I lift an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?” I feel a sense of superiority when that haughty know-it-all look of his falters for one second. I know that look well. I remember seeing it on the faces of my ex and his family, and high-society friends often while we were dating.
“I know what I’m doing.”
I give him a smile. “You and I both know if you were that confident in knowing what you were doing, you wouldn’t need to steal, would you?”
“Will you come off it?” he whispers across the desk so our other colleagues don’t overhear.
“I sure will.” I sit down to finally turn on my computer, without another word. I can feel his eyes on me as I check my emails. He’s definitely grown more and more uneasy around me over the past couple of weeks.
Good.
An hour and a half later, Zeke and I are entering Danny’s office behind the two men from Digita who were here for the last meeting with the company.
“Gentlemen, it’s come to my attention that you’ve taken issue with an aspect of our campaign,” Danny says, a chagrined expression covering his face.
“We thought there’d be much more social media adverts than there currently are,” one of the men, Anthony Lomax, explains.
I want to roll my eyes so bad. I made it a point to tell Zeke that this campaign needed a bigger push on social media. That’s where our target market for this campaign is. But he insisted that the bigger push needed to be on traditional media outlets. Again, his cocky attitude that he knew better won out.
“I’m certain Zeke has a reason as to why he chose to stick more closely to the traditional media route.”
Zeke stands in front of everyone in the room. “Gentlemen, yes, it’s true that social media adverts are not as prominent in this campaign. I believe that traditional is more the way to go with this campaign simply because of the reach we can have. Millions of people—”
“But are they in our market? Because the data says if we want deeper market penetration, social media is the way to go,” Benjamin Walker, the other Digita employee, states.
“Yes, well, with the pushback many social media outlets are receiving—”
“What pushback?”
I lift an eyebrow, wanting to understand what Zeke is saying as well.
“There’s been a lot of backlash on social media, and from a business perspective … we just think it’s better to stick with what we know.”
I look to the two Digita men and they are not buying what Zeke is trying to sell.
“If I may,” I finally interject. I shift my gaze between Danny, Benjamin, Anthony, and lastly, Zeke. “What I believe Zeke is trying to get at is the fact that advertising on social media can be a tricky business.” Standing, I move over to the easel that Danny had set up with an image of Digita’s logo. “We have to be cautious about our approach to social media advertising because users are finicky. I’m sure you gentlemen, at some point, have found yourselves scrolling through your social media timeline only to be turned off by the number of advertisements and sponsored posts that keep popping up.”
“Yes, and—”
“However,” I say, cutting Zeke off, “that doesn’t mean we ignore social media. Of course not. All indicators point to the fact that social media is where your target is for this product. Therefore, I would propose a sixty-forty split when it comes to social media and traditional advertising. The great thing about posting on social media is that it is financially beneficial. The benefits greatly outweigh the costs. And once your current product gains some steam online, which it will because it’s a great product, by the way, then we can shift into giving more attention to traditional media outlets.”
Pausing, take in the room. Danny is cautiously watching the men from Digita, who are looking between one another, silently communicating. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Zeke giving me the stink eye. Of course, I ignore him.
“That sounds like a great approach. What was your name again?”
My smile grows. “Janine.”
“Janine, can you give us some specifics of what you were thinking?” Anthony asks.
“I’d like to hear as well,” Danny adds.
“Yes, well, I’ve already done some mockups on my tablet. Let me pull them up.” For the next twenty minutes we go over the social media campaign that I’ve designed for Digita. The two men point out some things for consideration but overall they are very happy with what I’ve come up with. By the time we are exiting Danny’s office, the two men’s demeanors have totally changed, Danny appears to be content, Zeke seems pissed, and I am on top of the world.
Today is one of the best days I’ve had at work in … ever.
****
Emanuel
