Andy Havens

email: awhavens at sanestorm dot com
phone: 614.395.4134

Writer, Marketing Manager, Teacher

The place where traditionally disparate areas begin to overlap is one of the richest places to mine for marketing and creative success.

Having begun my marketing career as a writer and designer, I know that when the details of a project come together beautifully, they can add tremendous value beyond what was initially expected. After years in marketing management, I have come to value the importance of clear strategic planning to the marketing process. Without a strong strategic foundation, marketing programs are bound to fall short, even when executed flawlessly.

Similarly, the crafts of writing and graphic design call for a type of creativity we might normally label “artistic.” The skills needed for business success, while often deeply creative, are likely to be thought of as “organizational” rather than artistic.

One of the guiding principles of my career has been to bring together the different pieces of the marketing picture -- detail and strategy, creativity and business, design and words -- in order to build exceptional marketing programs, campaigns, departments and stories.

Great marketing is more than the sum of its parts. It is compelling, exciting and highly efficient. For those of us who thrive in this world, it’s also a great deal of fun.

Web sites:

My Blog: www.TinkerX.com : Creative flux for the Age of Content

My Lulu Store: TaleWeaver and Aquabet, now on sale.

Consulting Services: www.Sanestorm.com

Former Blog: http://LegalMarketing.TypePad.com: During my time in legal marketing, I built the Legal Marketing Blog up to be a first page result on Google, Yahoo!, MSN Search, AltaVista and Lycos for the search term “legal marketing,” and had an average of 250 visitors per post. In August of 2005, after having (pretty much) left the field, I transferred the blog to my good friend Larry Bodine.

Gaming: www.PlayByWiki.com: A public, free-for-anyone wiki for folks to use for setting up, playing and storing text-based roleplaying games.

My Etsy Store: Strong Words . Get yourself a short insult. Or a long, harsh insult. Or a Best Man’s toast. Or, best of all, a bio for your cat’s previous life. What could be better?