We're heading to SXSW!
The Humongo crew is headed to Austin, TX for SXSW, the annual music, film and interactive super festival. We'll be attending the geekiest portion of the conference - SXSWinteractive.
Stuck at home? Not to worry. We'll be doing our best to share our experience. And we're also producing a series of videos interviewing interesting people that we believe you might be inspired by.
Check the Brand Flakes for Breakfast SXSW Edition for the latest from all of the Humongo superstars (and friends):
Darryl Ohrt: That's me, the official Prime Minister of Awesome at the world's greatest agency.
Chris Spada: Designer, creator, and now blogger at Humongo. He'll be hitting Austin for the first time. Chris will also be covering the conference at CT's creative powerhouse ConnCreatives.
Kristien Del Ferraro: From our new awesomely cool parent company Source Marketing, Kristien will be sharing her internet genius, and also hitting the geek festival as a first timer.
Ben Kunz: Thought leader, Business Week writer, blogger for Thought Gadgets, and man of brilliance from media buying and strategy firm MediAssociates will be interviewing the internet's brightest people on BrandFlakes video.
Renato Ghio: (Yes, that's a wig.) The master with a HD camera and editing suite in his backpack, he's the man responsible for all of the world-famous PlaidNation tour videos. He'll be producing the best interviews of the smartest people.
So make room for a little bit of Texas!
Labels: blogging, humongo, self promotion, sxsw
posted by darryl ohrt @ 11:13 AM
1 comments
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
meet humongo.
We have some gigantically exciting news to share. The agency formerly known as Plaid has been acquired by Source Marketing (an MDC Partners company) and will now become Humongo.
Humongo?
We feel that this new partnership deserves more than a press release. It's a huge move. A massive combination of creative super power. If awesome were a size XL, it would be Humongo. So as of today, that's the name of the greatest agency in all of the land.
Humongo. Say it out loud, with your arms in the air. Isn't it fun?
We're pretty stoked. We'll now have the resources to grow like never before. We'll have access to affiliate agencies that provide our clients what we can't. Imagine a small digital creative agency with the keys to the big guys. That's Humongo.
Our new parent company Source Marketing brings massive marketing prowess to the table that can only be described as ginormous. Sales funnels? Retail activation? ROI? Want your marketing campaign to pay for itself super fast? They've been doing all of that and more for companies like Bic, Philips, Reckitt Benckiser, Panasonic, Hunter Douglas, HSBC, Intel, Time Warner Cable and others.
We're also a part of the MDC Partners network. That gives Humongo some ginormous company. Agencies like Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal and Partners, Veritas Communications, Vitro Robertson, Mono, Red Scout...and did we mention Crispin, Porter & Bogusky??
There's plenty more on deck to be announced in the coming months. In the meantime, we'll be making our clients huge, building creative campaigns that rock the nation, and generally planning world domination.
Get in on the Humongo action.
Follow us on Twitter. Become our fan on Facebook. Check out the Humongo website. More importantly, take a look at your brand and ask yourself "could I use a little Humongo?"
We're here, ready to make something huge for you.
Labels: humongo, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 1:41 PM
9 comments
Monday, March 08, 2010
how to show people that drawing is fun
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is hosting an event called Draw On, that looks to inspire people from all walks of life to draw.
They've got impressive drawing elite involved with the event, like Maurice Sendak, Peter H Reynolds, and street artist KAWS. Here's the challenge: most adults have been been told for years that "you're not creative." Or that "drawing is for artists. Or kids."
This is exactly the mindset that Draw On! hopes to crush. Anyone can draw, and have fun doing so. Our own Matt Hunsberger produced a site that is entirely drawn. Even down to the sponsor logos. If that wasn't enough drawing, he created the site in mostly black & white, with ample white space, and gave the user a box of drawing tools. Go ahead. Draw all over the site. Have fun. Draw like you haven't drawn since you were 12.
Disclosure: Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is a client and Matt Hunsberger works for the greatest agency in the land, but that doesn't change the fact that this is awesome work.
Labels: ads, illustration, nonprofit, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:05 AM
0 comments
Monday, March 01, 2010
guest blogging this week on adland!
I've joined a worldwide consortium of super bloggers that are guest-blogging on super awesomse Adland!
Check out Adland all week for our most delicious posts while the queen of blogging, the most badass, redheaded advertising geek, Ask Dabitch takes a well earned break from her duties.
Today's posts include Art delivered like the paper, Badges like us (a MUST see if you either love or hate Foursquare updates) and a history of Olympic stick figure dudes.
Stay tuned all week for more super blog juice, and then add Adland to your blog reader for good, regular doses of brilliance.
Thanks Ask, for the opportunity!!
Labels: adindustry, blogging, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:30 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
brandflakesforbreakfast: the greatest jingle ever made.
Late last year, we posted about Love Jingles and his project to record an awesome jingle every day for 2010.
We were so impressed that we bought one for Brand Flakes. The resulting production is clearly the most fantastical jingle every heard by human ears.
You can still get in on the fun, and it's still affordable. Prices go up a little bit, every day. Get your own before they get expensive!
Labels: plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:07 AM
2 comments
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
what you look like as a one eyed monster
Weren't you just saying to your friends that you wished you were a one-eyed freak?
Before you schedule the surgery, now you can see what you'll look like, thanks to Monoclops. Upload a photo and turn yourself into a monoclops.
It's all in the spirit of promoting Minneapolis agency Mono, who are one-eyed freak friendly.
Labels: adindustry, creativeinspiration, self promotion, smallagency
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:46 AM
0 comments
Friday, November 27, 2009
the ultimate gift guide for creative people
Happy Black Friday!
This is the day that the greatest blog in all of the land launches a gift edition!
The Brand Flakes For Breakfast Gift Guide is an entire blog devoted to the most killerest gift ideas for the creative person in your life. We'll post new, awesomely delicious ideas each and every day through the shopping, selling and giving season.
While today is the first day for the 2009 gift buying season, you can still browse through 2007 and 2008's awesome ideas, and then check back each day for more new, great stuff!
Get shopping. (And feel free to send ideas to @plaid)
Labels: blogging, holiday, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:28 AM
0 comments
Friday, October 09, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most awesome creative agency:
We brought the Yahoo Purple Pedals bike to the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, to participate in their BikeFest event. The turnout was massive, and everyone fell in love with the purple bike. We also shot some new Purple Pedals photos at a grade school (always interesting), and at client RMI Direct.
I had the pleasure of speaking at a Direct Marketer's Association event, for the Hudson Valley Chapter. I was on a panel with Valorie at Creative Concepts, and Ken Crites at Green Mountain Coffee, and needless to say, we KILLED IT. That's how we roll.
I spill my guts on Plaid failures in a brilliant new piece on Advertising Age.
Ausra's bobble head got launched to our main site.
High school student Shane joined Plaid for to shadow supreme coding goddess Steph. He'll be scarred for life, we promise.
The AdLawGuy paid a visit to our world headquarters and schooled the crew on everything related to copyright, trademarks and how to not to get yourself sued while creating brilliant creative work.
Chris got a haircut.
This weekend, Chris and I will be running our first ever half marathon. You can track how slow we're going here live during the race, by entering our last names (Ohrt, and Spada.) Plaidsters will also be celebrating the marriage of former Plaidster Sara this weekend. Cupcakes will be devoured.
Have a great weekend!
Labels: plaid, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 5:24 PM
0 comments
Friday, September 25, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most incredible creative agency:
I gave the keynote at the American Advertising Federation in Savannah on Wednesday, to kick off their 2009 - 2010 season. I shared the details of what we call "the attraction engine" at Plaid, our industrial strength business generation machine. You can listen to the audio and see details of my presentation on the AAF Savannah website. What a cool city, with an awesome creative community. Special thanks to Melanie, Cathy and Hal for extra amazing southern hospitality.
We began the production of our Purple Pedals project. We were invited by Yahoo! to participate in this super cool, international creative initiative. They've crafted 20 custom Yahoo Purple Pedals bikes, each equipped with solar powered cameras that automatically take a photo every 60 seconds, and then it uploads to Flickr. Pretty amazing.
We're turning it into our own project of sorts, and have created What Makes You Happy? We're attempting to have the bike photograph as many people as possible holding the answer to the question "what make you happy?" in front of the camera. We hope that the end result will be a really sweet gallery of photos that reads like a melting pot of human happiness. We'll see how this unfolds over the next couple of weeks. Dave got to ride the bike behind a police escort, earlier in the week (pic, above.)
In the meantime, you can check out the live photo stream for our bike on Flickr, as well as the Plaid Flickr photostream for regular updates.
Our Parking Day event from last week was a huge hit, and landed us on the front page of the local paper. Always great to be in the local news, especially when it's not the police blotter.
Leaves have begun to fall, and this weekend Plaidsters will enjoy a rockabilly festival, cool local shows, and some rest and relaxation. You should do the same!
Labels: plaid, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:59 PM
0 comments
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
you should really fly to savannah. right now.
I'll be speaking about self promotion to the Savannah chapter of the American Advertising Federation, at Alligator Soul on Wednesday. If you get on a plane right now, you could probably make it.
FutureDarryl already attended the event (because you can do that when you have time travel at your fingertips) and he says it's the most awesome presentation ever.
From what I've heard, every awesome person within an hour's drive of Savannah is going to be there. If you live nearby, you should take a long lunch and attend. You don't want to be the one cool person left in your office with the creepy guy who decided to "eat lunch at his desk." Gross.
Labels: adindustry, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:25 AM
1 comments
Friday, September 18, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most awesome creative agency:
Whew! What a week! Lots of crazy, cool work in house, and fun events happening this week.
Earlier in the week, David art directed a two day photo and video shoot for client Sikorsky Financial Credit Union. We shot with the legendary Chip Simons for stills, and Renato Ghio for video. They made people beautious. Even in the rain.
My new post was published on Advertising Age. I've outlined Plaid's awesome open management philosophy, and how it could change the world as we know it. ;)
Our Purple Pedals bike has been shipped from California, and on its way to Plaid world headquarters. We have great plans for it over the next few weeks.
Future Darryl stopped by our office to deliver a most important message about an earth shattering event happening in Savannah, GA next week. If you live anywhere near the peach state, you should be making arrangements to get there.
Today our agency participated in PARKing Day, an an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens independently but simultaneously temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks. We've added a few photos and video clips to our Flickr photostream, and will update more next week.
This weekend, Plaidsters will be enjoying the last weekend of summer and sun, checking out a sweet local art show, and getting ready for another Plaidtastic week. Hope you're doing the same!
Labels: plaid, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:23 PM
0 comments
happy park(ing) day!
Today our agency will be participating in PARK(ing) Day, an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.
We'll be turning a parking space in front of our building into a Plaid park. We imagined the perfect park would be a place with comfy chairs and free wifi so that you could hang outside and tweet your friends. So that's the park that we're creating! (If you're in the area, stop by and say hi!)
Labels: plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 10:17 AM
4 comments
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
the greatest article ever published on ad age
If you haven't been paying attention to Advertising Age lately, then you might have missed how it's become the most awesome publication on earth. Yes, they already feature Brand Flakes on their top 150 ad industry blogs, but now they've published several (that's more than two!) pieces of mine in their Small Agency Diary section.
These latest words of genius are titled Transparency Begins at Home, and it's all about being transparent with your employees. Taking the sharing philosophy inside the organization as well as outside the organization can do wonders, and you should give it a try.
We're here to change the world, and Ad Age is on board. Woot!
Labels: adage, adindustry, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:36 AM
1 comments
Friday, September 04, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the nation's hottest creative agency, Plaid:
We've put together the plans for another art initiative for our city. We're taking advantage of being invited to participate in Yahoo's Purple Pedals program, and turning the event into something that anyone can participate in. We'll share details soon, once we receive our bike - but you can see a sneak peek at Matt's design work, above.
We started a super cool project for Aflac that we can't tell you about, but can't wait to show you. We're also working on something for Rosa Regale that you'll be able to join in on. Lots of announcements, soon.
We committed to participate in the upcoming (Park)ing Day, where citizens take over the parking spaces in their cities and turn them into something fun. You should do the same thing in your city!
Former Plaidster Sara Champion got married!! She's got the coolest wedding pics that you'll ever see.
Today was our last half day Friday of the season, and this weekend Plaidsters will be enjoying a three day weekend! Many will also be taking in the Safe to Swim Weekend 2 (S2SW2) festival that's taking place around town.
Have fun on the last weekend of summertime!
Labels: plaid, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:57 PM
0 comments
Saturday, August 29, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most awesome creative agency:
I appeared on the Beancast podcast for the very first time! Needless to say, this was the best episode of the Beancast that ever was produced. Other guests included world famous Bill Green of Make the Logo Bigger and Kelly Eidson, a contributing writer for Advertising Age.
I also wrote another piece for Advertising Age Small Agency Diary. The post was featured in the AdAge email newsletter, and resulted in loads of comments, which means that it was the best post ever. (Technically, this happened the week before, but since we forgot to post last week, and it's important to brag about stuff like this, we're including it here. Stop getting all technical.)
Adrants posted about our G2G project for a division of the AFL-CIO that helps soldiers get great construction jobs when they return home. This is a really great effort for some really great men and women, so spread the word.
David launched a new site for Powderhouse Productions. This may have happened the week before as well, but we're too lazy to fact check stuff like that. Powderhouse produces some pretty awesome television, and now we're almost guaranteed a starring role in something. Someday.
Ausra's bobble head arrived! As you may already know, Plaid employees are bobbled and then featured on the Plaid website. Ausra's bobble features the thinnest body of all of the bobbles in our collection, so now we're putting the other bobbles on a training program.
This weekend, Plaidsters will be soaking in the best that hurricane Danny has to offer. Hopefully you won't be doing the same. Enjoy!
Labels: plaid, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 3:52 PM
0 comments
Monday, August 24, 2009
best marketing podcast ever
If you've never listened to the Beancast, here's a good reason to start: I'm featured in this week's episode.
You'll love hearing Kelly Eidson, an Advertising Age contributing writer and BrandFlake's colleague Bill Green from Make the Logo Bigger chat about stuff that's happening in the industry. But clearly the best part of this week's episode is my glorious voice.
In the "Risky Business" episode of the Beancast, we chat about taking risks, anonymous blogging, Twitter movie reviews, banner ads and the Brody PR blunder. We all go on and on as if we're experts in everything. Download it now - because you're tired of all the songs on your iPod, anyway.
Labels: plaid, podcasting, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:41 AM
2 comments
Friday, August 14, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most awesome creative agency:
We've sorted out tour shirts, conducted post-tour meetings and are already setting up plans for next year's tour. (We have a handful of small and medium PlaidNation shirts left - if you know of anyone worthy, give us a shout.)
We're now working with Riunite and Rosa Regale, which means that many of our brainstorms have turned into wine tastings. Not that that's a bad thing. :) There were several brainstorms/tastings this week at Plaid, resulting in nothing but pure awesomeness. (If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and we'll poor you a glass.) In the meantime, be sure to follow Riunite & Rosa Regale on Twitter.
We just launched a Facebook application for soldiers who are nearing discharge. The Good to Go Countdown Clock lets soldiers share their discharge date with family and friends, so that everyone can be ready for their return home. Send it to anyone you know who's serving! (We'll be sharing more about G2G and a cool program that helps soldiers find jobs, soon.)
We inflated the tires on our office Segway PT. For the first time ever. We love this magic machine that takes us from place to place like a magic carpet. It's extra cool that this is the only maintenance required, because we really don't like to get our hands dirty.
This weekend, Plaidsters will be enjoying the first heatwave of the entire summer with Oyster Festivals, bike rides, runs (the athletic kind, not the kind caused by Oysters) and of course District 9 viewings.
Labels: plaid, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 3:55 PM
2 comments
Sunday, July 05, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's greatest creative agency:
We launched our first video for the PlaidNation tour. This is our pre-tour video, where you get to meet some of the Plaid tour, and otherwise get pumped up for the most delicious and nutritious rolling media and creativity demonstration that ever hit the highway. Sign up for a reminder that the tour has started on the tour's dashboard, if you're worried that you'll miss it.
Some of the crew have been working like crazy on the last components of pre-tour production. Hotels and motels have mostly been secured. We're finalizing our tour stops (if you're on the route, we still have room in some markets for a stop/visit. Give us a shout if you'd like to see the Plaid Flex.) The cameras that will be installed in the Flex have been tested for broadcast. Camera mounts and all tech equipment are being packed up.
Follow Plaid on Twitter, if you want to keep up with the lastest and greatest about the tour. We've been tweeting the behind the scenes action for a while now, and will be tweeting non-stop come July 20!
We're sending out blogger packages of Plaid love. If you write for a blog, just write a post on the most spectacular thing to happen all summer, and we'll send you a package, too.
Work-wise, the week was filled to the gills with brainstorms, conceptual strategy building and production work. We've got a couple of cool things that are close to launching that we'll share real soon.
Plaidsters celebrated a three day weekend, with the Fourth of July. Some will spend this time resting and relaxing, others will blow things up. Hope that you're doing the same.
Labels: plaid, plaidsummertour, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 1:42 PM
0 comments
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
confirmed: brandflakes is the best blog ever
There's a new chart in town, and we like it lots. Mostly because they put Brand Flakes For Breakfast as the #11 blog of all the blogs about branding. And the #6 blog based on unique visitors (!!) but you can visit the list to learn about lots of other really cool (but slightly less awesome) blogs around the industry and around the world.
Labels: blogging, branding, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:21 AM
1 comments
Friday, June 12, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most futuristic creative agency:
We've pre-launched the Plaidtastic Ten. We really think you're going to dig this. We've been told by a messenger from the future that this will be a pretty spectacular group of people that you'll learn and gain inspiration from. There's a ton of awesomeness going on out there, and we intend to share it with the world.
PlaidNation buttons arrived! If you're on the tour route, this is just one of the fabulous pieces of treasurous swag that we'll be laying down on you and your friends.
Pop Heroes, the most awesome band ever, recorded the new theme song to the PlaidNation tour. The song will be available for download on iTunes and the tour dashboard in the next few weeks. In the meantime, please enjoy last year's theme song.
BrandFlakes was featured in a new book about design blogs! We just received our advance copy of the book, and it's stunningly beautiful. We're not sure where you can purchase your own copy - but will post a link as soon as we get details, and we're certain that you'll agree this is the best book ever written.
Several new projects kicked off this week, and we can't wait to tell you about them. We'll be launching components from a few campaigns in the oncoming weeks.
Missy from iiiDesign and her friend Tracy from HelloMello came for a visit to NYC, and we had a blast catching up. Missy was instrumental in welcoming the PlaidNation tour to the west coast, so it was pretty awesome to hang with her on the cold, grey coast.
Plaidsters are praying that they'll see the big orange ball of fire in the sky this weekend, as it's been a long, grey week. Hope you experience the same.
Labels: self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 10:31 PM
0 comments
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
brandflakes confirmed as the best blog ever
It's true, because now we're in a book.
David Airey received his advance copy of Blogs - Mad About Design, and posted some sweet pics. This is a big, fat, beautiful book devoted entirely to blogs about design.
(David Airey actually has two blogs that are featured, which likely makes him the only person cooler than us.) It's awesome that BrandFlakes looks like it was placed in the front part of the book, so that you don't have to read the whole thing to get to the good part.
We can't find a link to where you can find the book just yet - and we don't have our copy yet either - but will share as soon as we find details. This should definitely be the gift that you give your mom, your grandpop, best friends and kids for their birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas.
Labels: blogging, design, publishing, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:05 AM
6 comments
Saturday, June 06, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most awesome creative agency:
Over the weekend, we produced the first of what will be multiple Plaid art initiatives for the community where we work. Chalk Walk brought together professional artists, families and other cool people to color the sidewalks of our city. We commissioned two internationally known artists, Ellis Gallagher and Curtis Goldstein to add to the mix. The result was a bunch of fun for everyone. Renato graciously produced a video documenting the event!
The CT Film Festival started on Tuesday, and the event was kicked off with a private VIP party at Plaid's world headquarters. Plaid employees were treated to the finest catered food, loads of beer and wine, and a bunch of people in dresses and sport jackets. Even the Mayor (above) stopped by to declare that "Plaid is officially the greatest agency in all of the land."
We've been doing work, too. We've launched a few things recently that we keep forgetting to share:
A new site for a Marc Ecko line of watches. Chris' design work sets the perfect stage for these bitchin' time pieces.
We've launched some awesome stuff for Segway recently. You've probably already seen Project P.U.M.A., and now David just completed work on the new Segway Patrol site. All the Segway goodness packed into a kickass device meant for layin' down the law.
A new site for Interstudy, the hottest study abroad program ever. There's still work being completed behind the scenes, but this will be an incredible experience for students. Soon, there will be live video webinars that allow you to chat with an Interstudy advisor and loads of other cool tools. (Nice work, Chris and Koombea!)
On Friday, we celebrated National Doughnut Day. This is our favorite day of the year. We opted not to decorate the office or get a Doughnut tree this year, but enjoyed plenty of frosted delights. With sprinkles.
PlaidNation tour planning is in full effect. This week, we were happy to find out that The Q Hotel, (voted best hotel in Kansas City!) signed on as an official sponsor. We can't wait to hit Kansas City, and staying at the Q is going to make it even more awesome. The Q joins Ford Motors and Sprint as official sponsors.
Plaidsters Chris and I ended the week with a Moonlight 5K race, a local running race that takes place after the sun sets. If it weren't raining, I am certain that we would have come in within the top ten. ;) Even still, we kicked the ass of hundreds and hundreds of the over 750 registered runners!
The sun is scheduled to come out over the weekend - something that doesn't happen frequently in our part of New England. Enjoy and have fun.
Labels: art, plaidsummertour, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:40 AM
0 comments
Monday, June 01, 2009
sprint: official plaidnation sponsor
The PlaidNation tour is only FORTY-EIGHT DAYS away. That's like less than fifty. There's a massive army of ninjas getting everything ready behind the scenes at Plaid.
In the meantime, you should know that Sprint has joined Ford Motors as an official sponsor of the tour! We'll be streaming more content than ever this year and it will all be made possible by Sprint!
Look: There's even an official quote from Rich Pesce, Manager of Social Media for the brand:
"The Plaid Nation tour is the perfect event to showcase what's possible with a Sprint Mobile Broadband connection on our 3G network. Whether downloading pictures or music, staying connected to social networking sites, streaming video, or simply staying in-touch with friends and family during the tour, we are really excited that Sprint will be a part of the journey and to help Plaid stay connected from Detroit to New Orleans."
Thanks, Rich! We're looking forward to lighting up the internet with tons of creative goodness in just FORTY-EIGHT days!
(Brand people: not too late to get your brand on tour, too. All of the cool brands are doing it.)
Labels: plaid, plaidsummertour, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:28 AM
3 comments
Friday, May 22, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most awesome creative agency:
The Plaid roofdeck is officially open! Warm weather finally arrived to the blustery northeast, and we enjoyed quite a few outdoor lunches, brainstorms and other activities.
The PlaidNation tour is only 58 days away, and the Plaid crew is in the process of finalizing the hundreds of items that need to be done before the tour kicks off in Detroit. We're also scheduling tour stops - so if we're coming to your market and you'd like a visit from the Plaid crew, give us a shout.
We were stoked to find out that Sprint has joined Ford Motors as an official sponsor of the tour! People often ask "How do you broadcast your every move while driving through the country?" - and Sprint is a large part of what makes that possible. Do you represent a brand that would benefit from a PlaidNation sponsorship? It's not too late. Reach out!
Our agency has donated an art initiative to the downtown area where Plaid lives. We've created ChalkWalk, commissioned two of the nation's hottest street artists to create work, and invited the citizens of our city to join in the fun. The event is only a week away, so planning is in full effect.
A couple of the smarter dudes from Crayon joined Plaid for a fun brainstorm event. Joseph Jaffe and Greg Verdino stopped by for a day of Plaid/crayon think-magic. Details are top secret.
We started a Plaid running team. Well, that is if two people running with @BenKunz from an agency across town can count as a running team. That's what we're calling it. We're kicking ass.
Plaidsters are heading out of the office to enjoy a three day weekend, and kicking off the summer season of half day Fridays!! BBQ in the future. Have a great weekend!
Labels: plaid, plaidsummertour, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 5:16 PM
0 comments
Saturday, May 16, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most awesome creative agency:
We're committing to posting regular weekly updates with what's happening at the agency again. Look for "this week at" posts each and every week now. This week was particularly awesome. Loads and loads of cool stuff:
SARA IS BACK! Technically, this happened a week and a half ago - but we've been so buried that we haven't officially announced it. After a quick battle with her replacement "Jim", Sara came out victorious. It's seriously awesome to see her kick a most scary case of Chronic Lyme Disease, and show it who's boss. We're all pretty stoked.
We ate chocolate covered grasshoppers. Really.
David and I had a really nice trip to New Hampshire, with a visit to Segway. This was the first time that David had seen the factory, which is a pretty amazing place.
I also gave a "Blogger School" class at Westport Country Playhouse. Hanging with theater people and talking about blogging was an absolute GAS.
We completed some great work this week too. One cool piece that we can share with you: Chris launched a new site for Marc Ecko Watches. It totally rocks.
As part of our continuing education at Plaid, most of the team attended a development/coder school led by Paul, who schooled us with all kinds of new tricks.
The Plaid summer tour is only EIGHT WEEKS away. There's a ton of planning going on, and everyone's pretty excited about where it's going. Sprint has joined Ford Motors as an official tour sponsor, which has us completely and totally stoked. It's not too late for your brand to get involved, too.
In other pre-tour news, Matt completed the design on the graphics that will be installed on the Plaid Ford Flex. Awesomeness at full speed. We also confirmed the markets that we'll be visiting on tour this year.
We ended the week with a Wiffle Ball showdown against the media strategy and planning all stars at Mediassociates. They're an agency of planning dorks a few blocks away, and we needed to show them that creative is boss. Truth be told, the game ended in a tie and everyone agreed to a re-match in the coming weeks. And there was beer.
I'm sure I forgot tons of stuff in an action-packed week...but there will be more next week!
Labels: plaid, plaidsummertour, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 10:08 PM
0 comments
Friday, April 10, 2009
friday flakes fourteen
Today's Friday Flakes is taped at Plaid world headquarters, and is hosted by David, RJ and Darryl.
In this week's show, the crew chats about:
+ How, despite RJ's urgings, the staff refuses to dress in bright, cheery Easter colors
+ That we've loaned our conference room to an author writing a book about the legendary punk club The Anthrax. Our office will be filled with aging punk rockers reminiscing about the good ole' days
+ How Darryl showed the staff some old punk rock flyers, pointing out that "in his day, we didn't have Photoshop. Or the internet"
There were some exciting launches at Plaid, this week, too:
+ The Segway P.U.M.A. site launched in record time with lots of last minute down to the wire video action
+ Darryl guest blogged/tweeted the media event for Segway, and accompanied the Segway crew behind the scenes at the Today Show, Fox Business News, and a major worldwide press conference at the IAC building
+ Darryl managed to piss off Al Roker, the happiest, nicest, jolliest man on earth
+ The launch of CleanFreakConfessions, a site devoted to getting your clean freak on
RJ reminded the crew that Plaid owns a full bunny costume, and that it must be put to good use. Possibly with candy. Or a butcher knife. And definitely on video.
Have a great weekend!
Labels: fridayflakes, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 10:23 AM
0 comments
Friday, April 03, 2009
friday flakes thirteen
Today's Friday Flakes is taped at Plaid world headquarters, and is hosted by David, Chris and Darryl.
In this week's show Chris chats about:
+ His crazy hat, a sweet gift from Koombea
+ Some of the work that he's been doing for an international student exchange client, the Plaid tour dashboard, and the AFL-CIO
David tells us:
+ Pretty much nothing. He teases us with the fact that he's working on super top secret projects that he's dying to tell you about, but they're too top secret. Pretty sure he commutes home in a black helicopter
And I chat about:
+ How I was personally responsible for selling out the CADC Engage event on Social Media, and how I totally killed it. Expect to see me at Ford Field some time in the future. And I totally forgot to share my killer slide: HowToBeaSuccessInSocialMedia.com/
+ The possibility of extending the Plaid tour, and creating multiple tours, across the U.S., throughout the year
+ Cupcakes!!! In the process of interviewing for an open position at Plaid, one candidate brought cupcakes. Our company can totally be bought for a handful of cupcakes
+ My super sexy whiskers. I haven't shaved for a week, and nobody noticed, so I brought this to everyone's attention. Perhaps I should wear a t-shirt that says "notice my whiskers"
You can vote on my whiskers here:
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Labels: fridayflakes, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 11:28 AM
4 comments
Friday, March 27, 2009
friday flakes twelve
Today's Friday Flakes is taped at Plaid world headquarters, and is hosted by Justus, RJ and Darryl.
In this week's show we chat about:
+ How we're reconsidering the Friday Flakes show format. Does it provide value? Is there a reason to watch? How could we make this better, within a 10 minute platform?
+ The perceived work ethic at Plaid and the creative industry. People are usually surprised to see that we actually work
+ How Justus eats live babies, and is extremely dangerous
+ A poltergeist makes an appearance at around 5:41 into the show, and throws an iPod at the crew
We chat in more detail about our takeover of the Denver Egotist:
+ How it was a smart idea for Denver Egotist to initiate this promotion
+ The Mayor of Danbury, CT is possibly the coolest Mayor in the nation
+ We spent more time promoting the Denver Egotist in a day than we have promoting Brand Flakes in the last year
+ That more brands should allow fans to takeover for a day. Think of the excitement that could be generated!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Labels: fridayflakes, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 11:10 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
plaid takes over the denver egotist
This is big.
We're taking over. Like a gaggle of pirates and ninjas banding together for the creative workers of America, we've taken over the Denver Egotist.
In fact, we believe that the takeover will be so easy that we'd like to take it one step further: We're taking over Denver, too.
As of today, we declare that we are now the hottest creative agency in Denver. We've prepared a video message that alerts the Denver population of this development. We'll post it on the Denver Egotist first thing this morning.
Check the Egotist (soon known as the Danbury Egotist) all day for our fresh content.
(Keep in mind that if you're reading this in the AM on Eastern time, that people in Denver are lazy. They sleep two hours later than we do. We can't actually take over until they drag their lazy asses out of bed and get into their offices.)
Denver residents: We'll need to change your town's name to Danbury. And our Mayor will likely need to take charge, too. We have a feeling that you're really going to like this. Welcome to the PlaidNation.
** This may only be a 24 hour takeover, as we don't really have offices in Denver and would probably find it difficult to breath their weak air on a regular basis.
Labels: denver, plaid, self promotion, smallagency
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:33 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
less than 24 hours until the denver takeover
It's official. Just to teach Denver a lesson, we're taking things over for a day. We'll be commandeering the Denver Egotist tomorrow. We're going to call it the Danbury Egotist, because that's where Plaid hails from.
When the takeover is complete, the Egotist will be chocked full of content that we've produced, and stuff that makes our city look cool. And we'll make all of the Denver people fly Plaid flags from their offices.
Denver can put it on hold. Plaid is coming to town.
Labels: blogging, denver, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:14 AM
1 comments
Monday, March 23, 2009
plaid takes over
On Wednesday, we're planning a hostile takeover. Don't tell anyone, but we're going to storm the offices of the Denver Egotist. We'll tie up their staff, commandeer their site and will turn it into the Danbury Egotist. We'll write content that's all about us, our friends, and the cool things that happen in the city that we'd like to one day call Plaid.
It's all going down on Wednesday. Don't tell anyone.
Labels: blogging, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:22 AM
1 comments
Friday, March 20, 2009
friday flakes episode eleven
Today's Friday Flakes is taped in the elevator vestibule at Plaid, and is hosted by David, RJ and Darryl.
This week, we chat a lot about SXSW:
+ How David and Darryl were lazy screw ups and didn't post to the BrandFlakes SXSW edition as often as they were supposed to
+ How ATT failed big time in their ability to handle 4000 iPhone tweeters in one place
+ That Twitter has changed the social dynamic and it's now acceptable to ignore your friends while you tweet away
+ How BBQ and Lone Star beer are an acceptable diet
+ The SXSW awards show rocked, and featured a funny parody of the popular Chris Brogan "Open Invitation" video. (Which T-Sand had done an equally funny version, ages ago.)
+ Facebook announced new features of Facebook Connect, which will allow Facebook to connect to your iPhone, among other things
We also announced some exciting news about this summer's PlaidNation tour:
+ Ford Motors has signed on as the first official sponsor to the tour, and we'll be riding in style in a sweet Ford Flex!
+ We've finalized this year's route, and will be visiting Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Branson, Memphis, Jackson and New Orleans.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Labels: fridayflakes, plaid, plaidsummertour, self promotion, sxsw
posted by darryl ohrt @ 10:29 AM
6 comments
Friday, March 13, 2009
friday flakes episode ten
Today's Friday Flakes is recorded at SXSW, from the Pepsico Podcast Playground. This week's episode is hosted by David and Darryl with special guest Eric Fleming from Segway!
This week, we chat about:
+ FridayFlakes is celebrating our tenth episode!
+The cabbie that picked up David and Darryl from the airport has knowledge of a secret plan to replace humans with insect people. Eric got to ride in a stinky cab.
+ The weather is sucking in Austin, and we bitch about it like babies.
In the World of Social Media, we chat about:
+ Why Segway comes to an event like SXSW
+ The overall vibe at SXSW
+ How Eric plans to learn a bunch of things at SXSW, while Darryl and Dave are here for BBQ.
In This Week at BrandFlakesForBreakfast, we chat about:
+ The Pepsico Twitter mashup showing what's happening at SXSW
+ The Pepsico Podcast Playground
+ How people at SXSW need helmets, because everyone's walking while tweeting
Want to follow David, Darryl or Eric's adventures in more details? Here's all of the links you'll need:
BrandFlakes SXSW Edition
Darryl's Tumblr page
David's Tumblr page
Darryl's schedule
David's schedule
Eric's schedule
Darryl's Twitter page
David's Twitter page
Eric's Twitter page
Have a Texas-style weekend! (Whatever that means.)
Labels: fridayflakes, plaid, self promotion, social media, sxsw, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 12:51 PM
0 comments
Friday, March 06, 2009
friday flakes episode nine
Today's Friday Flakes is recorded with FUTUREVISION, the Plaid technology that allows the recording of content for future posting. This week's episode is hosted by Chris, RJ and Darryl.
This week, we chat about:
+ We've finalized the tour route for the Plaid tour! We'll be launching a 2009 tour blog next week sometime - but expect lots of fun in places between Detroit and New Orleans, this summer.
+ Darryl and David are heading to SXSW next week. If you're also going, be sure to buy them a Lone Star beer. You can also check the SXSW version of BrandFlakes, which will detail meeting notes, photos and incriminating videos of the entire Plaid SXSW adventure.
In this week at BrandFlakesForBreakfast, we chat about:
+ How the demise of the Rocky Mountain News went viral
+ The relationships that you need to eliminate from your Facebook page
In the World of Social Media, we chat about:
+ How people did nasty things with Skittles and it was delicious
+ How the new Facebook will be all new, and sparkly and stuff
At the suggestion of Eric Smith, we talked about the power of RSS feeds, and how easy it is for you to start reading feeds, too.
Darryl sends us off with his trademark Texas salute. Have a great weekend!
Labels: fridayflakes, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:47 AM
0 comments
Friday, February 27, 2009
friday flakes episode eight
Today's Friday Flakes is hosted by David, Justus and Darryl. In this week's episode, we talk about:
+ Gummy week at Plaid
+ Sara's doctor says he hates Plaid
+ The opportunity of a lifetime: your potential job at plaid.
In this week at BrandFlakesForBreakfast, we chat about:
+ Darryl oddly defends Ashton Kutcher as Dave questions his existence
+ How guys look stupid on Facebook (make sure it doesn't happen to you!!)
+ Giving up Facebook for God.
In the World of Social Media, we chat about:
+ How people tweeted the Oscars
+ Obama's State of the Nation that was not a State of the Union but did include an awesome Facebook/CNN mashup.
Since we completely spaced on it last week, we offer two Tips O' the Week:
1. Google's new Google Calendar/iPhone integration
2. Don't say Backslash.
Note: we didn't realize until posting this video, that Justus pretty much just sat on the couch and hung out during the show. (Speak up, Justus!!)
Have a great weekend!
Labels: fridayflakes, plaid, self promotion, smallagency
posted by darryl ohrt @ 10:28 AM
10 comments
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
We're hiring: the best job in the entire world
It's true.
The greatest agency in all of the land is looking for the greatest Project Manager/Producer/Master-controller-of-the-universe.
We're not big on titles, but some agencies might call this a Project Manager. Or Office Manager. Or Producer. We like to call it the glue that holds us together.
You'll be working with our creative team, working with our clients and working with our partners to be sure we deliver spectacular creative on time, on budget and with everyone smiling.
What it's all about:
Manage all aspects of projects for a super fantastic creative firm.
Interact with (mostly cool) clients, (totally cool) creatives and (awesome) partners from around the country.
Get stuff done.
Get stuff done on time.
Get stuff done on budget.
You totally rock because:
You're a great communicator, with fantastic people skills, and organization/planning skills that would make our heads explode. You might even have previous agency experience, or interactive experience. You likely have an understanding of the production process relative to a design and brand firm. And you'd be even more awesome if you're already on Facebook or Twitter.
Work at the best agency ever created by humans.
+ Open office, open books. No politics. For real.
+ Really fun, collaborative and energetic work environment.
+ Half day Fridays in the summertime, planning trips to fun places, and an office Segway.
+ 100% paid health benefits, 401(k) plan, and super aggressive profit sharing.
(Must be willing to work in our CT office, located in the grayest state in the union, where it's cold during the winter and the skies are usually not always sunny. But everything else rocks.)
Send your details to darryl AT thinkplaid DOT com, with "greatest job in the world" in the subject line.
Labels: plaid, self promotion, workplace
posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:00 AM
1 comments
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
a grand idea
This is an awesome gesture, a cool self-promotional tool and a wonderful prize for a lucky non-profit.
On The House is a collaboration with a branding agency, web development group, design firm, and everything else a non-profit might need to get a whole new lease on life.
Non-profits can apply online for a chance to win over $83,000 in creative services. What a sweet way to call attention to Atlanta's coolest talent, while doing good at the same time. Everyone wins!
Labels: adindustry, self promotion, smallagency
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:11 AM
2 comments
Friday, February 06, 2009
friday flakes episode five
In this week's episode, we talk about:
+ A Plaid, Plaid world without Darryl.
+ Darryl's replacement, or, Fake Darryl.
+ Delicious Swedish Fish.
We chat about Denny's and their Grand Slam goodness:
+ Denny's delicious giveaway.
+ Did Denny's change their public perception?
+ What is even in a Grand Slam breakfast?
We talk about computer tans vs. real tans:
+ What's computer tan all about?
+ Who at Plaid has been a repeat tanner.
We chat about Google and their new Latitude app:
+ Is it creepy, or cool?
+ How it works, and why you'd use it.
+ Would somebody as boring as Dave even want to use it?
Labels: fridayflakes, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 11:20 AM
5 comments
Friday, January 23, 2009
friday flakes episode three
Here's episode three of Friday Flakes! Today's Friday Flakes is hosted by Justus and Darryl.
In this week's episode, we talk about:
+ Critiques and suggestions for Friday Flakes from friends and viewers
+ How Darryl needs to give less gaydar
+ Shout out to an awesome person that you should hire today: Garret Ohm
+ How we only know people by their Twitter names
+ New company BlueFuego launched by BradJWard and FJGaylor to help higher education better market themselves on the internet
In the world of social media, we chat about:
+ The CNN/Facebook mashup that took place during the inauguration
We highlight two posts from BrandFlakes:
+ All the superbowl spots throughout history, at your fingertips
+ Shepard Fairey gets his Obama art accepted into the Smithsonian
We've experimented with a different camera and audio setup this week, too. Still not 100% happy, but we're moving in the right direction.
Labels: fridayflakes, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 12:34 PM
7 comments
Friday, January 16, 2009
friday flakes episode two
Here's episode two of Friday Flakes! Today's Friday Flakes is hosted by RJ and Darryl.
In this week's episode, we talk about:
+ A crazified, cold and gummi-less week at Plaid.
+ Darryl's zombie thumbnail
We highlight two posts from BrandFlakes:
+ A pirate store helps a non-profit
+ Yet another social media network that Caff and Dirk turned us onto
In the world of social media, we chat about:
+ The Facebook vs Burger King faceoff
+ How Twitter broke the plane crash story
We're still troubled with audio issues, but refuse to use any of our pro equipment. We're attempting to produce these episodes with Flip cameras - virtually eliminating all setup, digitizing and editing. Our goal is to produce an entire show from start to finish within 30 minutes, and zero editing. This is something we'll consider to discuss and experiment with - and your ideas are welcome!
Labels: facebook, fridayflakes, pirates, plaid, podcasting, self promotion, smallagency, social media, twitter, yummyfood, zombies
posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:22 PM
0 comments
Friday, January 09, 2009
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most awesome creative agency:
This was our first full week back after the holiday vacation. The week flew by, and we're all pretty swamped with work.
One cool thing about coming back to to the office....Sara's returned! After battling a horrific case of Lyme Disease for the last few months, she's back in action at Plaid. She'll be working a little from home and a little at the office for the next couple of weeks.
We recorded the first ever BrandFlakes podcast, called Friday Flakes. It's an experiment. We hope to give this a shot each week, and see how it works. It's about 10 minutes of video featuring two Plaidsters talking about stuff at the agency, stuff in the industry and just stuff.
Haircuts this week: Chris, David, Justus.
We're in the process of launching a bunch of new plans for the agency for 2009. Back in November we put together some amazing ideas for the year, and this week we're actually getting them on the calendar. Lots of fun, cool and creative hotness coming your way!
This weekend, Plaidonians will be enjoying another snowstorm which will of course allow for some sweet snowboarding and skiing conditions. Either that, or they'll be locked indoors, watching the internet.
Labels: self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 10:31 PM
0 comments
Introducing friday flakes
We're going to try this podcast thing. Here's our goal:
+ A quick ten minute-ish clip from the makers of Brand Flakes for Breakfast.
+ Hosted each week by two Plaid employees, and posted every Friday.
+ A little bit about the industry, cool stuff we've noticed, and life at Plaid.
+ Un-rehearsed, quick and dirty, no editing, just sit down and chat.
Our first episode is above. This week, we talk about:
+ Returning from a long, long holiday break.
+ CES and MacWorld
+ Robert Scoble stuck on a bus.
+ David Armano makes social media magic.
And we highlight three posts we thought were interesting this week:
- A cool way to do testimonials
- Some new thinking on "free"
- How not to be a tweetscumbag
We've already torn the first episode to pieces and know what we'll do better next week. This is absolutely a work in progress. But what about you? What should we do more of? Less of? Get better at?
Labels: adindustry, blogging, fridayflakes, plaid, podcasting, self promotion, social media, technology, twitter
posted by darryl ohrt @ 2:05 PM
7 comments
Friday, January 02, 2009
everyone agrees. brandflakes is the best.
Scamp is tracking the most popular advertising blogs in the land, and charting them by their traffic according to Alexa. And BrandFlakes makes the top 25!
Now you can finally stop reading everything else on the internet, and trust your one and only healthy source for creative goodness. Tell your friends, your boss, your mom. BrandFlakes. Even better with bacon.
Labels: blogging, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:14 AM
0 comments
Sunday, December 28, 2008
seven things you didn't know about me.
Ryan Kuder just tagged me in a meme called Seven Things. You need to share 7 things about yourself, and then ask 7 people to do the same. So here goes:
1. I know how to shoot a gun. I grew up in Texas, and even shot an armadillo once (photo above, if you don't believe me.) Today I don't even eat beef, which I'm pretty sure my cattle ranching relatives might freak, if they knew.
2. My first job was delivering papers for the Chicago Tribune. I woke up at 4 in the morning, got on my ultra cool chopper bike, and pedaled newspapers through a subdivision in Bloomingdale, IL. Got pretty good at riding and throwing, although I once threw a paper through a customer's front window.
3. I rode in a rental car down that famous hairpin turn road in Monte Carlo, during an actual auto road race. It looked exactly like what I now know as the Monte Carlo Rally, and it did take place in January, so who knows. This wasn't a planned adventure - just a handful of dumb Americans who couldn't read the French road signs that probably said something like "Road closed for Monte Carlo Rally." We got some pretty funny looks at the finish line. To this day, I'm really not quite sure how the whole thing happened.
4. I'm accident prone. I've nearly lost a couple of fingers, an eye, and suffered a bunch of other hilarious injuries, mostly as the result of stupid activities. For this reason, I do not own a chain saw.
5. I've never been fired, arrested or beaten to a pulp. I've come very close on many occasions but somehow always draw the line in the nick of time. I should probably have at least one of these experiences sometime in the near future. (Taking risks is a requirement in our profession.)
5a. I once pissed on the Pentagon. Pretty sure you'd get killed for that today. This was during the height of the punk rock years. Beer was involved. (Figured this fact belongs as a sub-set to fact #5.)
6. I've lived in at least two haunted houses. One as a kid, and another just a few years ago.
7. The Elegant Universe is one of my favorite books. I have this thing for super string theory and theoretical physics. I'm not smart enough to actually understand the majority of it, but I'm blown away by the possibilities. Outside of business, internet, fashion or pop culture, that's my favorite content to read.
Ok, so now it's your turn. Here's who I choose to share 7 things next:
Ben Kunz
Bill Green
Brad J Ward
Charlie Wollborg
Dirk Singer
Garret Ohm
The Girl Riot
(I was also going to tag Todd Sanders, but Barbara Nixon beat me to it.)
Labels: plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 5:01 PM
5 comments
Saturday, December 27, 2008
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week, at the world's most santalicious creative agency:
We marked the TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY for both Justus and David at Plaid. We can't even believe the agency has been around that long. These are two outstanding individuals who have contributed greatly to Plaid's success. Without either of them, Plaid wouldn't be what it is today. We celebrated with a nice lunch, and then gifted them with some sweet Nikon D80 kits.
Plaid employees got a nice surprise before leaving for the holiday, too. They all received new Flip HD cameras! Steph, Matt and Justus show that they're prepared to shoot holiday goodness, above. Expect loads of embarrassing video to be posted on a regular basis.
If that wasn't enough love, Chris received a $100 cash reward for having the most posts on the Plaid Holiday Gift Guide. We're pretty sure that he'll just give it all to charity. ;)
Our holiday card received an unexpected response. Both positive and negative. We were overjoyed with calls, emails and comments on our greeting - and appreciate every one of them. And then we were totally blown away by a letter from a lawyer(!!) representing an employee who received the card, who was offended. Yikes. Definitely didn't intend to offend people while spreading Plaid holiday love. Anyway, enjoy some brilliant discussion going on over the matter at Adrants, MakeTheLogoBigger and ThoughtGadgets.
We started holiday vacation!!! Regardless of what Plaid employees may celebrate individually, we'll all be doing it with loads of time off. We close Plaid offices until January 2nd. Some of us may peek in from time to time, but mostly - it's enjoying Christmas and Hanukkah gifts, spending time with family, and snowboarding.
Blogging may be a little bit lighter over the holidays - or at least a little bit later, as I'm quite sure that there will be some sleeping past 5:30am for a few days. :)
Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year from all of your awesome friends at Plaid!
Labels: holiday, plaid, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 4:40 PM
1 comments
Saturday, December 20, 2008
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most sugarlicious creative agency:
We consumed calories. Not just empty, unnecessary calories, but the kind covered with chocolate, pecans, caramel, powdered sugar and gravy. (Well, maybe not gravy.) Thursday kicked off what's become a holiday tradition at Plaid. Eliza's Sugarfest. Coworker Eliza, whose last name just happens to be Sweet (swear, that's the truth) bakes enough sugary goodness to feed all of the hungry people on earth. Only she brings them to us to consume, instead.
This year's Sugarfestival started with a welcome surprise by client Tally Maffucci, who stopped by with her own platter of sugary goodness. It turns out that Tally is also a master bakestress (yes, we really know how to pick clients) and has spent the last 12 weeks or so baking about 43 kabillion varieties of cookies.
We ate our way into a sugar coma on Thursday, and then came back for more on Friday. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by on Monday - there's still some sugary goodness left for you.
Brina celebrated the last day of her internship on Thursday. Usually, we mark last days with cake, but that would have been ridiculous. We loaded her with some Plaid goodness and sent her off filled with Christmas sugar. She's also finishing school (for good!) this weekend, so she's pretty stoked to get onto a wonderful life without teachers or final projects.
Oh yeah - our holiday card turned out to be a pretty big success, with people (on average) sending it to at least four friends. That's a pass-a-long rate that's officially viral!
We've also got a sugarload of projects that are "just this close" to completion, so we're still working feverishly to get some closure before the end of the season.
The week ended with a massive snowblast that all of our Twitter friends were calling Snowmaggeddon. Our area got hit with more than half of a foot of snow, which led to a pretty nice close to the week. Lots of shopping and holiday preparingness this weekend for the Plaid team, as we get ready to dive into the last work week of 2008. Woot!
Labels: holiday, plaid, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 11:25 PM
0 comments
Friday, December 19, 2008
your friend is sleeping with claus
For our agency holiday card this year, we created a video that you can customize for your friends, to make it seem like they were sleeping with Santa. Or Mrs. Claus, depending on their preference.
I prefer the Mrs, as she also knows how to make some badass cookies. See my version here, or make your own version here. Happy Christmas!
Labels: holiday, plaid, self promotion
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:54 AM
3 comments
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
b2b: fun for the holidays, too.
I hear business-to-business leaders complain all the time that they can't have fun with their marketing. Locked in a world where they pretend their audience is non-human, has no sense of humor, and convinced the only message delivery vehicles are pages and pages of boring copy. (And PowerPoint decks.)
So it's energizing to have a client with a business to business audience that LOVES to have fun. And isn't afraid to share that in their marketing collateral. Check out the video that we produced for RMI Direct Marketing, as their holiday greeting.
Their clients get to know them better, feel like they're a bunch of fun to work with, and yes - enjoy a sense of humor. (And they can act, too!)
Labels: holiday, marketing, plaid, self promotion, video
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:03 AM
1 comments
Saturday, December 13, 2008
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most lame creative agency:
Lame? What you say? Isn't Plaid the most awesome creative agency ever to grace the earth with ideas? Well yes - but this week we made a stupid mistake: we forgot Steph's birthday.
Birthday's at Plaid are important, because it's a time to have cake. And everyone at Plaid loves sugary goodness. So it wouldn't seem possible that we could overlook someone's birthday. But we did. A stupid mistake, and a paper calendar were involved. Further proof that everything should be interactive.
We made up for our blunder with a cake and some Hawaiian looking flowers. (Steph's a surfing tiki goddess, so her heart is in Hawaii.)
This has been a massively out of our heads crazy week. Only days are left in 2008, and we're working feverishly to make the best of them.
Reuters picked up on a story about a site that we produced for Umphrey's McGee! More proof of our awesomeness by people who should know.
Justus and I got to got to attend a special surprise birthday celebration for a client and friend, Martin Stein. This was a pretty special birthday, as he's now cancer free. Woohoo Martin. Way to kick cancer's ass!
Separately - if you'd like to see Martin and his team, check out their holiday video (more on this later): RMI Extreme Caroling.
We've mailed our holiday greeting cards to clients and friends (we'll publish a link to the interactive portion next week). Let's just say that it's naughty.
This weekend Plaidsters will be doing a little bit of catch up, and a little bit of rest for a wonderously crazified week. You should spend it shopping, or browsing through the BrandFlakes Gift Guide.
Labels: self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 3:34 PM
2 comments
Friday, December 05, 2008
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most sugartastic creative agency:
The December sugarfestival has begun. It officially kicks off with my birthday, continues with client and vendor gifts, and culminates on the most important day of the entire year - ElizaFest (more on that, in a later post).
This week saw my birthday cake delivered by a special bunny who turned out to be coworker Sara, making a special appearance from sick leave. We were more stoked to see Sara than we were about getting yummy cake, which says a LOT in our office.
We officially launched the Brand Flakes for Breakfast Gift Guide. This has become an annual tradition where we share creative and fun gift ideas for the most difficult people to shop for: snotty, snarky, creative types. (Actually, we just post a bunch of stuff that we'd all really like to get for Xmas, and it works out great for everyone.) Now in its third year!
We had several video shoots this week - some for clients, and one that will end up being used for our agency holiday greeting card. We'll share all, when it's live.
Haircuts this week: Darryl, Chris, David.
There are now only about 12 work days left in the year, so we're all scrambling to get projects completed, meet deadlines and prepare for a long winter nap at the end of it all. We're busier than we've ever been, which is pretty awesome.
Labels: plaid, self promotion, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:19 PM
0 comments
