Archive for February, 2009
Written by Mihai Dragan on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 ( One response )
Tags: car, Interactive Advertising, live streaming, the office project, video, wireless
Yay! We’ve launched The Office Project.
For the next week you will be driving a remote controlled car in our Bucharest office. You only get a chance to drive it for 2 minutes than you will wait your turn again.
There has been some electronics, server side, video, flash programming there but the main idea is that you will get a chance to have some fun with us.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 ( Start discussion )
Tags: Mobile, pc, reading
I have noticed that I find it much easier to read articles, posts and others on my iPhone (previously I had a Nokia, and I found it just as easy) than on a PC or laptop.
Might it be the larger screen size that allows me to have less focus, the smaller text or the feeling that things are not really in my control that makes me hate reading things on computer screens? Who knows…
What are your opinions on this?
Written by Mihai Dragan on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 ( One response )
Tags: organizations, power, problems, psychology
While reading an article on happiness I came to find an interesting study on organizational sociopaths and their strive for power in over-grown companies.
The organizational structure is often an interesting social reality. Many times it is built around some basic principles that fade in time, due to shifts in moral code, written or unwritten.
Although I can’t say I came across behaviors as those stated in the document, i did found interesting facts. It seems these individuals are “emotionally detached”, as well as “impulsive and irresponsible”. They usually fit well in positions were goals are abstracted, usually “overseeing” or “managing” processes.
The study shows these people are bound to bully colleagues and strongly defend their positions, usually when a challenger appears.
They tend to have subjective view of matters and whilst still managing to get the job done the “authoritarian and task-centered management style” pushes valuable people away. “The Peter Principle” (as in Peter and Hull, authors of … well … the principle) states that these managers are promoted “one or more levels beyond their optimum level of competence”.
The moral code at AMex
To manage internal culture American Express employs this three sets of moral codes, which I find amazing. It may not keep the problems away but it states it’s principles pretty clear:
- Moral values:
- Integrity – uphold the highest standards of integrity in all of our actions.
- Respect for people – value our people. Encourage development. Reward performance.
- Personal accountability – be personally accountable for delivering on our commitment.
- Social values:
- Teamwork – we work together across boundaries.
- Good citizenship – we are good citizens in the communities in which we live and work.
- Business values:
- Customer commitment – develop relationships that make a positive difference in our customers’ lives.
- Quality – provide outstanding products and unsurpassed service.
- Will to win – demonstrate a strong will to win in the market place and in every aspect of our business.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 ( One response )
Tags: clients, creativity, development, interactive, interactive agency, strategy
Strong Strategy Planning ? Maybe Outstanding Creativity? Who knows … maybe the Return on Investment is all it matters. How about implementation? But hey … do people actually know what an Interactive Agency is?
A few weeks ago I’ve started a little poll on LinkedIn asking people to tell me what do they think an Interactive Agency should offer. 55 people answered so far.
The options were:
- Strong Strategy Planning
- Outstanding Creativity
- Development Skills
- Return On Investment
- What is An Interactive Agency?
Here are the conclusions:
1. Creativity is King
47 % of people that answered chose “Outstanding Creativity” as what they’re looking for in an Interactive Agency. Next is Return on Investment (20%) and Strong Strategy Planning (18%).
Only 3 percent chose Development Skills and about 10 percent were still to find out what an Interactive Agency is.
2. Decision makers focus on Return on Investment and Strategy
Most of the owners and managers selected Return On Investment and Strong Strategy Planning as their choice. In case you were pitching to the deal maker, try to focus on the strategy and return on investment rather than the creative campaigns you thought of.
This should not mean ideas and great execution are useless but rather that they have a greater chance of success with the big guys when backed by good strategy planning and an idea on return on investment.
3. Men love Creativity
An astonishing 63.6% of men would choose Creativity over other agency assets. The rest chose Strong Strategy Planning. With men is either black or white, right 
?
It seems a lot of women are not familiar with the term “Interactive Agency” as 33 % chose “What is An Interactive Agency” as their answer.
Other interesting things I’ve noticed:
- The older you get the more you care about strategy (planning is not the most popular thing among the young and cool)
- Women care about development skills (at least in this poll)
- Marketing and Product Management care about ROI and IT cares about creativity
- Most small and medium companies chose creativity as the most important asset
Long story short – everybody’s looking for creativity but they’re willing to pay for Strategy Planning and ROI.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 ( Start discussion )
Tags: 2 years, agency, mb dragan
I haven’t had a chance to write about it but MB Dragan has turned 2 on February the 2nd.
It’s been a hell of a ride and I am glad I had a chance to meet all these great people and do all the amazing things we’ve did.
We’ve launched websites, interactive campaigns, viral campaigns, online branding projects, blogs, social media campaigns, iphone webapps and many others. But most important … we tryed to make it fun.
We now have colleagues in three cities and espect even more this year. We plan to make the next step heading west.
I would like to thank all my colleagues for their passion and hard work and especially to my dear friend and partner, mr. Alex Buga. Keep up the good work.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Sunday, February 1st, 2009 ( One response )
Tags: advertising agency business, book review, interactive agency management, managing agency
I was looking for quite some time for a good book on Agency Management when I happened to stumble on this jewel, written by Eugene Hameroff.
The complete name is The Advertising Agency Business: The Complete Manual for Management & Operation and I can recommend it to anyone in charge with managing an Conventional or Interactive Agency (there are some differences but you will find out that they work pretty much the same).
You will find professional advice on:
- Starting an agency (I have already done this and I was happy to find out that I did it well)
- Running an profitable business
- Keeping both clients and colleagues happy
- Evaluating the agency
- Managing the structure and ownership (I did find a lot of interesting concepts here)
- Developing strong relationships with clients and suppliers
- Generating new business
Strongly recommended!
