Matthew Nelson: Flavors.me

Profile

Director, Digital/Social Strategy, Tribal DDB & DDB Worldwide

Marketing and Advertising | San Francisco Bay Area, US

Summary

I'm a sales, marketing and advertising professional with a focus in social, digital and integrated disciplines. I have worked on a variety of brands and clients in both traditional and digital capacities and led multiple cross functional teams through the processes' of marketing communications plans, creative production processes, digital brand experiences, scope of work, staffing plans and strategic advertising campaigns.

My current role is the Director, Social Strategy at Tribal DDB & DDB Worldwide. In this role, I'm responsible for growing, leading and developing the agency's social media and digital expertise, strategic partnerships with vendors and the integration of social creativity and emerging technologies into Tribal DDB & DDB's digital service offering.

Key responsibilities:

- Grow and develop digital and social media offering to new and existing client base.
- Foster and grow new and existing client relationships.
- Play a key role in new business development.
- Integrate social creativity into the agency's creative process and product.
- Grow internal team and staff development through ongoing hiring, training and development plans.
- Identify required human resources and technologies for ongoing business development.
- Develop, assess and improve internal process’ and strategic methodologies.
- Develop and conduct educational programs for clients and internal staff on emerging digital trends.
- Propose, sell and manage integrated social media and digital campaigns including definition, scope, deliverables, resources and budget. 
- Oversee the implementation, measurement and impact of digital and social media programs

I'm a member of the digital leadership team

Clients: Clorox, ConAgra, Partnership for Drug Free America, Intel, Wells Fargo, Dolby Labs among others.

Specialties: ADVERTISING/DIGITAL/SOCIAL: management, team building, product development, business development, digital marketing, digital branding, social marketing, mobile marketing, social media, social media metrics, online reputation management, market engagement, integrated advertising strategy, website development, content/community building.

Experience

May 2011 - Present
Director, Digital/Social Strategy / Tribal DDB Worldwide

In this role, Matthew is responsible for growing, leading and developing the agency's social media and digital expertise, strategic partnerships with innovative vendors and the integration of social creativity and emerging technologies into Tribal DDB's digital service offering.
2011 - Present
Adjunct Professor / The University of British Columbia

Developed and taught course on Social Media Metrics.
2008 - Present
Director, Social / DDB Canada

In this role, Matthew lead a global team of 10 digital/social media strategists from around the world, and facilitated internal and client educational lab sessions aimed at increasing understanding of business applications in the social media and digital space. During this time he was a member of the digital leadership team and contributed to multiple new business pitches and wins. In this role he worked with clients: The Canadian Tourism Commission, University of British Columbia, BC Hydro, BC Dairy, Sun-Rype, Subaru, Vancouver Convention Centre, Canadian Blood Services, Unilever and Manulife.
2009 - Present
Co-Chair / PSFK - Good Ideas Salon

Co-Chair of PSFK Good Ideas Salon Vancouver. Led, marketed and produced a series of conferences where a variety of thought leaders including Douglas Coupland spoke on the topic of good ideas in media, art, culture, storytelling and advertising.
2007 - Present
Marketing Manager / Rogers Communications
2007 - Present
Manager, Digital Marketing / Canada Wide Media
2004 - Present
Business Development Manager / Sprint Canada
2002 - Present
Manager, Sales Lead Administration / AT&T Canada

Education

2003 - 2007

Capilano University

BBA in Bachelor, Business Administration

Additional Information

Websites:

Personal Website, Blog, Inspiration

Interests:

Business, Entrepreneurship, Emerging Digital Technology, Social Media.

My LinkedIn

Posts

June 02, 01:27 AM

Evening Moonlighting

Had a delicious catch-up dinner with colleague Cameron Reed this evening. We went to Guu on Robson St. and gobbled down a feast of Japanese treats. Cold beer, fried rice, sashimi, chicken and deep-fried potato. Rather than discuss agency life or how to use social/digital media to discuss/promote social/digital media, we chatted about extra curricular activities. We touched on a wide variety of subjects: music, culture, fashion, relationships and even private investigation. Cameron’s got some tight projects on the go. Peep Babe Rainbow, Mental Beast and Music Waste. Mad decent Tuesday night.

May 10, 02:20 AM

Miracle Whips

I had the good fortune of meeting the owner of this 1957 Chevrolet Corvette this afternoon. It not only captured my attention, but the attention of everyone that passed by. The vehicles polished chrome, teal exterior and red leather interior form a perfect vintage colour palette. One can’t help notice the beautifully designed cockpit and all its subtle details. The speedometer, radio and associated gauges are perfectly positioned within the elegant crème dashboard.

May 09, 07:17 PM

Jerseys @ Diamond

When it comes to drinking, beer is my preferred poison. Sometimes though, you need to switch it up. If you’re after cocktails in Vancouver, Diamond has it on lock. My personal favorite is the Jersey. It’s a pleasant mix of bourbon, malbec, tuaca and aromatic bitters.

April 26, 12:51 AM

Archigram Speculative Proposals

I’m officially obsessed with the Archigram Archival Project. I discovered it via Charlie Gower’s blog Tantramar and have spent the past two hours sifting through a wide variety of projects ranging from plug-in nodes to small-scale portable environments.

The images contained within this post are from two separate projects. The first four images are from Nomad - a small speculative design for a small-scale portable environment - and the second six from Lump - a speculative proposal for a development including offices and entertainments, entirely camouflaged by landscape.

Other projects of personal interest include: Manzak, Tuning London, It’s A and Bournemouth Steps.

Explore the site and let me know what your favorite projects are and why.

April 25, 09:39 PM

The Beautiful Push // 1965

Life Magazine captured these beautiful photos of skateboarding culture circa ’65 for an article titled The Craze and The Menace of Skateboards. The simplicity, style and finesse of the sport during this period was really inspiring and inexplicably cool. Barefoot bar jumps? Insane.

April 24, 09:15 PM

The Greasy Spoon Process

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Piping hot coffee, three eggs, a stack of butter drenched toast, crispy bacon and a heaping pile of home fries. Yeah, that will do!

April 20, 03:55 AM

Lifestyles of the Rich & English

Vancouver mansions. Old money. New money. Nature. Inspiring people. Good fashion. Great music. Tasty cuisine. The past. The present. The future. A shared taste for the finer things. Beautiful.

April 19, 09:07 PM

AP Blog Camera Test

Photographic processing is the way in which photographic film and paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image. The processing transforms the latent image into a visible image, makes this permanent and renders it insensitive to light. Here are some recent experimental shots.

April 13, 05:30 PM

Black Cod Monday

Today, Gavin Froome and I ditched the agency at high noon in hot pursuit of a Black Cod lunch at Aki. According to Gavin, Aki has the best Cod in the city. Apparently, the owner has some type of fresh fish connection that ensures your delicious Omega-3 filled lunch was just snatched from the sea. And if it’s not ‘fresh to death’, “no soup for you”, know what I mean?

Sadly, Aki was closed. Rather than smash down the barred up doors and fry that fish our damn selves, we opted for Guu. There, we had a savory bowl of deep fried chicken, rice and egg. Hearty, delicious, cheap.

Aprés lunch, we took the long route back to office. There’s nothing like taking in the Cherry blossoms on a beautiful spring day in Vancouver. Work to live, don’t live to work. Work supports life.

Branded, reusable chop sticks, for the serious Guu patron.

Spring is in full effect.

Gavin.

January 27, 02:05 PM

Charles Lee Loves You

I first had the pleasure of meeting Josh Michnik a.k.a Charles Lee a few summers back. He was dating the sister of the woman that I was dating at that time. Over the years we’ve had some serious fun together. Most notably, doing navy seals dives off the back of a ripping speedboat on Tulameen Lake while intoxicated off of cheap liquor. And an impromptu acoustic music show we hosted at his apartment starring Sam Bradley - the then unknown musician behind the #1 hit from the film Twilight - myself, and a stand up bass player from the VSO. He’s a chilled out dude - a creative that understands the balance between producing work of the highest quality, while simultaneously managing to enjoy life and not take things too seriously.

Since our nights of taking hipster parties at The Limerick Junction and The Columbia by storm, he’s traveled extensively and spent two years living in London where he worked for clients such as VH1, MTV, ITV2, Wowwow, Diesel and RedBull.

Currently, homie has some serious irons in the fire. He’s relocating to Venice beach where he will reside with Paul Devro from Mad Decent, work and surf.

We recently reconnected this past weekend for the first time in over a year to kick it old school, so to speak. Over Sapporo, saki, and tuna tataki we discussed what agencies are currently producing the best creative, and ways that we can collaborate in the future. He then showed me his demo reel. Kids skills are off the chains.