I believe in working tirelessly, thinking rigorously, and speaking frankly. I believe in picking clients with the same choosiness that one courts a spouse, and then delivering the same sort of commitment. I believe in the power of saying 'No,' 'I don't know,' and 'I take full responsibility.' I believe that no one, regardless of how wonderful their job is, completely enjoys working inside at a desk for ten hours a day – and people that make matters worse by being rude, arrogant, or demeaning to others don't deserve anyone's time, attention, or assistance. I hold my work to a high standard not because of how good I think I am, but because I want to be better. But above all, I believe that actions supersede statements and no matter how well I string together sentences that begin with 'I believe,' you should rely more heavily on the words of my past colleagues and clients – and I'm happy to give you their names and numbers.

I want to congratulate you on being a curious human being. You found my site and you clicked About. That makes you someone special. Do read on, and consider dropping me a line.

I'm heavily in the midst of researching and writing my first book, tentatively titled The Bucket Brigade. More than 200 colleagues have supported the project, helping to raise over $18,000 for the research and development of the book. If that's piqued your interest, please visit the project page at my blog.

I’m a strategic marketing consultant, speaker, and author living in Los Angeles. My work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and AdAge. Personally, I’ve been cited in NYMag and the Harvard Business Review. My essay, “Becoming a Mad Man,” discussing emerging media fandom has earned me citations in Grant McCracken’s latest book, Chief Culture Officer, and Henry Jenkins’ upcoming anthology on spreadable media. If you're into that sort of thing, you can view more of my work history at LinkedIn.

I'm 29 years old. I grew up outside of Houston, Texas, attended the University of Texas at Austin (double major in English Literature and Marketing), and have lived and worked in Chicago, Manhattan, Boulder, and Los Angeles.

If I've missed something, head over to Formspring and ask me anything.

The Fiesta Movement

To raise awareness of the launch of the 2011 Ford Fiesta, Ford Motor Company distributed 100 European Fiestas to 100 video bloggers along with monthly missions (e.g. 'Film yourself driving until your run out of gas') for a seven month period. The campaign was by far the most distributed advertising effort to date, and one of the largest in terms of the brand awareness it generated. While working at the New York based digital think-tank Undercurrent, I was a part of the team that brought the Movement to life, including members of JWT Team Detroit, other brilliant minds at Undercurrent, and of course employees of the Ford Motor Company. The anthropologist Grant McCracken interviewed me about the campaign for The Harvard Business Review blog. I should caveat the post by saying that it doesn't nearly do justice to the efforts of the full team behind The Movement.

Mad Men on Twitter

For a brief period of time, I interacted with Mad Men characters on Twitter that were written and managed by fans of the show – and not by an advertising agency as most first suspected. When the accounts of many of the characters were shut down by Twitter, I created a manifesto at WeAreSterlingCooper to support fans and their creative works and I attempted to bring all of the fan-led characters into further collaboration. Ultimately, I wrote up a short report of my experience and findings which has been cited by NYMag.com and included in Dr. Henry Jenkins' Transmedia Planning class at USC.

What Consumes Me

While I've had one blog or another since at least 2001 (starting with an embarrassing LiveJournal that no longer exists), I've been making an earnest go at sharing and discussing relevant topics at the intersection of digital marketing and culture at WhatConsumesMe.com for over 2 years now. Visit the site for a full list of greatest hit posts. You can also follow @whatconsumesme on Twitter.

Keyboard Cat, Acrylic on Canvas

In some corners of the web, I'm simply known as the Keyboard Cat guy – and I'm quite happy with that moniker. In June of 2009, as Keyboard Cat was peaking into mass culture I decided to paint a still from the video and put the painting on eBay. I'd love to say that I was driven entirely by a critical understanding of how digital culture is increasingly popular culture, but honestly, I enjoy painting but rarely know what to paint – so I painted something fun and familiar. To my shock and surprise, the painting sold for $1,000 on auction, and the story spread fairly well across the web. See photos of the painting at my blog.

How to Be Happy in Business

By far, my biggest personal success on the web, in terms of something that has spread, is my venn diagram entitled, How to Be Happy in Business. So far, I've also sold a few hundred posters of the diagram as well.

Consulting Services

Sometimes you need the full swiss-army knife of a consulting agency and other times you just need the toothpick (read: me). I'm happy to offer services as an independent consultant in the following capacities:

• Short or long-term strategic brand and communications planning
• Ongoing advisement for your digital communications
• Auditing of your internal digital communication tools
• Designing and conducting research programs for audience insights or market opportunities
• Ideation for a specific set of problems/challenges

If I can help you, please use the contact form below.

Speaking Topics

I've had the incredible opportunity to speak at SXSW Interactive two years in a row along with sessions at the InterestingNY conference and at Boulder Digital Works. In addition, I've participated in workshops and led talks for many of my clients, including Gatorade and MTV. I'm happy to work with you to craft the right balance of lecture vs workshop for the topic at hand. Past topics have included:

• The Bucket Brigade: strategy in an unpredictable and complex world
• Strategy 101 Workshops
• Emerging behaviors and motivations for online fandom
• Community Marketing Workshops
• Crowdsourcing tools, communities, and motivations
• How digital culture is increasingly popular culture

If I can help you, please use the contact form below.

Please contact me at reachme@budcaddell.com or use the handy form to the left. I promise to return your email as soon as I can. You can also try to reach me via Twitter @bud_caddell.