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Mark is a talented Account Manager with over 3 years of radical marketing experience. He recently moved to Calgary from Edmonton citing chinooks and cowboy hats as the main reasons. When he's not clumsily learning to line dance, he likes to take in live shows and explore forgotten mountain trails.

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Get to Know… Mark!

What is your role at Vovia? Young-Mark-

I am an Account Manager here at Vovia, which means that I take the ‘garbeldegook’ that our specialist team provides and convert it into meaningful insights for my clients! In all honesty, I ensure that the strategies we execute online are helping our client’s overall business and marketing objectives.

What is your favourite part of the job?

The best part of the job is getting to learn about my client’s business. It excites me when I begin to understand their structures, histories, and how they operate. In fact, I often get lost down the Wikipedia rabbit hole while investigating companies and industries because of sheer intrigue.

What made you decide to come and work with a bunch of digital geeks?

Well, I’m a bit of a digital geek myself so that made it an easy decision. I landed in digital advertising after university, in Edmonton (please don’t hold that against me), and I just feel so fortunate for the experiences that followed. When I decided to move down to Calgary, I knew that I wanted to stay in the industry so Vovia was the perfect fit for me. This is an amazing environment to work in. We have an exceptional group of easy going and highly talented individuals who always strive to raise the bar in all things digital.

We understand you lived in Europe for a time, how was that?

Amazing! That is really all I need to say about it, but I could go on for days. I lived in Edinburgh for 8 months, which was great because it really helped me nurture my travel bug. Exploring the British Isles was pretty fantastic in and of itself, but Edinburgh also served as my home base for European exploration. Weekends quickly became, “where is the cheapest flight to? Croatia, sounds good, let’s do it!” Scotland is a lot like Canada. Beautiful natural landscapes with a very kind and considerate population; I felt right at home almost instantly.

You are obviously passionate about travelling, what is your favourite place you have been?

In all my travels, in all my years, my heart still rests in the gorgeous green hills of Scotland. I have definitely been to more exotic destinations, but because I lived in Edinburgh for a spell, I didn’t feel like I was travelling. This is the one place on Earth (besides Canada) where I felt more like a local than a tourist, which was pretty unique and a very cool feeling. There was no sense of urgency (like so many other vacations that have a short time frame), which made the whole experience much more relaxing. Edinburgh is absolutely drenched in history and culture. Only five hundred thousand people live there, but for a city of this size, it is very cosmopolitan. Live entertainment is ubiquitous; from concerts to plays to improv and performance art. I just loved soaking it all up while I was there all while making great new friends! My Scottish accent; however, still leaves much to be desired…

We hear you’re originally from Edmonton. What made you choose life down south?

Technically I grew up in Leduc, but I have spent the last 6 years living in Edmonton. I decided to move south to change it up a bit and to get a new perspective on things. It wasn’t a big move by any means, but it was a good one. I already had a big group of friends and family in Calgary, so it was an easy transition and a welcomed change of scenery. Also, Calgary is much closer to the mountains, which totally tipped the scales when I was making this decision. I LOVE the mountains!

What keeps you busy when you aren’t killing it online?

This is a hard one to answer because there are too many things to list! I’m really easy to please and can truthfully find joy in most things so long as I am in good company. That said, I do love live stage shows; plays, musicals, imporv, you name it—I love them all! I have actually been to New York several times for the sole purpose of watching shows on Broadway. I recently came back from a short trip where I managed to jam 5 shows into just over 3 days; amazing!. There is just something so thrilling about the lights coming down, the orchestra starting the overture, and the sense of anticipation and electricity in the air. I will never get enough of that!