30 Under 30 with Adam Fitzgerald

Adam Fitzgerald was in Washington, DC, when someone congratulated him on his award. He was at mediaXchange 2016 when he learned he had been honored as part of its Top 30 Under 30 awards.

He is the Director of Digital and Strategic Accounts at NANDO Media Company in Raleigh, North Carolina. He moved to The News and Observerteam after working at Staples. He was named “Rookie of the Year” his first year with the company.

Gary Smith, Vice President of Advertising at NANDO, who nominated Fitzgerald, said Adam is dedicated to the entire company’s success.

“He is a team player, a leader and has been very successful in everything he has attempted in his career,” Smith wrote in the Top 30 Under 30 nomination.

Adam says his age shows him both ends of the spectrum, but mostly it is an advantage. “It gives me the opportunity to think differently,” he says.

He enjoys the challenge of his job, attempting to drive revenue with controllable accounts. He is excited by the doors of digital opening, expanding the product beyond a seven days a week newspaper. Though the dawn of digital has changed things, he emphasizes the focus on audience.

“The conversations we have and the strategies we work on still revolve around audiences,” he says. “We’re still making sure we get our customers and advertisers in front of their potential customers.”

He looks at how advertisers connect with the audiences, and what role video and native advertising pay. He is involved with College Town, a new initiative focusing on the local universities. A large part of the marketing strategy is communicating the content through events and grassroots marketing. He says the colleges are a market segment not traditionally tapped into. It is a newly created digital product, but also serves as a digital solution for businesses wanting to reach the specific audience.

“For me, it’s a transformation of a traditional media company into being consultative, solution providers for our advertisers and our marketers,” he says.

He considers himself a consultant for the advertisers. His favorite part of his job is seeing a client’s success.

“When we help our advertisers win and grow their business, we win,” he says.

He has always been interested in how people – and brains – communicate with people they want to do business with. His background in retail helped him grow as a marketer.

“It’s a lot of constantly challenging myself and staying up to date on the latest trends in the industry,” he says. “That way I can help position the solutions we have to help our advertisers connect in ways we haven’t been able to do before.”

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