About Mickey Cloud
* Job: Senior vice president and head of the Chattanooga office at VaynerMedia* Career: He previously worked for StrawberryFrog, Deep Focus and Publicis Modem & Dialog in New York* Age: 32* Education: Commerce and finance degree at the University of Virginia* Local boards: Member of the board of directors for the Enterprise Center and the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce* Personal: He and his wife, Amy, the alumni director at the McCallie School, live in North Chattanooga
Growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mickey Cloud wanted to be a sports writer. But after studying business and finance at the University of Virginia, Cloud said his story-telling interest combined with his intrigue about the power of commercial brands to entice him into the advertising business. As one who grew up as Facebook became a dominant social media force, Cloud spent his early years in advertising in Manhattan as a digital consultant to conventional ad agencies.
“I feel like we’re living in a time of transition like when TV overtook radio,” Cloud says of the way in which smart phones are replacing television as the primary source of attention and entertainment for most consumers.
But at a number of New York agencies where he worked, digital or social media was regarded as a supplement or extra to the what agencies still saw as the big driver in brand recognition, the 30-second TV commercial.
“The agencies then were still treating social and digital media as the sprinkles, not as the batter,” Cloud recalls.