52 Limited

by Linda Zerba of Deputy Consulting

Working in the planning capacity in the marketing industry for more than 10 years, I and other account planners run into the similar challenges.

One of the biggest is clients and creatives who don’t believe in research. Usually the aversion has to do with an experience(s) involving bad research or a lack of knowledge on what to do with information once it is presented.

Research-averse people need to know that gathered information is a launching point. From there, you grow, create and excel.

On rare, and very lucky occasions, clients say out loud and directly that they don’t believe in research. However, the usual and unfortunate situation (and a source of ongoing contention) is that most clients will not admit this. Instead, they will hem and haw over the budget, methodology, your background, the timeline, the recruit and/or anything else they can use to pick apart the project. In so doing, they are avoiding the real issue—that they truly don’t believe in research.

Experience has shown me this amounts to a lack of understanding.

At the same time, creatives will fight tooth and nail to avoid doing research. When a creative, hears “research,” they equate it with “creative testing,” which to them signals the death of creativity.

Resistance to the concept of research puts planning is the role of the ugly stepsister: Abused and misunderstood.

It is seen as the last step to validate and confirm opinions, soothe egos or kill campaigns. We’ve all been there and it isn’t pretty.

The process that is “planning” is at least helpful and hopefully inspiring. Done correctly, research (creative testing) can yield insights regarding the target audience that can be used to help hone messages.

It can be a great tool for selling the work to the client, for creating effective resonance with the audience and giving vision and voice to the brand.

After all, brands live in the hearts and minds of consumers, and you are nowhere if you don’t know how to speak their language. Research provides understanding and interpretation!

But, I digress. Let’s get back to the root of this problem. When it comes to resistance to research, it is most likely because people have conjured in their minds a notion that research is some blue-haired lady at the library, using the Dewey Decimal system to look up a book written in 1967 by Professor So-and-So.

Or, worse yet, there may be a sense that research is the net result of one of those annoying phone surveys where you are called just as you are sitting down to dinner and are asked to rate the likelihood of whether you would buy whitening toothpaste over tartar control paste. In that moment, who cares what kind of toothpaste you use—all you are thinking about is your meal getting cold, your screaming kids and getting off the phone.

That’s not research. That’s simply the dinner-hour at one middle-American household.

This can all be boiled down to two points to keep in mind when dealing with clients and creatives. Those who, a) don’t believe in research or b) have never experienced good research.

How can this battle be overcome? Education.

performed by talented people who know what methodologies to use, how to get from consumers information of depth, how to interpret resulting insights and how to take action. Creatives need to know that the planner is here to support them, to help inspire the process and help ensure the work is the best it can be.

Not to kill it.

Good research brings clarity and leaves everyone with a deep understanding of the target, the playing field, the brand as it is, what it can become and what it will take to get there.

It is simple: the right research + a good planner = successful project!

We just need to overcome the stereotypes of research as it has been known. There is a better way, one less concerned with quantifying and more aware of understanding.

After all, is that not the foundation for all things great?

by Shelly Strom

As veterans in the competition for talent, we at 52 Ltd. have learned a thing or two about what it takes to attract and retain the best in creative services. And one thing that is crystal clear: Organizational culture plays a huge role. Companies that want to be successful in retaining employees—which really means being appealing from the inside out—are realizing they better get a strategy. Even places like Portland and Seattle need to adapt. And even at a time when the jobless rate is on the rise. It might be nice if the “cool” work that attracts people also would sustain and retain them as workers. But it doesn’t. Newness wears off of cool. And if it was the only thing that made a job attractive—if the organization hasn’t cultivated a culture of retention—talent is going to be looking for the next great thing.Up and comers are more likely to stick with a workplace that reflects their own personal values. A lot of them expect it to actually enhance their quality of life. When it doesn’t, they aren’t afraid to move on. These attitudes cannot be ignored. Not at a time when the country is seeing a sea change in the demographics of its labor pool. No longer are they the demographics that propelled a 30-year expansion in the labor pool. The 500 largest companies in the U.S. will lose half their senior managers in the next several years or so, according to a report by The Economist magazine. The losses largely are due to retirement. And it’s more than just retiring baby boomers draining the labor pool. Two other important trends have played out: Neither the entrance of women into the workplace nor the increase in college-educated workers is bringing the marked increases to the labor pool that they did for so many years.At the same time, an increasing number of people are choosing not to affiliate as an employee with any one organization: The number of independent contractors annually is growing at 4 to 5 percent. The culture has to be all about retention, retention, retention. Practices that are more functional than “that’s just the way we’ve always done it. ”It means not just talking about work-life balance but actually putting the concept into play. “Companies are finding out that when they demonstrate values that mirror our quality of life—perhaps by offering flexible schedules and embracing social issues—they find employees want to stay,” says Ann Mangan, spokeswoman at Portland Development Commission.Another way to devise successful organizational culture, according to The Corporate Executive Board, is to focus on “employment value proposition.” An EVP is what a person gets out of becoming an employee for a particular organization. A company with a well-managed EVP—one where culture is congenial and there is room for professional development—can get away with paying 10 percent less in compensation, The Economist reports. Having an unvarnished view of workplace culture helps, especially when it comes to hiring. That way, cultivation of a functional organizational culture can be supplemented with seeding.“In hiring, we put as much, or more, emphasis on someone’s personality and thought process as their resume or skill set. Good, collaborative work starts by appreciating and fitting into the unique creative energy of our shop,” says David Karstad, creative director at Frank Creative Workgroup. “Besides, good ideas can come from any person at any position. Even ADs can think of great headlines,” Karstad says. Finding that awareness of your organizational culture and figuring out how it needs to mesh with workers is what 52 Ltd. is here for.Our approach to hiring is all about retention.We build relationships. With our clients. With the people in our bank of talent. It lets us make matches between the two. We do it because it raises the bar on quality of work. And we save our clients time and money.

Today is the first day it really feels like Fall. One day it was warm, the next day the temperature has dropped considerably.Sometimes this ushers in a busier hiring season. Hiring in the summer is sometimes tough in Portland. Hiring happens for sure and sometimes it is the busiest season. But it also the season when your thoughts can be on play and not work. Maybe you stare out the window more and pretend you are outside. Just doesn’t happen as much when it’s pouring down rain. After Labor Day (maybe that makes sense) people start thinking they better “buckle down” and get to work. No time for play now, time to get busy. That can translate into more projects, more activity, more work more hiring. Not a bad thing. Here’s to Fall. �