I don’t want to brag, but I will. We’re kicking ass lately and it feels good to be recognized for the effort. Creativity-Online recognized the agency for it’s efforts on Paint That Shit Gold a few weeks ago. Now they’ve showered us with love for the Erbert & Gerbert’s Candle Cannon campaign.
Both of these initiatives leveraged our integrated offering. “Traditional” and “Digital” team-members pitched in, worked hard, and generated some fantastic work. Congratulations to everyone that worked on both projects…yes even those of you that were mysteriously omitted from the credits.
No seriously…paint that shit gold. I just like saying paint that shit gold. Ok, I’ll stop saying paint that shit gold. Crap, I just said paint that shit gold again. Ok, ok, ok I’m done. So Colle+McVoy just launched a new site called PaintThatShitGold.com.
The site let’s you capture and subsequently tag just about any site out there on the web. Don’t like the IRS? That’s cool, paint that shit gold. Not a fan of Obama? Yeah, me neither…so paint that shit gold.
Not only can you tag the web, but you can listen to songs from the album and use a REAL freaking equalizer to customize the audio.
I wish I had actually worked on this project, instead of just being the guy who kept saying, PAINT THAT SHIT GOLD. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and Paint That Shit Gold!
I have an issue with how we, in the undustry, look at clients. Too often we get caught up in this desire to do “Good Work.” Many agencies and people view good work as the ability to do things that are “creative,” “out of the box,” “showcase worthy,” or “award worthy.”
I disagree. “Good Work” is work that drives our clients’ business. Good work is work that generates results. Good work is work that makes our clients look and makes us look like good partners.
Good Work, is not always about being edgy, different, or new. Often, good work can be considered boring. But, boring can be good work. We need to remember that fact and be happy to be doing good work that while not sexy, makes a real impact.
Convergence. There I said it. Yes, I used a horrible buzzword. Sometimes convergence is bad. Ever been to a Long John Silvers & KFC fast-food restaurant? If you have, then you know why fish sticks and the colonel’s chicken should never converge. In other cases, convergence is VERY good.
When we think of Google, we think of www.google.com. You go online, search for something, and Google returns results. In the absence of a Google chip for your brain, the good folks at Google have given us two great FREE search options for when we’re away from our computers: GOOG-411 and Google SMS. Both of these are great options for those of you who are sans iPhone.
GOOG-411 is a free 411-phone service. You simple dial 1-800-GOOG-411 and tell the voice-automated system what you are looking for and where. Google then gives you the answer. The days of paying a $1.00 or more service fee for using a 411 service on your cel phone are over.
Google SMS allows you to text message your search query to 466453 (’GOOGLE’ on most devices) and Google returns you a text message back results. For example, try movies 55402 and be wowed.
So why does this matter? Search is taking place beyond the browser. This opens up new opportunities for our clients and us. These search methods are only as good as the data they rely on. Making sure our data is up to date and easily accessible is critical. This has serious implications for clients like Erbert and Gerbert’s. Consumers should be able to find E&G stores from online search, phone, and text. We have more to think about than just the browser.
“When interacting, people often are not listening attentively to one another. They may be distracted, thinking about other things, or thinking about what they are going to say next, (the latter case is particularly true in conflict situations or disagreements).
Active listening is a structured way of listening and responding to others. It focuses attention on the speaker. Suspending one’s own frame of reference and suspending judgment, are important in order to fully attend to the speaker.”
This should be a building block of account management training and employee management.
Sometimes I find that there is more ego and bullshit at the agency than there was on the client side. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have…
You’re conditioned to be simple about everything you do on the client side because you don’t have the resources in place to go 17 feet deep on everything. Bridge Worldwide had a great philosophy in place when we were working together. They believed that there were 2 types of projects:
1. Just Do It: They recognize that sometimes you just need to get “it” done. The project doesn’t require 3 weeks of serious concepting or some amazing strategic approach. A lot of the time the project isn’t even someting the client wants to do; but they HAVE to do. For an agency,we should grab these projects quickly and get them off our plate quickly. If we focus too much on a just do it project we won’t be able to fairly invest time against projects that actually matter.
2. The Right Way: These are the ones that need to have the full monty. You get the strategy, the insights, the significant time on concepting, etc. These are the money makers.
I can get why it’s hard for “creatives” to essentially not give their all on a project. Hell it’s hard for all of us not to give our best effort. But, the payoff for doing that is much greater, because we can give more attention to the things that will pay out in the long run.
I love job posts. I love how silly we are with the requirements we ask for. I love how we think we know what we want in an employee. I love how we claim that relevant work experience is valuable yet we REALLY care about someone’s education experience. Why do we think that having an MBA makes you a better and/or more valuable employee? I have NO idea why we do that.
The majority of MBA holders that I’ve come across are no better, and in fact usually worse, than their non-MBA competitors. Let me sketch out two candidates that I’ve come across:
John 4 year degree in Marketing 2 year MBA in Management 3 years of “work” experience
Jim 4 year degree in Marketing 5 years of “work” experience
Given those two choices, I’d choose Jim 90% of the time. I’m not biased. Quite the contrary. I want the best person, period. As I look at the type of people I like working with; they’re doers. They make it happen. They can react quickly. They can turn on a dime. They’re bright, sharp, and have a fast moving mind. These are all things that generally don’t fit the traditional MBA mold. The MBA mold is methodical, theory based, data driven, square minded, and is unable to move/think/act quickly.
As a matter of fact, FedEx captured the MBA mold so well here:
Now, let’s do this…throw out everything I wrote above. Assume it’s complete and utter bull shit. Let’s agree on one thing: you, him, her, me; we ALL want the best candidate. If we can agree on that; which I think we can, then why do say “Bachelor’s degree required; MBA strongly preferred?”
