In 1996, when most businesses were figuring out how to send an email without printing it first, Paul and I became digital marketing pioneers. At 23, we convinced ourselves and two other college roommates that launching one of the first 100 digital marketing agencies globally was a totally reasonable next step after college. I mean, why wouldn’t a group of twenty-somethings from a haunted house in Texas (more on that supernatural subplot in future posts) be qualified to help shape the future of marketing?
That’s how BLOK Communications (later BLOK, Inc.) was born in Bend, Oregon. While other agencies were still mastering the fax machine, we were diving into the wild west of banner ads, early SEO, and explaining to clients why their website probably shouldn’t play a dancing flame on autoplay. I was writing about Internet and digital culture when most people still thought that meant getting on AOL.
Fast forward 28 years, and here I am, working with Paul again, our professional DNA encoded with nearly three decades of digital evolutions. We’ve seen trends come and go (pour one out for Inktomi), navigated countless platform changes, and somehow managed to stay crazy enough to keep innovating.
What we’ve learned isn’t just about algorithms or engagement metrics – it’s about the psychology of innovation, the art of managing expectations in a field that reinvents itself every 18 months, and the ability to spot the difference between genuine disruption and shiny-object syndrome.
So what can you expect from us here? We’ll be pulling back the curtain on emerging tech (without the buzzword bingo), sharing war stories from the digital marketing trenches, and offering insights into fostering innovation in environments where “innovation irritants” often try to maintain the status quo.
Plus, we’ll throw in some stories about that haunted house. Because sometimes the best way to understand the future is to learn from the ghosts of digital marketing past.