Andrew Ballen

Andrew Ballen
Andrew Ballen Attending C-100 Event in Beijing, 2013.
Born	Andrew Craig Ballen (1973-04-27) April 27, 1973 (age 44) Manhattan, New York, United States
Nationality	American
Education	The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Occupation	CEO/Founder of AVD Digital Media, A&R Executive, Interactive-media Content Developer, TV Personality
Years active	2001-present
Website	www.avdmg.com

Andrew Craig Ballen (born April 27, 1973) is an American digital media and China millennial marketing expert, consumer advocate and entrepreneur. Ballen holds the distinction of being first American to produce, host and syndicate his own TV series in China. He is the founder and CEO of AVD Digital Media, headquartered in Shanghai, China. AVD Digital Media is a venture-backed innovation hub that created China’s seminal interactive in-video ad messaging systems.

Best known in China by the name Da Long (大龙), or Big Dragon, Ballen is a familiar foreign-face on Chinese TV. widely known for his role as host of China's internationally aired travel series, Getaway.

In 2013, Ballen and his team of technologists envisioned and pioneered China’s first fully interactive video shopping experiences for sports apparel brand Nike, Unilever, Kraft Foods, LVMH Group's Sephora on Youku, and Chinese TV shopping giant Acorn International as reported by Retail In Asia. Ballen’s TOUCH™ V-commerce mechanism produced greater than 500% increases in viewer engagement relative to traditional online banner, play-pause and pre-roll ads for Nike and Sephora, helping to revolutionize China’s V-commerce industry. Though patented, since inception, Ballen's TOUCH™ mechanism has been emulated by several of China’s largest video portals.

Ballen was born in New York. He is the son of Belizean and Jamaican parents and was raised by his father Patrick, a surgeon, and his step-mother, Naomi a nurse in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ballen left home at age 14 to attend Hargrave Military Academy, in Chatham, VA. During Ballen's Senior year at Hargrave, he became the first person of color in school history to become Battalion Commander, thus achieving the Academy's highest rank, Cadet Colonel. Ballen majored in Political Science and International Relations at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He later attended Duke University Law School, in Durham, North Carolina. Ballen left Duke after two years, unsatisfied with the constraints of a legal education.