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Brett Smith is one of the founding partners of Fuse. He recently gave an in depth interview to Malakye on the history of the company, changing trends in the industry and how he's helped lead the company's success over the past 15 years.
Malakye Interview
Fuse is a marketing agency that specializes in connecting youth culture with endemic and non-endemic brands, with an emphasis on youth-focused strategy, design, interactive, PR and event marketing. Fuse is unique, not only in the fact that they have strong ties and in-depth knowledge of the action sports industry, but they also cater to a myriad of other brands ranging from General Mills, Harley Davidson, Gatorade and even the DeLorean Motor Company – remember the Back to the Future car!
Brett Smith, one of the initial founders and partner at Fuse, helped build the company from the ground up, and they’ve now been in business since 1995. Brett joins in to provide a behind-the-scenes take on how it all transpired, along with an insider’s perspective on the day-to-day life of an agency, and what they’re doing to stay relevant in the ever evolving world of marketing and connecting with youth culture.
Your career background prior to Fuse?
I grew up in Central New York. As a kid, I lived and breathed skateboarding and snowboarding. In the ‘80s, I began to compete in snowboard events and I got help from Lib Tech and a few other sponsors. In college I started the Snowboard Club at Boston University and continued to compete in snowboarding. I also spent a winter competing in Tahoe. Through all of this, I picked up an understanding of the action sports industry.
After college, my goal was to spend a winter snowboarding before getting the ‘real job.’ I moved to Vermont with a mission of getting a free season pass. I got a meeting with Killington and gave the Marketing Director my big pitch: I would meet with him each week and ‘consult’ on what snowboarders on the mountain were thinking. In exchange, all I asked for was a season pass. Long story short, I got the free pass, but attached to it was a job offer to help the mountain develop its snowboarding business. So I gave up on a jobless winter and signed on (as far as I know, in ’93 it was one of the first positions of its kind). I spent several years at Killington working on everything from advertising to public relations, events to operations. I didn’t expect it to be a career path, but I loved having a positive impact related to the sport...
Read the full interview here.
April 01, 2010
Malakye Interview With Fuse Partner Brett Smith
Malakye Interview
Fuse is a marketing agency that specializes in connecting youth culture with endemic and non-endemic brands, with an emphasis on youth-focused strategy, design, interactive, PR and event marketing. Fuse is unique, not only in the fact that they have strong ties and in-depth knowledge of the action sports industry, but they also cater to a myriad of other brands ranging from General Mills, Harley Davidson, Gatorade and even the DeLorean Motor Company – remember the Back to the Future car!
Brett Smith, one of the initial founders and partner at Fuse, helped build the company from the ground up, and they’ve now been in business since 1995. Brett joins in to provide a behind-the-scenes take on how it all transpired, along with an insider’s perspective on the day-to-day life of an agency, and what they’re doing to stay relevant in the ever evolving world of marketing and connecting with youth culture.
Your career background prior to Fuse?
I grew up in Central New York. As a kid, I lived and breathed skateboarding and snowboarding. In the ‘80s, I began to compete in snowboard events and I got help from Lib Tech and a few other sponsors. In college I started the Snowboard Club at Boston University and continued to compete in snowboarding. I also spent a winter competing in Tahoe. Through all of this, I picked up an understanding of the action sports industry.
After college, my goal was to spend a winter snowboarding before getting the ‘real job.’ I moved to Vermont with a mission of getting a free season pass. I got a meeting with Killington and gave the Marketing Director my big pitch: I would meet with him each week and ‘consult’ on what snowboarders on the mountain were thinking. In exchange, all I asked for was a season pass. Long story short, I got the free pass, but attached to it was a job offer to help the mountain develop its snowboarding business. So I gave up on a jobless winter and signed on (as far as I know, in ’93 it was one of the first positions of its kind). I spent several years at Killington working on everything from advertising to public relations, events to operations. I didn’t expect it to be a career path, but I loved having a positive impact related to the sport...
Read the full interview here.