Archive for April, 2011

King St. Q&A w/ Jared Grant

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Jared's a lot of fun. Say hi when you see him around the office!

Jared Grant is a Participation Planner who just joined the SaatchiNY integrated planning team. If you’re interested in learning more about Jared’s background, feel free to check out his LinkedIn page or follow him on twitter @JarGrantuan

WHAT DO YOU DO AT SAATCHI & SAATCHI?
I am a Participation Planner.  I come up with media hungry ideas for our clients and develop communication architectures to bring them to life.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?
I used to work at an arcade as a Birthday Party Host for kids.  The tables were upstairs and the arcade was downstairs.  After their pizza I would walk them down and hand out their tokens and always had to remind them not to run going down the stairs.  One time I was walking them down saying “don’t run” and I totally tripped and fell down the stairs spilling tokens everywhere. The kids stampeded over me grabbing the loose tokens before running off leaving me as road kill.

WHAT LED YOU ON THE PATH YOU’RE ON TODAY?
I actually took a media planning course in college that was terrible.  I told myself, “no matter what, I don’t want to work in media.”  But I fell in love with a little place called The Media Kitchen and had a blast.  The rest is history.

IF YOU WEREN’T IN ADVERTISING, WHAT CAREER WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO TRY?
Talk show host.  I love to chat with people, swap stories, and make people laugh.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE YOUTUBE VIDEO?
Too many.  But the Jessica and Hunter series are awesome.

TELL US SOMETHING SURPRISING ABOUT YOURSELF:
I have a weird ability to remember obscure details from movies and TV shows.  Like that Joan Wilder’s book publisher’s name in Romancing the Stone was Gloria Hart.

WHAT ARE YOUR LOVEMARKS?
Converse, Barefoot Contessa, NY, Sharpies, Diet Coke and HBO

WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE STORY?
Probably my Great Aunt Leslie.  She has this thirst for life and is so active and connected for someone her age who has had overcome hardships like cancer.  She still drives herself 12 hours to her favorite vacation spot in North Carolina every year, hand-makes glass flip-flop decorations which she sells, and she just got an iPad.

FAVORITE CHILDHOOD TELEVISION PROGRAM?
Roseanne. I still watch reruns at night.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CREATIVE PURSUIT?
Cooking.  I have been cooking for about 10 years now and recently sent a recipe to Ina Garten (host the Food Network program Barefoot Contessa) and received a thank you from her publisist with a note saying Ina is going to try my recipe.

WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN?
Besides cooking I get simple pleasures out of hanging with my closest friends. My favorite moments are hanging in someone’s apartment, listening to music and being huge dorks with each other.  We say off-the-wall stuff and just keep each other laughing non-stop.

WHAT WAS THE LAST SONG YOU PLAYED ON YOUR IPOD?
Judas by Lady Gaga.

WHAT BLOGS/MAGAZINES/BOOKS/PAPERS/WEBSITES CAN YOU NOT LIVE WITHOUT?

Blogs
OhLalaMag.com
MadeinBrazil.typepad.com
CupcakesandCashmere.com
Mashable.com
NotCot.org

Magazines
Vanity Fair
Men’s Health
Sunset
Vman

Books
Anything Cormac McCarthy

BOOK THAT YOU’RE CURRENTLY READING?
“Autobiography of Red” by Anne Carson.  It’s my book club’s pick this month.  Whoever picks the book has to host the group and make dinner for everyone.  Last time we read a Russian novel and my friend Mike made all these Russian delights like salmon caviar appetizers served with cold vodka.

A GUILTY PLEASURE FOR ME IS:
Watching marathons of Sopranos or Six Feet Under on a rainy Saturday afternoon with pizza just for me.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE GREATEST INVENTION IS IN YOUR LIFETIME AND WHY?
There are so many – Google, Facebook, the iPhone.  But I secretly love Dominos’ online ordering system and pizza tracker (see guilty pleasure).  I can order pizza and wings on hung over afternoons without talking to a soul and can track my order from prep to bake to delivery, letting me know exactly when I have to put on pants in anticipation for the delivery guy.

HAVE YOU EVER WON A TROPHY?
Lowe used to take “Young Stars” from all their global offices to the Cannes Lions every year. I was lucky enough to go and was given the “Miss Congeniality Award” within the group.

WHAT’S THE LAST GREAT TRIP YOU WENT ON?
My family used to go to he Outer Banks in North Carolina every year.  As we grew up we stopped going and this past summer we decided it was time to go back.  It was like being a kid again but with Bloody Marys.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ARTIST/MUSICIAN/DESIGNER?
I am really into Lady Gaga.  I actually saw her perform way back before she was huge at an underwear party in Fire Island. I tried to drag my friends but no one would go so I went alone.  I got a spot right up front no more than two feet from Gaga and was jamming out with total strangers in our underwear.

WHEN’S THE LAST TIME YOU GAVE A STANDING OVATION?
When my dog went wee on her wee-wee pad.

Category: King St. Q&A, New York, Our People

7×7: May 12th

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Consider this a two week warning . . . on May 12th (7pm in the Sspace) we’re hosting our 3rd ever 7×7. For those who haven’t been to our previous events, 7×7 is a creative ideas show featuring seven experts from seven fields presenting for seven minutes. It’s fast. It’s insightful. It’s fun. The lineup is finalized and the night is shaping up to be pretty amazing.

Tickets are going fast! So if you haven’t gotten yours yet, SaatchiNY-ers can reserve seats via Courtney Winegar. All other interested parties can purchase tickets directly ($7) at Showclix.com (processing fees apply).

Category: Digital & Interactive, Events, Saatchi & Social

Shut Up & Write 2

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

A unique way to brainstorm . . . and more

About a year and a half ago, I figured out a brainstorming technique that’s highly collaborative and produces tons of strong ideas in a short amount of time. It works amazingly well, and I’m quite fond of telling people about it.

A few months ago, I shared it with Edward Boches during the BDW Making Digital Work conference here in New York. And a few weeks ago he wrote a fantastic blog article of his own about the technique.

In fact, he made it even better by giving it a kick-ass name: “Shut up & Write.”

Then, this week, I was asked to write about it for Hudson/Houston. Which is great… but Edward already wrote that article.

So, I’m going to write the sequel instead.

IT’S NOT JUST FOR BRAINSTORMING ANYMORE.
Now that it’s got a super-catchy name (seriously, what I used to call it was lame-lame-lame), here’s another way to harness the power of “Shut up and Write” — use it AFTER a meeting.

Try it. After your next meeting, instead of doing what we always do (rush to check emails or rush to yet another meeting), set aside 5-10 minutes to shut up and write.

Grab a blank sheet of paper and write about what you just experienced.

What do you think? What was discussed? What did you learn? How can you implement it? What are your next steps? Who’s going to make those things happen? Did you see or hear anything inspiring? What are you going to do with that inspiration? Or, was the meeting a waste of your (and maybe everyone else’s) time? How could it have been better?

When you go through this process, things happen.

You have revelations.

You make decisions about where to go next.

When you don’t do it… you respond to emails.

And everything discussed in the meeting fades blissfully into the ether.

A simple 5-10 minute investment makes the previous 60-120 minutes more powerful.

It’s like a protein supplement for conference calls.

CHECKING FACEBOOK CAN WAIT.
If it was important enough for you to be there in the first place, it’s important enough to “shut up and write” about it afterward.

It works with more than just meetings, too. Try it after you’ve read an interesting article or blog post. Like this one, for instance.

Give it a shot and see what happens.

I offer a money-back guarantee.

Category: Our People, Thought Leadership

RTG:375 Earth Day Fundraiser

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Fundraising with Flowergrams

As you probably know, last Friday was Earth Day. It was ALSO one of the first days this year that actually felt like spring. So it’s kind of fitting that the True Blue team held our first annual fundraiser for the SaatchiNY roof garden – RTG: 375.  We kicked off the roof garden project last year and it was a great success (it also played a part in our LEED Gold status for the Hudson/Houston offices). Plants! Sunshine! Dirt! What’s better than a garden on a roof?

IT’S GROWING
So consider this a thanks to the SaatchiNY team for their efforts (and love of flowers with messages attached), as we collectively raised enough cash to make some significant improvements to the garden.  The roof garden will be bigger and better than ever this summer. We’ll have twice the plants & landscaping as last summer . . . making it one of the best community-driven gardens around. To celebrate, we’ve put together some choice shots from the fundraising festivities below.

Even if you weren’t able to participate in the fundraiser, we sincerely hope you’ll head upstairs to check out/utilize RTG: 375 this summer. Happy (belated) Earth Day!

Internal promotions

Green begets green

More flowers

Category: Our People, Sustainability, true blue

Artist Watch – Stromme Throndsen Design

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Some fun packaging design from Strømme Throndsen Design

Artist watch is a feature we’ve put together for Hudson/Houston that, much like some of our Sisomo Roundups offers a spotlight of an exciting, engaging artist that’s attracting attention from the SaatchiNY team.  For this installment, SaatchiNY Head of Design Camilla Flesche Kristiansen offers her thoughts on Norwegian design house Strømme Throndsen

PACKAGING DESIGN
I’ve always been fascinated with Packaging design, and even more so when I started working at a packaging design agency here in New York 10 years ago. I noticed how different the world of packaging design is in the US compared to my home country, Norway and the other Scandinavian countries. Simplicity is a key ingredient in the Scandinavian packaging design world, and one of the masters of brand development and packaging design back in Norway is Strømme Throndsen Design.

DESIGN EFFEKT
Located in Oslo, Strømme Throndsen Design was founded by creative director Morten Throndsen.  He’s widely considered to be one of Norway’s best designers and he has a great creative reputation around the world. He and his agency have won numerous design awards since their beginning, including the Norwegian Design Council’s prestigious ‘DESIGN EFFEKT’ award for most efficient and valuable design last year. Their team consists of a range of dedicated strategists and designers with a great deal of expertise within the brand development business. They are all really passionate about developing strong brands with fresh and inspiring designs that both engage and intrigue the consumers.

CREATIVE APPROACH
I think their strongest talent is developing brand strategies and design concepts for a really wide variety of clients. From small boutique innovation brands to large mass-market brands, they approach every brief as a unique opportunity for new thinking and innovation. In close collaboration with their clients, their goal is always the same . . . to develop solutions that are unique in the marketplace and result in great success.

Below are some examples of award winning work by Strømme Throndsen Design:

Packaged goods

Snacks

Beer

Category: Creative

Saatchinspiration: Links you should give a S#*t about

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

If you didn’t catch our post last week, each Friday we’re going to share some of the links that have inspired us this week. We’d love to hear what’s been inspiring you, too, so feel free to leave a comment or send us a tweet with #saatchinspiration!

WILL + KATE OR WIEDEN + KENNEDY?

W+K's take on the royal wedding

Sharing initials with the royal couple, Wieden + Kennedy London turned their window into a royal wedding themed installation.

PLEASURE HUNT

Magnum pleasure hunt

Magnum launches a pleasure hunt across the internet. [Get your mind out of the gutter!]

HIS, HER AND THEM

The opening of Him, Her and Them

Want a second in the spotlight? Him, Her and Them is a social film, only on Facebook. You (& anyone else on Facebook) can add to it. “There is no one film.”

CHICKS WITH BUSCEMEYES
Chicks with Steve Buscemeyes. Enough said.

Too scary for words

MORGAN SPURLOCK

Fast Company goes behind the scenes with Morgan Spurlock, speaking to him about his latest flick Pom Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

ZAARLY

Be sure to check out the Zaarly video

Zaarly brings us a new kind of ecommerce.

HOT AD GIRL
Wondering who that hot girl was in the TV spot you saw? This Tumblr is here to solve your problems.

SELLING JUNIOR TALENT
And finally, we’ll leave you with some thoughts from our pals over at BBH who wonder if junior talent in advertising are packaging themselves wrong.

Happy Friday!

Category: Creative, Digital & Interactive, sisomo

King St. Q&A w/ Molly Dwyer

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Molly enjoying the start of spring in the West Village

Molly Dwyer is an Assistant Account Executive for the General Mills at SaatchiNY. Photos were taken by Brian Davidson.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?
My two older siblings and I used to sell lemonade outside my grandmother’s beach house.  Jake and Cate “hired” my artist uncle to make bright, decorative signs for us, and I was the 2-year-old PR girl, who would draw people in on their way to the beach.  Despite my successful marketing efforts, our professional visual strategy, and ideal location on the beach path . . . I somehow never managed to walk away with more than a quarter once my siblings divvied up our earnings.  Back then, being the youngest was tough.

WHAT LED YOU ON THE PATH YOU’RE ON TODAY?
I’ve always been a visual, curious, social, and creative person. When it came time to choose a career that would suit those traits, advertising seemed like the right fit.  My visit to Saatchi last February reinforced that, and I started working here three weeks after I graduated.

IF YOU WEREN’T IN ADVERTISING, WHAT CAREER WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO TRY?
Photojournalism or journalism.

TELL US SOMETHING SURPRISING ABOUT YOURSELF:
During my senior year of high school, I biked 80 miles per day for three weeks to cover the distance of Vietnam’s Highway One, which spans from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City.  My teacher, who was a photographer during the war, led the trip.

WHAT ARE YOUR LOVEMARKS?
Truly Yogurt in Wellesley, MA; Shake Shack; the New York Times; My iPhone; Vermont; Central Park.

WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE STORY?
My uncle, Marty, was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer about a year ago.  He and my aunt refused to believe the prognosis, visited another doctor, then another, until finally, they found a one who could offer a potential solution—for Marty’s son to donate part of his liver to his father.  They performed the surgery last spring and both Marty and his son Alex are healthy and alive today.  I love this story because it shows the power of optimism and persistence and also reveals the unexpected fact that the gift of life can be reciprocated.

FAVORITE CHILDHOOD TELEVISION PROGRAM?
Full House, minus the “Dad Talks”—even back then, I knew they were lame.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CREATIVE PURSUIT?
I love exploring places, new and old, with my camera (click examples below for the larger image).

Weybridge, Vermont

East Middlebury, Vermont

Da Nang, Vietnam

Florence, Italy

WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN?
Eat!  I love reading restaurant reviews and I always make sure to have a reservation to look forward to.

WHAT WAS THE LAST SONG YOU PLAYED ON YOUR IPOD?
“40 Day Dream” by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

WHAT BLOGS/MAGAZINES/BOOKS/PAPERS/WEBSITES CAN YOU NOT LIVE WITHOUT?
For restaurant reviews, I love nymag.com and immaculateinfatuation.com.  For clothing, I love to visit ShopBop, J. Crew, and Calypso.  And, I’m constantly checking Gilt, Gilt City, and weather.com.

A GUILTY PLEASURE FOR ME IS:
Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting from Alice’s Teacup in New York or the Off Center Café in my hometown.  And champagne.  But to be honest, I don’t actually feel guilty about either of those.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE GREATEST INVENTION IS IN YOUR LIFETIME AND WHY?
Google’s mission is “To organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”  I think that is pretty great.

HAVE YOU EVER WON A TROPHY?
No…well…. I had a bingo-themed birthday party one year and I kept winning so I asked my mom to have a trophy made for me. I remember searching for a bingo-player among the ice skaters, swimmers, and soccer players on display in the trophy store.  We ended up settling on something generic and created a plaque that said, “Molly, Bingo Winner.”

I’m not sure which is cooler, the fact that I had a bingo-themed birthday party or that I had my mom give me a trophy.

WHAT’S THE LAST GREAT TRIP YOU WENT ON?
Right after I graduated last spring, my boyfriend, Nick, and I jumped on a plane to Argentina, where my friend, Anabel, was living.  Buenos Aires is brimming with fantastic wine, food, energy, and history, and we spent every day exploring from noon to dawn.  We also spent a few days in Patagonia where we walked on the Perrito Moreno glacier, ate $10 filet mignon at a parilla, and went zip-lining.

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE ARTIST/MUSICIAN/DESIGNER?
I love Matisse for his whimsical, decorative, style.  When he went to Tahiti, he missed his wife so much that he couldn’t paint so he returned home to her and painted what he had seen from memory. I think his personal happiness must have contributed to his brilliant, lighthearted, bright expressions.  To be a creative genius, in love, and French…what could be better?

WHEN’S THE LAST TIME YOU GAVE A STANDING OVATION?
At the final performance of South Pacific at Lincoln Center last August.

Category: King St. Q&A, Our People

7×7 – The Lineup

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Locked and loaded! On May 12th (7pm in the Sspace) we’re hosting our 3rd ever 7×7. For those who don’t know, 7×7 is a creative ideas show featuring seven experts from seven fields presenting for seven minutes. It’s fast. It’s insightful. It’s fun. The lineup is finalized (see below) and the night is shaping up to be pretty amazing.

Interested? You should be! SaatchiNY-ers can reserve seats via Courtney Winegar. All other interested parties can purchase tickets directly ($7) at Showclix.com (processing fees apply).

JACK MYERS – MEDIA ECONOMIST

Jack Myers

Jack Myers is a media economist and chairman of Media Advisory Group. He has authored three books on advertising, writes a weekly industry economic advisory, invests in early stage media companies and curates a blog platform for industry thought leaders.  He has won the George Foster Peabody Award for journalism and been nominated for both an Academy Award and Emmy.

ALEXANDER CHEN – GOOGLE CREATIVE LAB

Alexander Chen

Alexander Chen is a designer and programmer at Google Creative Lab. His recent projects include MTA.ME, which used HTML5 to turn the NYC subway system into a musical instrument. This was later extended into a virtual string instrument performed through the Xbox Kinect. He also records and performs in musical acts The Consulate General and Boy in Static.

S.T. VAN AIRSDALE – EDITOR, MOVIELINE

Stu Van Airsdale

S.T. Van Airsdale is the Editor of Movieline.com. First gaining prominence in the NYC indie film community through founding The Reeler, he later worked as editor of Gawker film property Defamer.com. His writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Esquire.com and numerous other national publications.

LILLIAN CORYN – SHESAYS/WELL MADE WORLD

Lillian Coryn

Lillian Coryn co-runs SheSays, a global organization for women in interactive design and advertising. She’s is also Co-Founder and Creative Director of Well Made World, a design consultancy focused in biodiversity, gender equality, sustainable food, green energy, social entrepreneurship and technological innovation.

MARCUS ROBINSON – ARTIST/DOCUMENTARIAN

Marcus Robinson

Marcus Robinson is an artist and documentarian specializing in urban transformation and architecture. His current project, REBUILDING, chronicles the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site from start to finish. It’s a collection of drawings, paintings and time-lapse film that capture different moments in the ever-moving historic landscape.

VIVIAN ROSENTHAL – CO-FOUNDER, TRONIC STUDIOS/FOUNDER, GOLDRUN

Vivian Rosenthal

Vivian Rosenthal is co-founder of Tronic Studios as well as founder and CEO of GoldRun, a mobile augmented reality platform. She was named to Creativity’s Top 50 creative list in 2010. Their work moves between and marks a convergence of animation, architecture and interactive design. Tronic’s clients include GE, Microsoft, Target, Nike, and Adidas.

THE TOPP TWINS – COMEDIC MUSICAL SOCIAL ACTIVIST

The Topp Twins

The Topp Twins are the world’s only comedic, singing, yodeling lesbian twin sisters. Their music and political activism has helped change New Zealand’s social landscape. An acclaimed documentary on their career, The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls (watch the trailer here) which won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, opens in New York on May 13.

Category: Digital & Interactive, Events, New York, Saatchi & Social