We all have our skeletons in Advertising, especially account executives. There is a mystery to the magic of advertising and how account executives perform their tricks. What makes AE’s tick, what keeps them going, how do they balance it all? Find out from a one-on-one interview conducting by me with my fellow account executive sisters.

For the privacy of all individuals involved, names have been replaced with fun titles.

Account Executives have to balance so much in a day. Client calls, emails, research, proofing, notes, follow up, tactical details, creative briefs, timesheets, client meetings, internal meetings, and that is all before lunch. What are the secrets to getting all of this done at Current?

Party Gal says:
Listening to jazz and not overanalyzing things

Margarita Mixer says:
Trusting your team, fun snacks and making lists for everything, all while jamming to some My Morning Jacket

Southern Belle says:
80’s music, a game face and rolling with the punches

Dog Lover says:
Always be ahead of schedule and let Dave [Matthews] show you the way

SUMMARY:
Music, Milk Duds and Management

The secrets to capturing every account executive’s heart are a pat on the back and letting the good times roll. Around these parts, we call these guilty pleasures. What are the guilty pleasures that drive our AEs?

Everyone says:
Margaritas, chocolate (Thanks Dawn and Tracey for keeping us stocked!), dance music, joking about mixed metaphors and yummy lunches. All of this can put pep in any girls step.

SUMMARY:
Margaritas and Marketing do Mix (after hours of course)!

We all have tools that we use to make our jobs easier. Designers enjoy cool applications like Photoshop and typography sites. Copywriters enjoy research and peace and quiet. What tools do our AE’s enjoy the most?

Party Gal says:
Keynote

Southern Belle says:
Keynote

German lover says:
CurrentTrack

Dog Lover says:
Excel, Love me some spreadsheets!

Funny Gal says:
Pages

Margarita Mixer says:
CurrentTrack

SUMMARY:
Get a MAC with iWork, spreadsheets are your friend and use CurrentTrack by Developware.

Stay tuned for more Account Executive Confessions.

People like to ask us the secrets of our morale and productivity here at CurrentMarketing. One of the big ones is our Partner Day program. Partner Days were instituted about eight years ago, and the concept is very simple. Each employee gets four partner days (days off) each summer, every other Friday from June to August. Everyone has a "partner" responsible for covering for them, on the assumption that the person with the three-day weekend has already taken care of everything on their “to-do” list ahead of time.

It's a neat system, one that boosts productivity as well as morale. Members of the staff work hard ahead of time to qualify for their days off, and the quiet Friday environment allows the employees still on the clock to get caught up (instead of, say, going to meetings). Some ambitious folks have been known to sneak into the office on their days off because it's a chance to get a bunch of stuff done!

Of course, working in an office that gives you four extra paid days off per year is also a terrific recruiting tool. It creates a sense of excitement and teamwork during our slower months, and fosters a playful sense of competition between the two "teams." In short, partner days are a fun game, and everybody wins.

For more info about this program or other bright ideas to add to your culture, our COO Lisa Koier (The Culture Queen) can assist you. Now get back to work!

How do you turn the best two minutes in sports into a two-week-long party? The Kentucky Derby Festival has the answer, hosting over 70 events in the 15 days leading up to the Kentucky Derby.

CurrentMarketing has the delightful job of orchestrating all of the advertising and marketing materials, television and radio campaigns, and outdoor and social media messages for all of these events! The first project begins in early June promoting the miniMarathon and Marathon. It’s followed by numerous projects from November all the way up to the Basketball Classic in March, and usually ends with the Republic Bank Pegasus Parade in mid-April.

Our agency completes roughly 450 projects from beginning to end in a short nine-month period. Much like birthing a child, it ends with the complete JOY of a wonderful Festival season filled with colorful programs, advertisements, clever radio and television commercials and more. The KDF marketing team consists of about 15 members that are 100% dedicated to working on the Festival and making sure everything is polished to perfection for the coming year.

Each year, on the Tuesday before Derby, our agency holds a mini-event for ourselves (no promotional materials required). The entire KDF team attends and, along with the CurrentMarketing Team, raises glasses for a celebratory Festival Toast. We also pray to the rain gods to hold off (most events are weather permitting), and then pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. It is our party and we will celebrate if we want to! It’s our culture — our birth rite, if you will.

It truly takes a village to make the Festival run. 30 employees, 75 board members, 4,000 volunteers, multiple photographers and videographers, numerous media outlets, hundreds of city officials and our 15-person in-house KDF marketing team!

Cheers to a successful 2010 Festival, cheers to a wonderful team at CurrentMarketing and cheers to Louisville, KY! Where else can you stretch a two minute sporting event into a two-week-long party?!

Most people that work at the Derby Festival office (including my husband) are either counting days to Thunder (11 days away) or Derby (25 days away), but around CurrentMarketing, we count down the days to April 28th.

You may ask: "What is April 28th?"

To some, it is the day of the Run for the Rosé or the Pegasus Parade Preview. These are both exciting events that I personally attend, but still are not the reason for the countdown. We have a ton of hard-working crew members who put in countless hours leading up to the exalted day. April 28th is the day the agency sends off the final project out of 300 that get completed in a 3-month span in our shop. This day marks the weight that lifts from these tired but proud bodies and suddenly a burst of energy happens - just enough to lift one aching arm to suck down an ice-cold tequila shot, followed by a juicy lime squeeze and a celebratory toast and to the wonderful accomplishments of this amazing team.

There is still much more that needs to be done. 21 days is only three weeks away - a Lifetime in the Festival world.

I am so thankful for this great team that includes the Print Diva (Mel), the famous Dono-Wand (Donovan), our beloved Traffic Pixie (Laura), the Awesome Editor and Voice Talent (Rob), the Media Darlings (Katy, Ashley and Lindsay), the Phenomenal Creative Crew (Cathy, Dennis, Jim and Luke), our Incomparable Power Plant (Lisa), our Fearless Leader (Rick) and last, but certainly not least, my Co-pilot and Leader of the Pack, Jacky-of-all Trades (Jacky).

The opening episode was sure packed with heat, but left me with many questions.

To start, season five opened five years later. I guess the present was getting a little too predictable?

Brie is up to her old tricks. Susan is as emotionally tangled as ever. Lynette is trying to tame her family as she raises her teenagers and her teenager-at-heart husband. Edie is back and has found the perfect mate...a psycho husband. Gabi is battling self-esteem  issues and working through the same problem with her overweight daughter.

I cannot help but try and predict what the season will bring. So here is my desperate attempt to figure what will happen in the lives of these desperate housewives.

Brie is working hard on her new business, the only thing she has left to "baby." The business will fail (primarily because of her partner), but her relationship with her daughter will blossom. Her son will manage to get into some kind of trouble with the law and his secret lover and will somehow find a way to lay blame at his mother's feet for his mistakes.
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Do you have FUN in your workplace? If not you need some.

Fun is everywhere at Current. Playing together is key at Current. We do adventures together like white water rafting, competing at volleyball or racing around an obstacle course every year at the Run for The Rose. Lisa Koier, our COO, AKA “Culture Queen," always endorses fun and excitement around the office.

Here are a few tips to add some FUN in your workplace:

1)    Nicknames. Everyone MUST have a nickname. It is much more fun to greet around the office with names such as “The Bomb," D-Meister” and “Smarty Pants." Don’t you agree?

2)    Treats. Dogs and cats are not the only ones that need treats. Offices do as well. Be spontaneous and plan an ice cream party day or a popcorn hour.

3)    Gatherings. Treat your office to a fun outing, like Movie Night, Roller skating or a Comedy Night.

4)    Lunch. Yes, Food again. It is important to try and lunch with everyone on your staff at least twice a month. This allows you to catch up and get to know your co-workers on a personal level.

5)    The final tip for today is Animals. Animals you ask? Every office needs a pet. A fish, a ferret, a bird, your choice. Our shop pet is a dog. Her name is Mona. Our office would not be the same without her. She is a permanent member of our staff. Oh, and my nickname for her is M-Dog. Seemed like a natural fit.

Remember, have fun in your life, even at work.

T-Minus two days and counting until Thunder Over Louisville, the largest annual fireworks show in North America and the opening ceremonies to the Kentucky Derby Festival.

CurrentMarketing is the agency of record for the Kentucky Derby Festival. With more than 70 events to promote, it can get kinda crazy within our agency. With three years of experience, here are our Top 10 tips for survival of this mayhem.

10) CurrentTrack - Without this phenomenal online agency management system, we would be lost. The archived projects and search feature allow for easy access to past projects. Task management is KEY to the workflow for the hundreds of projects we complete in the months leading up to May.

9) Traffic Manager- Behind every management system, there must be a STRONG traffic manager. We have the best traffic manager around, who knows our procedures and the CurrentTrack system front and back and back again. What is a traffic manager you ask? I don’t have time to answer this (did you not read that there are only three days until Thunder?!?!). So read up on it here. Get one.

8) Feed your Creatives
Feed, Feed, Feed your designers, hell all of your creative staff.
Candy, salty snacks, Diet Mountain Dew, whatever does the trick. This helps keep them glued to their seat and working hard at the task at hand. BONUS TIP: Keep the fluids to a minimum. Too many fluids causes extra potty breaks and that is 3-5 minutes of billable time.

7) Memorize
You must be able to retain information and recall it quickly. Boron helps your attention and memory. It is found in avocados, apples and nuts. Choline is another brain booster found in eggs and milk. Stock up.

6) Team Players
Have a team attitude. And Have a Great Team. Enough Said.
TIP: Creatives love after hours cocktails and more snacks.

5) Focus
We always try our best to clear our minds and FOCUS on all the many details of every project. If it means leaving the office with our laptop or locking ourselves in a closet, we do whatever it takes to stay focused.

4) Take Great Notes
To organize this many projects, you must take detailed notes.
From the initial concept to design to sending a file to the printer, notes are your essential to this process.

3) Ask Questions
No question is a dumb question, only if it does not get asked.
BONUS TIP: Write your questions down as you may forget to ask them later.

2) Reward your Team
We realize we are not in this alone and a pat on the back to your teammates -- candy, trophies and other prizes go a long way!

1) HAVE FUN!
Every job has its ups and downs, but we must make sure we enjoy what we do. We infuse FUN in it as much as we can!

Graphic designers and brand experts have long preached logo consistency. We do here, too. But when you can build brand awareness and equity, why not try something new?

Many brands today apply a temporary, sometimes seasonal, design element to add life and energy to their logos, and even create buzz about their brand. Google, for example, recognizes every holiday and season with logo garnish they call “doodles” on its homepage. Yahoo, The Gap, Wild Apricot and Target also seasonalize their logos all year long.

Recently, we gave Kentucky Derby Festival’s logo a seasonal look to incorporate the creative theme for this year’s Festival, A World of Fun.

When the international theme was developed for the 2008 Festival, it seemed natural to bring that feel to the corporate mark. The sphere that normally holds the Golden Pegasus became the perfect area to integrate the globe shape. The latitude and longitude lines helped add depth and define this shape. The color modification to blue and gold helped set the complete mark apart.

The industry buzz is that this technique can infuse new energy into a corporate logo, increase website traffic and build overall awareness of your brand.

I cannot wait to see what Google has to offer for Major League Baseball’s opening day what Derby Festival may have to offer in 2009.

Until then.

The website that I visit the most that helps me with my position as an account executive at CurrentMarketing is a tie between two:

www.secondwindnetwork.com

This site is a member-based website for advertising professionals that provides wonderful information about the industry, research and has an online forum to ask questions to your peers in the industry. Very helpful!

HOW Design

This site is geared more toward designers and art directors, which takes me back to my roots. I visit this site often to post questions, read about the latest technology and to find many How-to-do’s in the industry.

The site I visit everyday again is a toss-up between AnyWho (which I use to find people) or  CurrentTrack which is our web-based ad agency management system by Developware. Without it I would be lost and I use it about 574 times a day. It keeps me on track. It's the best ad agency software I've ever used.

The sites I really visit every day are www.marquiswhoswho.com and www.movies.go.com.

I am always searching names, content, people, info, movies and places. These sites are always helpful and provide a nice break over lunch as I eat at my desk and surf.

Earlier this week, I posted some initial points on successful event marketing. Today, I’ll share what I think are four keys to help any event be successful.

Know Your Audience
Too many companies, businesses and even festival and event groups spend more time marketing to themselves instead of their potential audience. Many events have several tiers or several different demographics for their events. It is important to know all your audiences and to target your event messages to each one. The SBA has a helpful article about establishing clear guidelines on how to drill down and learn about the people you're trying to reach.

Your marketing message is not just the image you project in media. It is also the message you send to your staff, vendors and participants. From the way you reply to an email to the way you answer the phone. Positive correspondence to everyone involved in your event is key so they will continue to partner with you in the future.

And you must allocate your budget to grow for impressive creative and solid media plans and strategy.

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