Spotlight
By Michael Demenchuk -- Multichannel News, 12/21/2003 7:00:00 PM
Many marketers would contend that a consumer's probably the best person to tell a company how to promote its product. So it's not too surprising that when closed-captioning firm CaptionMax was looking for a new PR chief, it turned to advisory board member Jay Wyant. "I had been involved in the software industry, and was looking for an opportunity to have an impact on an organization," said Wyant in an e-mail interview. "[CaptionMax owner] Max [Duckler] offered me that opportunity."
Deaf since birth, the 42-year-old Wyant had been a member of CaptionMax's advisory board since the company was established in the mid-1990s. The board met once a year to answer questions about quality issues for the company, which provides captioning service to such cable networks and broadcast clients.
"For example, which did we find easier to read, all caps or sentence case?" said Wyant. "How should the captioners demonstrate the speaker is off-screen? And so on."
CaptionMax's marketing efforts aren't direct-to-consumer. Rather, the company works with clients like cable programmers, DVD producers and Webcasters to ensure that its captioning and description services for the visually impaired are both of high quality and community-oriented.
Wyant said his experience at various software-development companies and marketing firm WordStruck helped him take a broad view of marketing issues.
Raised in Oklahoma, Wyant is a Stanford University graduate who now lives in Minneapolis and is engaged to be married. He's also a master's level Ultimate Frisbee player who participated in the sport's national championship.
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