Bio: Tangerine Toad
Alan Wolk
One of the only new voices to come out of the creative side of the ad business, Alan Wolk has staked out a distinctive space for himself and his Toad Stool consultancy. The wide-ranging appeal of Wolk’s common-sense approach to strategy, combined with his hands-on experience as an advertising creative director, has made him the go-to guy for social media thought leadership, speaking and consulting.
His blog, The Toad Stool, is a popular thought leadership site that’s been described as a “frank but fair” look at the confluence of advertising, marketing and Web 2.0.
Adweek Editor Brian Morrissey has called it “one of the ‘must read’ blogs for our industry.”
The most popular series, "Your Brand Is Not My Friend"which deals with the false assumptions marketers make in the 2.0 space (and how to remedy them), has gotten much play in the blogosphere and that has led to columns in Adweek, as well as a national syndication deal via Newstex.
The blog’s popularity has also resulted in numerous requests for speaking engagements. A book is also in the works.
Prior to “seeing the light,” Wolk was a highly successful creative director who spent years at ‘90s hot shop Anderson & Lembke and went on to start up Atmosphere, BBDO’s digital agency, with stints at Ogilvy and JWT along the way. A New York City native and Stuyvesant High School graduate, Wolk currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and 2 kids, where he doubles as a Little League and basketball coach.
Posts by Tangerine Toad:
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Knowing Armano,
12 Jan 2009 in Featured Posts
Last week, David Armano, a well-known blogger, prolific Twitterer, and real-world friend, did a very noble thing: with just one tweet and one blog post, he harnessed the power of his 8,000+ member Twitter network and raised close to $20,000 for…
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Scoble Blindness,
05 Jan 2009 in Featured Posts
I’ve often written about “NASCAR Blindness” — the strongly held belief that if no one in your little bubble of upscale artsy BoBo friends is into something, then clearly no one else could be either– and how it afflicts the advertising community….
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The Aesthetics Of Viral,
05 Aug 2008 in Featured Posts
There’s been a whole lot written about why calling an online video “viral” doesn’t make it such–Scott Monty did an excellent take on it a few weeks back. But what I wanted to point out here is that those videos that do go “viral” often aren’t…
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But He’s Really Nice In Person: Social Media and the Embarrassing CEO,
08 Jul 2008 in Featured Posts
We all have one: the friend whose quirks are mildly amusing in person. But place them under the magnifying glass of social media and those minor quirks become major, hard-to-ignore annoyances. Or, as one friend recently remarked about an acquaintance…
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The Terrorist In The Kitchen,
02 Jun 2008 in Featured Posts
So last week Rachel Ray, erstwhile host of numerous cooking shows–including one that runs (coincidentally enough) in the back of New York City taxis–was involved in a bit of a kafuffle concerning the scarf she was sporting in the Dunkin’…
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The Right Time And Place: Reading vs Watching vs Talking,
24 Apr 2008 in Featured Posts
Rubicon Consulting came out with an interesting study earlier this month about the iPhone and how people are using it. There were a number of key findings you can read about there or on PSFK. But the one I want to focus on–because I see it…
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The Rebirth Of Barbie,
14 Apr 2008 in Featured Posts
One of the more interesting side effects of having a daughter is that after years of Thomas the Tank Engine, Jay Jay the Jet Plane and the New Jersey Nets, I’ve had to learn the names of an entirely new set of characters. And despite her vilification…
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Whither TV?,
03 Mar 2008 in Featured Posts
There’s a great piece in this month’s Atlantic Monthly (a magazine I’d forgotten how much I liked) by Michael Hirschorn about the eventual evolution of television.
(And it’s hard not to like an article that starts out, “One of the most exhausting t…
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Branded At Birth,
12 Feb 2008 in Featured Posts
The other day Mrs. T. asked me to pick up a birthday present for one of the Tadpoles’ friends and when I asked her what sorts of things the child was into, her response was a list of brands. Disney Princesses, Dora and Webkinz.
I processed the info…
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Five Things I Learned from the MacBook Air,
21 Jan 2008 in Featured Posts
I’ve learned a few things from the post I did a few days ago on the new MacBook Air. Namely, that it’s got a lot of features people aren’t thrilled about, like an external DVD drive, limited memory and a non-replaceable battery. And despite the price…
