spotted owl

Energy, Healthcare, Education

Loved Obama's speech tonight, haven't felt like this since post-election glow.

 

While no big surprises, his delivery never ceases to amaze. The three pillars of the speech - energy, healthcare & education - were all perfectly encased in both measured caution and contagious optimism.

Below are a few things that I've come across over the past few days/hours that have stayed with me:

Energy: Hard not to be excited about this one - wind, solar, green --> jobs. Thomas Friedman wrote a great op-ed piece about funding new technology (eco and otherwise) and proposed this motto: "Start ups, not bailouts: nurture the next Google, don't nurse the old G.M.'s." Our auto troubles may dominate the news, but they're nowhere near as intriguing as what's to come in alternative energy. This commercial (via @ericwebber) from years ago still makes me smile:

Healthcare: Horrific stat of the night: "The crushing costs of healthcare causes a bankruptcy every 30 seconds." Wow.

Education: Another nice op-ed piece, this one from Nicholas Kristof about education as our greatest national shame. Good info on just how much teachers matter, above almost everything else (@maggiewendell already knows this). Education Secretary Arne Duncan describes the stimulus as a “staggering opportunity,” the kind that comes once in a lifetime.

And lastly, a quote from Stanford economist Paul Romer who famously said: "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste." It's going to be an interesting year.

Quotable

Great quote from Jeremy Bullmore followed by nice analysis from Gareth Kay:

"Customers build brands as birds build nests. From the scraps and straws they chance upon." (JB)

Of course this, by itself, directly challenges the notion of the singular brand idea or identity - we're all likely to have different perceptions as we chance upon different stuff and it makes the idea of most brand models redundant and rather ridiculous. (GK)

So it seems that the best we can do is to offer the kinds of things that might get picked up and stored along with all of the other materials already collected. And to remember that every collection is different despite efforts otherwise.

Jobs Here

Despite (or maybe because of) all of the doom and gloom, people are still drinking beer. And eating burgers. And going fishing. This means that our brands are growing --> our agency is growing --> we're hiring.

Here's what we're after:

- Planner: Needs to be super creative type + mega quant geek - looking for media channel savvy, crazy smart, uber-passionate folk. 4-7 year range.

- Group Account Director:  9-12 year range, top creative shop experience, leader, straight-talker, fast-thinker, grounded, scrappy, original, passionate, collaborative - interest in beer, fishing & outdoor sports a plus.

- Director of New Business: 8-12 years exp - agency experience a must. New business, account service or PR background nice to have.

- Traffic Manager: Experience in traffic or PM preferred. Need to have worked within a creative agency with a firm understanding of the creative process.

- Interactive Designer: 4-6 years. Must be good.

- Flash Developer: 4-6 years. Also must be good.

Oh - and here's a little about us: we're a small, private, national branding agency located in Austin, Texas, founded by two ex-GSD&M alums in 1996. Site's being re-designed, but you can check out some of our work at www.mc-j.com

If you're interested, send your resume to [email protected] -  & add the position in the subject line for easier sorting. Feel free to post any ?'s below.

Twitter Love

Lots of people hate twitter. At best, they'll describe it as one long facebook status update; at worst, it's a catalog of what people had for breakfast. I get why people don't like twitter - it's weird. It's not something you can really describe unless you're on it (for awhile). I think the twitter template - the question 'what are you doing?' - is part of the problem. It should read 'what are you interested in right now?' Maybe it's an article you just read, a tv show, an event, an idea you had, an idea someone else had. It's one giant conversation of interesting. Okay <mostly> interesting.

 

Aside from pulse of the culture stuff (from inauguration day chatter to random Tuesday musings), it's a great way to connect with people from all over. Some examples:

- I'm headed to Sydney in March. I've never been to Sydney. But @servantofchaos lives there and he's generously provided hotel tips, restaurant recos and even a google map of places to check out (see above). Not only that, but he's going to try to coordinate a coffee morning with a bunch of other Sydney planners/creative folk while I'm there. Awesome.

- I was working on a brief and hit a wall. Needed some outside guidance, so I posted a few ideas out there. Fans of the brand were quick to weigh in. Special thanks to @spikejones.

- This might be my favorite. Today I connected with a planner from Sweden (@theplanninglab). He followed my twitter link here, read this post and noticed that we have the same alarm clock. Then he wrote about it here. Cool blog, random fun.

So there you have it. Twitter helping me with travel, work, alarm clock appreciation. I'm a fan.

Under Pressure

Today I read two completely different pieces about R/GA. One was a glowing article about innovation, collaboration and creative brilliance at R/GA, Adweek's Digital Shop of the Year. The other was a blog post about paranoia, secrecy and ultimatums at... R/GA, Adweek's Digital Shop of the Year.

Like Crispin, Adweek's other winner, R/GA just had lay-offs. Yet some inside the agency are instead calling it 'cleaning house,'  chalking it up to the immense pressure to out-do themselves (weaker employees get the quick ax).  Yikes. The sheen of 'agency of the year' has to wear off quickly when you watch your cube-mate load all of their belongings in a cardboard box.

Oddly, many of the industry's most awarded agencies seem to have the worst reputations. Words like sweatshop and factory are typical descriptors, while one friend summed it up like this "Everyone on the outside was trying to get in while everyone on the inside was trying to get out."

In addition to the awards list (and don't get me wrong - I love that stuff), it would be great if there was a  list about employee happiness. Agencies that have a reputation for treating their employees well, compensating them fairly, doing the right thing for clients and listening to their people. You know, important stuff. Not sure how said info would be collected, but it's a nice thought. Any thoughts/ideas/experiences out there? Would love to hear.

Baffled Mad Men

This made me laugh:

Thanks to @bastholm, @lenkendall & @keidson

Ode to Clay

Like many planners, Clay likes to sketch out his thoughts and ideas. Unlike many planners, his drawings extend well beyond the occasional ven diagram. Here a few examples:

Those of us lucky enough to work with Clay on a daily basis end up with an impressive pile of art. So impressive that we started secretly stashing them away over a period of months. Once our collection hit a certain point, we decided it was time for a surprise gallery opening.

After framing each drawing, we created placards for each piece (see above). We bought wine and cheese, created a guest book and sent an all-agency e-mail inviting everyone to an impromptu art opening.

I will never forget the look on his face as he walked into the room. Most of his pieces sold that day and he generously elected to donate the proceeds to charity. All $3.40 of it. I'm happy to report that the drawings have not ceased.

F*** My Life

Today I got one of those linked:in e-updates that I barely ever read and noticed that my friend Leah had a new blog entry - and a relatively new blog that I'd never read. She's a connections planner out in LA and has lots of good stuff to share. My favorite happens to be FML, a site that seems to blend YM's embarrassing stories w/twitter-like efficiency. Here are a few of my favorites:

I also like this one:

And finally, this:

These are the kind of things that make me feel better. Not sure about what exactly - life, I guess. It's also why I find it hard to resist a book with the word diary in the title, regularly read agencyspy and will never turn down a free copy of US Weekly. Embarrassment + strangers + secret - a magical combination.

February Magazine of the Month

Much as books tend to pile up on my nightstand, magazines tend to take over my desk. Out of the 15 or so titles, this month's Wired takes the cake.

Great cover, amazing content. The must-read article of the issue - 'I Am Here' - is written by a guy who spends three weeks using the GPS on his iPhone to share and connect with as many people as possible. This is fascinating because 1) it feels like you're looking into the future - 2 years from now, not 20, and 2) there are way more issues/opportunities to this location-based technology than I had ever considered. Good stuff - like unexpected connections and infinite information - and bad stuff - like, uh, unexpected connections and infinite information. It makes me rethink my Loopt application, which is useless at this point since I can't get any of my friends to use it anyhow.

While you're at it, check out Steven Levy's bite-sized article called The Burden of Twitter. It's about the pressure of feeding your social network and the oddness of revealing yourself to strangers. Funny how even Wired seems creeped out by how fast all of this technology is changing our day-to-day lives.

My Favorite TED

I love TED. Everyone loves TED. Wondering what is everyone's favorite TED. Here's mine:

And yours?