Get to Know: Mariel Go, Quality Lead for Ad Services
Mariel has been with Affinity Express since September 2007, which means she just completed three years here! Yay, Mariel!
Mariel serves as the quality lead for the Advertising Services Quality Group, a pool consisting of production assistants (PAs) supporting multiple newspaper properties. Her day begins when she gets updates on any quality issues, new client protocols, feedback or meetings. Then she meets with the PAs for team discussions or does hands-on quality analysis by getting involved in various teams’ ad production activities. She provides feedback to operations directors, managers, team leaders and PAs, as well as to upper management. Essentially, Mariel is a communications hub for Affinity Express and clients.
Since coming to work at Affinity Express, she has learned to see things from a more global perspective. The results we produce here and the relationships we establish worldwide define the future of several industries, with far-reaching socio-economic consequences. As Mariel says,
One ad electronically sent overseas is akin to a butterfly flapping its wings and generating a wind storm in another part of the world. That’s how big a difference we make in the general scheme of things.
One achievement that Mariel is proud of in her three years at Affinity Express is that she spearheaded and implemented the Creative Design Review across properties in 2009. The initiative originated with the request of one newspaper client and involved several other team members. What started out as a calibration tool became a sales rep tool that translated into new revenue-generating placements for white-glove auto and retail accounts. This established the Affinity Express reputation for delivering creative quality, but also reinforced our ability to turn adversity into opportunity.
Mariel was also part of the team that won the 2008 Zero Error contest in a tie with another newspaper client production group. She worked with team members to turn around the quality and service delivery of a newspaper. As a result, Affinity Express gained the confidence of the publisher and production manager and proceeded to on-board several other properties of the same client.
Mariel believes the success of our company’s endeavor to transform advertising and marketing production hinges on the efforts of a single unit—designer, production assistant or validator.
Negative results jeopardize everyone’s livelihood. Positive results generate client satisfaction, company growth and employee development. We are all affected.
Mariel graduated with an AB in Interdisciplinary Studies, Communication Arts with a Minor in Japanese Studies. She has also pursued a second degree in Fine Arts, Major in Painting. She is married and enjoys watching movies and competitive sports. She also loves anime, TV series, concerts and poetry reading—whatever calls out to her creative soul.
Mariel has a passion for teaching and counseling and finds fulfillment in spotting someone’s talent and guiding them in the right direction. At Affinity Express, her goal is to contribute to a corporate culture wherein people believe delivery and quality come first because they feel ownership of everything Affinity Express. In fact, Mariel defines her career at Affinity Express with a quotation from Andrew Matthews, Follow Your Heart, Finding Purpose in Your Life and Work:
There’s a word to describe giving it your best shot every time—it’s called professionalism.