One of the only new voices to come out of the creative side of the ad business, Alan Wolk has staked out a distinctive space for himself among digital strategists. The wide-ranging appeal of Wolk’s common-sense approach, combined with his prior hands-on experience as an advertising creative director, has made him the go-to guy for digital thought leadership, speaking and consulting.His blog, The Toad Stool, has been described as a “frank but fair” look at the confluence of advertising, marketing and the social web.
Adweek Editor Brian Morrissey called it “one of the ‘must read’ blogs for our industry” and it’s been selected for Guy Kawasaki’s exclusive Alltop blog aggregation site.
The most popular series, “Your Brand Is Not My Friend,” which deals with the false assumptions marketers make in the social space (and how to remedy them), has gotten much play in the blogosphere and that has led to columns in Ad Age and Adweek, and recognition as one of the top 12 digital strategists in the country from Big Spaceship’s Qapture site.
Wolk is also the founder and guiding force behind the Hive Awards for the Unsung Heroes of the Internet, a new award show that debuted at SXSW Interactive in March 2010. Aimed at all the coders, programmers, user experience designers, information architects, content strategists and the like, the show rewards the people who do most of the heavy lifting but rarely get any of the credit. The show attracted a sellout crowd of over 400 people live, with close to 3,000 watching along online. Wolk’s stature in the digital community has also gotten him named as an Advisory Board member for Social Media Week.
Prior to “seeing the light,” Wolk was a highly successful creative director who spent years at ‘90s hot shop Anderson & Lembke and went on to start up Atmosphere, BBDO’s digital agency, with stints at Ogilvy and JWT along the way. A New York City native and Stuyvesant High School graduate, Wolk currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and 2 kids, where he doubles as a Little League and basketball coach.
