Viral Ad Network

The Viral Ad Network is growing rapidly (yay!) and that means we are looking to add to our Bristol-based publisher team.

This is an extremely important part of VAN that looks after our bloggers and website owners; providing them with great ad campaigns that pay them well, and ultimately providing our advertisers with views for their campaigns on awesome sites.

So what’s the job like:

This is a great way to get started in the industry. You get to work on great campaigns for big clients, and you’ll pick up key skills in account management, planning, media buying and reporting. We hope you’ll stick around for a couple of years, but we’ll train you in ways that give you a great preparation to step up to your next position (whether it’s internal or external).

The role has three key responsibilities:

• • Help build our network of quality online publishers
  • Support the campaign management team with delivery of clients campaigns
  • Support the sales team with publisher input for pitching

In detail…

• • Researching and recruiting publishers and bloggers from desired categories to sign up to the network
  • Assessing and processing incoming publisher signups.
  • Categorising publisher inventory to aid campaign planning and pitching
  • Expanding VAN’s profile across key social media platforms – tweet, blog, get involved…
  • Help to grow VAN’s publisher community with relevant marketing & events.
  • Ensure VAN publisher inventory meets individual campaign targets.

What you’re like:

This is a job for people who:

• • Are comfortable with numbers, especially straightforward arithmetic.
  • Enjoy talking to people by phone and email to develop relationships.
  • Work hard (cliche, but true here). It’s a job where you need to get your tasks done to time. It can also be necessary to check campaign progress out of office hours (using online systems).
  • Have solid writing skills: we don’t have time to check your spelling etc, and we’re working with publishers who may judge us negatively if you can’t write clearly and accurately.

The type of work is fairly consistent and suits someone who is happy to do similar tasks on a daily basis. That said, the job is exciting: new opportunities come up, new relationships will be formed, we get sales wins and awesome content to seed, and campaigns need to get their views.

You will definitely need:

• • A genuine desire to get stuck into work and take responsibility.
  • A passion for online publishing. You need to be an active consumer of digital, and experience writing or running a blog would be great.
  • Previous work experience, this can be anything dealing with people or a task based role. It doesn’t have to be relevant to marketing or online, but we don’t have time to teach you the most basic professional and get-things-done skills.

Salary and progression

• • Within the role, you can progress from ‘novice’ to ‘ninja’. This would take a couple of years. A complete novice starts on £14.4k, and a ninja would get around £25k.
  • There’s healthy profit share on top for all staff (linked to company performance), and a success club (team rewards for making monthly sales target).
  • There’s a wide range of progression opportunities when it’s time to move on from this role. There may be opportunities to move up within VAN taking management responsibility for aspects of sales or operations, or moving elsewhere within the Team Rubber group. It’s also a great stepping stone into agencies or client-side marketing, giving a solid grounding in account management, media planning and buying, and campaign operations.

Interested? To apply mail ally@viraladnetwork.net with a covering letter outlining why you think you are suitable for the position and where your strengths lie along with a 2 page CV.

Mongol Rally 2012: Traveling is for sissies, (according to the strap line of the latest Mongol Rally trailer video anyway!) Created by our sister company Rubber Republic for The Adventurists and currently being seeded by VAN, this awesome teaser clip is enough to capture the hearts of any old-school explorer yearning for a new challenge and has clocked up over 3,000 Facebook interactions and nearly 40,000 views in less than a week since it was released.

The Mongol Rally is an epic 10,000 mile charity road-trip from London to Mongolia across three deserts, five mountain ranges and seemingly endless stretches of remote barren land. It’s been described by some as “the greatest adventure possible”, but as one of the least populated countries in the world and with no support crew, help lines or road signs and sometimes days of traveling without seeing another living soul, the reality of life on the road can be hard.

This is definitely not a holiday but for those with the perseverance, ingenuity and sheer good luck to make it across a third of the world’s most inhospitable terrain and over that finish line the thrill must be pretty epic!

Tempted? There are still places available in the 2012 race, check the website to find out more.

Directski.com: I’m sure we would all agree that some healthy competition keeps everyone on their toes and a bit of friendly banter between rival companies never really does any harm. Well, online ski holiday provider Directski.com are certainly testing that theory by releasing this amusing video ad in response to an alleged disagreement with their competitor, Crystal Ski, over price comparisons.

With the title ‘Crystal Ski were so annoyed about our low prices they phoned our dad’, the video shows the two owners of the company, their dad and a rather intimidating Frank Bruno, challenging their competitors to a fight to prove whose dad is hardest.

Our dad vs their dad… We know who’s cheaper… Now let’s see who’s harder.’

Now we’re waiting to see if Crystal Ski make a response video!

Here’s to Real Friends extended trailer: Scotch whisky brand, Chivas Regal have ventured into the film industry, going beyond product placement to produce movies in the hopes of reaching a more receptive mass market. They worked with Euro RSCG to commission two short films by Academy Award winning short filmmaker Joachim Back.

The films are intended to increase awareness of their brands ‘social chivalry’ with two stories about the highs and lows of modern male friendships. We’ve been seeding the  extended teaser trailer but both films; Here’s to Big Bear and Here’s to Twinkle are available to watch now, perfect for a little afternoon break!