Archive for March, 2009

Cool Chameleon

This is where you think we’re going to write something profound but, we just like this creative YouTube video.

Did you hear what he said!?

On any given day we can catch strangers talking about their crappy love/ work life while just standing in line at the grocery store, riding public transportation, or walking down the street. And, now in this great digital world of ours we have the ability to ease drop on stranger’s personal business just by logging on to the internet.

If you go to the site, FMyLife, you can view users sharing life’s everyday unfortunate moments such as, “Today, I was fired for “customer dissatisfaction”. I work in IT and have never met one of my company’s customers. FML.

For those of you on Twitter, you can follow SecretTweet to read 140 characters of anonymously posted secrets including such passages as, “I am embarrassed everyday that the only people who post on my Facebook/Twitter are my parents. Still, I update every day. 23 y/o male.

And, for all you New Yorkers, swing by the Overheard in New York site to catch some of the notable conversations happening around the city. For instance, this little toddler was heard throwing a tantrum over pickles.

Raucous blond toddler, shouting: I want pickles!

Harried young mother, shouting back even louder: We have pickles at home! I will give you pickles!

–Broadway & Bleecker

All these humorous conversational sites inspired us to start an ‘Overheard at Squeaky’ sidebar. We will post the best conversations happening within the walls of the Squeaky Wheel Media office. Like this gem…

“I don’t know how many girls you’ve fooled with your teenage games.”

Don’t forget to submit your $250k worth of award submissions

For many creative agencies award submissions are a valuable part of the marketing strategy. To be able to win a highly visible and well respected award brings great recognition in the industry and further validates a company’s claim as a top creative agency.

For smaller agencies though it can be an uphill climb often competing against companies with multiple offices and more importantly larger budgets. As an independent, minority owned company going on our 7th year this is nothing new for Squeaky Wheel Media.

We recently registered three award submissions for a top tier award show at $300 a piece but, when you compare it to some of the massive agencies and their submissions our investment was trumped. Due to an unfortunate email sent by a junior member from this particular award show we were able to see that a well known agency eclipsed $250k of submission fees. These are staggering figures, and ones that I’m sure the award show does not mind receiving (totaled over $3.5 million in entry fees). Now I’m not suggesting that larger companies don’t deserve all the accolades they receive if they win, I’m just stating that the odds are substantially in their favor to bring home the gold. Make no mistake, this does not deter Squeaky from entering and it should not for you either. I would just suggest to other agencies to also research additional, niche awards.

If you are a creative agency in similar size to Squeaky (75 people or less) I would recommend also considering more tailored award submissions. For instance, Ad Age started up a Small Agency of the Year Award at a respectable $150 an entry. Deadline is May 22, 2009. Squeaky looks forward to competing against you.

In the end awards are truly great to receive, but the best recognition comes from the clients you retain and the word of mouth recommendations you receive. You can’t buy this type of publicity. Now if I could just get Abbey Klaassen, Digital Editor at Ad Age, to write a story on Squeaky Wheel Media I would be a happy camper.

How Do We Define Our Company Culture?

Yesterday, I came across a Brains on Fire blog post discussing company culture and the role it plays in running a thriving business. Today, many companies are toying with the idea of creating a position to be in “charge” of company culture. Who can blame them? Everyone wants to be the next Zappos. And, after viewing the ‘Delivering Happiness’ power point from their CEO, Tony Hseih, at South by Southwest I can see why.

However, I stand on the opposite side of the fence. Much like Spike Jones from Brains on Fire, I too would argue no one person should be in ‘charge’ of the company culture. I would think within any successful business an individual or group will naturally facilitate and define the culture, be it through miscellaneous events or actions.

I am fortunate enough to say I am part of a strong company culture at Squeaky Wheel Media and for us there is no question it comes from the top and trickles down. What I’ve discovered is when you give employees the freedom to express themselves as individuals, no matter what the size of a company, a successful environment will form organically.

Everyone knows about successful cultures like Google and Whole Foods so we thought to give a shout out to companies who get less notoriety but are just as distinguished, like Stew Leonard’s. Good people, good culture, great business.

By Jacob Ramos

Lessons Learned from DigiDay Social

Yesterday, Squeaky Wheel Media had the opportunity to attend DigiDay Social at the W New York.

Scott Monty, Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager at Ford Motor Company, gave an insightful keynote presentation on the importance of understanding and crafting your message through social media platforms. The key take away that is often overlooked is that the ultimate goal is to harness human relationships, not just understanding how to use the platforms, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.

Squeaky also had the opportunity to chat with some of the speakers at the cocktail networking event and had great conversations with both Joe Marchese, Co-founder of SocialVibe, and Elizabeth Pigg, VP of Media Strategy for Edelman Digital. There was great discussion on mobile and the roll it will play in the future of social media. We see lots of geolocation services popping up in the future coming on the heels of semi-successful mobile applications like dodgeball (before it got shut down by Google). Look out for similar geolocation services popping up like foursquare.