Keyen Farrell's Blog

As I walked through the various rooms, I thought I was walking through an even more bizarre version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Huge vats bubbling with who knows what, workers pulling plastic out of molds, and my favorite, quality assurance. In the quality assurance room, some sort of doll was being tested for durability that day; a lead weight on a pendulum would slam into the doll at regular intervals. The workers seemed satisfied that the doll was tough enough. Products of every description were rolling off the production line: from a metal rake for removing roofing shingles, to a laser for whitening teeth.

I’m not sure how many such factories exist elsewhere, but it seemed like these guys were catering to a pretty niche market. Who else will hustle to create a real invention from something you scribbled on a napkin? They said that the majority of clients were American, and that most orders consisted of small quantities. This service seems like a great first step toward bringing an invention to market on a bare bones budget. Judging from the quantity of counterfeit goods for sale on every street corner, one might hesitate before sending their schematic of the next big thing to China. But that’s another story. If there’s one thing that was clear from my trip to China, it was that the Chinese will seek to satisfy the demand for literally any product and our visit to this factory was probably the clearest example.

Not too long ago, I was fortunate enough to visit Huangshan in China’s Anhui Province. It was my second trip to Huangshan, and it was every bit as spectacular as the first. Also known as the Yellow Mountain, it’s hands down the coolest place I’ve ever been. If you’ve ever seen a traditional Chinese painting with granite peaks obscured by mist, or twisted pine trees clinging to rock, you’ve seen Mount Huangshan. The warm, moist air from

Huangshan at Sunrise - Photo by Keyen Farrell

the Yangtze River collides with the cold mountain air to create a fog that permeates literally everything. Most of the time you can’t see more than 10 feet in front of your face – then all of a sudden a breeze will come and blow the clouds away to reveal some of most incredible vistas imaginable. A few seconds later, the fog will swallow the mountains as the process starts anew.

To reach the mountain, we traveled by car though several death-defying passes in southern Anhui. When you reach the foot of the mountain you’re faced with thousands of steps painstakingly carved into the granite face. According to Wikipedia, some 60,000 steps have been created over the centuries. The dependence on manual labor in China is striking, and nowhere is it more apparent than Mount Huanghshan. A steady flow of porters lug all the staples of modern life: gasoline, food, and of course baijou (distinguishing between baijou and gasoline is not a trivial task). Some 4 hours later, we reached our hotel. It was already nightfall so we headed to the bar for a few drinks at the soviet-era discotheque. Judging from how my breath fell from the air, it could not have been more than 45 degrees inside. Everywhere in China I was struck by the overwhelming hospitality, and in Huangshan our gracious hosts even went though the trouble of turning on the disco ball!

The next morning we woke before sunrise to make the summit. When we reached it, a large group had already assembled to view what is the life’s goal of many Chinese: a sunrise on the sea of clouds. Looking out into the crisp air, you see an white unbroken carpet that stretches for what must be a hundred miles. As the sun begins to rise, the clouds turn a reddish-gold before finally revealing the golden orb. It was a very memorable moment. The rest of the trip was great, but leaving the mountain you can’t escape the feeling that you’ve intruded on an ecologically sensitive place. There are battalions of foreigners on the mountain, and on the final day I came across an alpine stream flowing iridescent with waste oil. Hopefully this place will be protected, and it looks like good steps are being taken; It has been declared a UNESCO Natural Heritage site.

Since joining Google in 2007 as an Account Strategist, Keyen Farrell has worked in Google’s Media & Entertainment Vertical. As Account Strategist, Keyen is directly responsible for a paid search portfolio  consisting of several top Media & Entertainment advertisers.

Since January of 2009, Keyen’s work has been focused on the Big Three Television Networks. He is currently the lead east coast Account Strategist assigned to ABC, NBC, & CBS. In his role as Account Strategist he executes on integrated advertising campaigns spanning Google.com, the Google Search Network, and the Google Content Network.

His area of focus in the television space resides in leveraging paid search to drive tune-in and reach branding goals.

Prior to his work with the major television networks, Keyen worked on Google’s Web Publishing business where he partnered with clients including Rolling Stone, Ancestry.com, Us Weekly, Martha Stewart Living, Consumer Reports and others. In addition to experience with leading brand advertisers, Keyen has extensive experience with direct response initiatives. He has executed on successful subscriptions campaigns for Google’s top Web Publishers, enabling advertisers to drive large volumes of sales within a defined cost per order. In addition to his expertise in AdWords, Keyen is a Google Analytics expert. In particular, he’s worked extensively with the Google Analytics Jumpstart Program, a pilot program designed to facilitate Google Analytics adoption among top advertisers. His work has enabled the implementation of Google Analytics for several top advertisers in the Media & Entertainment space. In addition to his work on Jumpstart, he leverages Google Analytics in his Strategist work.

At Google, Keyen has also served as Products Specialist for AdWords Editor. AdWords Editor is a free, downloadable application that allows advertisers to easily make changes to their AdWords account from their desktop. During his time on the team, he served as the lead AdWords Editor Product Specialist for the North America Direct Sales Organization. He worked closely with a select team of engineers to improve functionality and latency of what is the primary AdWords tool used by tens of thousands of Google advertisers. During his tenure as Product Specialist, three versions of AdWords Editor successfully shipped.

At Google, Keyen has also taken an active role in the Google Grants Program. The Google Grants program provides in-kind advertising for accredited non-profits. The Google Grants program empowers non-profit advertisers to achieve their goals by helping them promote their websites via advertising on Google. In his work with Google Grants, Keyen has assisted a variety of causes including the arts, public health, as well as human rights groups. In his role on the Google Grants team, Keyen provides tactical strategy for these advertisers.

Keyen is also active mentor in Google’s New Hire Training Program. The program gives new Googlers ‘Nooglers’ a fundamental understanding of Google systems. In his work with New Hire, Keyen trains classes of incoming Nooglers on Google systems.

Prior to Joining Google, Keyen founded Topaz Financial, a network of e-commerce sites providing cash rebates & rewards to shoppers. With no outside startup capital, Topaz Financial grew to generate well in excess of $1MM in revenue while dispersing over 100,000 individual cash rebates to consumers. Topaz Financial was featured in the 2006 spring issue of Colby Magazine.

Keyen is a 2007 graduate summa cum laude from Colby College. He holds a B.A. in Economics with a Financial Markets concentration.

Keyen with Special Olympics Athletes
Keyen is also active in the Connecticut chapter of Special Olympics. Since 2002 he has served as coach for the Pilot’s Point Pirates sailing team. This September Keyen will participate in the Northeast Sailing Championships hosted by the US Navy at the War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

In his spare time Keyen enjoys windsurfing, sailing, and flyfishing. He currently resides in Manhattan.