Strawberry Frog Page

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Revision as of 18:33, 15 April 2008

'articles about strawberry frog

[[http://ihaveanidea.org/articles/archives/316-Agency-Profile-StrawberryFrog-NY.html ]]

so is this one: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2005-10-09-goodson-profile_x.htm

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Brand_Equity_/Strawberry_Frog_to_sell_Mahindra_Scorpio_in_US/articleshow/2818108.cms

It talks a lot about all the stuff we've discussed about what makes an innovative organization--culture, business mode, office layout, efficency, etc...and strawberry frog does it all. I think we should tap into their culture and methods of efficency especially. I really like how they outsource a lot of their work so the in-agency focus is all about creative ideas and not execution.

this is a really great article. http://ihaveanidea.org/articles/archives/316-Agency-Profile-StrawberryFrog-NY.html It talks a lot about all the stuff we've discussed about what makes an innovative organization--culture, business mode, office layout, efficency, etc...and strawberry frog does it all. I think we should tap into their culture and methods of efficency especially. I really like how they outsource a lot of their work so the in-agency focus is all about creative ideas and not execution.

The Ten Faces of Innovation Cheat Sheet: http://www.tenfacesofinnovation.com/tenfaces/index.htm

Strawberry Frogisms (the guiding principles):

-Being results focused, smart, and agile

-Believing you CAN outwit the dinosaurs

-Effortlessly hopping from one part of your world to another

-Using your ingenuity to solve problems not your size

-Making the most of your strengths with efficiency and control

-Creating perpetual motion, one step at a time

-Engaging the world from a shared perspective from the ground up

-In a world of dinosaurs, it's good to be a frog

cool links below--check 'em out!

http://www.reveries.com/reverb/advertising/goodson/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q87TFuh4qOk

CHECK OUT THE STRAWBERRY FROG BLOG: http://strawberryfrog.typepad.com./

According to Wikipedia: Strawberry Frog is an independent advertising agency with offices in Amsterdam and New York. The business was launched in 1999 by founder Scott Goodson and named after the rare and poisonous Strawberry Poison-dart Frog.

The Strawberry Frog name, unconventional by advertising agency standards, is reflective of the company's ambition to become �a different kind of ad agency,� one small and flexible enough to take full advantage of the new communications opportunities offered by the Internet, but with a global perspective.

The company cites its practice of employing an international network of freelancers assigned to work groups for clients as further evidence of its unconventional approach. As a result, the agency's operating model has received considerable media coverage and commentary across Europe and the US, and as far afield as India and Brazil. Adweek described Strawberry Frog as being part of a wider trend toward independent agencies who are proving that �big global clients don't need big global agencies any more.� Other non-traditional agencies cited as part of this trend include SMART (advertising agency) and TAXI (advertising agency).

Strawberry Frog's client list has included blue-chip brands like Frito-Lay, Credit Suisse, Heineken, Mitsubishi and Morgan Stanley. The business remains privately held and recently extended its reach to service clients in Japan from its New York and Amsterdam offices.

Key People

Scott Goodson, Founder and CEO

Steve Hardwick, President

Mike Lanzi, Managing Director

Richard Monturo, Director of Strategy

Michael Folino, Executive Creative Director

Ideas for Core Values

Everybody is creative

Listen - Suspend disbelief

An idea is never dead

Create fields, not walls

Make it tangible – Show me on the whiteboard

Spread the love – “Pay it forward”

Keep the wheels turning- Kill your darlings

Keep Shit real

Love thy Keg

Wear many hats

Lets play ping pong

Play 20 questions

Hey Guys Greg here. THis is my take on some of our Core Values:

Everybody is creative Great ideas come from everywhere and everyone in the agency can be creative. Being creative can be an an idea, a picture, copy text, a tag line, it doesn't matter. The more creativity that goes on the better the work that will happen.

The following is from an AdAge Article by Alex Bogusky regarding creativity:

We all have it. It doesn't mean you can draw or sing or compose music or write. It might mean you have a unique ability to sniff out the right audience. Or an uncanny ability to find the truth of a business hidden in the numbers. Or maybe you have a way of talking to consumers that allows them to reveal what they're really thinking.

Anything we do as humans, when done well enough and with enough passion, becomes creative. Creativity is not inherent to the activity. I play guitar and it's certainly not at a level that I would consider a creative endeavor. I've even written commercials that in retrospect I would not consider creative.

I've also seen strategy decks and marketing plans that were outrageously creative and flat-out brilliant.

It's not the job. It's how you do it. Creativity and excellence are synonymous.

Listen - Suspend disbelief Don't kill idea at first glance. Hear someone out. Advertising is not a profession of inherent correct answers. We are not scientists were there are matter of facts. Suspend disbelief like in a play and just let it roll for a bit.

An idea is never dead Just because an idea may not fit for a current project or current brand does not mean that it has no place in the advertising marketplace. It may go into a scrap book or into a bucket or even a hat. What may have not been possible 6 months ago is now possible. Never kill an idea. Just let it take a nap.

Create fields, not walls First step when you tackle any problem is to take a sledgehammer and knock down all the walls. Do not create limitations when a direction has not even been established. Fields are open places that are free, some use them to grow, some use them to play, some just use them to relax stare at the sky. They can be so pure, so untamed, ready to be made into something special. At our agency we create fields not walls. Advertising is not about limiting ideas. It is about pushing boundaries.

Make it tangible – Show me on the whiteboard Sometimes a simple explanation with words does not to justice to your idea. People are visual and can often make sense of an idea better if they see it written down or as an image. This makes an idea tangible. It is a first step in bringing an idea to reality

Spread the love – “Pay it forward” Sometimes a project can be overwhelming. Its always nice to have a helping hand. So often the cliché phrase “It’s not my job” is used in the workplace. So to fix this lend a hand. Wherever you can help do it. Even if it is as simple as grabbing a cup of coffee or placing an order for the pizza for your teammate. Maybe it might just be giving an opinion. Spread the love, it will come back around to you.

Keep the wheels turning- Kill in your darlings It may be difficult to get away from an idea that seems to be a golden answer for advertising a brand or product. But keep the wheels turning you never know what may develop. The more ideas you can generate the better. Links between two may develop but most of all it offers you more choices. Don’t get attached like a high school relationship to one idea.

Keep Shit Real Be honest. Be truthful. Don’t drag people around through the mud.

Love thy Keg Come together and be social. Beer is a universal beverage that can unite people from all backgrounds to share a drink.

Wear many hats Each person is a person of many talents. There are many different roles that exist within an advertising agency. So lend your talents. They may not fit on all projects, but they will for sure serve helpful for some. This agency is going to be one of diverse individuals from a variety of backgrounds.

Wear many hats can also apply to your consumer. The best way to advertise to your target consumer is to truthfully understand your consumer. How is it possible to advertise to a rancher from West Texas if you do not understand their value system. So put on their hat. Find out what it is like.

Lets play ping pong This is how you can build and develop your ideas. Bouncing ideas off another person(s) can help quite a bit. Two minds talking through a problem with play.

Play 20 questions All of us have had a conversation with a 5 year old where it seems like that ask a million questions. Every response is followed by the question “Why?”. These children are not meaning to sound annoying. They are simply seeking answers to questions that they don’t know the answer to. Why the sky is blue is a legitimate question. The point is here, that children are not afraid to ask questions to learn. At our agency neither should we.

"Intro:

In order for an agency to create work, it must have a distinct culture and a differentiated way of getting goals accomplishments. Otherwise, they would all produce the same work, which they clearly do not. Every agency has its own personality, its own character. Behind it must exist a culture that facilitates production of great work. At our agency we must deliver to our clients the answer to their problems. Whatever it may be. But the problem we deliver has to be brought in a different way than others deliver it. Agencies deliver to their clients a way to differentiate their products from others out there in the market place. But seldom do agencies find ways to differentiate the product they deliver from other agencies. The following is the framework for an innovative agency designed to solve the problems brands face in today’s innovative and reworked environment.

Culture:

This is a team. Plain and simple. Great teams do not have a hierarchy. They are balanced and have contributions from every part of it. Everyone has the role and knows where they can contribute. Through all its members everyone has their strengths and weakness, where others may struggle others may thrive. This is the beauty of a team. The answers can come from anywhere, and causes problems to not be so intimidating.

Love Thy Keg- Beer brings people together. perhaps it's not neccesarily to be taken literally, but if possible...let's do it! the primary idea is that beer forms bonds, friendships, and even communities. Taking a break and going to a seperate area (whether it's a keg, a bar, or even just outside to crack open a beer with a colleauge) provides those within the agency with an opportunity to get outside the office and discuss ones life, work, etc with the hope of both potentially spawning some ideas, but more importantly, to strengthen ties within the agency.

Everybody is Creative- There are no purely technical, dull jobs within this agency. EVERYONE, from the AE's to the photoshop people to the media planners must use creative thinking in order to generate their best work. On the other side, everyone is strategic. You cannot just churn out creative work without a strategy to back it up and make it relevant. Otherwise, it's just a cool/funny/whatever piece of work with no real meaning. The other reason for this core value is that it also strengthens the idea of working purely as a team with no one being better than anyone else. Everyone has something to offer creatively that will make their work better, and thus, make better work for the agency.

An Idea is Never Dead - Ideas are always changing and developing. They must be allowed to continue to grow. We must "kill our darlings" in order not to stifle the idea before it has developed. Also, an idea should never be thrown away. Just because it isn't right for this project doesn't mean it won't be right for another project.

Wear Many Hats- nobody c an play just one role within a group, company, etc...it's just freaking boring and makes them more of a stock character, or caricature at best, rather than a multi-faceted person with distinct contribution. if everyone wore just one hat and played just one role they could be incredibly easily replaced. We don't want that; we want individuals who add so much to the group that it would be nearly impossible to replace them. We want people who can be incredibly practical on one one project when no one else is, and then on the next, dream big and reach for the stars.

• • • adding to the team culture, no work goes out with individual names on it...just the agency's name. We're a team, we all participate and help...we all get credit. Build the company, not yourself. As a result, in order to really be able to work well here and be happy you have to truly love the agency and youre co-workers.

Environment:

So what facilitates this great teamwork? This is an open space where ideas are free to roam and are never dead. But what is the setup of this agency? This is not going to be a traditional office space. Actually, it is going to be the farthest thing from it.

Feng Shui is a Chinese philosophy that has existed for more than 4000 years. It’s about arranging environments to make better use of them. The underlying principle is to live in harmony with an environment so that the surrounding energy works for you rather than against you.

An important part of this industry is to go out and be in the world. Rather than having one place to call our own, we must seek out inspiration in all environments. That said, it is also important for us to have a space dedicated to work because it can be easier to accomplish tasks in a space that is dedicated to them.

Hey guys...Amanda here.
I think it's definitely important for our agency to really take the time to get to know their client and their target consumer. I know we talked about this in class, and I felt it was important enough to be put up here. Take a ton of time to get to know all you can about the product you are working on--go to the grocery store and watch people interact with the product. Buy it, use it, live with it. Talk to others about it and get as much information as you can, from the company who makes it, the web, pop culture, anywhere you can think of. Keep track of it all for when you need to reference a point about the product. Also spend the same amount of time and diligence with your target consumer, getting to know them inside and out. Be a stalker of sorts, but get inside their heads. Here is an ad Strawberry Frog placed for themselves