When you’re laser-focused on marketing results, anything that makes you more efficient is a gift. That’s clear from the choices DMN‘s 2014 40 Under 40 Award winners selected as their favorite mobile apps. Spoiler alert: Uber is a recurring favorite. Not surprising for a group of marketing executives who are often on the go, meeting with clients. Here, a list of these all stars’ winnest apps.
Productivity
Zak Garner
Director of Customer Success, 6Sense
“Evernote is probably my favorite mobile app. I’m a really big to-do list person. I’m starting to use Evernote a lot more to help me stay organized. Beyond that, [it’s] having something handy that I can use to capture any idea that pops into my head or any action item that I might forgot about.”
Darr Gerscovich
VP Marketing, Ensighten
“Concur. Filing and approving expense reports used to be massively tedious and involve hours of effort. The Concur app has made this much easier. Life’s simple pleasures!”
Erik Severinghaus
Founder & CEO, SimpleRelevance
Charlie. “It helps me make sure I’m prepared and have the proper context for any meeting I’m about to walk into.”
Adriel Sanchez
VP Demand Generation, SAP
Flipboard. “Incredible breadth of content and a beautiful presentation.”
Cari Bucci
EVP/General Manager, MARC USA Chicago
Instacart. “I can be sitting on the tarmac at O’Hare ordering groceries and they’ll be at my house when I return from my trip. Without it, my family probably wouldn’t eat.”
Ron Selvey
VP of Marketing WebDAM, a Shutterstock Company
“WebDAM has an amazing app that we use here in our marketing team. Not to self-promote, but it helps our team work quickly—we know where everything is, all of our files, everyone has access to everything. On a personal level, there’s that app called Whisper…where people share whatever’s on their mind. It’s interesting just to see how the human mind works and what’s going on in different places in the world.”
Entertainment
Duane Raupp
Executive Creative Director, Organic Inc.
“NPR One. I love its simplicity and the design of its interface. I also can’t stop playing the Two Dots app. The design is impeccably crafted and the game play is quick, but strategic.”
Iryna Newman
Director of Mobile Marketing, OpenTable
“OpenTable, of course.”
James Kugler
Director, Global Digital Marketing at Sigma-Aldrich
Circa, a news app that pares stories down to headlines.
Carina Pologruto
GM & EVP of Client Services, Marketsmith Inc.
“BuzzFeed, hands down! News, culture, business, and humor all in one place.”
Greg Alvo
CEO & Founder, OrderGroove
Spotify. “Music gets me energized and focused, and keeps me going throughout the day.”
Kim Land
Marketing Director, Herald-Journal
“I really love my Kindle app. I’m a huge sports fan, so I use my ESPN app a lot.”
Nataly Kelly
VP of Marketing, Smartling
“It’s the TED Talks app [TED]. I use that all of the time…. There’s always something new that I love. I also have the Poetry Foundation app. It’s basically a poetry app [I use] if I need a little bit of inspiration or a thoughtful, insightful quote on a topic.”
Josh Martin
Executive Vice President, Zenith Optimedia Direct
“Verizon Fios. I can record on my DVR with my app…I love NFL games.”
Travel, etc.
Bryan Brown
VP Product Strategy, Silverpop
Delta and Concur. “I like apps that simplify life without attempting to consume it.”
Lee Goldstein
President, DiMassimo Golstein
“The apps that I’m most into improve productivity and make it easier for me to do what I do. Uber, my airline app, things like that. I’m also a fan of my Texas Hold ‘Em app.”
Amber Olson Rourke
Cofounder and CMO, Nerium International
“Uber and Open Table. They fulfill a real everyday need that was unfulfilled before they created the app.”
Michelle Killebrew
Program Director of Strategy and Solutions, IBM Social Business
“Right now, I’d have to say TripIt because I’m traveling so much. It really [keeps me] on the ball as to where I’m supposed to be next. If I’m thinking about engagement, it’s probably Hootsuite in that it allows me to stay engaged on a variety of different social fronts and understand how I can engage with my audience while I’m sitting in the airport or traveling in a car on the go.”
Mitch Wainer
Cofounder and CMO, DigitalOcean
The ones that I use the most are Uber, Waze, and Slack.com. Uber is incredible in how it’s made transportation so easy and accessible. And it’s making $20 million a week. I always like Waze for navigation when I’m driving. It tells you the shortest ways to get to your destination. Slack is actually a communication tool for companies, and it works really well when you have teams and you want to share files and communicate within your company.
Ryan Bonifacino
VP of Digital, Alex and Ani
“It’s Uber. I’m an addict. It’s been so disruptive for the industry. It’s equally disruptive for me in terms of convenience.”
Amy Hoopes
CMO and EVP, Global Sales, Wente Family Estates
“My United Airlines app. It keeps me knowing which city I’m headed to.”
Amanda Levy
SVP & Managing Director, Critical Mass
“Uber. It makes traveling much easier and the rating system encourages the drivers to be polite and keep their vehicles well maintained. I love that they found a way to reinvent a very old industry.”
Jared Belsky
President, 360i
I absolutely love Uber and our Wake up & Smell the Bacon app, but my real answer to this question is to get off the phone and get in front of your clients and employees, and remember who’s doing the hard work.
Mike Santoro, President
Walker Sands Communications
“Uber is something that I use constantly. I travel a lot so any city [where] I need to get around it’s the fastest way to grab somebody. I also do a lot of running. I just finished a half marathon…so I use Endomondo for tracking runs, especially in different locations.”
Jeannie Green
VP, Fundraising and Nonprofit, Epsilon
“Uber. I’m in New York and Washington D.C. quite a bit for client travel, and Uber has totally changed things for me. I’m actually able to get to my clients on time.”
Sean Lyons
Global Chief Digital Officer, Havas Worldwide
“It’s probably a tie between Uber—its benefits are enormously obvious living in New York City. It’s incredibly useful and it’s also extremely relevant. I live in an apartment in Brooklyn where the train service was just cancelled for five weeks for repairs… I get an email from [Uber] two days before offering two free transfers to the next closest station. That’s amazing. They know exactly where I live because I’ve taken rides there. They’ve given me something that I needed and wanted. In addition to that, the app is just super simple in terms of how it works—not trying to overcomplicate it. I’d say it’s that or Google Now, which is also an incredible service on your Android phone. It’s predictive, so it learns over time where you work, where you live, and gives you the best transportation options. If you buy something it will track that package for you automatically. If you’re taking a flight, it’ll track that flight. It’s one of those things where you don’t have to ask for help, it’s just starting to learn more about you and it provides more assistance. Some people get scared by that, but I find it kind of useful.
Social apps
Josh Blacksmith
SVP, Management Director, FCB Global
“This isn’t a groundbreaking answer, but it’s LinkedIn. I use it as a professional Rolodex, it allows me to stay on top of industry trends, and it’s easy to follow what people are sharing and talking about.”
Jenne Barbour
Solutions Strategist, Marketing Applications, Teradata
“Facebook, so that I can interact with my family and friends. Twitter for professional use.”
Matthew Mierzejewski
EVP of Client Service and Delivery, RKG
“I use the Twitter app daily. I really like the Dilbert app.”
Melissa Burdon
Director of Marketing Operations, Extra Space Storage
“I use Google Hangouts the most, but I’m on Facebook and Instagram a lot, as well. I also really love Timehawk.”
Uwe Gutschow
VP, Digital Strategy and Engagement, INNOCEAN
“Right now, I’m obsessed with Whisper…. I like the app because it’s based around anonymity. We brought in someone from Whisper—one of their development guys—to come and talk to us at the agency. He had an interesting statement about how this app helps people who are lonely feel less lonely. They can share without any fear of people looking at your feeds and going, ‘Why did they post that?’ When you’re posting something on social media, [there’s] this continuous judgment. Whisper is free from any of that. It’s just about that anonymity and responding to people, helping people, and seeing how other people respond to you.”
Lauren Tetuan
EVP, Director of Digital Media, Deutsch LA
“I use so many! I use my social media apps a lot, but I really like Amazon. I do a lot of shopping there. I love music, so I use Songza often.”
Michael D’Adamo
Founder and CEO, T.O.P. Marketing Group
“I like WhatsApp, but I’m still old school when it comes to apps and technology.”
Click or tap here to read the full stories behind the successes of the Direct Marketing News 2014 40 Under 40 winners.
