In January 2014 we launched Wolf & Wilhelmine, a brand shop driven by our purpose of Do Great Work, Live Great Lives.
We were first focused on building an environment for sustainable creativity - i.e. a workplace where we can do the work we love without killing ourselves.
As we’ve grown over the past two years, we’ve realized that diversity is crucial to sustainable creativity and therefore we actively foster it.
Here's how we do it...
This document outlines an agenda and presentation on writing effective creative briefs. It discusses why creative briefs are important, the current state of briefs, and five key elements that make a brief successful. These elements include providing the big picture context, clear business and creative objectives, insights about the target audience, and details on the competitive landscape. The presentation also provides five ways to ensure a brief is effective, such as being written concisely in a compelling manner that allows creative freedom. Exercises are included to help attendees practice writing briefs.
One-way marketing (interruption) is often more effective than two-way marketing (engagement) for large brands communicating with significant numbers of people. While two-way marketing aims to directly involve consumers, people generally do not care much about brands and are less likely to actively engage or participate. Examples show that memorable one-way ads like the Cadbury Gorilla commercial can be more effective at reaching large audiences with positive brand messaging than two-way social media campaigns, which typically see very low rates of actual consumer engagement. The most robust case studies continue to show traditional one-way marketing performing well compared to two-way approaches.
The big ideaL: Ogilvy's framework for giving brands a purposeOgilvy
Ogilvy & Mather developed a framework called "The big ideaL" to help brands find an authentic platform to speak from. It involves identifying a cultural tension in the market and finding the brand's core strength. For Louis Vuitton, this resulted in the ideal that the world is a better place when we live life as an exceptional journey. For Milo chocolate drink, it was the belief that play is essential for childhood development. Applying this process helps brands lift themselves above competitors by taking a clear point of view.
THE BRAND GAP is the first book to present a unified theory of brand-building. Whereas most books on branding are weighted toward either a strategic or creative approach, this book shows how both ways of thinking can unite to produce a “charismatic brand”—a brand that customers feel is essential to their lives. In an entertaining two-hour read you’ll learn:
• the new definition of brand
• the five essential disciplines of brand-building
• how branding is changing the dynamics of competition
• the three most powerful questions to ask about any brand
• why collaboration is the key to brand-building
• how design determines a customer’s experience
• how to test brand concepts quickly and cheaply
• the importance of managing brands from the inside
50 planners to watch in 2014 - The Planning SalonJulian Cole
This document lists 50 planners to watch in 2014 according to The Planning Salon. It provides a brief 1-2 sentence description of each planner's background, experience, and current role. The planners are listed alphabetically and come from agencies around the world, including Cummins Ross, Spring Studios, BBH, Big Spaceship, Work Club, Undercurrent, Droga5, K-Hole, Zeus Jones, CP+B, Motorola, PHD, AKQA, Nike, Mother, Carat, VML, W+K Shanghai, Ogilvy, Tribal DDB, Butler Shine, Converse, Zulu Alpha Kilo, S&F, Publicis, Berghs
Strategic Planning & the Importance of Consumer insightsKaren Saba
A high level presentation shedding light on what Strategic Planners really do at creative agencies and the importance of consumer insights in the world of planning. It is an interactive presentation with a 'Guess the insight' section at the end.
Please feel free to download, improve, and share the credits.
Brand Strategy 101: The Core of Brand StrategyValerie Nguyen
Brand strategy consists of three core components and tapping into an infinite amount of human emotions.
Presented as part of Griffin Farley's Beautiful Minds 2020 program.
Brand Storytelling: A Look at the Hero and Brand JourneyKim Donlan
Consumer decisions and behaviors are increasingly driven by the opinions, tastes and preferences of an exponentially large global pool of friends, peers and influencers. Social activities have become the place where consumers tell their stories. 70% of consumers hear of other's experience of brands and 65% learn about products and services. Brand storytelling is not about telling your brand story -- it is about making the consumer the hero. Today’s consumer has the ability to share their hero journey and it is our job as marketers to be the herald of their story.
This is the presentation that I gave to the Young Planners at Cannes 2014. The data herein is taken from survey distributed through @cheiluk, @yellif and @cr
You can now download the presentation directly from Slideshare.
Here are 17 of the best free online tools for Digital Strategists to help cultivate killer insights on consumers, competitors and the industry. In this toolbox we you will find how to use each tool with an example insight drawn for the client, as well as each of their benefits and limitations.
The tools helps to conduct Consumer Research, Category Research, Discourse Analysis and Environmental analysis.
This document discusses the concept of disruption in marketing. Disruption involves radically new ideas that help brands reach their vision faster, as opposed to convention which involves doing the same things repeatedly. The document provides examples of disruptive strategies used by companies like Apple, Adidas, Vinamilk and Best Carings that helped make their brands more inspiring and successful. These strategies established emotional connections with customers rather than just focusing on product features or promotions.
The document discusses how powerful brands are built on "ideals" or big ideas about how the world could be better. It provides examples of brand ideals for Coke, American Express, Google, and others. An ideal is a conception of something in its perfection. A brand's big idea or ideal should unite employees, stakeholders, partners, and consumers by tapping into cultural tensions while embodying the brand's core values. Brands with strong ideals have higher consideration from consumers and perform well even during economic downturns. Developing an authentic big ideal becomes more important for communicating a brand's values in today's complex communications environment.
The document discusses how to approach big ideas in today's digital world. It advocates defining the creative brief, big idea, and engagement strategy in a more participatory way that considers how technologies and culture have changed. Specifically, it recommends:
1) Fueling the brief by understanding real problems and how audiences participate rather than just saying things at people.
2) Defining ideas as platforms that live on and are generous, multifaceted, responsive, and propagated rather than just TV campaigns.
3) Awesifying ideas by building ecosystems and engagement strategies tailored to cultural behaviors on channels like social networks, rather than just disrupting them.
4) Using the RISE framework to recruit,
Brand differentiation is CRITICAL in today's ever-commoditizing marketplace. In their book Overthrow, Adam Morgan and Mark Holden identify the 10 different challenger stories. Every brand MUST be a challenger brand for success. Which one are you?
To break the rules, you gotta know the rulesHeidi Hackemer
Marketing and brand strategy is a craft, one that needs to be learned. Once you acquire expertise as a strategist, you personally have tremendous freedom and professionally add to the validity, energy and innovation in the field. But you gotta learn, and here's a few tips to push your own path forward.
Great planners play many roles and require balancing different skills and perspectives. They are impartial wingmen who provide outside perspective to clients and teams. Planners must be able to work collaboratively with others while also taking time for lone creative work. They need to understand both data and stories. Balancing a broad knowledge with focusing on key insights is important. Both big picture thinking and attention to details are valued. Most of all, planners should be brave, positive and bring an outside perspective to their work.
planning, creativity & planning for creative campaignsHeidi Hackemer
This document provides advice and reflections from a planner on creativity, planning, and culture. Some key points:
1) Divergent thinking from outside perspectives fuels exceptional creativity, but planners can lose this through institutionalization. Taking time for exploration and space for ideas to incubate is important.
2) Living a "dot life" of varied experiences, rather than a linear career path, allows for more creativity. Planners should question if they are bringing divergent perspectives to problems.
3) When setting processes and tones for projects, planners should respect the space others need for creation and focus on building ideas through positive, iterative discussions rather than "winning" sessions.
I recently taught at the VCU Continuing Education class. This talk is about how we have to get doing (and stop theorizing so much) to create solutions for today's landscape.
Coming off the Island: principles for a more collaborative, fast approachHeidi Hackemer
I speak for Hyper Island Master Classes in New York. This is the presentation that I've developed (through several drafts) of how to take the theory of working together better for our evolved landscape and being more nimble/collaborative/smart into actual practice.
Digital culture has changed advertising and marketing. While the term "advertising" still refers to paid announcements to promote products and services, digital culture values that are more democratic, open, fast-moving, playful, and accountable. For brands to stay relevant, they need to participate in digital culture by being more human, having conversations, taking stances, and focusing more on meaning than just consumption. The best brands entertain, provoke thought, are useful and flexible, and move at the pace of digital culture.
The document provides an overview of the results from the 9th edition of the strategist survey. Some key findings include:
- Participation increased 45% to 2,556 strategists globally
- The US, UK, Brazil, Germany, and Canada had the most respondents
- 45% of respondents were female, up from the previous survey
- 21% of respondents were expats, up 4 points from the previous survey
- 76% of respondents worked in communications services firms, while 6% had their own consultancies and 5% worked in brand marketing
- Brand strategist was the most common type of strategist identified at 69%
The document provides a recap of learnings for video tactics in 2017 based on research from 2016. It discusses four key areas: 1) Using video to make a cultural splash by identifying platform insights and innovative uses of technology, 2) Optimizing video for social feeds by testing content developed specifically for feeds, 3) Skipping the skip button on YouTube ads by including certain elements to increase view-through rates, and 4) Building effective Snapchat lenses by testing different creative approaches to increase usage. The overall goal is to break through video clutter and understand evolving online video opportunities.
The official Ogilvy Key Digital Trends for 2017. A yearly trend report outlining both where we believe the digital and social landscape is headed and what brands and agency partners should do about it. By Marshall Manson and James Whatley
How I learned to stop worrying about the brandGareth Kay
My slides (that make even less sense without v/o) from Planningness 2016. Marketers and the folks who advise them obsess over the brand. But what if our obsession is wrong? What if how we think about a brand is ill defined? What if we need to rethink what we do to focus on the end result, not the means? This session will lay out my misgivings with how we obsess over the brand and give practical advice about how we might do things that are more valuable to people and businesses. (Also hit presentation gold getting Dr Strangelove, Bob Mould and David Bowie into one presentation).
This document provides advice for thinking like a Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). It emphasizes solving problems at their root cause, prioritizing effectiveness over efficiency, having ideas before data, disrupting rather than optimizing, commissioning data if it's not available, considering unusual factors, and crafting an engaging narrative with drama rather than just a theatrical performance. The overall message is to think differently than the norm in order to create meaningful change and outstanding work.
How to deconstruct your agency's business model to better understand the value you deliver to clients and better position for firm to work for the types of clients you really want.
This document outlines a branding and marketing strategy for Lifedots, a new app that helps users save and organize memories. The strategy aims to increase awareness of Lifedots by highlighting how important memories can get lost in growing social media feeds. It involves creating shareable social media content and posters that prompt users to reflect on losing memories and direct them to sign up for the upcoming Lifedots beta release. The strategy gives Lifedots a clear purpose and brand personality while targeting heavy social media users to build excitement around the new app.
Carat Global has been producing trend reports for over 5 years, looking at new technologies that will become more important and relevant to clients.
The trends for 2017 are all growing in importance, and will all have implications for clients.
The trends for 2017 involve two big themes:
The evolution of content, including live video, sports rights, and augmented reality
The growing links between digital and physical worlds, including identity, the expectation of speed, and controlling the IoT ecosystem
To help the curious class stay relevant, we’ve assembled an A-Z glossary of what we predict to be the 100 must-know terms and concepts for 2017.
We hope this cultural crib sheet will help prepare you for the year ahead.
Enjoy!
You can now download the presentation directly from Slideshare.
*Disclaimer this is just my imaginary example of a Comms Plan for the Puma work and not the actual strategy that was created by Droga5 for Puma. I had nothing to do with that plan and am just a fan of their work.
What is Comms Planning? is a presentation that provides a clear answer of the role of the Comms Planner within an Advertising Agency. I use the example of the Puma Social campaign to prove the point.
This document discusses company culture at HubSpot. Some key points:
1) HubSpot believes culture is important for attracting talent and focuses on creating a culture employees love. They aim to be radically transparent, give autonomy, and focus on delighting customers over competitors.
2) HubSpot operates with a guiding goal of delighting customers. All decisions are evaluated based on how they support this goal. They also balance a focus on mission and metrics.
3) Employees are given significant autonomy and trusted to use good judgment. Policies emphasize flexibility and transparency over rigid rules. Results are prioritized over hours worked or location.
I Secret no more! deler 45 globale topledere, iværksættere og innovatører deres hemmeligheder med læserne. Det giver et unikt indblik i, hvordan folk som Guy Kawasaki, Robin Sharma, Kevin Kruse, Derek Sivers og mange flere tænker og arbejder.
Bogen består både af artikler skrevet af de 45 bidragsydere samt interviews, som jeg har foretaget med en lang række af dem.
At White Stuff, they believe in putting people at the heart of what they do. They are a multi-channel brand established in 1985 that has grown to over 100 shops internationally selling women's and men's clothing as well as accessories and homeware. Their shops are unique locations that are warm, welcoming environments designed to feel like homely hangouts for customers.
This module provides an introduction to creative careers and entrepreneurship. It discusses the traits of creative and business thinking and highlights emerging trends in the creative industries. These include creative entrepreneurs acting as disruptors, creativity for collective good through social innovation, and the rise of creative experiences. The module aims to inspire aspiring creative entrepreneurs by sharing lessons from established creative entrepreneurs and discussing how to realize talents and make a creativity pay.
In this innovative book Jürgen Salenbacher shares his unique personal coaching method designed to develop creative thinking and innovation. The method, which originated as a career management tool, can be used by anyone who wishes to explore what they have to offer the world. In five succinct chapters Salenbacher reveals how to use brand positioning methodology to discover where to go next
This document summarizes an invitation to join a one-year entrepreneurship accelerator program called Generation 2 in London. The program aims to significantly scale businesses and develop entrepreneurs through intensive learning, mentorship, coworking space, and community support. Selected entrepreneurs will receive business methodology training, confidence building, assistance scaling their business, and access to a network of experts and mentors over the course of the year-long program. The selection criteria prioritizes meaningful business ideas that are service-based, scalable, and aligned with the program's values of being open, brave, and focused on creating ownership.
Pop Inc. is a company that aims to support creators by giving them tools to monetize their work across different creative outlets. Their mission is to fulfill their responsibility of ensuring creators are getting paid. They outlined their core behaviors which are Creatives First, Over Serve, Learn Fast, Open Communication, and Respect Time. These behaviors are important for building their culture and individual adherence to them leads to more ownership and responsibility. They operate in a transparent way and share key information publicly so everyone has context to make good decisions. They also strive to build an inclusive and diverse team to best serve the diverse community of creators. They are mindful of spending and only invest in things crucial for success while not impacting employee happiness. Their
As part of our work at SME Centre @ SMCCI, I delivered this workshop with the hope that our SMEs can begin discovering the exciting possibilities that Branding can bring to their businesses.
This document discusses various topics related to entrepreneurship and success, including:
- Examining entrepreneurship as a lifestyle choice and how it involves working all the time with no clear separation between work and personal life.
- Exploring different definitions of success and how it is defined individually based on factors like personal values and priorities.
- Learning techniques for goal setting, prioritizing what's important, and achieving new levels of success through clear vision, prioritization, delegation, and learning new skills.
- Examples are provided of entrepreneurs discussing what success means to them and how failure can also be viewed as a learning experience. The importance of work-life balance and self-care for entrepreneurs is also emphasized
Sift Media Culture Code - Inspiring Positive ActionIan Robins
This document outlines the culture code of Sift Media, an inspiring company. It discusses that amazing companies have 3 key elements: a clear purpose, people that make a difference, and a strong culture that enables people. Sift Media's culture is based on 8 principles: putting people first, relentlessly pursuing their purpose of inspiring people, obsessing over audiences, fostering autonomy with purpose, having a mindset of curiosity to improve, using metrics that provide insights, being transparent and honest, and having fun. The culture aims to inspire people to take positive action through their work.
The document discusses opportunities for entrepreneurship and financial freedom through a personal franchising business model called TWCo. It argues that this model allows one to earn over 3 million pesos in 6 months by leveraging social relationships and the business system, requiring only 4-6 hours of work per day compared to longer hours for traditional employment or business ownership. The TWCo approach aims to accelerate one's success by providing training, dividing labor, and sharing risks and profits across participants in the network.
This module examines the concept of what success looks like for each of us. It is made up of case studies which makes it a very rich source of information.
Over two hundred years of collective experience has gone into this document. Those who contributed are not only talented individuals with a wealth of knowledge, but also compassionate professionals who remember what it's like to be a student. They've all taken time out of their already overtaxed schedules to share a lesson based on their own personal experience.
Everyone was asked one simple question: What makes a good advertising intern?
Despite being so open-ended, the question yielded many common themes. Passion for the business, a positive attitude and an amazing work ethic were mentioned a number of times. Enthusiasm was also highlighted often, as was - hmm - proper hygiene. Each and every contributor was brutally honest and candid. Anyone who reads this revealing document owes them a huge debt of gratitude.
I edited a Tom Peters sales slide deck to shorten it and emphasize what I present on. Need a sales trainer for your cable or phone company? Give our office a call! http://rad-info.net
The Product is You - Developing your personal brand iconDavin Skonberg
This document discusses how individuals can become the product in the new global renaissance by developing their personal brand. It argues that people are now desperate for authentic experiences rather than just products, and that the most valued things in the new economy are skills that come from creative people. It encourages embracing one's "heroic creative essence" and merging one's personal life with professional dreams in order to truly embody the brand. It provides tips on finding the "sweet spot" of one's personal brand icon and launching one's entrepreneurial journey from a unique platform focused on passion, power and purpose.
This document provides an overview of the Lean Startup methodology. It begins with the author recounting his experience failing in his first startup due to not knowing the right process. He then describes his later success with IMVU by following an unorthodox approach of rapidly iterating based on experiments rather than feedback. This led to the development of Lean Startup principles applying lean manufacturing concepts to innovation. The Lean Startup movement aims to reduce waste from building unwanted products and help more ideas come to fruition.
This document provides an overview of the Lean Startup methodology. It begins with the author recounting his experience failing in his first startup due to not knowing the right process. He then describes his later success with IMVU by following an unorthodox approach of rapidly iterating based on experiments rather than feedback. This led to the development of Lean Startup principles applying lean manufacturing concepts to innovation. The Lean Startup movement aims to reduce waste from building unwanted products and help more startups succeed through the right process.
Similar to Building a Creative and Diverse Company (20)
Questions about Hiring for AI EngineeringBryan Bischof
This discusses the most important questions (and my answers) about hiring for AI Engineering teams.
It specifically discusses what attributes you should look for in hires, how to interview them, and what the team makeup should look like.
Embracing Change_ Volunteerism in the New Normal by Frederik Durda.pdfFrederik Durda
The new normal has not diminished the spirit of volunteerism; rather, it has transformed it, opening up new avenues for individuals to connect with and support their communities. As we continue to adapt, volunteerism will remain a vital force in building resilient, compassionate, and inclusive societies.
Understanding Bias: Its Impact on the Workplace and Individualssanjay singh
In the presentation, I delve into what bias is, the different types of biases that commonly occur, and the profound negative impacts they have on both workplace dynamics and individual well-being. Understanding these aspects is the first step towards creating a more equitable and supportive work culture.
1. YES WE CANBuilding creative and diverse companies
MAY 2016 WOLF & WILHELMINE
2. WOLF & WILHELMINE2
HALLO
In January 2014 we launched Wolf & Wilhelmine,
a brand shop driven by our purpose of
Do Great Work, Live Great Lives.
We were first focused on building an environment for
sustainable creativity - i.e. a workplace where we
can do the work we love without killing ourselves.
As we’ve grown over the past two years, we’ve
realized that diversity is crucial to sustainable
creativity and therefore we actively foster it.
Because to meaningfully create for the world we
must understand it. And the world is a diverse place.
3. WOLF & WILHELMINE3
At W&W, when we say “creativity” we’re not
just talking about making something beautiful
(although that’s rad too).
When we use the word “creativity” we’re
referring to a holistic definition: living, making
and solving in inventive ways that transcend
the norm and make impact.
4. WOLF & WILHELMINE4
Creativity is a competitive necessity. Diversity is a
crucial component of creativity.
Building a shop that honors creativity and diversity
means that you’re focusing on two things:
Building an ENVIRONMENT that is conducive to
creativity and filling it with a rollicking mix of PEOPLE.
5. WOLF & WILHELMINE5
We dug into what academia had to say about creativity, and learned
that creativity loves nature, tough challenges, naps and sleep, time
for the mind to wander, exercise, meditation, a 40-hour work week,
communication, collaboration, collisions with other brains, alone
time, plants and LEGOs (among other things).
Astoundingly, our “creative companies” don’t build themselves in
accordance with the research. In fact, our industry norms contradict
the conditions necessary for creativity. In today’s competitive
environment, that seemed crazy.
The initial W&W experiment: could we build a sustaining business
that is creativity sustainable?
And then diversity quickly came in…
SO FIRST WE DID OUR HOMEWORK
ON BUILDING A CREATIVE ENVIRONMENT
6. WOLF & WILHELMINE6
There are people in the world that aren’t white men.
Our businesses should have those people in them
(along with white men).
Why?
7. WOLF & WILHELMINE7
If creativity is all about inventive living, making and solving,
perspectives that collide, blend with and challenge one another
make that invention more robust. That’s where diversity comes in.
Diversity expands our input set.
Diversity makes us think harder.
Diversity pressure tests.
Diversity makes our output stronger.
Diversity isn’t just a social good.
Diversity is good business.
DIVERSITY SUPERCHARGES CREATIVITY
8. TEN THINGS I’VE LEARNED
THE PAST TWO YEARS WHILE
BUILDING A CREATIVE AND
DIVERSE BUSINESS
10. WOLF & WILHELMINE10
After spending a decade in the industry, I went on a walkabout. And
while on the walkabout, I realized there were things that I didn’t like
about my career… which was affecting my work and life.
- Didn’t feel creative anymore
- Rarely felt “in flow”
- Working insane hours - I was tired
- Whipped around by unpredictable processes
- Working on unambitious projects with scared clients
- Wading through the wrong project staffing - not enough
firepower and/or expertise
- The best people were going freelance - demoralizing
- Had to focus on advertising as output… which felt
increasingly irrelevant
W&W WAS BIRTHED FROM PAIN
11. WOLF & WILHELMINE11
I also realized there were things that I loved about what I did:
- Brand strategy is hella interesting
- Brand strategy can help companies be more powerful (if we
cleanly focus there)
- Helping companies behave more powerfully, both internally and
externally, is very interesting and impactful
- It’s fun working on different projects, different challenges
- It’s great when you get client trust
- There are some awesome people in (and out) of the industry
W&W WAS BIRTHED FROM LOVE
12. WOLF & WILHELMINE12
Realization: I needed to build something
that didn’t exactly exist yet.
For this industry
People-friendly
Works with today’s tools and speed
Embraces the modern workforce
13. WOLF & WILHELMINE13
The original guiding principle of building W&W:
Take on the pain points one by one
while keeping an eye on what we love.
15. WOLF & WILHELMINE15
As noted before, there is a ton of research on creativity and how to create create environments and productive teams.
After doing our homework, we focused on:
WE RESEARCHED CREATIVITY
The 40 hour work week exists
for a reason - our
productivity and creativity
drops off a cliff once we
work more. Also, we’re better
creatively when we are de-
screened, have time to
explore and let the brain
wander.
TIME SPENT WORKING vs NOT
The institutionalization of
the industry is real and
dangerous to doing great
work. We’re better creatively
when we collide with other
thinkers and get challenged
by fresh perspectives.
OXYGEN
It’s really hard to do great,
creative thinking when the
foundations of a project are
wobbly. But when the
process is like butter, the
thinking has all the room to
be amazing.
PROCESSES
When people feel safe and
valued, they perform better.
This isn’t about coddling,
but more about treating
people as people, having
empathy and understanding
that it’s about the people…
and the work follows.
KINDNESS
16. WOLF & WILHELMINE16
I’m not the first person who has started a company or worked with
creative talent. So I got all up on the business of wiser people who
had already started businesses, both in the industry and otherwise.
(I still get up in their business as much as they’ll let me)
Main questions have been around:
- Systems: billing, accounting, contracts, lawyers
- Building out a team
- Vision for the company
- Growing
- Mistakes
I’M ALWAYS TALKING TO OTHER FOUNDERS
17. WOLF & WILHELMINE17
From Harvard Business Review to Medium to Women Who Run with
the Wolves, I’m constantly taking in inputs. The topics I focus on are:
- how to run a business meaningfully
- creative environments and organization
- burn-out
- supporting a diverse workforce
- supporting human beings, not just workers
I’m looking for tips, not panaceas.
My path is not yours and your path is not mine. But we can help and
learn from one another.
I’M ALWAYS READING BOOKS AND ARTICLES
18. WOLF & WILHELMINE18
I’ve spent the past two years saying “I don’t know” more than I ever
have in my life. It’s allowed generosity to flow in.
In addition to talking to other founders, I’ve tapped hard into my
network to help wade through issues, anywhere from equity
negotiation to approaching PR.
But that means that I need to be generous in return and help that
network when they need it. Karma, people.
I’M ALWAYS ASKING PEOPLE FOR HELP
20. WOLF & WILHELMINE20
WHAT WE MEAN BY “LIVE GREAT LIVES”
Real time away from work,
both physical and mental.
Time for yourself. Engaging
meaningfully with the
outside world.
SPACE
Getting more kick-ass at the
things you care about.
PROGRESS
Mental, physical, emotional
care. Feeling balanced,
powerful, fueled.
HEALTH
Connection. Taking care of
one another.
LOVE
Laughter is awesome (and
essential). We don’t take
ourselves too seriously.
FUN
Honoring “you be you.”
Building a company around
the people. Supporting
people living a life of
meaning and purpose.
TRUTH
21. WOLF & WILHELMINE21
YOU CAN’T JUST TELL PEOPLE TO CREATE SPACE IN
THEIR LIVES; THE COMPANY MUST HELP
Pet peeve: Companies waxing on about “work/life” balance without fundamentally evolving operations to support it.
Without changing the way you do business, you are putting the onus on the employees, absolving the company from
doing much more than lip service (which is good PR). Reality? The company and employees must work together.
Every Monday the core team
meets to talk through work
load and resources. If
someone has too much on
their plate, putting them in
danger of being over 40
hours, we figure out
strategies together to lessen
the load.
WEEKLY POW-WOW
Coming up on year two, we
completely close the
company for a week around
the 4th of July. America!
SUMMER BREAK
We do blackout vacations -
no email, no contact when
you're out. To help with that,
we prep clients, divert
workload and have
developed an ease out and
ease in system.
VACATION BLACKOUTS
No emails sent to anyone
after 7pm, no Saturday
emails and Sunday emails
are optional. No workloads
are agreed to with clients
that would involve weekend
work to get it done.
7 PM / SATURDAY RULE
22. WOLF & WILHELMINE22
ME (to a coach about a year ago):
“I don’t understand why people aren’t taking time off.”
COACH:
“When’s the last time you took time off?”
ME:
(silence)
When you’re leading, you need to show people that it’s okay to have a
life. When you don’t, they won’t.
AND I HAVE TO SET THE EXAMPLE
23. WOLF & WILHELMINE23
We are very straightforward with our policies around email, weekends
and vacations with our clients. It is written into our proposals and our
scope language and we communicate it clearly.
Creating space means that everyone has to be a part of it.
I didn’t know if clients would “tolerate” this (many people told me they
wouldn’t). Learnings:
- Clients don’t like surprises, so don’t surprise them.
- Clients are nice human beings if you treat them as such.
- Clients are often relieved that someone is being reasonable.
- If the work is good, clients are all good.
NONE OF THIS CAN BE A SECRET
24. WOLF & WILHELMINE24
If we want to build an environment where we can support our people
and be accommodating to different life situations, we must figure out
the parental leave policy.
Full transparency: it’s tough. Being a small business in America and
New York State at this moment and offering parental leave is not
business- and profit-friendly. The system hardly helps. Especially if
you’re running a business that, unlike tech, skews female.
Best case scenario: growth and innovation of W&W slows.
Worst case scenario: we get into financial trouble.
We’re committed to offering it and getting it right, but it’s difficult.
CURRENT “GIVING SPACE" CHALLENGE: PARENTAL LEAVE
25. WOLF & WILHELMINE25
MAKING SPACE HELPS WITH HEALTH,
BUT WE DO A FEW OTHER THINGS TOO…
Meet Missy, our Health & Wellness Wolf
Missy’s job is to tend to the environmental, physical and emotional
needs of the Wolves… which includes sourcing on-brand toilet paper
holders for the Den and other things like:
- Making sure our space is on point and a healthy environment
- Helping with our weekly #mindrightmonday (optional)
meditation session
- Running bi-weekly (optional) morning boot camp sessions
- Managing our fitness benefit
- Booking travel so we don't lose our minds
- Assisting on projects
- Keeping the whole ship running smoothly
26. WOLF & WILHELMINE26
Holistic professional growth isn’t something that just happens. If I want a smarter team that is progressing in leadership, the
company needs to invest in that.
WE GIVE PEOPLE TOOLS FOR PROGRESS
We regularly have coaches
come into the company to
work through either holistic
leadership training or
specific skill needs.
COACHING
Building on Wolf School, we
have a network of properly
seasoned professionals (ex-
C-suite types) on call to
advise on projects and push
thinking forward.
OG’s
A part of our oxygen and
education philosophy, we
bring in guest teachers every
two weeks to teach the Pack
something new.
WOLF SCHOOL
Every full time Wolf has an
annual allotment of money
to spend on classes/books of
their choosing.
EDUCATION BENEFIT
27. WOLF & WILHELMINE27
Kim and Val taught a grad studio in Strategic Design and Management at Parsons this past semester, which meant changing
project and travel schedules to accommodate their teaching schedule. All good.
AND GIVE THEM SPACE TO GROW
28. WOLF & WILHELMINE28
About a month after most projects we do a hot wash. A hot wash is an
evaluation of the project and how we did on several measures, including:
- Pitch process
- Legal, finance, SOW’s
- Project design
- Strategic approach
- Deliverables
- Free-range wolves
- Wolf team vibe and energy
- Client relationship
These can be tough, but they spark course correction, learning and
tremendous growth if done constructively.
A PART OF PROGRESS IS ADMITTING WE CAN DO BETTER
Lauren breaking it down… in a tent.
29. WOLF & WILHELMINE29
YOU BE YOU: SUPPORTING NON-TRADITIONAL TALENT
Executive Producer Operations Producer Free-range Strategist Free-range Strategist
We look for diversity of career background to bring in collisions and perspectives.
As a result, we often find awesome people that 1) don’t come from advertising and 2) we don’t know
what to do with right away. But for the right people, we train, make spaces and make it work.
32. WOLF & WILHELMINE32
Yup, people have said it.
Because we didn’t have a big announcement when we started.
Because we don’t have shiny offices.
Because AdAge and Agency Spy doesn’t know who we are and/or care.
(That’s probably because we don’t make ads)
Because we work with clients differently.
Because we take real vacations and take care of one another.
Because we do things the way that we do.
*That’s fun*
“YOU’RE NOT A REAL COMPANY”
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Culture, our country, our city, our industry… gives so much validation
to the crazed worker. If you’re not busy, what are you doing?
Sometimes, we have struggles when people start working with us or
at key moments of growth. It’s like watching someone withdraw
from heroin. As she rejiggers her sense of identity and worth, we
have to give her space and understanding.
CUE CONFIDENCE CRISIS’
35. WOLF & WILHELMINE35
When we started it, people
resisted and broke the rule
quite a bit. It took me
enforcing it and calling
people out on it to get it
under control.
7 PM RULE WAS A TUSSLE
I thought people would self-
police their workload and
raise her hand if
overwhelmed. Ah sweet
ignorance! We put the
weekly pow-wow in place to
so that people had a place to
reflect on workload and
speak up.
WEEKLY POW-WOW
To get people truly off of the
system when on vacation, a
person isn’t eligible for
bonus unless she takes at
least 10 days of black-out
days a year.
VACATIONS = BONUSES
THERE HAVE BEEN MOMENTS OF TOUGH LOVE
I personally hate policing. But I also realized that the things we do in our first two years will get powerfully woven into
our DNA. If I don’t want W&W to turn into a sweatshop, I need to get ahead of sweatshop behaviors.
Biggest learning: get my leadership team involved and personally responsible for all of us adhering to the rules. Make
sure everyone is educated on how we roll. This can’t just be a top-down situation.
36. WOLF & WILHELMINE36
Working at W&W is like dating an older woman. Some people are ready
for it, others aren’t. And that’s okay.
It takes maturity, self-awareness, a comfort with risk, time
management skills, a love of collaboration, the strength to ask for
help and the insight of knowing when to take care of the work and
when to take care of yourself.
My initial mantra of W&W was:
“If W&W ever turns into a sweatshop, I’m closing it down.”
My new mantra is:
“If W&W ever turns into a sweat-shop, I’m going to remove the
people that are making it a sweat shop…with love.”
BUT ALSO REALIZING THIS ISN’T FOR EVERYONE
38. WOLF & WILHELMINE38
THE W&W OXYGEN PHILOSOPHY
IS ALL ABOUT DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES
We built the company for collision.
The company operates like a blob with a spine. The spine are the people
that are in the company day in and day out. They know the W&W way
and standards. They keep our output consistent and premium.
But for every project we bring in people from our network, aka the blob.
Crafting bespoke teams using this mix of talent ensures that each
project has exactly the talent needed to powerfully solve the problem
and it also guards the spine from institutionalization.
Diversity of perspective? Check.
39. WOLF & WILHELMINE39
GENDER AND RACIAL DIVERSITY?
WE ARE TOTES KILLING IT.
CORE TEAM
(aka the DIRE WOLVES)
40. WOLF & WILHELMINE40
GENDER AND RACIAL DIVERSITY?
WE ARE TOTES KILLING IT.
CORE TEAM
(aka the DIRE WOLVES)
FREERANGE WOLVES
42. WOLF & WILHELMINE42
If you want a different system, a more competitive system, you have to be a part of building it.
The system isn’t going to just change on its own.
MY OH SHIT REALIZATIONS
I grew up middle class and
figuring out money for
summer internships was up
to me. I couldn’t have
afforded to do a W&W
internship as they were
originally structured.
REINFORCING THE BUBBLE
If it weren’t for minority
internship programs,
Kim and Val might not be
the Wolf Pack Alphas that
they are.
YOUNG KIM & VAL
The guys that got the
internships were good guys.
But they had connected,
well-off families who
intro’ed them to me and then
supported them once they
were in. We were all
participating in a well-off
bubble reinforcing itself.
YOUNG HEIDI
43. WOLF & WILHELMINE43
If we want a more diverse industry, we have to build the pipeline.
Strategy change: our summer interns this year are coming from the
same intern programs that Val and Kim came up through (MAIP and
Prep for Prep respectively).
In addition for doing work with the White House on their upcoming
Women’s Summit, we also started doing pro bono work with the Lower
East Side Girls Club, a local org that is all about breaking the cycle of
local poverty by training the next generation of ethical,
entrepreneurial and environmental leaders.
Diversity isn’t difficult to support. It does take being more
thoughtful about where we support and how we bring people into
the company.
DIVERSITY TAKES WORK
45. WOLF & WILHELMINE45
If you don’t create a narrative for your company and your people, they will get scared and create their own. Their narratives are accurate
about 1% of the time and worst case scenario about 99% of the time. Therefore, we spend a lot of time communicating in the company.
MANAGING A TEAM? OVER-COMMUNICATE.
BUILDING SOMETHING UNKNOWN? OVER-COMMUNICATE.
In addition to the core team
weekly pow wow, every week,
each wolf has a 30 minute
1:1 with their supervisor.
WEEKLY 1:1’s
Every six months, the core
team does an off-site. We
report back our first week
back in office to the broader
Pack about what was
discussed and decided.
BI-ANNUAL OFFSITES
Every two weeks, we gather
up and do an All Hands. The
core team takes turns
leading that.
ALL HANDS
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I’m pretty confident we don’t make the $$/hour off of our people that
other shops do. Our hard revenue per person probably doesn’t align with
industry standards because we just don’t book people out at the same
capacities/percentages. Sorell would be disappointed. But…
Our work is kick-ass, always premium and the talent is sustained.
Yes, everyone has their days - mine happened to be a total breakdown
in a rural Wyoming airport (it happens) - but people don’t feel
fundamentally frayed.
In two years we’ve had one person quit. The core team is still intact.
Churn isn’t something that is a problem for us right now.
Result? Without the distraction of churn, we can always move forward.
WE’RE A WPP NIGHTMARE
49. WOLF & WILHELMINE49
The path to House of Pain
- An agency starts with ambitions of doing great work and treating
their people right. They PR the hell out of how they’re going to be
the first to do it differently.
- They do that for awhile. They get a cultural hit or two.
- Bigger clients come sniffing, wanting some of their juice.
- Bigger clients mean a bigger agency team to accommodate. They
accommodate.
- The agency is suddenly big and cumbersome with painful
processes and decent work. Their reel leans heavily on year one
and two.
- The churn begins.
I don’t want W&W to become a House of Pain, so I thought holding
back a commitment to our future was the way to do it.
UP UNTIL SIX MONTHS AGO I WAS ANTI-GROWTH
50. WOLF & WILHELMINE50
Common Heidi Year One refrain:
“I don’t know if we’ll be around in a year.
We’ll see where this goes.”
51. WOLF & WILHELMINE51
Yes, I was being realistic that young companies often fail.
But more than that, I wouldn’t think meaningfully about growth
because I thought that growth = sweatshop = failure.
Having a “wait and see” mentality made growth decisions something
that happened to W&W, distancing me from culpability. (Yes, writing
this I realize how stupid that sounds).
The braver path, which a coach helped me see, is to own our growth
path and the ramifications of it. To create a vision where growth ≠
sweatshop ≠ failure.
MY LACK OF COMMITMENT CAME FROM FEAR
52. WOLF & WILHELMINE52
The first two years we talked about W&W as an experiment.
We now talk about W&W as an idea.
And we teach that idea to everyone that works with us.
We have a way of working that we enforce.
We stopped hedging about that or being scared of that.
We started writing policies around it.
We pointedly expect that to be in the Pack you need to be a part of that.
And we opened more lines of communication so people feel supported in
executing on it.
We have more work and people now than we’ve ever had.
And yet it still doesn’t feel like a sweatshop, because everyone
knows the W&W way and lives it.
STEP ONE: OWN WHAT YOU ARE
53. WOLF & WILHELMINE53
We have no aspirations of having hundreds of people, getting bought or
having a car account.
Success to us is about doing kick-ass work with a curated collection
of kick-ass people. Success is treating people right. Success is staying
nimble and highly responsive to clients. Success is believing in people,
training them and then giving them autonomy to make it happen.
I’ve been told that 50 people is where a company goes from nimble to
heavy. We’re going to play it safe - the plan now is to cap at 25 people.
And then grow in other ways.
Which is another conversation for another talk.
WE ARE JUSTICE LEAGUE
55. WOLF & WILHELMINE55
When you’re in leading the Pack, there really are few excuses.
Can we recruit interns from a different place? Yes.
Can we build teams to drive healthy collision? Yes.
Can we train someone with high potential? Yes.
Can we say no to this contract? (gulp) Yes.
It really is up to you how you want a company to be.
And that’s a lot of pressure. It take a lot of thought. It takes energy.
THE BUCK STOPS HERE
56. WOLF & WILHELMINE56
The first couple of years of W&W I took vacations and didn’t work after
7 pm, but I wasn’t deeply being good to me.
It might be a part of getting older, but I know I need to do the basic
stuff like see friends, eat well, meditate, exercise, drink a lot of water
and then do the not so basic stuff like get on my motorcycle and
disappear into nature for stretches of time.
We have this story of founders - of killing themselves to be
successful. Of the obsession, the hours, the constant stress. I get it.
A company grips hard.
But I’m learning to have moments of deeply letting go or else this
isn’t sustainable.
TO DO THAT, I’VE LEARNED I NEED TO TAKE CARE
58. WOLF & WILHELMINE58
W&W is not the company that it was two
years ago. In two years, it will probably be
a different company.
Knowing isn’t the most important thing.
59. WOLF & WILHELMINE59
The most important thing has been
making the space to find the truth of the
where we should generally be going. And
then taking the first step with an open
heart about where it can go.
60. WOLF & WILHELMINE60
If you keep that space to think and listen and
learn… the answers more often than not come.
61. WOLF & WILHELMINE61
PAIN & LOVE ARE YOUR FRIENDS
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
THE COMPANY & THE PEOPLE HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER
CULTURE IS A BITCH
SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO SMACK DOWN
THE SYSTEM REINFORCES ITSELF
YOU CAN’T TALK TOO MUCH
SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE
GROWTH ONLY KILLS IT IF YOU LET IT
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF