He's the Head of Global Marketing Communications at Pinterest. But more importantly, he's our newest Champion For Good. Read below to get to know our friend and partner, Eric Edge!
Q: How have you worked with the Ad Council? What campaign(s) have you supported and what was the project you worked on with us?
Eric Edge: I’ve been working with the Ad Council for many years now. From ad agencies to tech, I have made it a priority to bring the Ad Council relationship to life with the organizations where I work. I worked on the launch of Ad Council’s first Instagram campaign with Smokey Bear and most recently have worked to align campaigns like Discover the Forest, Save the Food and Shelter Pet Adoption with the core behavior and mindset that people have on Pinterest.
Q: Social good ads pull at our heartstrings. What social good ad has made you cry or stand up and cheer?
EE: The Ad Council is the ultimate marketing pro that brings together creative, media and tech in a way that delivers big ideas that drive action. That means there are a ton of great ads that come out of these partnerships. Two that stand out to me are Love Has No Labels and Foster Care Adoption. Love Has No Labels couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. People have the amazing power to come together and support each other in ways you’d never expect, they also have an unfortunate set of biases that they often don’t recognize. As an openly gay leader in tech who is raising two amazing kids, promoting a world with empathy, compassion and equality is important now more than ever for their future.
People have the amazing power to come together and support each other in ways you'd never expect.
Q: How do you or your team integrate social good into your work, or how do you think your brand is making the world a better place?
EE: At Pinterest, we believe that doing good and having purpose are core to our mission of helping you discover and do what you love. We want you to be able to take the personal ideas that you see online on Pinterest and make them a part of your real life offline. Often those things are aligned with the many awesome organizations that The Ad Council represents – think things like discovering the forest with your kids, cooking meals and not wasting food, traveling to explore other cultures and people.
Q: What was the greatest piece of advice someone gave you, and how did it end up helping you?
EE: Early in my career I was pushed outside of my comfort zone and told that taking risks was a good thing and even if you fail, learn from those moments to become stronger. Over the past twenty years of my working life (yes, I’m dating myself) this advice is something that I’ve kept at the forefront of my mind and something that I’ve reiterated with my teams. It’s very easy to be comfortable, it takes effort, brainpower and confidence to take risks.
It's very easy to be comfortable, it takes brain power and confidence to take risks.
Q: How has your organization improved or innovated the digital landscape in the last year?
EE: One of the reasons I love being at Pinterest is that we are an industry leader in visual technology. I believe that the future will be visual, in large part due to innovations in mobile. From new ways to tackle visual search using a combination of image recognition and machine learning to delivering personalized ideas to people based on their tastes, visual is at the core of discovering and doing what you love on Pinterest.
Q: Tell us what you hope to see more of or experience more of in the next year, using only emojis.
EE: 👨👨👧👦❤️️💤☀️🏖⛷☮