a level up in I think that's just part of the the the time that we were all in. I mean we everybody was making mistakes, figuring, you know, you you got burned probably more than most, but in in retrospect it was just a a a small little nick. And you were able to record everything I ever did. Yeah. all right, so RMG Connect, which sounds Familiar. that's I I never thought to look in my Rs to see if I have your card from there. So I'm gonna do that while I also check my S's, because I know I ha I might also have your OMD card too. I should have prepped and looked at these before the episode. But while I'm thumbing through my Rolodex here, why don't you build fr from RMG, how long were you there and and what did you work on? I was there for maybe a little over three years. You might find it as JWT Connect, maybe RMG. Okay. i eventually it became Neo. right. Mm-hmm. Yeah. so I was there for, yeah, a little over maybe around three years. worked on a few things. Most notably was the US Marines account. but there was others like Nestle and Stoffers and Oregon Pest Control and the Illinois Board of Tourism. It was it was awesome because it was My first taste of being in a creative environment. Granted, I was doing media, but we were a digital media entity within the larger JWT umbrella. So that was pretty fun. what's funny is probably a year to the day, maybe, Finnegan called me up and he's like, So you've been in timeout for a year. I've been lobbying to bring you back. and so he wanted to bring me back and and I wasn't like bitter beer face about it, but I was just like, you know, I'm good. I like I kind of landed this thing and, you know, I've only been here for a hot minute. so anyway, I turned him down. He came back two years later and was like, We kind of want you to run digital for the Gatorade account. And was like, that I will do. So I ended up I did find so I got your StarCon IP. I couldn't find any other cards for you. But you actually have your This is like you've just played the Uno reverse card on me. Exactly. Well done. so let's so Marine you know, we talked to Jen Brady about working on the US Army account and how she went through boot camp. what was it like working on the Marines? Best client I've ever worked with. hands down. And I've had really good ones. this was probably not too dissimilar now. They invited us to the Marines boot camp in Paris Island, South Carolina. we didn't participate. I feel like the StarCon people or the Burnett people actually like participated in some of the boot camp activity, like climb stuff. We did not. And a minimum they put on the fatigues and and took a photo because Jen's got evidence of that. So I g I got to hold a rifle. There's a picture of me which I won't share, but you know, I there's I am holding a rifle. but we got to go and experience like different parts of the process. We got to see, you know, young men and women at, you know, their their earliest stages. And then we did actually get to witness a graduation, which was like awe inspiring. So they were an amazing client. We had a really good relationship where and our clients were actual Marines, like major this and that, and you know, sergeant this, that, or the other. and the respect was we'll never know the Marines and their culture as well as they do. And they'll never know advertising as well as we do. So it was just this like good symbiotic relationship of like, we're not gonna try to do what you do, don't try to do what we do and and we'll be fine. Yeah. All right. And so then you went from working on an account, helping recruit people to ensure this the safety of the country to a place where you had to ensure the hydration of the world. So what was it like on Gatorade? it was good. That was another one of my favorite accounts. I mean, anyone that knows me knows I d I have a lot of great Gatorade stories. but I d I think at that point I I started gaining a reputation, at least in the Chicago ad industry, of a a guy that was helping clients really move into digital in a dramatic way. It wasn't just let's test some banners or maybe a little bit of search. It was let's go full bore. for the Marines, notably I brought them into the world of social media. So this was 2005. We were doing campaigns on MySpace and very early Facebook consideration. Like I was I was granted access to Facebook to check it out when it was still like.edu email addresses. So I had gained that reputation and that's what they needed on Gatorade. Gatorade was spending, I don't know, $150 million in media and maybe 1% of it was anything digital related. so they needed someone to come in and and sort of not only kick the clients in the pants, but also do some of that internally. Because sometimes some of those roadblocks can be internal at an agency too. Yeah. So that's what I went and did. And it was it was fun. Again, great clients. they were, you know, the the Gatorade owned by PepsiCo and there was always a give and take of how much, you know, PepsiCo New York was sort of you know, on our on our ass, although Gatorade was kinda left alone. So it was it was so much fun. QTG, Quaker, Tropicana Gatorade, was that the That's exactly yeah. Those would be the three letters I would see like on the RFPs, you know, be like QTG, Q two, RFB. Yeah. Like no. You I mean you nailed it. So I I worked on all three, Tropicana and and Quaker as well. And we did some cool stuff with them, of course. The The the more like glorious things were certainly Gatorade. But yeah, all three of them. So this is the Pranov two dot era. You're you, you know, you you're rebirthed, you're excelling as kind of the the person that goes and can help sort of bring the digital transformation, think about things a little more strategically than just sort of the spots and dots. and then at what point did you leave round two at OMD? And what was next? Yeah, so somewhere in that time frame, so I was at OMD the second time for Seven years, maybe somewhere in there. It was like two thousand seven to thirteen, yeah, six-ish seven. somewhere in there, I became the innovation guy. So OMD had a group called Ignition Factory. and through a in insanely weird circumstance, which I won't go through the whole story, it's too long, but I happened to be in a room that I wasn't really planning on being in, and I d I got promoted on the spot. to To basically start this innovation division for OMD Chicago. so the last couple of years of my time there, I was doing that. So it's pure innovation with clients like Gatorade, State Farm, H and R Block and and SeaWorld and the like. so yeah, it was there for for a while. And admission factory was something was that Alan Cohen? That was kind of its own. Yeah. There was and then what was Minsky doing? What was his kind of cause he also had an innovation remit for within Omnicom. What was his thing called, do you remember? He was part of Ignition Factory. he was. Okay. Got it. Yeah. Him him and I, funny enough, we were we were kind of the outliers of that group. because we came from media backgrounds and a lot of people in that group, I mean, they were hiring like a mathematician and like a you know, a celebrity agent. They wanted really diverse type people in that group, and we were like the old school media nerds. which ended up it it worked out well for us, but anyway. so he was part of that as well. Got it. Cool. Okay. Yeah. and so then what what was the build from there? Yeah, from there I went to Ogilvy. so there's an agency called Neo at Ogilvie, which now I don't even know if Neo is around because it got moved from Ogilvie to group I don't know if that entity still exists. but anyway, yeah. So I went to go run the Chicago office for Neo at Ogilvy, which was again going back to being housed in a creative environment. it was within Ogilvy, Chicago. So that was another playground for me where I got to, you know, go walk over to the creative department and get early access to concepts and stuff and try to marry that with media. So yeah. And what what was the point when that drew you out of Chicago? Are we getting close to that on the timeline here? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So entering a girlfriend that became a fiance and is now my wife. Yeah, thank you. so she I'd convinced her to move from Seattle to Chicago. And she she would probably say this differently, but she hated it. And it wasn't it wasn't just the weather, which, you know, a lot of people hate that. I think it was just she just never really settled in. It was also My city. That's that sounds like an arrogant thing to say, but like, you know, we'd go to restaurants and three people would walk up and it's like, hey, Pranav, like that sounds ridiculous, but she's like, who are you? And why like that's insane. Like you So it just it just never felt like our city or even her city. It was just mine. so anyway, she was sort of bitch, and she had lived in Los Angeles, which is where I live now. she had lived here in the nineties and she's like, I kind of want to get back there. she was she was doing marketing, but she had you know, back in the nineties, she was trying to become an actress, didn't quite make it, and she kind of got that itch again. And so she had this dream that that she wanted to go chase. And I was like, you know what, life is too short. I used to come out here, Gatorade's creative agency, which it still might be, was Shiat, T T B W A Shiat. they're based out here. So I was always out in LA. And I kinda got a West Coast itch. So in twenty eighteen, I was like, look, you wanna go do that. I've always needed a a valid reason to go make a move because I was so entrenched in Chicago. I was like, F it, again, life is too short. So I actually gave Ogilvy, I think it was like four months notice. I'm like, It's not you, it's me. I wanna move out to LA. If if you can keep me around, great. Otherwise, we've done some great work. So that's what prompted us to come here in tw in twenty eighteen. And then at some point there was a reconnect with Doug Rosen. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So I I was out here and then, you know, the pandemics and all that kind of stuff. I had my third stint at OMD, working on the Clorox business. and so that was again less less than two years. and then I hooked back up with with Doug, who was basically running the media division at Densu, the holding company. So he was overseeing the three agencies there and and the whole practice. and they had one agency called Densu X, which used to be three sixty I. And he's like, Well, we need a chief media officer over here, someone to push us into, you know, more creativity and just sort of evolving us. So yeah, I went over to to Denso X for a couple of years as chief media officer. Yeah. And we're almost caught up to to present day. but tell us about current gig. Yeah. So that denso X gig they they ended up restructuring. I mean, these are all like the language we use. I was consulting for a year. so they they restructured and I got I I I got let go. they ended up doing away with that position. I don't know if they've actually hired for that anymore, or they haven't anymore. but anyway, so I was out there looking. and I was I wouldn't say I was totally discontent with the holding company world. I mean, I'd been at so many of them, practically all of them. and I was just I started to explore other avenues more than I ever had. I was always a big agency guy. I wanted to work on the biggest clients and do the biggest campaigns. so I started exploring the independent agency world and that's where I have now landed. So I'm at a place called Rain and I've been here a l just a a little bit under a year at this point. So They're an independent agency based out of Portland. they are getting close to thirty years old. most people know them if they know them. Most people know them for what we do in in linear TV and and really all forms video. so now I'm the E VP of digital marketing over here. I run the entirety of the digital media department. So yeah, been here, like I said, just a little bit under a year. Amazing to to kind of walk all that through and to think, yeah, to your point, y you you let's see, between Starcom, which of course is now part of Publicist. I don't think it was at the time you were there, but I think it was like B com three or I don't even remember something like that. But you got a taste for that. You got a taste for Omnicom. You had a taste for I guess WPP through the Ogilby Neo, you had Densu and now Indy. I guess because so much of this season has been focused on the Starcom IP folks. And yes, I guess in the grand scheme of things, it was a small sliver of your career, but certainly the the jumping off point. you probably have a really interesting perspective on what made that shop in that time so unique. and so I'd love to hear your kind of like your your thoughts on that and then we can segue into our apartment crawl round. Yeah. I mean I I agree with what most people in previous episodes have said. I mean it was just this spirit of of innovation, creativity. It was it was the unknown. so I definitely agree with that. I, you know, as I think about it, it's it's just the the people that were there at that time and it it might have been a combination of literally that that time and those years. maybe it's a generational thing as well. Maybe it was the total uncertainty and sort of white space that is digital. The thread between all of that was everyone seemed to care a lot. and that's why you hear of excuse me, you you hear of people, you know, working till the wee hours of the night and we all had that crazy camaraderie. And it's like that level of dedication and passion that people had, it it wasn't, hey, I'm collecting this paycheck. It's like people actually gave a shit. People gave two shits. to invent stuff and create stuff and troubleshoot things and you know, tags were new and whatever. So I think it's it's a combination of what a lot of people have said. But it it it really is the the people did make such a huge difference because they just they cared. They cared to do this crazy new thing with these clients. It was it was amazing. And I I would say that for, you know, parts of my time at at OMD and certainly Ogilvy, but but Starcom IP had something special there. Yeah. The people in passion, for sure. Bill Wise, our CEO here at MediaOcean, l loves to talk about passion as like the number one core value, the thing he looks for, whether it's in, you know, hiring a new employee or, you know, making an investment into a startup, that that that passion can really separate the wheat from the chaff and and that seems to be a recurring theme here. for sure. Also a a fun fact, if while we're back in the IP days, when L90 merged with DoubleClick Media to become Max Online, that's how I first met Bill because he was the COO for Double Click Media. my goodness. You got another business card. That's my Max. What's the title? Strategic Account Manager? Strategic Account Manager, yeah. Sam. Yeah. Okay. That's awesome. Great poll. I can't believe that made made it through the move with I have a I have a shoebox of like random crap like that. And I just I don't know why I hold on to it, but it's for moments like this. That's amazing. All right. Well, in keeping with the FOMO for anyone listening on audio, let's sh put a few more things up on the screen. actually now have seen that we're carrying the FrapRap podcast is now available on video on Apple Podcasts as well. So between Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, you can see the video. And I encourage you to flip over there now. so this is the website we that we we post all our episodes on. Pranav, you'll get the next tile here for episode 17. And of course the org chart that we've been referencing. this by this time I don't think you were on here anymore. This one's from 05. so I think you had pieced out. We've got some of the old photos that we've referenced on some of the shows. and so Prana will have to figure out which one of yours is gonna make the FrapRap website. But go to Fraprap.com to see all that in the links to the shows. And then I did have Google Photos run some facial recognition, which with you between all the hairstyles and the and the facial hair and stuff, probably through Google for some loops, but we did get some good ones here. And I just kind of want to walk through and see if this jogs any further stories. I was I was worried. I was like one of them, I was like, is that Naveen? But I'm standing next to him, I'm like, Google you racist piece of no yes, and by the way, I should say I did scrub a few out that were maybe too hot for TV here. the the Halloween pick in the Halloween parties back in the day were definitely not politically correct with some of the costumes that everybody chose. So I've removed those. But here's one I'm guessing. I mean, this could be from like I don't know why I'm in a a suit. Like that's had to been like a holiday party or or something. but I don't know if we can tell. This was pre Mohawk for you. So I don't know if that helps with pinpointing the the date here. I think we could probably look and see. no, okay. Yeah, no no no no timestamp in the metadata on this one. But that's Tony Bombasino, of course, on the left here. So handsome. I I'm gonna guess this is two thousand five. Four or five somewhere in that world. Yeah. and then here's one of us. This was my pleather visor days. This was my Raiders Pether visor that I used to wear for for no good reason. But you look pretty much the same. So that's gotta be pretty similar. This one's actually probably the most recent that we have. I think this was that was it a transunion event in Chicago a couple years ago, maybe where we saw each other and and took this pick. Yeah. I mean, that looks like it. I'm The hoodie that I'm wearing is like a restaurant in LA, so definitely for sure. Recent. Here's one that you sent me. this is well, why don't you explain what we're looking at here, brothers? This is I I I hope some of the IP folks get a a a really good giggle out of this one. So this is a beer sausage. So unless I'm mistaken here, and again, I was I was a little bit ancillary to this because I only like worked on the account for a short while, but Anyone that did work on the Miller account, people got this sausage. It was a real piece of sausage in the shape of a beer bottle. Mine happened to be Miller High Life. but you would get this, I don't know if it was as like a you know, a a welcome gift or something. and I guess there was pranks. I never got pranked with this, nor did I do it. but people would like put a slit in the plastic casing, because it was like encased in plastic. People would put a slit into there. And then put it behind someone's desk or like deep in their drawer, and it would start to like funk up their workspace and they couldn't figure out like what was happening. And then someone would either reveal it or they would find it. I ended up never using mine as a prank. I don't know if I still have this. You can see the background there in Chicago. So it's it looks like the jewelers building. So so you probably were in 35 West when you took this pick. I'm pretty sure that's 35 East, because Famously in the jewelers building, Al Capone had a he he had the penthouse top floor and an elevator where it would take his car all the way down underground when he had to make a quick getaway. So this was actually my apartment. I lived at Michigan. No kidding. Okay. Yeah. wow. You lived right across from work. I could see that weird red overhang above two twenty-five. my. Yeah, ridiculous. this looks like SEMA Cubs game rooftop situation. we got Joanna coming in. How cool am I? How cool am I in that Fedora? Ridiculous. And then here's Keon Carla Naveen and you. This must have been one of the Mac's holiday parties because I recognize Ryan Sauer in the background here who worked with us there. That might be Courtney, CJA, off to the side here. We've got her coming on the pod in a few weeks. So I'll pull it back up and ask if she recognizes that haircut. here you are with Winkler. there, yeah. Okay, there's Courtney. So yep, we do have that one. Margaret Bell, who is an awesome guest, Tom O'Neill. and then boy, look at how short your hair was. This must have been a SEMA boat cruise. yeah, that was that was buzz cut time. Wild. All right. Well, thanks for being a good sport and playing along with those. I'll stop the share and it's time for our cooler round. I'm sorry, our apartment crawl round. fun fact, so you can see in the background my water cooler here that I have in my spare bedroom slash home office slash frap rap studio. And I do something with my team for our team meetings every Monday. we start with we call it the cool around and it's sort of like meant to like put us back in the days where we're in the office like gossiping about, you know, how was the weekend, what shows did you watch, et cetera. Nice. So we go around the horn and everybody we usually do like some sort of icebreaker just to get in Let everybody warm up, practice coming off mute and and start the day and the week engaged. but that's a media ocean thing. In Frap Rap Land, we don't do the cool around, we do the apartment crawl round. which is of course like back in the day when we would go around from apartment to apartment. and you've got a green is that a master's cup? It is. I don't I don't have a red solo cup. I don't have any solo cups. So I had to flex here with my master's cup. I've been to the masters twice, thanks to Gatorade, but Yeah, so I a little bit of a flex, but a cup nonetheless. So you're still getting treated by reps. it's just not for your birthday party, it's for, you know, actual It is. I I I was at the VMA's two weekends ago, so yes. Awesome. all right. So as you know and listeners who've who've heard before, our apartment crawl is the speed round. so just kind of quick answers, first thing that comes to your mind. The first one will be the name of the episode. So what was your AOL Instant Messenger handle? It was AOL and Yahoo, I believe, but it was Media Monkey 18. Media Monkey 18. And was the 18 from your birthday now that we know it's Jan 18? It is, yes. Okay. There there wasn't seven. I I don't know if there was 17 other media monkeys, but no, no, no. There was Punch the Monkey, which was a fun one from back then. Yeah. first boss at IP. technically Brandon Wolf. Okay. Shout out. favorite client? Nintendo for sure. I mean I I worked on a like I said, a a very small handful, but Nintendo was all day every day. And if you could have worked on any other account, which would would it have been? None of I like I said, like Nintendo just fed my soul in terms of the the creativity. I mean there was other fun stuff like Miller and and certainly a lot of other ones, but I I really wouldn't it was a grind, but I just wouldn't trade it. N Nintendo was amazing. that's awesome. I don't know that we've gotten that answer. Nobody no FOMO at all. Present company excluded, who was your favorite vendor? This is a hard one because it's like, you know, I I roll with a lot of vendors. and and really just I I cherish those relationships. I I will say during my IP time, because I was on Nintendo, just so many like gaming related companies. a lot of work with with IGN. So it was like Sweet Dave Herman. He had this he had this crazy boss named Derek Rudd. I have his business card. He was a New York guy. but he was this like fascinating dude. He was quite literally was, or I don't know if he still did at the time, but he was a male model. So he was just like this fantastic looking dude. Anyway, they were the funniest pair of people. and we did so much work with them. But you know, throw in the you know, the you know Christine Schmidt's of the world throw in certainly the Sean Reek Seckers of the World. Just so many you know, Michelle Ball, who a lot of people have mentioned. There was just so many. But yeah, Sweet Dave really sort of stood out at that time. I got so much I got so much free gaming stuff from them. It was insane. Yeah. Right on. Yeah. It was a great crew and and yeah, I do remember hanging out with all of them and we would play that sort of like Russian roulette with the credit card at the end for who's gonna pick up the tab. and so that was it was always our pleasure, unless it was someone's birthday party, in which case I guess suppose we weren't allowed to do that. And by the way, it's so funny reflecting on it. Yeah, and and by the way, good on you for like taking it on the chin at the time and and learning from it and growing from it. But, you know, talk about like an unfortunate set of circuits. Like that that kind of stuff was happening all the time, whether it was like above board or or or not. And at at any rate, you you persevered through. So all right, we talked about wife Mary. Anything else you want to share on the home front? No, like I said, we've we've lived in LA for well over eight years now. We we moved here in twenty eighteen. We live in West Hollywood, and we love it. Like it is I mean, if I could pan this around, that the Hollywood Hills are are literally outside my window here. I live next to the Pacific Design Center. I live off Melrose Avenue. So it's like we live in this like lovely little neighborhood that has a neighborhood feel, but then we walk a hundred feet and it's like you could see a Kardashian walking around. Not that that's a huge deal anymore, but it's it's a fantastic life out here for sure. That's awesome. And what are you most looking forward to in the coming year? I mean, personally, I like I maybe mentioned earlier, like I turned 50 next year. So you know, birthdays, nice subject we have going on here. But, you know, that's a big one. So looking, I'm excited about that. I'm I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to be live. as some people may or may not know, I had pretty big health scare a few years ago. I had a widow maker heart attack. and so made it through that. I had bypass surgery and I made it through that. So just happy to be here, happy to be doing what I do. I I still I mean, you know, my job has its ups and downs, but I have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy every single moment of my career. I just I love what I do. I was I was born for this. I was born for this. So there's that we'll raise the the cup back up. cheers to More happiness, health, and health above all. so so cheers to you. Now I'm a I'm a little worried with how prepared you've been so far, I'm a little worried of what what you might have in store here for the Frap Rap freestyle round. we can do this either if you've got more relics to hold up, we can do it that way. If you want to throw out some keywords, I'm happy to take suggestions. How do you want to play it? I have relics. I have good ones. Yeah. I d you so you want me to hold like hold them up prior? Yeah, well let's yeah, so let's do this. speaking so I'm trying to be more cognizant of of catering to the folks who are audio only on this, who may not get the spontaneous enjoyment of you holding something up and you having to wrap to it immediately. So why don't you throw up now and then I may ask you to hold them up again once I start going because like you, my memory gets gets weak, especially when I'm in the flow. So you'll hold them up again as props. But yeah, what do you got for me? Yeah. So the first one is a little bit of an homage to to Sean Figan, who lured me away from from Starkom IP that first time. So this is actually a cigar case. wow. Is that Ditka who it is Ditka. So I smoked a cigar with Coach Ditka at Ditka's, which I don't know if a lot of people can claim. I've I've also, this is a totally different story, which we won't get into. I've smoked cigars with Michael Jordan. but anyway, this is a little bit of an artifact from that night. Wow, and and unbelievably, well this will air next Thursday, but but today being Friday, October ninth, actually unfortunately Mike Dick had passed away today. and so yeah. You're kidding me. No, I thought I I would have guessed you kne you known that and that's why you picked that. Is that not the case? I did not know that at all. my gosh. We did, yeah. The coach. Yeah. so R.I.P. hopefully we'll beat the Packers in his memory. but yes, sh Sean and and Iron Mike two incredible people. and we will we will miss them. What else yeah? That that's the universe. That is wow, that is amazing. Okay. this one is what appears to be just a playoff Cubs hat from two thousand three. So this was Again, pretty early in my OMD time. this is a hat from the Bartman game. I was at that game. Wow. Where we were. We were I was literally opposite side. So if if he was down the third base side, I was on the first base side. Literally the last row of the stadium was up against like the chain chain link fence. And it might have been like ooh, I don't I forget who took us. It probably CBS Sports or someone. but they were like, let's grab some hats. So anyway, I I kept it obviously because that was pretty historic game. That's wow. Did you see just was it two two nights ago, the Yankees game where a fan leaned over and grabbed the ball and they rolled in a double and it would have been the game tying, I guess, home run. So all these years later, and the fans still haven't learned, if you're the home team and it's your per y you gotta back off back off the ball. Right. Let it drive. Exactly. Yeah. That one That one I've I feel like that ball would have dropped in and possibly the guy would have caught it because I've seen a lot of angles on it. But anyway. Yeah. All right. So we got we got the coach, we got Department. What else you got? I have four total. This one's insane. I still have an original Zune. It is on Microsoft's that was their music player, right? Their version of the iPod? It was their version of the iPod and it is still in its package. Wow. I mean, clearly I would get a lot of free stuff like this. And clearly I didn't think enough of it to open it. so I just kept it separate. You and everyone else, which is why I I don't think it survived long. Right. I mean, so I funny enough, I think I got that at like a Microsoft conference, and I think it's preloaded with like the senior executives like playlist or something. It's something ridiculous. Anyway. and so the last one is is perhaps my favorite. This is my wow. My pit diploma. So I like I said, I had kind of a funky entrance to Sarcome IP. and so when I got hired, I was I was in my associate role working on Nintendo. so I didn't usually you would start, you would do Pit at the very beginning and you wouldn't really be on an account. They wanted you sort of full time in this class. but I was juggling the job and pit at the same time, which was very difficult. but anyway, and most of it was non-digital anyway, so I I kind of didn't care about it. but anyway, I did make it through by the skin of my teeth, but I have it nonetheless. Yeah. Is it signed by anyone? Can you hold that up again? It is Michelle Macquarie? Wow, okay. And I I can't tell who the dean is, because it's a Yeah. If anyone else has saved theirs or know who the dean was, let us know. and We'll ask our producer Rob to add some beats in. I gotta recaffee because you gave me some good ones. I don't know if you've seen the mug I've been holding up here. this is for my kids. world's best farter, I mean father. so thank you guys for this. It's my kind of humor. And let's get into it. All right. Here we go, here we go. A slip into the flow. It's AG. And I gotta let you know, we got Frank, and he he's gonna do it all over for these cigars that he holds in the air, a little higher. He don't care because he might be a little wilder. He's like the tight end when he throws it on back, he catches it as pass and he's gonna get bent. You know, Coach Dicker was the man in the day. You know, he's won as a player and as a coach in '85. When I know I was alive and shake it on back, we put on the hat. Bartman was sitting all up in the back. He had his headphones on, didn't know what's going on. And Moises Alou tried to jump for you, but he didn't get the ball. And then I went down the hall. They had to kick him out. And he never came back till the fall when we won in 2016. We finally got that ring. And I got to stop with my sing cuz I gotta put on the zoom for more music for you. iTunes, I don't know what you're gonna do. It never really made it. It was out from the past, and we got another relic and we're gonna shake it up with the Big pass, the diploma. He got through, he got passed on. Don't know how hot it was. We don't know who the dean was. He don't know how mean it was, but you know it was legit and he passed the pit. That's my man, Pranov P. Diddy, Shake Shake Booty. West Coast got the most. And now I got to go. Thanks for coming on Frap Rap Burn. It was great catching up. Appreciate you. Much love. Stay well. And thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll see you next week. Same time, same place. For frap rap. Thank you so much. You're listening to the Media Ocean Podcast Network. For more of our shows, visit www.mediocean.comslash podcasts.