Jeff Culliton
Name: Jeff Culliton
Current Job: Vice President of Digital Strategy at Adcom
Favorite restaurant in town? I think for my wife and me, it would be Parallax, but we’ve had a few incredible meals at Luca on the Viaduct
Favorite thing about Cleveland? The people genuinely want to be a part of one another’s lives. There is very little pretense. I love having long term relationships, in life and in business and around here that is something you can really cultivate.
Q: Jeff, you graduated at John Carroll and spent some time in DC. Why did you end up returning to Cleveland (despite being a Buffalo Native)? The short answer is my wife – it was hands down the best decision I’ve ever made. The longer answer is that, whether it be D.C., New York or San Francisco I’ve never felt more comfortable and capable than when I was in Cleveland. I enjoy being able to see the whole picture and understand how projects, politics and people fit together to create growth and innovation. In those other cities, I found it very hard to get anything deeper than a glimpse into how things worked, and that was always hard for me. In theory, I’ve always felt I thrived the most in situations where I had access to make a difference quickly – kind of a big fish in a smaller pond mentality – we will see if that comes to fruition. Cleveland offers that in my opinion, but you must go looking for it, it will not come and find you. I think that is where I see a lot of our young and dynamic minds get frustrated – we need to change that.
Q: You’ve spent time at both product companies and service providers, can you talk about the lessons learned from growing a service provider versus a product company? Lesson number one is that every company is a customer company. If you build a product that doesn’t solve a problem for a customer, you won’t have any. If you provide a service poorly to a customer, you won’t have any. With that said professional services allows me to grow relationships, which I love. It also allows you to vet and recommend the best “product” for a situation and be agnostic to a degree. Building a product is fun and fortunately enough it’s still something I get to do, but I always found that gaps in between the go-live of a new product and the customer’s ultimate adoption wreaked havoc on my nerves.
Q: Sherwin Williams just announced they are building their next HQ Downtown, what impact do you think that will that has on downtown Cleveland and Northeast Ohio more broadly? I think it’s physically and psychologically transformational. We struggle with our self/corporate image around these parts and to have a company as foundationally strong as Sherwin Williams say “we choose you” is huge. It’s reminiscent but significantly more impactful in the long term, of Lebron’s return. The community has been wounded in the past by corporate HQ’s either leaving town or heading to the suburbs – this helps to change that narrative. Plus, it says to the business community, both here are elsewhere, that there is an equation here that is very desirable; great quality of life + talented labor force + cost of living that the coasts cannot compete with. People will move, flights will return, but there has to be a collective belief that we are worth it. I think that should be a central theme of our narrative moving forward. We don’t have to be the “aw-shucks-we-are-an-OK-alternative” town, we have one hell of an equation for success, we just have to convey it a little more confidently. In the end, I hope that Sherwin’s decision is a siren to our other regional powerhouse companies to double down in the central downtown district to create and build on the very real sense of vibrancy that is emerging.
Q: Congrats on your new promotion to VP of Digital Strategy! What does that role entail and for readers that aren’t familiar with Adcom, can you talk about the work of your firm? Thank you, I appreciate it! Adcom has been a staple of the regional marketing community for the last 30 years, with an impressive roster of partners. We are a full-service agency, meaning we have the vast majority of services under one roof, making us a strong partner for companies that need wholistic marketing support. From a service perspective, we help architect brands, plan and place media, identify new audiences, strategize and bring to life creative concepts that have a meaningful impact on a brand’s business. Those strategize services are married to very tactical offerings like marketing automation, paid search, SEO, social media management, digital development and analytics and insights. The makeup of a modern agency has changed dramatically during my career. We are blessed and cursed with massive amounts of data. Being able to digest and normalize that data and turn it into near-real-time insight is the difference between a marketing vendor and an agency that is an integral partner. Fortunately for me, my role is able to touch all of these areas. My primary responsibilities are as a strategic and relationship lead over a book of business, constant cultivation of new relationships for the agency, innovating new products and services we may be able to offer clients and helping to market the agency…….I’m also a member of our Podcast team, The A Game, An Adcom Podcast.
Q: You live in Lakewood and have two little kids, how do you make sure you balance the professional and personal life? I’ve actually never felt comfortable with the idea of work-life balance, that always sounded like they needed to be separate things. I’ve done much better when the two things intertwine, each one has their space, but they overlap. I think it’s cool that my kids and wife come to the office and have relationships with my co-workers. I’ve also noticed over time that when my wife sees me get excited about a client or project she pushes me on it. A lot of my job can take place after 5 which is something that takes communication, but when she sees me excited about it and understand why I think it’s important she’s a massive supporter. The one thing I am learning, now that the kids are a bit older, is that it takes weekly planning – previously not my strong suit, but I married significantly above my proverbial pay grade, which has helped out a lot. My wife deftly manages the lives and schedules of the entire family and then some without batting an eye – it’s a real gift. Long story short, if it’s something we pay attention to every week, blending the two together hasn’t been a problem.