Who We Are
Joakim “Jay” Baage
Founder and Owner, Viking Digital Media
Both a suit and a creative, Jay is a Sweden-born media professional focused on shepherding media and brand properties from an analog to a digital world, and how to build successful sustainable companies that leverage the best of both worlds.
Jay maintains a vast network of high-level contacts including: CEOs, business development & marketing executives, world-renowned creatives, venture capitalists, product developers, public relations firms, bloggers, journalists and various other experts within the digital media industry. He has during his career established high-profile strategic partnerships with other leading industry organizations such as PGA, SAG, GDA, CTIA, E3 and Canadian Music Week and connected senior executives in the media and entertainment industries, leading to high level deals.
Since 2006, Jay has played a key role at Digital Media Wire (DMW), a leading provider of news, financial information and conferences for media professionals. He keeps tabs of the most innovative companies and manages many of DMW’s most significant advertising and sponsorship relationships across its events and publishing properties. His clients range from several Fortune 500 companies to start-ups and cover such industries as games, music, film, television, publishing, mobile and internet commerce. He has furthermore transformed the company’s approach to marketing by audience and community development through social media.
Jay has co-authored two books about marketing to the Millennial generation and recently finished a chapter for a new Swedish book about monetizing media and cultural products/services in a digital age. He is also an avid blogger. You can catch Jay when he is traveling the world as a frequent speaker at international media industry events such as the LA Film Festival and Canadian Music Week. He has has also been a guest lecturer at UCLA and NYU.
He holds a Masters Degree in Media Management from the Gallatin School at New York University and a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Goteborg University in Sweden. He has been awarded a Wallenberg Scholarship, a Sweden-America Foundation Fellowship (from Investor AB) as well as twice been given scholarships for being “A Promising New Media Manager” by Swedish Newspaper Publishers’ Association.
Jay sits on the Advisory Board for New Filmmakers LA and the Remedee Foundation and is also a judge for the Third Screen Film Festival.
Jay speaks Swedish, English, German and some French.
Email: jay@vikingdigitalmedia.com
Jay’s Blog: www.artsify.com
Henrik Tamm
Creative Direction
Born in Sweden, raised in Tanzania, Pakistan and Peru, Henrik came out to Los Angeles in 1992 to attend Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. After graduation in 1995, he worked in animation and live action film for several years as a visual development artist and concept designer.
Henrik spent nine years at Dreamworks Animation and lent his design sense to most of their feature films, including almost 3 years on the first Shrek, as well as Kung Fu Panda, Flushed Away and Shark Tale. He later became production designer at Dreamworks, and helmed the “Shrek the Halls” Christmas special shown annually on abc. His designs have also been integral to several live action features, including Narnia 1 and 2, G-Force, Arn, and the upcoming Sucker Punch, Captain America and The Green Lantern.
Lately Henrik has focused more on production design and art direction, as well as visual effects production. He co-produced and production designed the independent fantasy feature Troll. Henrik headed up the creative and animation team for an IKEA viral Christmas card last year and is also currently illustrating a series of books for young adults for Bonnier publishing, as well as developing the designs for an upcoming Steven Spielberg film.
He still paints regular paintings in his free time, and loves writing short stories. He is currently finishing his second screenplay.
Email: henrik@vikingdigitalmedia.com
Henrik’s website: www.henriktamm.com
Shrek Christmas Special, Dreamworks Animation
Arn – The Knight Templar
Arthur Christmas, Aardman Animation
Kenny Starfighter, Fladen Film
Nynas Advertising Campaign, Ehrenstrale
Erlend Wilhelmsen
Innovation and Marketing
Since he arrived in the US from Norway in 1995, Erlend has started three digital/media companies, raised equity for two entertainment ventures, and worked with some of Hollywood’s leading marketing companies.
During the dot-com boom, he founded and raised seed capital for Studystar – a Facebook for international students. The company didn’t take off, but the lessons led to Fabric Interactive – a successful interactive shop with offices in Los Angeles and New York. Erlend built Fabric from the ground up, and today, Fabric is one of few interactive shops growing through the deep recession of 2008/09.
As CEO of Fabric Interactive, Erlend has driven millions in sales and headed up more than 100 interactive marketing projects. His clients over the past ten years include Fortune 500 consumer brands, big media, agencies, and start-ups. Always up for a challenge, Erlend has executed effective marketing campaigns for under-dog brands and taken startup ideas from napkin to product in less than six months.
Erlend is focused on entrepreneurship, marketing, social media, and digital product development. In addition to Fabric and Viking, he is the Co-Founder of Recommention, a universal recommendation engine due to launch in October 2009.
Erlend holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Oregon and is a semi-frequent speaker on Internet marketing at the University of California Los Angeles. Erlend speaks Norwegian, English, and a bit of German. He lives in Echo Park, Los Angeles with his wife and son.
Email: erlend@vikingdigitalmedia.com
Erlend’s Blog: www.erlendw.com
