On Tuesday, we had some MBA students visiting from Virginia and I promised to impart some wisdom on them. But first, I think I scared them by standing on a chair and later asking them to say ‘f*$#.’ But let me tell you, these MBA students stood the test! (Here’s the presentation, if you’re interested.)
Of course, one person’s wisdom is never enough, so I took to the internet to pull together things that have taught me, inspired me and in some cases even confused me:
Turn your resume into a piece of art in a single click.
You may or may not be surprised to know that the biggest piece of advice that people from Twitter had was to not get an MBA. Several people responded saying MBAs weren’t worth the money or time spent while others said MBAs were only valuable if you worked while you completed the school.
What do you think? Are MBAs worthwhile? Are there resources I missed that you’d share?
WHAT DO YOU DO AT SAATCHI & SAATCHI?
I’m a Junior Planner on two separate brands.. Right now, that means figuring out how to convince people to keep drinking beer and eat more vegetables.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?
In high school, I helped the bus boys fill bottles of olive oil in the basement of Fig and Olive.
WHAT LED YOU ON THE PATH YOU’RE ON TODAY?
I love to create, I found people fascinating, and then I saw Mad Men. I wanted to be in Strategic Planning before I knew it existed.
WHAT ARE YOUR LOVEMARKS? Sriracha. If I had to get a tattoo, it would be the Sriracha rooster on my chest. I also love Korilla, the Korean BBQ truck (Varick & Vandam every Tuesday.) They were among the first food trucks to really build a brand, a tone and a social media presence. And they’re cool guys.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE AD (ALL TIME OR CURRENTLY)?
Hands down the “Take it to the Next Level” Nike ad, which was directed by Guy Ritchie. No ad has since been able to stir up more emotion while staying very much in line with the product and brand it’s selling. If you haven’t seen it yet, make it a priority.
IF YOU NEVER HAD TO WORK AGAIN, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO DO?
I’m going to assume I have an infinite amount of money in this scenario. I would be a writer, for sure. Or own a restaurant. Or develop an ill start-up that is otherwise too far out to attempt. Clearly whatever I did would involve a solid foundation of traveling, eating, and drinking.
FAVORITE PLACE YOU’VE BEEN TO?
I’m going to the Galapagos Islands in December with high hopes. Otherwise, Havana or Barcelona.
WHAT’S YOUR MOST PRIZED POSSESSION?
I don’t think I have any.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE YOUTUBE VIDEO?
I’m a big fan of Dan Deacon Paper Cups. I also love this one. I’ve watched it so many times I don’t feel bad laughing anymore:
WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU MAKE REALLY WELL?
I can make a solid doodle.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE WARM-WEATHER NYC ACTIVITY?
Double feature at the movies with a 40 and some Chinese food.
WHAT’S YOUR GO TO KARAOKE SONG? (COME ON, WE KNOW YOU HAVE ONE).
Don’t Stop Believing.
WHAT’S THE BEST MEAL YOU’VE EVER HAD?
So hard. There’s a great place in Philadelphia called Village Whiskey that had the best burger and picked vegetables I’ve ever had. They also have a great spicy aioli for the fries. Or anything at El Almacen. I could go on for a while, here.
IF YOU COULD BE THE WORLD RECORD HOLDER OF ANYTHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
The Most Interesting Man in the World.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CREATIVE PURSUIT?
Writing. Weird, out-there, imaginative fiction.
Today we’d like to share a special bonus-post from our compatriots at Saatchi Los Angeles. They’re team recently attended a day of social media fun at the LA Paley Center. Pictures and insights below. Many thanks to Claudia Yuskoff, Rita Sweeney, Kassi Horn, Tomos Evans and Erin Schlissel for helping put this together.
Last week, the SaatchiLA Social team hit the traffic-filled streets of Los Angeles during Social Media Week. Here’s a snap shot of the week and in the spirit of Social, a few take-aways by each member from our team in less than 140 characters.
It was a full day of Social awesomeness at the Paley Center for Media
For companies big and small looking to create a social media presence, think critically, strategically, and know your audience. Erin Schlissel – Assistant Account Executive
Panelists deep in thought at the Branding your Social Enterprise with Integrity panel.
Facebook #timeline creates a scrapbook-like experience to capture a person’s entire life. Who else is excited to scan childhood photos? Rita Sweeney – Social Media Engagement Manager
Tweeting away at the Social Media for Business Panel.
“In today’s world, every company is a media company. Instructions: Create, execute, monitor. Rinse & repeat.” Inspired by the ladies of SMW, Kassi Horn – Social Media Engagement Manager
Full house at the SMWLA - Fashion Panel: Taking Fashion to New Heights.
Brands that channel the power of personalized content and real-time connections will have a leg up on the competition. – Claudia Yuskoff – Social Media Engagement Manager
Panelist at the SMWLA - Fashion Panel: Taking Fashion to New Heights
Our modest Director of Social Engagement, Tom Evans— a man of few words—in attendance at one of the panels.
Los Angelenos at the Paley Center for Media, Closing Party.
Cheers to a successful Social Media Week! – Closing Party at the Paley Center for Media.
You’ve heard it from us—now tell us what you experienced during Social Media Week in your part of the world?
Rounding out our pre-Advertising Week promotional programming, we’d like to invite you to join us for an event next Tuesday (it’s a good warm-up for 7×7) at the Paley Center for the arts. Starting at 10 AM, our very own CEO Mary Baglivoand Deputy Director of Broadcast ProductionSheldon Levy will present our “Nothing Is Impossible” approach to attracting multi-cultural talent to the agency. More specifically, they’ll be discussing our partnership with the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival.
The event will offer some insight into the foundations of our involvement in the festival, as well as a series of features on our various winners and finalists over the past few years. Joining the discussion will be artist-in-residence and Festival Alum Bree Newsome, director of the short film “WAKE” (the film’s trailer is at the top of the post). If you’re already an Advertising Week badge holder, you can reserve your seat here. If not, RSVP with Lynne Collins.
On October 6th from 1PM to 3pm, Saatchi & Saatchi, along with the New York Times and the British Council, will host ”Change” as part of the Influencer Conference. The conference is held simultaneously in Berlin, London and New York between October 5th-7th, and “Change” is a first-of-its-kind interactive salon, focused on creative Influencers who leverage their expertise to better the world. The day will also allow attendees to collaborate with influencers from other domains, to accelerate this process of change. This lineup will truly “change” the way you view influence and world impact.
The Line-up:
RAGHAVA KK
One of India’s most successful emerging artists, Raghava was named by CNN one of the “Top 10 People the World is yet to Know of.” He is a popular TED speaker and his recent kids iPad book “POP-IT” challenges norms of parenting, sexuality and race. Raghava will discuss creative collaborations as means to amplify impact and accelerate rate of change. His collaborative initiatives range widely between musician Paul Simon, through celebrity chef Dab Barber to flamenco singer Pepe Linares and many more.
JONATHAN HARRIS
Combining elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art and storytelling, Jonathan Harris’ projects reimagine how humans relate to technology and each other. His work ranges from building the world’s largest time capsule (with Yahoo) to documenting an Alaskan Eskimo whale hunt on the Arctic Ocean (with a warm hat). He is the co-creator of We Feel Fine, which continuously measures the emotional temperature of the human world through large-scale blog analysis. Other projects tackled online dating,modern mythology, anonymity, news, and language. Jonathan’s work has won 3 Webby awards and been recognized by AIGA, Ars Electronica, Print Magazine, MoMa and the world Economic Forum named him Young Business Leader. Jonathan has given talks at Google, Princeton and Stanford Universities and the TED Conference.
JERRI CHOU
Jerri Chou is Social Innovation Strategist, Founder and Managing Partner of Lovely Day, as well as the co-founder of The Feast Social Innovation Conference. She is an advisor to The NYU Reynolds Program and Ashoka as well as a writer for the Huffington Post, USA Networks and Social Earth. Jerri will discuss her extensive experience helping companies and institutions co-create exponential value for both business and society using digital innovations.
PAULL YOUNG
Director of Digital at charity: water, a non-profit devoted to bringing clean and safe drinking water to the nearly one billion people without. charity: water revolutionized old school charity with a 100% model that sends every cent raised to water projects and tracking their work with GPS. charity: water was the first non-profit to reach a million followers on Twitter and has raised over $40 million.
LAKSHMI PRATURY
Lakshmi Pratury brought TED to India in 2009 and curates/hosts The INK Conference, in association with TED. She brings with her a varied and rich experience that spans for-profit enterprises, venture capital and nonprofit organizations. She was also featured in Forbes Asia’s 2010 ’100 Most Powerful Women’.
ADAM WERBACH
Adam Werbach is the Chief Sustainability Officer of Saatchi & Saatchi, as well as Chairman Saatchi & Saatchi S. His book Strategy for Sustainability, was an Inc. magazine Bestseller and named one of Fast Company top business books of 2009. At 23, Adam was named the youngest president in history of the Sierra Club, the oldest and largest environmental organization in the US and. He is regarded as one of the world’s premier experts in sustainability, and will discuss the role of marketing and business strategy in creating a more sustainable world.
THE ABREU FELLOWS – MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
At TED2009, Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu revealed his TED Prize wish: to create a special training program for gifted young musicians and recreate the highly successful El Sistema programs around the world. Currently called the Abreu Fellows program (hosted at the New England Conservatory of Music), the fellowship is in its third year, with 10 musicians from different geographical and musical backgrounds learning and planning how to best develop music education programs for social change in their communities.
Hosting The Influencer Conference is part of Saatchi & Saatchi’s commitment to promote creative dialogue and spread ideas to better the world. As part of this commitment, Saatchi & Saatchi is the new proud host of TEDxNY weekly salons Every Friday at 5pm TEDxNY comes together to share and discuss ideas worth sharing. The salons are free of charge and open to the public.
If you didn’t make it out to any of the last three renditions of 7×7, what are you waiting for? If you’re already an Advertising Week badge holder you can learn how to reserve your seat at Saatchi7x7.com. If you’re not, send us an email for information on how to get a ticket directly from us.
Starting today, we’ve officially declared this week Events Week on Hudson/Houston. Be sure to check back every morning for a preview of our Advertising Week involvement and some great recaps of cool stuff happening this week. Kicking us off today is a guest post from Adam Beilman, who’s offering up the most useful bits from last Thursday’s DigiDay: Social conference.
The theme of Digiday: Social was “The Social Media Operating System” – how we can connect with consumers in an environment completely connected by social media. The conference featured a day full of discussions, panels and keynotes from industry pros. Through all the talks, a few overarching themes emerged:
WE’RE ALL APPRENTICES
Despite being invited to the conference to speak about their experience with social media, several were quick to point out that there really are no scholars. Social media is constantly evolving, and we’re all apprentices. The only way to master it is to use it yourself, and to use as many channels as possible. This is the only way understand both the tools and the people who use them.
LIKE VS LOVE
One of the biggest flaws in determining social media success is the number of “likes” a brand page has. All a “like” really is is an initiation for a brand to engage with you in some way – not a measure of your engagement. The most successful brands in social grow their following organically and are sought out because they are genuinely loved. There are many ways to earn or to buy “likes” – what matters is holding a fans interest and turning that like into love.
NO BUCKETS OR SILOS
Multiple speakers emphasized that traditional media silos have broken down. Social isn’t and shouldn’t be mutually exclusive of other channels – it is parts paid, earned and owned media. Use the space you own to tell stories, build communities, and drive brand advocacy among your fans.
Paid media on Facebook can allow you to reach the friends of your fans. Reggie Bradford of Vitrue explained that “Sponsored stories are the future of Facebook advertising.”
Once a foundation is built, surprising and delightful movements or social media stunts can create earned coverage and generate even more following.
CONTENT IS KING
As Rishad Tobaccowala of ViVaKi put it, “social media is not just a place to share…it is a place to discover.” People are looking for and are finding interesting content on social channels. You can never count on virality, but people will share things they find interesting and useful.
Walgreens proves this; their mobile app allows users to refill prescriptions by scanning the barcode. Why wouldn’t fans share an incredibly useful, free branded service? Expedia, another brand represented at the conference, held competitions with attainable prizes which made it too easy to invite friends and to come back every day.
PEOPLE ARE AT THE CORE
Don’t innovate for the sake of innovating. You need to understand your audience and create something that they actually want. It doesn’t make sense to use digital displays with QR codes if your target doesn’t use smartphones.
Begin by asking: “why did our fans like us in the first place?” These people are a powerful force. The companies that realize that they are marketing through them and not at them are the ones that will win.
Finally and most importantly, digital media doesn’t change the fact that consumers are analog – they make decisions with their hearts. Lovemarks will become more meaningful than ever.
Billy Veasey is an Art Director at Saatchi NY. He’s got a cool haircut and a lot of cool tattoos. If you’re interested in learning more about him, be sure to trek over to his website.
WHAT DO YOU DO AT SAATCHI & SAATCHI?
I create meaningful experiences that people want to engage with.
At least that’s what they pay me for. Mostly I try to bring The Fun into every situation that I’m involved in. And make things pretty.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?
Shoveling hundreds of pounds of sawdust from underneath industrial machinery at age 9 for my grandfather. Though I never got paid it was certainly a job.
WHAT LED YOU ON THE PATH YOU’RE ON TODAY?
My father never even made it to high school and I grew up with moderate means so I always wanted more for myself my future family and my parents. Being a child of the 80′s the phenomenon of perpetual pop culture shifts made me aware of the potential of image and message as a driving force.
IF YOU NEVER HAD TO WORK AGAIN, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO DO?
Build ridiculously cool motorcycles and simple raw furniture. And churn out awesome and conceptual photography books.
FAVORITE PLACE YOU’VE BEEN TO?
Four wheeling through the jungle to see Mayan ruins. And the first roller coaster I ever rode, Space Mountain.
WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU MAKE REALLY WELL?
Egg in a hole and paper airplanes.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE WARM-WEATHER NYC ACTIVITY?
Riding my bike from my apartment in Williamsburg (Disneyland) to Rockaway Beach.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHTIME SPOT NEAR THE OFFICE?
Hands down, no question about it the bright green truck one block north of the Saatchi office called Jalepeno. They serve up some nice authentic Mexican foods. My default is the Spicy Pork Torta with a mixture I like to make of their three homemade hot sauces.
WHAT’S THE BEST MEAL YOU’VE EVER HAD?
Chorizo breakfast burrito with red chili sauce from Maria’s on Paseo Del Pueblo in Taos New Mexico. It’s completely bonkers.
IF YOU COULD BE THE WORLD RECORD HOLDER OF ANYTHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Fastest clipping of all ten finger nails.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CREATIVE PURSUIT?
Though Jaquis Qusto and Steve Irwin weren’t traditionally thought of as “creative” their drive for discovering the unknown is the basic principle of a creative field.
WHAT BLOGS/MAGAZINES/BOOKS/PAPERS/WEBSITES CAN YOU NOT LIVE WITHOUT?
(lame) NYTimes, (typical) ffffound,
WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?
Be nice to everyone.
WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE STORY?
This is just me experiencing someone else’s hard work and vision, but it’s one most of us can enjoy. I just flew a jet pack. For a long time. It was awesome. Thank you Lenovo.
A comprehensive list complied by Edward Boches, originally for BDW students.
