Scott Calise - Sad (But Proud) Man

“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.”  I bet Ozymandias had a Silly Series.

This time, we turn our attention to Scott Calise – a man who likes to live in other people’s houses.

Scott, what should be known about you?

Well, I was born on Long Island in NY, lived there till I was 13, moved to Raleigh, NC until I was 26 and then moved back to Manhattan with my wonderful wife where I live today.  I went to East Carolina University – Go Pirates! – where I studied business/marketing, got my MBA and acquired a serious love of all things pork. Seriously, NC BBQ is king, trust me, you should try it.

Aside from a deep passion for all things web analytics and digital, I’m a proud – sad but proud – NY Mets fan.  More recently I’ve become an Arsenal F.C. fan…turning out to be equally sad, but proud, about that one too.  I attempt to brew my own beer in a 550sq ft studio apartment (I married a saint).  I love to travel and my wife and I often use homeexchange.com to swap our apartment in NYC with people from around the world. We’ve traded with people from Napa, CA, Ventimiglia, Italy and Barcelona, Spain.  Turns out an apartment in NYC is the best time-share there is.

Are you responsible for Jersey Shore and other such “reality” programs? I’m very cross with you about them!

Well not directly, but I am responsible for Spray Tan Day at our offices; it’s the 3rd Thurs of every month because you don’t want to head straight into the weekend with a fresh spray, that just looks fake.

I am actually on the Entertainment & Games side of MTV Networks which are channels/sites like Comedy Central, TV Land and Spike, so have little interaction with Snooks and friends. But we are responsible for memorable things like: http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/sensitive-nips [Ed: consider yourself warned by the URL.. ]

What was your first job and what did you buy with your second pay packet?

What the hell is a “pay packet”? ohh paycheck, got it.  Hmmm well I was 12 years old and was bagging groceries, so probably concert tickets or cd’s.  Pretty much all my money went to seeing or listening to music back then.

Do you believe targeted ads during television programs streamed on the Internet are likely to be effective?

If you mean effective at getting the viewer to act or buy whatever is being advertised to them, then absolutely.  If the targeting increases the opportunity of that ad being more relevant, contextual and timely then there’s no doubt it has the potential to be as, if not more effective, than traditional linear ads, and the good news…we’ll be able to prove it with data!

Who is your superhero-sans-cape in the web analytics community and why?

You can say I’m dodging this question if you want, but think of the web analytics community as more of a collection of superheroes, like the Avengers or X-Men (nerd alert), rather than naming one person.  Some create the conferences we attend, some help us find jobs/network, some make us think outside of our bubble and help others and some are members of analytics organizations helping fight the good fight.  So all of us I guess.

How much of the year do you spend at events, conferences, travelling etc?

I’d say about 2-3 work weeks overall.

What is your wish for the remainder of 2011?

That Jon Stewart causes the collapse of Fox News.

Work related: that I can pull together all the data from all the different platforms and technologies that our brands and content now lives on so it can actually be analyzed.

Hold a pen in one hand and a dollar in the other. What number am I thinking of?

70 (the insane # of days it took me to answer these questions from you)

Is social media the future of digital marketing or the online version of Jersey Shore….damn, now I’m cross again…

I would say it is the present and will only become better in the future.  It’ll find its place in the overall marketing mix, rather than the new shiny toy it is now for most CMO’s.

Check out the full list of interviews in the Silly Series here!