Team Member Spotlight: Cliff Karklin

Meet Cliff, Senior Director of Analytics!

Hi, I’m Cliff! I guide the best practices and agency viewpoints for core areas of Fountain Digital’s analytic offerings.  I also support our analytics team. All things tracking, data visualization & reporting, implementation, and analysis, my team is responsible for. I work very closely with all of our subject matter experts and our clients to ensure we’re leveraging data in tandem with our learned experience to drive amazing strategy and results.

1. Q: Can you share a bit about your background and how it led you to where you are today?
   You mean how my video production degree and film minor led to an illustrious career in data and analytics?  Sure!  
   
   I’ve actually been in the marketing agency space for about 17 years now. I got my start in SEO and strategy, with a brief stopover on the client services side along the way. But, it became very evident to me early on that the analytics side was what I was truly passionate about. After pushing web analytics at my first agency to the point where no one could help but give it the love it deserved, I started down the road of building the first analytics team. The rest of the road has been a constant expansion of that adventure. I’ve been at several agencies now, helping to build and grow analytics practices, and I truly enjoy helping tackle strategic and marketing challenges with effective analysis and data storytelling. If I can help a team member or client more easily digest information with effective presentation and insights, or if I’ve found creative ways to solve problems with a combination of industry experience and data, I’ve done my job!
   
2. Q: What do you enjoy most about being a part of the Fountain Digital team?
   I’ve been lucky enough to work with about half of the team members here at previous agencies, and their presence and leadership alone were enough to have me instantly excited about being here. Every member of this team is passionate and smart, collaborative, and eager to innovate. There’s a clear team culture of truly helping each other that has formed here, and I’m proud to be a part of it.  We seek out those same qualities in the clients we’re working with, and I already feel like it shows in the work we’re doing together. 
   
3. Q: What is your favorite part of digital marketing?
   Oh man. There are just so many moving parts. But I LOVE getting a challenge thrown in front of me that no one has been able to solve. How do we find the story in this data? How can we streamline and automate a difficult process into something that keeps the small parts moving so people can focus on their greatest skills? Is it even possible to join these data sets together?
   
   Truly, my favorite part of digital marketing is being able to say “Yes, we can solve that problem, we can analyze that, we can connect these dots” where everyone before has said it’s not possible to do so. So much of that comes down to working with the right people across the board. But it’s a rush when you solve the unsolvable puzzle together!
   
4. Q: What’s the most unusual or interesting hobby you have?
   I like to joke that our time at home during the pandemic broke us all in special ways, and one of the ways it broke me was an obsession with vanilla and vanilla beans. It started with me thinking “Oh let’s buy a few beans and make some vanilla extract”, and progressed to me joining a Vanilla Bean co-op on Facebook, and ordering a half dozen types of vanilla beans from a variety of places around the world, a variety of different curing methods, and combining them with various types of liquor to find my favorite combinations for extracts and other vanilla products. And I haven’t stopped. Currently on my counter, in the space my family calls my Vanilla Shrine, are 7 different variants of vanilla extracts, vanilla powder, vanilla sugar, vanilla paste, and vanilla flakey salt. It’s not a hobby. It’s a problem. A delicious, delicious problem. 
   
   Completely unrelated, I bake a lot.
   
5. Q: What is one travel destination that is on your bucket list?
   Just one? If I had to choose one today, it would be Italy. I want to see all of it, and it’s a bucket list trip for sure!  But honestly, I want to go everywhere.