Q&A with David Spark, Content Marketer and Producer, Managing Editor at Spark Media Solutions

MEDIA 7 | November 7, 2019

David Spark, Content Marketer and Producer, Managing Editor at Spark Media Solutions is a veteran tech journalist and founder of Spark Media Solutions. He’s been the creative director, producer, voice, and face of many content marketing campaigns for a number of Fortune 1000 B2B tech companies.

MEDIA 7: What part of your background, personality, experience, or skill set makes you a particularly effective content marketing professional?
DAVID SPARK:

• Veteran technology journalist (worked across all media)
• Former advertising exec
• Former standup comedian and comedy writer

M7: What inspires you to come up with new ideas for blog posts, campaigns, tech, and media podcasts?
DS:
Inspiration is dependent on the project, the output, and the medium. But in general, I’m inspired by finding a topic/question that the audience will eagerly want to answer. Two of our most popular examples:

CISO Series – This is a media channel we started in October 2018 that we tout as couples counseling for security practitioners and vendors. We have such a passionate audience that they’re submitting a steady flow of questions, commentary, and games for our two podcasts. The CISO Series has provided the forum for our audience to be inspired.

“Man on the street” videos – It’s our most popular video format. We’ve produced close to 200 of these and my goal with these videos is to come up with a question where the first reaction is to laugh and then an eagerness about responding. It could be a challenge question (e.g., “What would happen if you left your mobile phone at home for an entire day?”, or something completely inappropriate for the environment (e.g., asking “What’s Your Password?” at a security conference).


"This whole attitude of “let’s try it with one and see how it works out” is a failed strategy out of the gate."

M7: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in the content marketing space since you first started in Chicago as a comedy writer for The Second City? 
DS:
 Not related to comedy, but the biggest change I’ve seen in content marketing was that the work moved in house. We started business in 2007 and most of my sales pitches were trying to explain the value of content marketing which at the time I referred to as brand journalism. By 2012 all of our current and past clients finally got it and stopped outsourcing the majority of their content marketing efforts. That forced us in 2013 to change our business model to specialize in certain industry sectors and be more product-focused. People now hire us because they want our style of production and access to our industry connections specifically in B2B tech and cybersecurity.

M7: As a Content Marketer & Managing Editor at Spark Media Solutions, how much content are you personally creating versus managing?
DS:
 I’m doing the majority of it, but I bring in audio editors, designers, video editors, and now I have a sponsored segment producer for the CISO Series. I’m constantly pitched, but no one ever actually pitches in our style. I reject all offers for guest posts. I’m extremely protective of my brand.


"The only way you create great content is you have to make a lot of bad content first."

M7: What are the most valuable lessons you’ve learned about content creation/management over the last few years?
DS: 
The only way you create great content is you have to make a lot of bad content first. Nobody is amazing out of the gate. This is especially true about video production. For those getting into video, I highly recommend producing home movies first. The reason is those first videos will be awful, but your audience (your family) will love the videos no matter how bad they are.

M7: Could you tell us more about your book, “Three Feet from Seven Figures: One-on-One Engagement Techniques to Qualify More Leads at Trade Shows”?
DS:
A huge majority of the work we do is at trade shows where we see a lot of behavior that is far from optimal.
At big trade shows, companies are dropping six to seven figures to have a presence at the conference. The cost per hour to be on the floor is extraordinary. So much is spent on booth production, travel, and staffing, but it appears nothing is spent on training people on how to actually behave at a trade show. It pains me when I see booth staffers staring at their phones, turning their back to the floor, or getting in huddles and talking with fellow coworkers. All these behaviors scream, “We don’t want to talk with you, potential customer who is walking past us just three feet away.”
The book offers techniques on how to engage with random people as they walk by your booth and quickly qualify or disqualify them.
The engagement techniques from the book became very popular, so we built upon them and made them usable by anyone in a training program we created called “Business Networking Pickup Lines”.


"In the entire history of media, with the exception of feature movies, no media brand becomes successful with one magazine issue, one radio show, one article, or one of anything."

M7: How has Spark Media Solutions been experimenting with new approaches/content formats/platforms? Are there any campaigns/programs you can give as examples?
DS:
Our survival is based on coming up with different media products and one of our core philosophies is “single effort/many units of content.” So if we’re hired to produce one video we’ll pitch more assets such as let’s turn it into highlights clips, transcripts, memes, photos, and more.
Here’s a good case study we did on a product we created called “Crowd-tooned”.
And here’s one of our most popular articles that speaks to our most popular production model: “21 Tips for Producing Funny ‘Man on the Street’ Videos”.

M7: What are the biggest mistakes you see new content marketers making consistently?
DS:
 Thinking you can be successful with one of anything. This whole attitude of “let’s try it with one and see how it works out” is a failed strategy out of the gate. In the entire history of media, with the exception of feature movies, no media brand becomes successful with one magazine issue, one radio show, one article, or one of anything. Why does a company that has no media experience whatsoever think they’re actually going to pull off what’s never happened in the history of media ever?


ABOUT SPARK MEDIA SOLUTIONS

Spark Media Solutions is a B2B content marketing agency for the tech industry. Content marketers that have perfected the model of building influencer relations through content. When dedicated to building an editorial voice, our clients have become the leading corporate media brand for their industry. We've worked with companies such as HP, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Juniper Networks, Symantec, Indycar, LinkedIn, Citrix, IDG, Dice, and many more. Our most popular service is live event reporting and production.

More THOUGHT LEADERS

'Partners are an extension of their brand,' says Adam Cason

Media 7 | May 18, 2023

Adam Cason believes that entrepreneurship, creativity, and a passion for technology are essential for fostering innovation in the information security industry. Read on to know his thoughts on entrepreneurship and creativity....

Read More

L&T Technology Services' Sarita Bahety explains why adopting cloud is an opportunity to make existing processes more agile for organizations

Media 7 | July 28, 2022

L&T Technology Services' Sarita Bahety, Head of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships for Europe, explains how various strategic alliances contribute to the expansion of businesses.  Read on to know more about her thoughts on strategic management, cloud adoption, and leveraging alliances. ...

Read More

Oracle's Lisa Marcyes says, 'People trust people more than they trust brands'

Media 7 | May 13, 2022

The key to good social media marketing is knowing everything about the audience, shares Lisa Marcyes Director, Global Social Media at Oracle, in this interview with Media 7. Read on to find out more about the best go-to approach for audience gap analysis, top social media marketing trends to look out for this year and the best ways to generate leads on social media....

Read More

'Partners are an extension of their brand,' says Adam Cason

Media 7 | May 18, 2023

Adam Cason believes that entrepreneurship, creativity, and a passion for technology are essential for fostering innovation in the information security industry. Read on to know his thoughts on entrepreneurship and creativity....

Read More

L&T Technology Services' Sarita Bahety explains why adopting cloud is an opportunity to make existing processes more agile for organizations

Media 7 | July 28, 2022

L&T Technology Services' Sarita Bahety, Head of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships for Europe, explains how various strategic alliances contribute to the expansion of businesses.  Read on to know more about her thoughts on strategic management, cloud adoption, and leveraging alliances. ...

Read More

Oracle's Lisa Marcyes says, 'People trust people more than they trust brands'

Media 7 | May 13, 2022

The key to good social media marketing is knowing everything about the audience, shares Lisa Marcyes Director, Global Social Media at Oracle, in this interview with Media 7. Read on to find out more about the best go-to approach for audience gap analysis, top social media marketing trends to look out for this year and the best ways to generate leads on social media....

Read More

Related News

CLOUD SECURITY, AWS INFRASTRUCTURE, AWS MANAGEMENT

Aquia Launches Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Security Assessment Offering, Pairing Automation With Deep Cloud Security Expertise

Prnewswire | June 02, 2023

Aquia Inc., a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) specializing in cloud and cybersecurity professional services, today announced the availability of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Security Assessment. The offering will pair automation with deep cloud security expertise to provide customers with contextualized, relevant findings from their assessment. "Often, when an organization seeks to assess the holistic security posture of its AWS account, they receive outputs that lack the context needed to drive decision-making without placing an undue burden on their team," said Dustin Whited, director of security engineering at Aquia. "We are removing ambiguity from the process by pairing automation with industry-leading subject matter expertise to analyze outputs and provide meaningful insights into the risks and priorities most relevant to each customer." By leveraging Aquia's AWS Cloud Security Assessment, organizations can proactively identify and address security gaps, reducing the risk of security incidents and enhancing the overall security of their AWS account. Benefits include: Identifying weaknesses within your AWS account proactively and taking corrective actions before they are exploited by malicious actors. Ensuring proper access controls, encryption mechanisms, backup strategies, and other security measures are in place to safeguard valuable information. Reducing the risk of unauthorized access and subsequent security incidents. Minimizing the impact of potential security breaches or incidents that may occur with an effective response plan. Embracing continuous improvement. For more information or to request a consultation, visit aquia.us/aws-cloud-security-assessment. About Aquia Inc. Securing The Digital Transformation® Aquia Inc. is a developer-centric company passionate about the intersection of security and velocity. We maintain a strong bias towards transformational work that disrupts the status quo — delivering elegant, modern solutions to cutting-edge cybersecurity problems. Founded by military veterans in 2021, we are a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). Our team has decades of experience driving transformational change across the public sector, enterprise businesses, and top-tier technology companies. We value trust, accountability, transparency, diversity, and continuous learning; and we've built these tenants into the DNA of our company. For more information, visit www.aquia.us.

Read More

CLOUD APP DEVELOPMENT, CLOUD SECURITY, CLOUD APP MANAGEMENT

Silk Enables OptaFi to Migrate and Modernize Their Customers' Electronic Healthcare Records in the Public Cloud

Newswire | June 01, 2023

Silk announces that OptaFi is now leveraging the Silk Data Virtualization Platform to help migrate and modernize their customers' Electronic Health Records (EHR) in the public cloud. With Silk, OptaFi helps their customers meet their cloud migration goals by enabling a predictable end user experience while keeping projects under budget and on time. "EHR are notoriously difficult to migrate to the cloud given they require a high level of performance," said Scott Mayo, GM/COO of OptaFi. "Introducing Silk into our solution stack allows our healthcare customers to realize the performance EHR workloads demand and increases scalability while controlling costs." "The future of EHR is in the cloud. The cloud makes it possible to provide a better patient experience, improve faster access to data, enhance security, and increase scalability for times of greater patient activity," said Itay Shoshani, COO, Silk. "Silk has a strong history of helping the healthcare industry migrate and modernize EHR. We are excited to be partnering with OptaFi to help their customers achieve the true promise of the cloud." To learn more about how Silk has partnered with leaders in the healthcare industry, visit https://silk.us/solutions/healthcare/. About Silk The Silk Data Virtualization Platform gives demanding workloads up to 10x faster performance in the cloud. Without refactoring, applications can move to the public cloud without compromising on performance or overspending to mitigate risk. Industry leaders in e-commerce, SaaS, FinTech, and Healthcare trust Silk with their business-critical workloads to get the ultra-fast speeds customers demand. Silk is headquartered outside of Boston, MA. To learn more, visit www.silk.us. About OptaFi, LLC OptaFi LLC is a joint venture launched in 2022 between Sentara Healthcare and Infinite Computer Solutions. Headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA, OptaFi's mission is to modernize healthcare environments with a secure, cloud-first, high-speed, and cost-controlled digital landscape. Designed by Healthcare for Healthcare, their core services include: EMR on Cloud (Azure, AWS, Hybrid Cloud adjacent) transitions and management Healthcare enterprise data analytics platform build and management Cloud HIPAA/NIST security framework build, manage and deploy Cloud cost analysis and assessments (spend control and telemetry)

Read More

CLOUD SECURITY, CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODELS, AWS MANAGEMENT

Coveo Services Now Available in the Amazon Web Service (AWS) Canada Region

Globenewswire | May 29, 2023

Coveo (TSX:CVO), a leader in AI platforms that transform digital experiences with intelligent search, recommendations, 1:1 personalization, and merchandising, today announced that Canadian customers can now access the Coveo Relevance CloudTM on the AWS Canada (Central) Region. By leveraging the AWS Canada (Central) Region, a cluster of several data centers located in Montreal, Coveo will enable customers with data residency preferences (regulatory, compliance or other) to securely store data in Canada. Local AWS infrastructure facilities mean that customers can do more in terms of running mission-critical applications that need the lowest possible latency, and benefit from more flexibility. “More than 12 years later, it's clear that AWS was the right choice for Coveo. AWS now offers many managed services that we leverage in our infrastructure. It speeds up development and enables our people to focus on delivering values and not maintain the base services or the infrastructure. AWS has been a great collaborator over the years and provided support and guidance in many ways,” said Marc Sanfaçon, Co-Founder and SVP of Technology at Coveo. “AWS technology makes it easier for us to scale up capacity to meet increasing demand. And their robust infrastructure, distributed data centers and failover features allow us to maintain near perfect uptime on our critical services which translates into better uptime and lower latency for our customers,” said Sanfaçon. Coveo developed its multi-tenant search infrastructure on AWS in 2011, resulting in increased agility, rapid innovation, the ability to expand into new markets and to scale up to support a growing demand. Coveo supports all of its global customers with its cloud infrastructure. “As Canadian businesses adopt cloud and AI solutions at an accelerated pace, they’re looking to get more from their data, faster,” said Eric Gales, Country Director, AWS Canada. “The Coveo Relevance CloudTM AI platform, combined with AWS, will help Canadian businesses optimize costs, increase agility, innovate faster, and do more with data, while keeping it in-country.” “As a provider of legal services, it is crucial to ensure that our clients' data is protected and compliant with Québec data privacy regulations,” said Dave Hinse, Director of IT and Information Security at CAIJ. “The importance of data residency in Québec lies in the province’s legal framework and data protection laws, which require organizations to store and process personal information within Québec's borders. By choosing to leverage Coveo’s services from the AWS Region based in Québec, the CAIJ can ensure that our clients' data is secure, accessible, and meets regulatory requirements.” Coveo is currently available in seven other AWS Regions around the world including Europe, the United States, and Australia. Coveo AI-powered Search is now available in the AWS Marketplace. About Coveo We believe AI is a competitive imperative to deliver the delightful and relevant digital experiences people expect, while maximizing profitability. Coveo accelerates the application of AI platforms in enterprises, helping them personalize and profitize every experience at scale. The Coveo Relevance Cloud™ platform is a market-leading AI platform that enhances search, recommendations, personalization, and merchandising intelligence in digital experiences across commerce, service, website, and workplace applications. Coveo’s platform includes analytics, AI model testing capabilities, and can easily integrate into almost any digital user experience a large enterprise delivers. Our platform is cloud-native SaaS, multi-tenant, API-first, and headless. Coveo has been a pioneer in the application of AI within the enterprise. Our Coveo Relevance Generative Answering capability, which integrates LLM technologies with Coveo's platform to feed generative AI with a common, secure unified index and real-time content, helps to drive relevance at scale, consistent factuality, secure sources of truth across all channels, and specifically solves the key challenges found with other generative AI platforms for the enterprise. We help hundreds of the world’s leading brands create tangible financial value. We believe our platform is differentiated by its sophisticated applied AI, designed to deliver highly relevant, bespoke digital experiences that drive superior business outcomes. In addition, our platform’s scalability, rapid time to value, enterprise-grade security and compliance, and native integrations with other third-party technology applications set us apart. We are a Salesforce Summit ISV Partner, an SAPⓇ Endorsed App, and an Adobe Accelerate Exchange Partner.

Read More

CLOUD SECURITY, AWS INFRASTRUCTURE, AWS MANAGEMENT

Aquia Launches Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Security Assessment Offering, Pairing Automation With Deep Cloud Security Expertise

Prnewswire | June 02, 2023

Aquia Inc., a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) specializing in cloud and cybersecurity professional services, today announced the availability of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Security Assessment. The offering will pair automation with deep cloud security expertise to provide customers with contextualized, relevant findings from their assessment. "Often, when an organization seeks to assess the holistic security posture of its AWS account, they receive outputs that lack the context needed to drive decision-making without placing an undue burden on their team," said Dustin Whited, director of security engineering at Aquia. "We are removing ambiguity from the process by pairing automation with industry-leading subject matter expertise to analyze outputs and provide meaningful insights into the risks and priorities most relevant to each customer." By leveraging Aquia's AWS Cloud Security Assessment, organizations can proactively identify and address security gaps, reducing the risk of security incidents and enhancing the overall security of their AWS account. Benefits include: Identifying weaknesses within your AWS account proactively and taking corrective actions before they are exploited by malicious actors. Ensuring proper access controls, encryption mechanisms, backup strategies, and other security measures are in place to safeguard valuable information. Reducing the risk of unauthorized access and subsequent security incidents. Minimizing the impact of potential security breaches or incidents that may occur with an effective response plan. Embracing continuous improvement. For more information or to request a consultation, visit aquia.us/aws-cloud-security-assessment. About Aquia Inc. Securing The Digital Transformation® Aquia Inc. is a developer-centric company passionate about the intersection of security and velocity. We maintain a strong bias towards transformational work that disrupts the status quo — delivering elegant, modern solutions to cutting-edge cybersecurity problems. Founded by military veterans in 2021, we are a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). Our team has decades of experience driving transformational change across the public sector, enterprise businesses, and top-tier technology companies. We value trust, accountability, transparency, diversity, and continuous learning; and we've built these tenants into the DNA of our company. For more information, visit www.aquia.us.

Read More

CLOUD APP DEVELOPMENT, CLOUD SECURITY, CLOUD APP MANAGEMENT

Silk Enables OptaFi to Migrate and Modernize Their Customers' Electronic Healthcare Records in the Public Cloud

Newswire | June 01, 2023

Silk announces that OptaFi is now leveraging the Silk Data Virtualization Platform to help migrate and modernize their customers' Electronic Health Records (EHR) in the public cloud. With Silk, OptaFi helps their customers meet their cloud migration goals by enabling a predictable end user experience while keeping projects under budget and on time. "EHR are notoriously difficult to migrate to the cloud given they require a high level of performance," said Scott Mayo, GM/COO of OptaFi. "Introducing Silk into our solution stack allows our healthcare customers to realize the performance EHR workloads demand and increases scalability while controlling costs." "The future of EHR is in the cloud. The cloud makes it possible to provide a better patient experience, improve faster access to data, enhance security, and increase scalability for times of greater patient activity," said Itay Shoshani, COO, Silk. "Silk has a strong history of helping the healthcare industry migrate and modernize EHR. We are excited to be partnering with OptaFi to help their customers achieve the true promise of the cloud." To learn more about how Silk has partnered with leaders in the healthcare industry, visit https://silk.us/solutions/healthcare/. About Silk The Silk Data Virtualization Platform gives demanding workloads up to 10x faster performance in the cloud. Without refactoring, applications can move to the public cloud without compromising on performance or overspending to mitigate risk. Industry leaders in e-commerce, SaaS, FinTech, and Healthcare trust Silk with their business-critical workloads to get the ultra-fast speeds customers demand. Silk is headquartered outside of Boston, MA. To learn more, visit www.silk.us. About OptaFi, LLC OptaFi LLC is a joint venture launched in 2022 between Sentara Healthcare and Infinite Computer Solutions. Headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA, OptaFi's mission is to modernize healthcare environments with a secure, cloud-first, high-speed, and cost-controlled digital landscape. Designed by Healthcare for Healthcare, their core services include: EMR on Cloud (Azure, AWS, Hybrid Cloud adjacent) transitions and management Healthcare enterprise data analytics platform build and management Cloud HIPAA/NIST security framework build, manage and deploy Cloud cost analysis and assessments (spend control and telemetry)

Read More

CLOUD SECURITY, CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODELS, AWS MANAGEMENT

Coveo Services Now Available in the Amazon Web Service (AWS) Canada Region

Globenewswire | May 29, 2023

Coveo (TSX:CVO), a leader in AI platforms that transform digital experiences with intelligent search, recommendations, 1:1 personalization, and merchandising, today announced that Canadian customers can now access the Coveo Relevance CloudTM on the AWS Canada (Central) Region. By leveraging the AWS Canada (Central) Region, a cluster of several data centers located in Montreal, Coveo will enable customers with data residency preferences (regulatory, compliance or other) to securely store data in Canada. Local AWS infrastructure facilities mean that customers can do more in terms of running mission-critical applications that need the lowest possible latency, and benefit from more flexibility. “More than 12 years later, it's clear that AWS was the right choice for Coveo. AWS now offers many managed services that we leverage in our infrastructure. It speeds up development and enables our people to focus on delivering values and not maintain the base services or the infrastructure. AWS has been a great collaborator over the years and provided support and guidance in many ways,” said Marc Sanfaçon, Co-Founder and SVP of Technology at Coveo. “AWS technology makes it easier for us to scale up capacity to meet increasing demand. And their robust infrastructure, distributed data centers and failover features allow us to maintain near perfect uptime on our critical services which translates into better uptime and lower latency for our customers,” said Sanfaçon. Coveo developed its multi-tenant search infrastructure on AWS in 2011, resulting in increased agility, rapid innovation, the ability to expand into new markets and to scale up to support a growing demand. Coveo supports all of its global customers with its cloud infrastructure. “As Canadian businesses adopt cloud and AI solutions at an accelerated pace, they’re looking to get more from their data, faster,” said Eric Gales, Country Director, AWS Canada. “The Coveo Relevance CloudTM AI platform, combined with AWS, will help Canadian businesses optimize costs, increase agility, innovate faster, and do more with data, while keeping it in-country.” “As a provider of legal services, it is crucial to ensure that our clients' data is protected and compliant with Québec data privacy regulations,” said Dave Hinse, Director of IT and Information Security at CAIJ. “The importance of data residency in Québec lies in the province’s legal framework and data protection laws, which require organizations to store and process personal information within Québec's borders. By choosing to leverage Coveo’s services from the AWS Region based in Québec, the CAIJ can ensure that our clients' data is secure, accessible, and meets regulatory requirements.” Coveo is currently available in seven other AWS Regions around the world including Europe, the United States, and Australia. Coveo AI-powered Search is now available in the AWS Marketplace. About Coveo We believe AI is a competitive imperative to deliver the delightful and relevant digital experiences people expect, while maximizing profitability. Coveo accelerates the application of AI platforms in enterprises, helping them personalize and profitize every experience at scale. The Coveo Relevance Cloud™ platform is a market-leading AI platform that enhances search, recommendations, personalization, and merchandising intelligence in digital experiences across commerce, service, website, and workplace applications. Coveo’s platform includes analytics, AI model testing capabilities, and can easily integrate into almost any digital user experience a large enterprise delivers. Our platform is cloud-native SaaS, multi-tenant, API-first, and headless. Coveo has been a pioneer in the application of AI within the enterprise. Our Coveo Relevance Generative Answering capability, which integrates LLM technologies with Coveo's platform to feed generative AI with a common, secure unified index and real-time content, helps to drive relevance at scale, consistent factuality, secure sources of truth across all channels, and specifically solves the key challenges found with other generative AI platforms for the enterprise. We help hundreds of the world’s leading brands create tangible financial value. We believe our platform is differentiated by its sophisticated applied AI, designed to deliver highly relevant, bespoke digital experiences that drive superior business outcomes. In addition, our platform’s scalability, rapid time to value, enterprise-grade security and compliance, and native integrations with other third-party technology applications set us apart. We are a Salesforce Summit ISV Partner, an SAPⓇ Endorsed App, and an Adobe Accelerate Exchange Partner.

Read More

Spotlight

Spark Media Solutions, LLC

B2B content marketing agency for the tech industry. Content marketers that have perfected the model of building influencer relations through content. When dedicated to building an editorial voice, our clients have become the leading corporate media brand for their industry. We've worked with compani...

Events

Resources