Lois Kelly
The brag bio
“If you ever get a chance to hear Lois Kelly do not miss her. She’s inspirational and yet refreshingly pragmatic.”
The weird thing about this quote is that marketing executive, author and speaker Lois Kelly has received it from different people at different points in her career when she was talking about wildly different issues. Lois has keen sense of tapping into emerging trends and turning them into businesses and market platforms where she inspires people to see possibilities, face down their fears, and create clarity from complexity.
In the 1980s she helped some of the most famous high tech companies go from geek squads to global business leaders. In the 1990s, she was a dot com pioneer, co-founding a company acquired by a major communications conglomerate. In the mid 2000’s she became known for her work in word of mouth marketing and social media, publishing the award winning book Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing in 2007.
Lois’ blog is www.foghound.com. Her articles have appeared in The Wall St. Journal, USA TODAY and numerous trade magazines
The basics
- Started as a journalist, writing obits and weddings, covering fires and local political races
- Executive in public relations agencies (some NYC boutiques you’ve never heard of and Weber Shandwick) and co-founder of early interactive marketing agency (Thunder House), acquired by McCann Erickson
- Clients: SAP, Sun, HP, Sapient, FedEx, Communispace, Harvard Publishing, Dunkin’ Donuts, TJX, DST Output, and Agfa and eRoom, where Francois was my client
- Schools: University of New Hampshire, Harvard University
- Books: wrote Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing, the gold medal recipient of the 2008 Axiom Business Book Award for best marketing/advertising/public relations book and the 2008 finalist in the Berry-American Marketing Association Book Awards.
- Non-profit work: officer/trustee of Trinity Rep Theater
My beliefs
- To succeed in a “talk” marketing world, you need to have ideas that people want to talk about and share with others.
- Communications can change the world and is the most essential leadership skill after empathy.
- Make meaning not buzz.
- If you want to get more interest, be more interesting.
3 things most people don’t know about me
- Currently writing a book, Dying To Help: Etiquette, Empathy & Ecstasy on the Road To Dying. A somewhat irreverent, oftentimes funny, and above all helpful book about how to help people with terminal illnesses, as well as their caretakers.
- Almost didn’t complete my graduate business program because I just couldn’t write code a part of technology requirement; prof made an exception and kindly let me do research presentation instead.
- Was in the Metropolitan Opera Company’s Madame Butterfly at age four. (Because I was small and not scared of loud music; nothing to do with talent!)
My marketing play list
- “You Get What You Give,” The New Radicals: sums up marketing – provide a great product or experience and you get passionate customers
- “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” Rolling Stones: how we (and our bosses) all feel about marketing
- “The Way,” Neil Young: the kids’ chorus instills joy and hopefulness
- “Wild Thing,” The Troggs: helps me shake loose and see possibilities
- Rock the Casbah, The Clash: anything’s possible
- Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky), Bill Conti: older CEOs get juiced and open for change when they hear it; for some demographics it’s a great meeting opener
- Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin, Andre Previn & the London Symphony Orchestra: reminds me of how a start- up or new campaign plays out
- Disco Inferno, The Trammps: The “burn baby burn line” gets me thinking about how to burn down the obstacles that are part of getting new ideas and programs approved
- We Can’t Be Somebody Else,” Arling & Cameron; it’s all about authenticity.
- “Tell Me Something Good,” Chaka Khan & Rufus. What every CEO and sales exec really wants to hear.
- “Tell Me,” Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings: Sharon’s been working hard for years and is finally getting traction and notice; like many programs, businesses and careers. you’ve got to put in the hard work and stay true to your goals.(Plus she just puts me in a mood to move,)
