Andrew Davis (coach)
Andrew Davis, a former MySpace marketing manager, is the creator of the first social media course taught in British schools.
Career
Davis’ media career began for a company called "Chat Moderator's" where he moderated communities for Liverpool football club, Pop Idol, Sony Playstation, and Friends Reunited. He left in early 2002 to join the BBC’s digital radio station 1Xtra, which he helped to launch, before being headhunted by MySpace.com in 2006. The social networking giant had just set up a UK division and needed a small team of specialists who could plan and deliver strategic marketing initiatives to engage and retain users, increase traffic across the site and attract global brands. As one of the first employees to join, Davis was involved in multiple parts of the business and displayed a natural passion for the challenging and competitive social media market.
During his employment, he engineered viral campaigns with celebrities for MySpace.com. The participants included A-listers such as Beyonce, Jay Z, P.Diddy, Pharrell Williams and Jennifer Lopez. He also negotiated contra and sponsorship deals with big brands such as Reebok, the BBC and the British government, before fulfilling the bold vision to make MySpace the first social network to achieve product placement within a video game; Konami’s best selling Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. He also earned the internal award for ‘Best Global MySpace TV Initiative’ after partnering with MTV to launch a presenter search on MySpace, which was subsequently commissioned into a full TV series.
The Guardian newspaper ranked him number 17 in its 2007 ‘Minority Report’ – a countdown of the Top 30 most important ethnic minority contributors to the British media industry. He was the only entrant aged under 30. He followed this up in 2008 by becoming the only person listed in both the prestigious Media Week Top ‘30 under 30’ rundown of the most talented individuals in the UK and Broadcast magazine’s ‘Hot Shots’ list of media insiders tipped for future success.
Andrew has since established a consultancy business called "The Worst Kept Secret", which is dedicated in part to social media. The aim of The Worst Kept Secret is to educate young minded thinking people about what they didn't learn in school.
Working in Education
Andrew has turned his attention to developing social media courses for secondary schools by creating a course entitled Social Media Fundamentals. This is the first time social media will be taught in secondary courses. The aim of the course is to explain the rise and relevance of social media including networking sites and integrate core subjects such as English and Maths at the same time.
London’s Bishop Challoner Catholic School was the first school to book his services. The course is seen as a high-profile subject, Students are required to submit a reason for being on the course, and the application will work as part of their GCSE coursework requirement. Thirty will be chosen and the fact they have had to work to get onto the course, means only those most eager to learn will be involved.
The course has attracted national media attention from the Daily Telegraph, The Times Eductional Supplement, ITN's Teachers TV and the popular industry website Brand Republic.
He has worked alongside Heads Of Faculty to devise a course tailored specifically for the needs of the school. As part of the course, Davis will invite former contacts from the music/media industry to share their experiences with the children.
Repetitive Strain Injury
Andrew was diagnosed with repetitive strain injury in 2007, making it almost impossible for him to complete his day-to-day tasks. After a major operation on his hands and weekly physiotherapy sessions he is under strict doctor’s orders to avoid typing at all costs. Forced to completely change his lifestyle, Davis developed the social media course as something he can deliver verbally.
Welcome to 21
Andrew has teamed up with KissFM and MTV presenters Rickie and Melvin to create a video blog site called Welcome to 21. MTV producer James Barnes is also involved in the project.