Culture Drives Success: Is Your Agency Delivering Happiness?
We recently had the chance to hear Jon Wolske (@zapposinsights), culture evangelist for Zappos Insights, discuss company culture at a PRSA Clevelandevent.
Zappos has been on Fortune’s 100 best places to work for five years running. Its strong culture has been a driver of employee productivity, quality customer service and brand strength. Below, we share some of the lessons learned from the talk, and how you can apply them to your agency to fuel an environment fit for success.
Read MoreHow to Help Working Parents Succeed in Your Agency
From a very young age, I’ve wanted to be a mom. Not much has changed. I’ve gone from the little girl toting around her baby doll 24/7 to a 26-year-old that dotes over strangers’ infants in the grocery store and actually wants to own a mini-van. (True stories.)
Combine these personal dreams with the fact that I work for a company that I love, in a female-dominated office, and you’ll understand why I’ve taken a pretty keen interest in how employers and individuals can help working parents succeed.
Read MoreIs a College Degree Required to Work at a Marketing Agency?
With new technologies sprouting up daily, the way that people communicate—and therefore how marketers do their jobs—is continually evolving. As explained in the The Evolution of the Prototype Marketer, corporate marketing departments struggle to recruit professionals for career paths that did not exist three years ago, while academic institutions have difficulty keeping pace.
The SXSW session, I’m Into Jobs that Don’t Even Exist Yet, confirmed this notion with a lively discussion on how universities can better prepare graduates for career paths that aren’t yet defined (or even known). The presenters cited social media editors, community managers and programmers/journalists, as examples of roles that developed in recent years. This trend is expected to continue.
For me, this begged the question: What value does a college education have, if the skills you learn could become outdated soon after (or even before) you receive your diploma? Is it worth the $27,253 of debt the average college student accumulates? Or, could this time and money be put elsewhere to better prepare students for the future?
Read More10 Tips to Build Your Agency’s Next Wave of Leadership
Young, savvy marketers have big opportunities to excel in modern firms. It’s up to these young professionals to take the initiative. But, it’s up to agency leadership to continually set the bar, provide development opportunities, and mold this next generation into a smart, powerful wave of talent.
Read MoreIs Your Agency Filling the Talent Gap?
As traditional marketers struggle to keep up, there is a large window of opportunity for agencies to fill the talent gap in corporations. With an assessment of your client’s team and a gap analysis of internal capabilities, you can have more educated conversations and customize packages accordingly.
Yet, with talent in high demand, it will be those agencies that are proactive in finding professionals with basic skill sets and training them into hybrids that will have a competitive advantage.
Read More10 Lessons Your Agency Can Learn From Brian Kelly and the Fighting Irish
In the spirit of the BCS National Championship game tonight, Chris Heiler, founder of Landscape Leadership, offers 10 lessons you can learn from Brian Kelly and the Fighting Irish.
Read MoreWhen Should Your Marketing Agency Hire?
Your pipeline is full, a large account is about to sign and your agency is nearing capacity. Do you shift resources, hire, or outsource to a partner agency? This is one of the topics being discussed as part of Marketing Agency Insider’s Client Services Series; here’s our take on the conversation.
Read MoreThe Insider Series: Q&A with Steve James, Stream Creative
Steve James (@steve_james_) is a co-founder of Stream Creative, a Milwaukee-based design and inbound marketing firm. Before establishing Stream Creative in June of 2006, Steve spent seven years at Advertising Art Studios (AAS).
In this Insider Series, Steve shares the Stream story—where they come from, where they are today and where they’re going. He also provides insight into the need for integrated, measurable services. Enjoy!
Read MoreHybrid Pros: How to Recruit, Train and Retain Top Agency Talent
Versatile talent is at the core of successful hybrid agencies. These marketing professionals, who come from diverse backgrounds, are trained to break down silos and integrate services across mobile, analytics, social, advertising, web, search, PR and content.
But, there is a talent gap. Emerging marketing disciplines, along with increasingly rapid advances in technology, make it challenging for agencies to stay ahead of the curve.
In such a competitive talent market, how do you recruit, train and retain top agency talent? Below are three key takeaways from my BOLO 2012 session.
Read MoreAre Agency Interns the Answer?
Your agency is crazy busy. New business is flooding in, and your existing staff is stretched way beyond capacity. You need some additional support in the short term to keep your head above water. Are interns the answer to your staffing needs?
I’d argue no, and here’s why.
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