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The Reed College of Media and College of Creative Arts will merge to form the new WVU College of Creative Arts and Media as of July 1, 2024. Get details.

Bob Bentz

President of Purplegator and Advanced Telecom Services
Teaches Mobile Marketing

Bob Bentz is president of mobile-first marketing agency Purplegator. He also led Advanced Telecom Services from a start-up, with no outside financing, to $62.2 million in annual sales with offices in the USA, Canada, UK, Czech Republic, and Taiwan. He is the author of Relevance Raises Response: How to Engage and Acquire with Mobile Marketing.

Purplegator has worked with an impressive client list, which includes AutoZone, M&M Mars, Papa John’s Pizza, Citi Trends, Huntington Learning Center, City of Pittsburgh, City of Knoxville, State University of New York, Maryland Public Television, and Baylor, Scott & White Hospitals.

Advanced Telecom Services, now in its fifth decade, is an automated, interactive telemarketing company co-founded by Bentz, in 1989. It grew from a start-up, with no outside funding, to $62.2 million in annual sales with offices in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, and Taiwan. It provides telecom solutions to companies such as ADP, Maine Public Television, World Wrestling Entertainment, and the United States Embassy.

Bentz is the author of Relevance Raises Response: How to Engage and Acquire with Mobile Marketing (2nd edition, 2021) and Opportunity is Calling (1993). He has been a frequent speaker at numerous industry events and has been quoted in many publications. You can find further details on his professional website at BobBentz.com or follow him on Twitter @BobBentz.

From 2015 to 2019, Bentz was an adjunct at the University of Denver where he taught the graduate level course in mobile marketing in the Communication Management program. He earned an MBA, with emphasis in marketing, from Marshall University, and is a graduate of the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University.

Bentz is a baseball coach who has coached six players who have gone on to play professionally, including one who is currently in MLB. He is active in dog rescue and lives in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. You can find him at C3 in the Blue Lot at all WVU home football games.


Meet Bob Bentz

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:14 Why do you teach in the program?
1:00 How do you bring the real world into your online classes?
1:43 How do you engage with students?
2:50 Fun (surprise) question

Prof. Bentz is one of the most engaging professors I have ever had. Coming into the class I didn’t expect the breadth of topics that I learned. Bob’s experience is great and he does a great job of leading us through learning.

This has been, by far, my favorite class. Rather than simply making a mobile marketing plan, we were able to do some tactical work. Prof. Bentz is super knowledgeable and his book was awesome. It was a breath of fresh air compared to traditional textbooks.

Prof. Bentz was attentive, responsive, and intelligent. He used a lot of video and presentation tools. The topics were current and relevant. The course work was anchored in today and tomorrow’s technology. This course will definitely go down as my favorite course.