SoDA founded over a need for an association to improve the digital agency industry. Founded 18 months ago; spent the time since developing the organization to be sustainable and scalable. 4,000 inquiries of interest.

All the research is showing that digital is growing and set to grow for the foreseeable future. The industry is growing; there’s a revolutionary shift in market approach.

What is the biggest challenge?

-educating our clients about the importance of spending more on digital
*SoDA conducts research and outreach and advocacy on the tangible ROI of digital

-increase margins (both gross and net) (look at hotel626 site/$150k)
*it takes time; it’s still early in the history of digital

*digital is currently 30% of the total marketing pie; 2 years ago it was 15%

*strategy + emotional impact + coding = what we do

*standard profit margin in industry: 10-20% (except for the very large players, who are at 7-9%)

Picasso story (forget that he lived in the 20th century, not the 17th) 3-minute sketch for $5,000 because it didn’t take 3 minutes; it took a lifetime.

Who’s really sitting in the room and how do I address each of them?

We have a process and here is how it works. We’re not Kinko’s we can’t give you a price-per-page.

Put strategy in the bid; make it very overt.

In providing ballparks, especially when cost is dependent on discovery, give comps from previous work.

25-30% of total project price goes to strategy/discovery/definition.

Add rebid clause so that if after discovery there are undisclosed requirements we have the opportunity to revise the pricing.

Weekly status reports that are signed off by the client before next week starts.

Master deliverables list that is ranked in concert with the client; when the scope slides, revisit the ranking and trade off one piece for other pieces (like we do with HA). Add it to the Master Services Agreement and language saying the scope document is collaboratively created and if scope changes then there’s a method for review with client.

No Comments | In: YMMV | | #

bazaarvoice.com (sam decker) & boundlessnetwork.com (jason black)

sam/bazaarvoice.com: looked for a way to engender trust.
-passion teamwork excellence openness execution - five pillars of teamwork for bazaarvoice culture
-key is to have an understanding of how each person on the team fits into the culture
-tie reviews to the five pillars to see how they are sustaining the characteristics; rewarding and retaining people who are great examples

jason/boundlessnetwork.com: culture=family system (parents=investors; best friend=co-founder; siblings=management team; kids=employees) “Good to Great” — read this book

sam: “5 Dysfunctions of a Team” — also recommended reading

sam: allow everyone on the team to contribute to the culture; hire in alignment of the culture and then let the whole team contribute

question: what’s the most effective method to achieve alignment?

sam: alignment starts with core values; discuss the what and the how–what are you working on and how you are interacting with others?

jason: alignment starts with “what does the journey look like?” then paint the picture and get everyone inspired; everybody knows what the end game is; what is your role in the end game and how does your role impact the organization? over communicate; bring your team in, show them where they fit in the food chain; be vulnerable and 100% candid; always communicate what the crusade is and get everyone inspired.

sam: avoid silos to keep communication open between everyone; “Fierce Conversations” — another book

jason: are they doing it for a paycheck, or are they inspired by the work?

question: how do you avoid isolation when you have an environment devoted to development where productivity is paramount?

jason: create discipline and communication until the problem is fixed; even if the team doesn’t like it

sam: passion drives initiative, ideas, motivation; leadership must support that

audience: his org did a branding exercise of a sort: putting the company mission on the table for all employees to discuss, pick apart, re-invent–the result was everyone buying in

jason: monthly “open bar” where all employees attend and any question can be asked and will be answered without avoidance

question: how do you celebrate wins?

sam: ring the big gong (they have one; this is not a metaphor), everyone gathers and the success gets shared; also ongoing awards within each functional areas

jason: not good at this so we have a person in our organization who is responsible for it

sam: be mindful of what’s going on in your org outside of getting the work done

question: what about looking for a good fit when it comes to clients?

sam: difficult when you need to make money to keep the doors open; his company tries to fit or change somewhat to fit without changing at the core; sometimes there’s not a good fit and you have to say goodbye

question: how do you deal with employees who might not recognize your authority due to age, etc?

jason: make it about established and agreed upon business metrics; take the personal aspect out of it

audience: got to find a way to develop personal relationships while keeping the business goals as the cut-and-dry information about the job; be clear about the employee’s role and responsibilities and objectives

sam: create quarterly objectives and accountability

audience: you have to clearly demonstrate in the workplace that you as the boss mean business and are there to do the work, not to make friends

jason: “the starfish and the spider” — another book

question: what kinds of communication methods do you use (glut of email…)

sam: face to face meetings; share what’s really going on so they don’t get it from gossip; get up from your desk and talk to people instead of emailing

question: how do you spread awards between individual performance vs company performance?

jason: C-level 75/25 co/ind; mgmt 50/50; lower lvl 25/75

No Comments | In: YMMV | | #

Ask anyone in my office and they’ll tell you I’ve gone off the deep end for facebook. Sadly, they would not be lying.

Early this summer I got word that a wonderful woman I went to UT Drama with, Rebecca Rauscher, had passed away. While I’ve stayed in touch with the two people I was closest with during my college years, now 30 years gone, Becca was one of dozens of BFFs I’d not made the effort with. News of her death was like… what? A bucket of cold water. A great weight. A punch in the gut. All of the above and more. I lived through the HIV holocaust of the ’80s and ’90s when many of my friends did not, but this was somehow different. This made me want to reach out and find a way to reconnect with every single one of those terribly important people I loved so much back at UT.

Enter facebook.

Along with the message about Becca was a little note that said something like “I just reconnected with Mxlpxycky on facebook and told her about it.” (I don’t remember who was just reconneced with, sorry.) So I thought I’d see if I could reconnect with Mxlpxycky too. And I did! And then it was like being in a room while all these amazing people from your past walked through the door to your party one by one. Seriously.

So now a couple dozen of us are once again in each other’s hair, laughing and crying together about global and personal dramas. And planning a real life reunion for next March. I swear it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before; the sense of reconnection (I know I keep using that word, but it’s just the RIGHT WORD) is palpable.

1 Comment | In: Obsession, YMMV | tags: becca rauscher, facebook, hiv, reconnection, ut drama. | #

I’m convinced that one of the things that subconsciously brought me to reanimate Japanese Trash is I’ve been listening to William Gibson’s Spook Country on the iPod while rebooting my early morning cardio routine at the gym.

I fell in love with Gibson when I read Idoru maybe a decade ago. And somehow that book led to my first thinking of the words “Japanese” and “trash” as one conjoined idea–the concept that when I was a kid the phrase “made in Japan” used to equal “cheap” but that by the time I was an adult that was no longer the case. And that nowadays trash from Japan (in my mind anyway) is bound to include some high-quality stuff. I’m thinking of electronics, mainly, but also of cars and other things bigger and smaller.

Anyway, Spook Country is full of so many of the things I love about Gibson’s writing: great characters with great names–Hollis Henry, Odile Richard, Hubertus Bigend, Milgrim; things like one character Googling another and winding up on his Wikipedia page and of course now there is a Wikipedia page for that character(!); the way Gibson mashes old, new, and as-yet-unheard-of technologies.

This is my first time to listen to a book instead of reading one and while it took a while to get used to it, I’m hooked. I don’t even notice my time on the treadmill any more, which was the point. And the icing on the cake is I’m listening on an iPod, and iPods figure prominently in the story.

No Comments | In: Inspiration, YMMV | tags: apple, audiobook, cardio, google, gym, idoru, ipod, japanese trash, spook country, wikipedia, william gibson. | #