A lover of digital and coffee.  Asker of good questions.  Sleuth of business problems. Identifier of emerging trends, consumer insights, impacts of digital upon consumer behaviours.   Focused on strategy, e-commerce, social media, analytics, consumer insights & planning, social business, social brands and transformation.

I’m currently enjoying advertising agency life in Toronto as DraftFCB’s new Planning Director in Digital – effective August 2012.

I offer “thick slice” digital strategy – offering direction and prioritization to the digital opportunities facing my clients.   Being a strategist suggests that people know where they’ve been (business review) and where they are headed (brand vision).  I don’t find this is always the case and so my best work has me collaborating with my client to first align on the review & brand vision, then help develop the strategy that addresses gaps between where a brand is and where a brand wants to go.

I am honoured to have worked extensively with the past brands from my previous role with JWT – Brand USA (US Travel & Tourism & Discover America), Mazda, Walmart, Sick Kids Foundation, ParticipACTION, and more.  There my role was to lead social media integration into JWT and for their clients.  I oversaw teams – ones that ran social media planning, listening, communities, and analysis on behalf of brands.  My roots include traditional brand marketing and all that entails – P&L, forecasting, consumer insights & planning, category planning, etc -  from Kraft Foods ['90, '92 - '97]- as well as over 8 years of extensive consultant experience & training in business transformation specifically in e-business, e-commerce and social media with IBM Global Services. ['98 - '06].

My joke… this is my identical twin sister.

Social Wisdom was the name of a start up that I founded – responding to the market place demand for social media / digital strategy consulting.  My business lived from 2009 to 2010 – a period in which I had 12 clients, 19 projects and employees (and a heck of a lot of accounting).  I earned the least amount of money since being a university student, then the most in my entire career.  I did my basement.    In 2010, I received an offer to join one of the world’s reputed advertising agencies – an industry I had been interested in joining for a long time with hopes of working closely with others who a deep in strategy & planning and continuing my thought leadership in digital.   This website has transformed back to being a blog – removing the pages of the service offerings, clientele, past work, etc.   But my thoughts are my own and continue to live on these pages..

I’m best reached  at @ldillonschalk or on Google Plus at +Laurie Dillon-Schalk

Worth mentioning is that this blog represents my thinking and does not represent the ideas or opinions of my employer or past employers.