AMA Triangle board members serve one-year terms, from July to the following June. This series is meant to introduce the folks who do the behind-the-scenes work of our chapter: those who dedicate a large amount of their free time to this group of crazy, passionate marketers.
We sat down for a brief Q&A with our board members, asking about their day jobs, favorite marketing tips and tricks, and more! First up, Ben Ross, our current VP of Communications.
AMA Triangle: Hi! Tell us a little about yourself.
Hi! I’m Ben. Currently serving as the VP of Communication for AMA Triangle. In my non-AMA life, I work at Ruffalo Noel Levitz, a higher-education consulting company. I’m in RNL’s digital agency division working on a combo of client service and agency operations. I’ve been in the digital marketing field for longer than I care to admit, and love that it’s still a field where I can learn something new every day.
AMA Triangle: Favorite marketing campaign or project?
Ben: OK, so this one’s an oldie. It’s a commercial for the VW Jetta from 2002, where the protagonist is reading the owner’s manual and finds an amazing (to him) feature, then runs excitedly to tell his partner about it, as if he’d had the next billion-dollar idea. You have to see it for the full effect: https://youtu.be/CttdIFVusqg — Never has a marketing campaign pulled something so directly from my brain and made it into a commercial. It may or may not be a coincidence that I then owned a 2003 VW Jetta…
AMA Triangle: Tell us about your marketing experience. What do you love? What do you wish was better?
Ben: Like I said earlier, I’ve been in the digital marketing field for longer than I care to admit (let’s just say pushing two decades), and love the fact that I can always learn something new. That being said, I wish feature sets between multiple tools that are crucial for day-to-day work had a bit more parity so that things could be more efficient. But, getting several multi-billion-dollar corporations to play nice is a challenge.
AMA Triangle: What tools/technologies are you using today that are game-changers?
Ben: Microsoft Teams. It’s brought my office’s collaboration and communication to a new level, and integrates seamlessly with the entire Microsoft suite.
AMA Triangle: What do you do in your free time?
Ben: Lately I’ve been doing a lot of exploring of walking paths/Greenways in Cary, trying to stick to the Stay-At-Home order as much as possible. I’ve also been trying to work out at home — so if you see me jumping around my living room looking like a flailing rag doll, you’ll know what’s going on.
AMA Triangle: Why are you part of the AMA Triangle Community?
Ben: I joined as someone new to the Triangle looking to make connections in the marketing field. I’ve stayed because of the true community this organization created and continues to foster.
AMA Triangle: What is your AMA volunteer team working on right now?
Ben: We manage the communications across the chapter. E-mail? Us. Social? We’re on it. Web? Check. Keeping our members and community informed is what we do!
AMA Triangle: Why do you volunteer for AMA Triangle?
Ben: This community has given me so much, and I’m thrilled to give back to it!
If you’re interested in joining our community of marketers, check out our membership options.
To amplify your membership, take a look at our open volunteer opportunities.
