Hello Everyone, I thought that I would celebrate the launch of the new Care2, by also launching my blog.

Let me begin by telling you a little about myself. My name is Randy Ferrell and I am the VP of Sales here at Care2. I am a career ad exec with a relentless passion for media, networking and success! I am blessed with a very happy marriage (nearly 20 years) to an amazing and beautiful wife, 3 charming and gifted children, and good health. I am a self confessed workaholic (like most of us in media), but my family truly means everything to me.

During my childhood I spent most of my summers working with my brother on my father’s several hundred acre farm in north Florida raising acres of tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, corn, cattle, chickens and more. Working in a never ending dry dirt field sun up to sun down in the summer heat for months on end, taught me at an early age what hard work and determination was all about. It also taught me that hard work yielded rewards.

I began my career in media as a teenager at WZRK ZRock in Panama City, FL. My job was to sell advertising, and I did, but I also helped create my client’s commercials. I would write copy and often even do voiceovers on their commercials. I really enjoyed the creative outlet that working in radio gave me. It was my first exposure to the media industry and I was hooked. A funny side story about my time at this radio station is that after a period of time the station was acquired and the format changed from ZRock to a Southern Gospel station! The slogan went from “If it’s too loud, your too old!” to “Let’s make a joyful noise.” Not that there is anything wrong with that… ahem, but that is about as close as you can come to an exact opposite format and target audience from what existed previously. Believe it or not, I did somehow manage to keep many of our clients onboard.

During most of my mid teens to early twenties I also worked as a life guard on Panama City Beach, FL. My job was to enforce swimming codes on days that there were strong rip tides and of course rescue swimmers that got into trouble in the strong surf. To supplement our income we were encouraged to sell premium sun tan oil brands like Coppertone Spectra and Panama Jack. I spent most summer days keeping an eye on the water and teaching tourists how to get a great tan. I’ll never forget how wonderful it was to go to the office in the morning, as the office was a white sand beach, clear blue green water, open air and the sound of seagulls and gentle waves... The years spent life guarding were very special and truly unforgettable, but they didn’t quench my thirst for media.

Next came the fitness industry. I had been lifting weights regularly since high school and had a solid understanding of exercise and nutrition. I learned that I could leverage my weight lifting and nutritional expertise, along with my previous experience in advertising and sales, to assist the local fitness industry.  Soon, I became employed as the general manager for several leading fitness centers and martial arts schools in FL and GA.

A few very successful years into this field and I was promoted to Vice President of Sales & Marketing working for Grand Master Soon Ho Lee (one of the world’s highest ranking martial artist). This position allowed me to use both my sales ability and passion for media to drive success for Master Lee and the ATA. I created highly entertaining and effective advertisements that built strong brand awareness and brand affinity within our core target, and then used high reach local media (radio, as this was the early-mid 90s) to drive sales and growth of the business. I made sure that our well trained instructors and managers capitalized on the increased traffic to our regional locations by maintaining industry leading sell through rates. With this strategy, our chain of martial arts schools and fitness centers became the top grossing, and most popular clubs in our extremely competitive market.

My passion for media, and a budding entrepreneurial spirit led me to found and launch “Just the Fax” an advertising company which essentially provided local business with a menu of lunch specials from each of the local restaurants in the region that participated. Restaurants in each region would purchase ad space on our fax menu to promote their special of the day. We provided creative design and copy writing to clients as added value. With the ads inserted, and the menu published, Just the Fax would then fax the menu of local lunch specials to each region’s opt-in distribution list. Just the Fax had hundreds of regional business partners including the local government, retail businesses, hospitals, universities, public schools and more. Businesses saw the Just the Fax menu as a helpful service, and the advertisers got great results. To our advertising partners, it was simple, low cost, and very effective. As a business it had a very low overhead and high profit margin. In mid 1990s after a few years of success growing the company, we sold Just the Fax to a local entrepreneur.

In 2000, I joined Care2 as the National Sales Manager responsible for all sales of corporate advertising. I soon earned a promotion to Vice President of Sales and have spent the last decade leveraging my knowledge, passion and expertise in media and sales to drive growth of Care2’s advertising business. I have been Care2’s corporate evangelist for nearly a decade now. It has been a very interesting and exciting journey, and one that I will share highlights from occasionally in this blog. I currently do a great deal of work with leading advertising agencies and the brands that they represent. Most of the campaigns that I work on are in some way related to Care2’s mission and/or our audience’s lifestyle. It is these unique campaigns (both current and past) that will often be the topic of this blog (although don’t be surprised to read an occasional off topic post about various things that I am passionate about, my family, a co-worker, or even a rant about a particular issue like our country’s financial mess, politics or insane fuel prices!)

Due to my very busy schedule, my blogs may be sporadic and short. I will do my best to contribute regularly.

Please feel free to ask questions, comment or contact me via email or pm.