All posts in Inspiration

Google has beer, Apple has nerf tag, and Facebook has hack-a-thons. All of these major corporations know it’s important to make employees happy and encourage creativity rather than simply expect productive quality work.

These are not only perks; they are productivity plays as well. It’s a common idea that the happier you are at work the more productive you’ll be. Using these perks and off the wall team building activities opens employees to feel appreciated and part of the company.

emedia has been re-thinking how we operate in an effort to spur innovation and creativity. Using a variety of techniques we have been implementing changes to push ourselves further. Some of these changes include a monthly think tank, the team up Vertigo and even our office wide sack and egg races.

Being in the business of innovative work it’s necessary to nurture out of the box thinking. You can’t force originality or inspiration in a job, doing so will usually result in a poor product.

“It’s our goal to put out work that is unique and creative. We constantly want to grow, learn and cultivate our talent”, explains Managing Director Jennifer Ward, “We truly believe ingenuity and productivity comes from teamwork and a collaborative atmosphere. Doing something different or even silly allows us to do just that and come at our work with new eyes”.

While emedia is far from having a beer station and bean bag chairs we appreciate companies like Facebook that operate is such a unique way. They are icons for creativity and innovation and they truly look to their staff as major assets for their success. So the question is what motivates us? We’re thinking of ways..though nerf tag isn’t off the books yet.

How does emedia get creative?

Lindsay: I scour my favourite design blogs or do rough google image searches for inspiration. They help get my head around a project or figure out what I’m going to do and how. I also get a lot of ideas when I’m on my Vespa. I try to make songs out of what I’m thinking about so it gets stuck in my head till I get home.

Jacquie: Usually my best ideas come from when I’m bouncing random silly things off of someone. I have an initial thought and they help me make it into something brilliant. I love team collaboration and the creative snowball effect it can have on an idea, giving you more and more.

Kiona: As a logophile, I’m tickled by word play and puns, as a photographer, images really get my creative juices flowing…But if I had to pick one thing that set my synapses firing— it would be humour!

Jen: After the stress of deadlines and demands there is one passion that brings a smile to my face – Zumba. Teaching Zumba 3-4 nights a week allows me to work out the stress and gets my brain back to it’s happy place. Zumba is a Latin inspired fitness class that pulls from such a wide range of music. In an hour class I can go from Bollywood to hip-hop, salsa and reggeton – the variety is a real boost to my energy level and creativity.

So now that the pandemonium is over, the dust has settled, and the plastic disposed of properly the question stands: why did we promote and proceed with an office wide plastic sack race?

There are a number of reasons for this.

The first, and probably most obvious reason, is that as an office full of women we love to talk. We are very good at talking. And given a spirited situation we can’t help but smack talk and brag a big game. Starting the sack race gave us a fun chance to create communication between our staff in a different and unique way. It gave us the opening to not just talk about work but something else we were a part of.

Secondly we wanted to create a team environment. This is the main reason for the race. We wanted to create an opportunity for our staff to engage together in a similar goal. We truly believe ingenuity and productivity comes from teamwork and a collaborative atmosphere. We’ve always been a small and tight nit group but with new additions and some other staff leaving, the creation of the race seemed to be a good opportunity.

Using the sack race we were able to create a sense of pride for not only themselves, but for being a part of the office as well. They engaged in pre race communications, took part in polls, pictures and preparation of the race. All of the staff had ideas in how it should be done and where etc… We were pleased that everyone got excited about the race and got involved. It was truly the outcome that we wanted. In the end we are just a bit closer of a team.

Another reason for creating the sack race is setting up an environment that fosters creativity. It’s our goal to put out work that is unique and creative. We constantly want to grow and learn and cultivate our talent. Having something a little silly helps our staff to step back from the monotony of a computer screen or a project. Given the chance to step back and do something unique or different allows us to come at our work with new eyes and gives us the ability to think outside of the box.

Finally we really wanted to amp up our social media and engage our various publics in a more personable way. Implementing the race we were able to showcase our staff, their role in the company, and who they are as a person.  We also engaged our public with posts, pics, and comments. Finishing it off with a poll on who is going to win and videos of the race and awards, we felt we engaged with people in a variety of mediums. Our staff was able to talk and engage with our publics, which is something they don’t all usually get to do. We felt this allowed for people to see us in a more unique and personable way.

Even though the sack race came from completely random chance we are glad we picked it up and ran with it. We are a company that wants to be known for having unique, original, and resourceful ideas. What better way to do that than to showcase an event where we get into giant plastic bags and hop to victory.

Watching the Oscars last night you had to take pause and wonder at the mass amount of imagination that is the movies.  Quoting the movie Hugo, “It’s like seeing your dreams in the middle of the day.”

Dreaming up an idea and making it into a reality is a hard job to do. The creativity to think outside of the box and talent it takes to articulate it effectively is something few have the patience to do.  And let me tell you they’ve got it in spades.

Being in the business of creative thinking and innovative ideas, we know how difficult it can be to truly come up with something unique.  It is probably the hardest thing to deal with in our industry.

So how do we do it? It’s all about inspiration. Listening to a song, seeing a quote or picture, and even watching something crazy in a movie all trigger something in us to create and write.

So a big ole thank you to Oscar winners for keeping us on our toes and stirring our imaginations (and oh yeah congrats!).

Ever notice the hidden messages in these well known logos?

As we approach the New Year, it is time to start thinking of everyone’s favourite thing – budgets. Now, while budgets are not thrilling by any stretch of the imagination, having a budget and a plan when it comes to your marketing efforts can make a huge impact. There are several reasons why it is advantageous to have a marketing plan. Firstly, having a marketing plan saves you time and money. One way you can save money is by being able to take advantage of pre-booking or multiple booking rates. Booking six magazine ads at once will give you a more favourable rate than if you placed the same ads one at a time throughout the year. You also save money by not incurring additional administration costs as you figure out your plan as you go along. By creating a plan, you are also establishing a budget, which helps you make sure you stay on track throughout the course of a year. It is easy to overspend if you look at each ad placement individually, but viewing the budget as a whole keeps you on track.

A marketing plan also enables you to be more strategic in your efforts. By creating a marketing plan, you are able to look at all of the opportunities present in a year and decide what best meets your needs and desired outcomes. Working with your account manager to create a functional marketing plan to start 2010 will help you to be as effective as possible in all of your marketing efforts. Now there’s a New Year’s resolution you can stick to.

Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that their website is ‘done’ when it goes live for the first time. A website is like a living organism, it needs attention and care in order to thrive.

We’ve all been to websites that have their latest information updates and most recent event listed as several years ago. This immediately instills a lack of faith in the information that is provided on the rest of the site. The thinking is that if you haven’t listed a new ‘upcoming event’ since 2005, your prices, list of services and staff contact information probably haven’t been updated as well. If viewers don’t feel like they can rely on the information provided on your website, your site loses its purpose.

These days, there is really no excuse for an out-of-date website. Programs such as Adobe Contribute make it easy for business owners, or their staff, to update information on a website, even if this person does not have a great amount of technical knowledge or skill. Having new information on your website on a regular basis also keeps people coming back. If the information on the site was the same every time a potential customer went on over the past 6 months, chances are they won’t return to your site. But if they are greeted with new information, as well as all of the essential information that they need, they may return regularly to view your updates.

Keeping your website up-to-date is a simple way to make sure that your clientele is getting the most accurate view of your company possible. Contact Jennifer Ward at jen@emedia.bm to find out how you can make your website easier to update and control.