Digital marketer | Writer | Founder | Trainer | Emmy winner
blagica
bottigliero
(blah-ghee-tsa) (boh-til-ee-eh-ro)
(blah-ghee-tsa) (boh-til-ee-eh-ro)
My complete work history can be found over on LinkedIn. Instead of taking up real estate here on the the last 25 years, I’d like to walk through why I love my experiences so much.
From the days of launching pop under ads at Orbitz to orchestrating a livestream launch event the the Super Bowl to working on the Chicago 2016 Winter Olympic bid, I’ve experienced ways technology and the World Wide Web can transform lives and consumer behaviors. I’ve seen the rise of Meta to the sunsetting of Friendster and My Space. I utilized hyper targeting in paid social media ads to build the virtual events business at Bottles Nation. I watched as the first Influencers entered the space as ‘mom bloggers’, catapulting a whole new industry that’s taken digital marketing by storm.
I remember getting into debates with co-workers on whether people would want to put their resumes on LinkedIn and if random people would actually take the time to rate and review their vacations via Trip Advisor. That really happened.
25 years.
I’m one lucky duck.
I developed other hobbies to supplement my time online - writing and continuing my French lessons are two of the big ones. The other includes spreading the love of culture, language and travel to my kids.
I also stay involved in any local community in which I live. A community is only as strong as the people who contribute their time and ideas.
With our recent move back to my roots, Metro Detroit, I’ve entered a whole new era of revisiting the city that helped my immigrant family prosper. From industry to green tech to food to civic changes, Detroit is back. I’m so happy to be home.
So now that you know more about me. Let me know how I can help you or your organization. Some ideas of how we can partner up are over to the right. You can also reach out to me here.
Digital Consulting
Team Training, Employee Hiring and More
Temporary Program Pinch Hitting
AI Prompts, White Paper & LinkedIn Writing
EV How-Tos
2004
Advertising Major/Business Minor
1998
Handy Dandy Formal Bio on Blagica Bottigliero
You can also download a one pager here
Blagica (blah-gee-tsa) is an Emmy award winning entrepreneur, speaker and digital advocate. With a career spanning 25 years, she’s been on the forefront of the ever changing world wide web.
Blagica began her career at Giant Step, one of the first digital agencies in Chicago. While at Giant Step, Blagica assisted brands like Maytag, Energizer and Purina with their web activities. From there, she went to a brand new site looking to disrupt the travel category. That company was Orbitz, where Blagica joined pre-launch and was one of the first members of its in-house eMarketing team. After a dot com break studying French in Lyon, Blagica came back to the U.S. and joined one of the top lead generation and couponing companies, CoolSavings. While at CoolSavings, Blagica caught the entrepreneurial bug.
For three years, Blagica balanced consulting projects and speaking engagements while testing her chops with two of her own self-funded startups. In addition to these activities, Blagica was a member of the NBC5 Street Team, where she was awarded an Emmy for her New Media work. Blagica also spent time with the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Team, teaching them the principles of social media and digital marketing.
Blagica came back to the corporate space as the Vice President of Strategy for Edelman Digital. Here she led digital strategy for large brands such as Quaker, Kraft, Kimberly-Clark and True Value. After Edelman Digital, Blagica’s love of technology came calling. She joined Motorola Mobility (Google) as the Global Director of Social Media. Her work with Motorola was recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of the top 10 Chicagoland companies ‘doing social media right’. Her time at Motorola Mobility included consumer activations at the Super Bowl, CES and sxsw.
In the last few years, Blagica’s taken her entrepreneurial background, coupled with her deep knowledge of the web and applied it to two key posts.
First, as the Co-Founder of Bottles Nation, Blagica created one of the first virtual tasting event platforms in the country. Alongside her Sommelier and Co-Founding husband, Bottles Nation went on to host over 2,000 events. The first 1,000 of those in 10 months, resulting in millions in revenue. Bottles Nation is completely bootstrapped.
Most recently, Blagica was the Director of Affiliate Marketing for JEB Commerce, a performance marketing agency. There, she revamped the offering of the agency, adding in more capabilities around Public Relations, Influencer Marketing and Social Media best practices. At JEB Commerce, Blagica was responsible for the agency’s thought leadership, while serving as a mentor and trainer to the rest of the team.
Letting loose in Detroit, Blagica’s hometown and the birthplace of her beloved Red Wings.
Blagica Bottigliero's been known to be able to break down digital topics and the evolution of the social web in a way that makes sense to both the C- suite executive to the small business owner.
List of where she's been a panelist, lecturer or keynote speaker.
Adobe Social
Advertising Research Foundation
All Web (Macedonia)
Chicago Association of Direct Marketing Educational Foundation
Chicago Interactive Marketing Association
Chicago Women in Publishing
CIBOLA
Crain's Chicago Business Small Business Forum
CRAVE Chicago
Excelerate Labs
Future Midwest Conference
Greater South Loop Association
Local First Chicago
Loyola University
Marquette University
National Main Streets Conference
Northwestern University
Oregon Main Streets Conference
PRSA
Retail Show Middle East (Dubai)
Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis/St. Paul
Social Media Week Chicago
Social DevCamp Chicago
sxsw Interactive
TechWeek Chicago
TEDx
University of Chicago
University of Illinois
Washington Main Streets Conference
Web Analytics Association
PR Week: Black Friday Shopping Trends
Wall Street Journal on consumer spending
POV on social media metrics from Adapt
Profile from Voyage Chicago
Bloomberg Business Week, Online Moderation and Facebook Live
Digiday, Let's Make Social Media Human Again
Chicago Tribune and future cloud tax
Fox 32 Chicago: Facebook's Experiment with Emotions Part 1
Fox 32 Chicago: POV on Teens Leaving Facebook <VIDEO>
Fox 32 Chicago: POV on the Twitter IPO <VIDEO>
Crain's Chicago Business: Op-Ed regarding women in technology
Fox 32 Chicago: The increase of entrepreneurs <VIDEO>
WBEZ's Afternoon Shift: Discussing the role of women in technology