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Hello and welcome! Let’s take a sledgehammer to the fourth wall and introduce you to me, your faithful blog writer. Normally, I spend my days documenting the people, events and accomplishments that define our company, but today Iโve decided to share a little bit about myself.
So it’s time to answer the question that no one really asked: who is Alex Cramer?
Q: Hi Alex!
Is that a question?
Q: We’re just being polite.
You’re right. I’m sorry. Working from home for 2+ years has really dulled my social skills. I don’t even match my socks anymore.
Q: No problem. We don’t even know what day it is half the time. So, what did you do before you worked at AdPurp?
I spent a decade as a red carpet reporter interviewing both your favorite and least favorite celebrities for magazines like People, Us Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter. Basically, if it was in your dentist’s waiting room, I wrote for them. I specialized in live events such as awards shows, movie premieres and charity galas. I was also a correspondent for Leute Heute, the German equivalent of Entertainment Tonight.
Q: That sounds fun!
It was!
Q: Bet Covid really screwed that up though.
It sure did!
Q: How did you come to AdPurp?
It turns out that writing is a skill that has value beyond describing Reese Witherspoon’s shoe collection. So, I started doing corporate communications for Fortune 500 companies such as Avery Dennison, which is a company that makes labels.
Because writing about labels is just as boring as it sounds, I was looking for a new opportunity and that’s when I discovered Advertise Purple.
I respond to energy and passion, and of all the interviews I did, what really came across from the people I spoke with at Advertise Purple was genuine excitement for what they were doing here. That was infectious and attractive. It didn’t feel like people were just checking boxes when they interviewed me, but rather they were really looking for someone who was able to match their energy and wanted to be a part of this larger journey.
Q: What do you think about AdPurp?
Things move fast here. Even in the short time I’ve been with the company, I’ve watched our headcount grow, our technology advance and our various affiliate sales strategies become more refined. AdPurp is well past its start-up phase, but there’s a sense that we’re still discovering everything that we can become. I spend a lot of time interviewing people about their various initiatives and you can feel that sense of excitement as they launch something new. It’s rewarding to be able to witness that journey and just as rewarding not to write about stupid labels.
Q: What do you do all day?ย
Ultimately, my role is to find ways to tell the story of Advertise Purple, both to itself as well as to the larger world, and that means doing more than just bragging about business success. That means extolling our culture, our DEI initiatives, our philanthropy and most importantly our people.
I think it’s important for people here to be seen and acknowledged. In a company as large and as fast as ours, it’s easy to feel like the work you do is valuable but maybe not always appreciated. So one of the things I enjoy doing is to highlight individuals and show that not only are we good at what we do, but we’re also more than our job titles.
Q: What do you like most about AdPurp?
I’m older (by a lot!) than most AdPurp employees, which means that I’ve worked for many different companies and I can tell you that two things are universally true about all of them. 1) They all say that their company culture is extremely important to them and 2) Almost all of them are lying to themselves.
I’ve worked at multiple companies where managers would literally hide from their teams and only speak to higher-ranking executives. I worked at a place where the CEO sent an angry, company-wide email about an employee who worked from home instead of coming into the office because she had knee surgery.
AdPurp is a very demanding place to work, but I also know that our leaders sincerely want it to be a good place to work and they take conscious steps to make that true. I know from the conversations I have with Kyle that he puts real, thought into how to create a rewarding work environment and that that is as important to him as our business success.
He really does read all of the comments on the various employee surveys we take and from finding ways to automate workflows to addressing mental health while we deal with *throws up hands* all of this, real efforts are being made to try to create a positive employee culture at AdPurp.
Q: What’s it like working directly with Kyle?
Terrifying!
Q: How do you pick which stories to write?
Ouija board.
Q: What if I have a cool story idea?
*points to Ouija board*
In truth, if you have a great idea or even just a mediocre one, you should tell me about it. I can’t write everything but it’s always good to know what’s happening in the company and I enjoy getting to know everyone and what they’re working on.
Q: What do you do when you’re not writing awesome blog posts?
I have a one-year-old son named Leo and a pug puppy named Tater who are engaged in a Jackass-style competition with each other to find the most creative way to hurt themselves. I spend most days chasing them around the house screaming “don’t eat that!” “don’t poop there!” and “how the hell did you even get up there?” I am very tired.
Q: Anything else?
At night, I like to settle down to watch whatever popular show everyone is talking about and then fall asleep after about ten minutes. Ted Lasso seems nice.
Q: Well this has been a real treat!
For me too!
