Who We Are
Joakim "Jay" Baage
Co-Founder, Viking Digital Media
Sweden-born media executive focused on the transition from an analog to a digital world, and how to build successful media and entertainment properties accordingly.
Jay maintains a vast network of high-level contacts including: CEOs, business development & marketing executives, venture capitalists, product developers, public relations firms, bloggers, journalists and various other experts within the digital media industry. Jay 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, a leading provider of news, financial information and conferences for media professionals. He manages many of the company'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 book to be published in Sweden this fall about monetizing media and cultural products/services in a digital age. He is also an avid blogger. You can also 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 Wallenberg Scholarships in 2004 and 2006, a Sweden-America Foundation Fellowship in 2005 as well as scholarships for being "A Promising New Media Manager" by Swedish Newspaper Publishers' Association 2005 and 2001.
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 a little French.
Jay's Blog: www.artsify.com
Erlend Wilhelmsen
Co-Founder, Viking Digital Media
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.
Erlend's Blog: www.erlendw.com