Who’s the Voice Here?

My Identity
The energetic and focused blogger who writes this mind-numbing, marketing-oriented prose is Glenn L. Laudenslager IV. I have 15 years’ experience in marketing management and strategy development across media, publishing, events, online technology and healthcare.

My Company
I founded my own company, Charge Ahead Marketing LLC, so I could work on strategic marketing projects with an array of different companies in healthcare and other markets. The things that Charge Ahead focuses on — fresh perspective, impactful ideas, effective strategy, bold decisions, reliable execution, desired results — are important to making brands, people and companies successful.

My History
Beginning in 1996, I held a variety of marketing positions for PRIMEDIA Business, Intertec, Prism Business Media and Penton Business Media — yes, the exciting and dynamic (oh, and stagnant) niche B2B publishing industry. I left that drying pool behind in 2007 and went to Reed Medical Education, where I developed marketing and branding strategy for healthcare brands, live conferences, and online CME programs across multiple therapeutic areas (psychiatry, oncology, cardiology, and more). I worked closely with executives and physicians at external healthcare organizations like Massachusetts General Hospital (my biggest client), Community Oncology Alliance, several large Cancer Centers and academic medical centers, and others.  CME, and healthcare in general, can be quite interesting, quirky, dynamic and downright odd — yet at the end of the day, it’s alot more noble than my prior days in publishing, where the strategies and the solutions weren’t always poised for success in today’s metric-centric marketing environment.

Reed Medical Education is a division of Reed Exhibitions, the world’s leading event producer, and Reed Elsevier, a vibrant global business that includes hundreds of top healthcare and medical brands. Reed is also the unchallenged leader among B2B media companies in terms of developing a successful marketing organization and fostering marketing best practices — that makes me very proud to say I am Reed’s 2008 Marketing Director of the Year, selected by senior management of the company.

In addition to managing strategic marketing functions (message development, product launch strategy, budgeting, etc.) and tactical execution (copywriting, project management, timelines, ROI analysis, etc.), I’ve consulted directly for dozens of companies on developing marketing plans and creating effective marketing materials, including ads, catalogs, brochures, etc.

What Else I Do
Well, let’s see. In my spare time:

• I am the Chair of the American Business Media’s Media Marketing Committee. Our committee pursues educational initiatives and promotes best practices for marketers throughout the B2B media industry. I greatly enjoy this committee and working with my peers from other B2B media companies.
• I write exciting posts for this blog.
• I write articles and blog posts for a few other random yet high-quality media sources.
• I spend time with the best Weimaraner ever.
• I play all kinds of sports.
• I travel to warm places when it’s cold, and to hotter places when it’s hot.
• I always advocate and advise people to improve their strategies using new technology, new opportunities and common sense.

Thank you for taking a minute to read about me. Leave a comment and let me know if you have any feedback, ideas, proposals, marketing-related needs or questions.