Eric Rodgers didn’t expect to wind up staying at the Trump hotel in Chicago. He certainly didn’t expect to be cruising in a yacht around the lakeshore. And being shown around town by a team from one of the world’s biggest tech companies? That wasn’t part of any plan, either.
For a guy who became the first Canadian to win Google’s Search Excellence award, it’s amazing where Rodgers has found himself. Marketing’s 30 Under 30 list is just the latest example.
“I was literally one of two guys sitting on either side of the desk,” the co-founder of Direct Access Digital says, referring to the initial launch of the Burlington, Ont.-based firm. When Google informed him he’d won the award in 2014 (he won again last year), it became much more than a free trip to Chicago. It was validation for taking the risk of starting out on his own with no financial safety net.
Launched when Rodgers was only 21 years old, the company manages everything from search engine marketing to programmatic display to retargeting and now employs 30 people. It has also grown from early clients such as Canada Protection Plan, BMO, Lowe’s and Enercare. It followed early stints at startups including Geosign, which folded abruptly after changes in policies from Google.
“It was very scary, very stressful,” he says of the early days, when he was splitting everything down the middle with his co-founder, Don McNeil. “It was complete pressure all at once.” Suffice it to say he got through it — enough that the CMO of one of Canada’s biggest banks can’t say enough good things about him.
“I’ve really appreciated his partnership personally. He’s certainly a go-to person for me in terms of bouncing things off of,” says Betsey Chung, CMO of personal and commercial banking and wealth at BMO. “Whenever I have an issue or literally a business problem to face, he’s one of the few I would pick up the phone and ask, ‘How do consumers behave from what we know of how they purchase?’”
With a father who worked in IT, Rodgers says he was attracted to technology at an early age, building his first computer at the age of 10. At Geosign, he essentially turned a summer job into an apprenticeship in selling and buying traffic from Google. By 19 he was managing a team of seven who in some cases were twice his age. After meeting McNeil at another job post-Geosign, the two believed there was a gap in the market for an agency built around what it calls “math men (and women” rather than Mad Men.)
The journey to build Direct Access with McNeil has required him to build those leadership skills even further, by learning how to get in front of clients and educate them on what’s possible with digital.
“I was used to being behind a computer screen. I didn’t know how to dress,” says Rodgers, 27. (That’s changed: with a lightly polka-dotted shirt, Hugo Boss jeans and loafers, he has the Silicon Valley uniform down cold.) “Once we got going, I got used to speaking at higher and higher levels (of executives). I’m more open now among clients.”
Chung suggests Rodgers’ progress is not just about being polished, but going below the surface in his analysis.
“How we feel is very different from a fact-based approach. That’s what I appreciate,” she says. “It’s his ability to essentially have a deep knowledge and subject matter expertise, to be able to offer what I would say is a really practical and strategic mindset to the issues that we have at BMO.”
As Rodgers and his partner continue to grow Direct Access Digital, he says keeping the conversation about strategy is paramount.
“All this technology—these are tools and nothing more than tools,” he says. “You’ll hear people say, ‘We tried search and it didn’t work,’ or ‘We tried programmatic and it didn’t work.’ Even with traditional media—TV, radio and out-of-home can all do a fantastic job. But, you’ve got to base those decisions on data and facts.”
There are insights and anecdotes aplenty in our 30 Under 30 editorial package. To get the scoop on our finalists visit 30U30.ca and read full profiles of Canada’s next set of marketing leaders.
