Many people in the industry are surprised to learn that our agency was founded in 1996. We've watched a lot of agencies big and small come and go over the years, and learned much about what it takes to run a successful shop. Then in 2005 we launched BrandFlakesForBreakfast, and that kind of put us on the map. BrandFlakes was our first blog, and really just an experiment at first. We figured that we'd create a blog that our clients could read, and it would be a fantastic way to keep them updated with what's happening in our industry. The content struck a chord with a much larger audience, and today it's one of the most highly trafficked blogs in the industry.

 

Not long after that we invented PlaidNation, which last year became HumongoNation. This was a huge leap for us. Nobody in our business had ever produced anything like this, and the idea of an agency going on a road tour seemed absurd to many - including some people in our agency. It was also a significant expense for a small agency. At the time, it seemed like there was so much to lose - our investment in the cost of the tour, and the risk of falling on our faces and failing, in front of the world.

 

To our delight, HumongoNation became a massive success story. Marketers loved seeing an agency road trip, the opportunity to peek in on other marketers best practices, and to see how all of these new social media tools could be put to use. We generated some pretty impressive traffic numbers with the tour, and that led to sponsors, and even talks with reality show producers and broadcast TV. If BrandFlakesforBreakfast put us on the map, then the HumongoNation tour blew the map up.

 

MDC came to us in late 2009. An executive there told me that "I was getting tired of everyone telling me we needed to check out this little agency in CT." Eventually they did, they introduced us to Source Marketing (our new direct parent company), and the rest is history.

 

When we were acquired, we wanted to re-brand. We've done that a few times in our agency's history, and loved the energy that it brings to the firm. We thought Humongo was a proper brand for the new agency that we were about to come.  

 

I've always said that there are two things you need to fight for at all costs in our business: great ideas and company culture. What we liked about the Source Marketing/MDC Partners deal is that they respected our culture. They weren't looking to roll us up into their agency, and force us to adopt their brand. They believe in what we've created, what we're doing and where we're going. So they've given us the space to run things pretty much like we always have. We've kept our independent space, progressive management philosophy, and unique spirit.

 

It is the team that makes our culture what it is, so we've spent a lot of time and effort making that as awesome as we possibly can. Certainly that starts with the hiring process, but it doesn't end there. Humongo employees are an integral part of the brand, and active participants in what we're doing and where we're going. We've always been an "open" organization, in every sense of the word. We don't believe in offices, secrets, politics or unnecessary hierarchy. We share EVERYTHING with Humongo employees. Good news, bad news, strategy, financials. And they all have input into what's happening, and where we're going. To that end, Humongo has very much been shaped by the people that it's employed over the years. It's never about any one individual, but the brothers and sisters that we have become in creativity. We treat each other with this kind of mutual respect, and truly love working together.

 

So getting acquired was a huge concern, related to culture. We chose the Source Marketing/MDC deal because they believed in our culture, and we really liked their team. There have been challenges along the way, and some culture shocks on both sides of the fence. What's cool is that we both have mutual respect for each other. We're learning from a larger agency, and they're in turn learning from us. We're both stronger as a result of the acquisition.

Brand Flakes was always an agency blog, even though I wrote the majority of the posts, up until recently, when we added Kristien to the mix. I've been thrilled with having Kristien on board, and she's taken some of the pressure off of constantly generating great content. Our philosophy for BrandFlakes has remained unchanged, since it's launched. We aim to provide visitors content that they'll be inspired by, learn something from, or be entertained by. That's it. Each and every post must live up to that.

I think there are countless projects that we're proud of, for different reasons. I'm proud that we produced the first ever social media campaign for Janet Jackson, and how it holds up historically. I love some of the design work and strategic thinking that we've worked on for Segway. We've also produced countless campaigns for other larger agency's clients, that we can't exactly share publicly. ;) 

 

But more than anything, I believe we're most proud of what we've accomplished for Humongo. Here's the one situation where you have absolutely no constraints, no bureaucracy, no one to blame but yourself if you don't deliver the awesome. I believe we've done that repeatedly with our self promotional campaigns over the years, and had a blast at the same time.

 

We're in the planning stages of some pretty awesome ideas for Marc Ecko Timepieces. We've also really connected with a new brand called Energy Hub, and believe in what they're doing. And we're planning to switch up HumongoNation in a new, exciting way this year. There's a lot going on, and that's created some great energy at the agency.

 

This is my biggest personal challenge. You've got to immerse yourself in it to understand it, stay on top of it, and be successful in it. But there's also email to address, decks to deal with, and meetings to attend. I do believe that social media has shortened my attention span dramatically. I'm not honestly sure if that's a good thing or bad thing, but I know that I also feel more in touch with the world than I ever did before.

 

I've established a few practices that have helped me stay productive, (mostly) sane and connected:

+ TweetDeck. This may seem like common sense to the majority of your readers, but I'm always surprised at the number of people that I find still using Twitter from their Twitter home page. When I hear people say "I had to unfollow her because she tweeted to much", it's evident that they're not using the right tools. Your tweetstream has varying levels of importance and priority, and only a tweet aggregator can deliver an experience that lets you consume this efficiently. 

 

+ Email prioritization. I've learned a wonderful trick from co-worker @kdel713 about email prioritization. I color my emails by urgency. Red needs immediate attention, orange requires asap attention, blue represents personal emails, and so on. I've found this method tremendously effective at keeping me focused on what's ultimately urgent, and not viewing emails on multiple occasions within the same day. If productive, you should only view an email twice: once to discern the need, and then a second time when you're ready to address the need.

 

+ RSS readers. You can't read blogs without them, and no businessperson should be without them.

 

+ Time management. Over the years, I've learned when I'm good at particular tasks, and do my best to keep myself focused appropriately throughout the day. I write blog posts first thing in the morning. Deal with emergencies in mid-morning, and plan for the rest of the day. I've found the time immediately after lunch is a good time to immerse myself in something that's going to require deeper, longer attention. I do all of my reading (and a LOT of it) at night. I also try and reward task completion with social media fun. Knock an important email out, and then tweet about something fun.

 

+ Set limits. Colleague @benkunz said to me the other day "nobody should have to kill themselves to be successful." So true. I work a lot - and I really love my work - but I'm learning to turn it off more frequently too, and take in life more aggressively too. This is a pretty typical challenge for entrepreneurs and A-type personalities like me, but the more we allow ourselves to have lives outside of work, the more creative and productive we'll be on the job, too.

 

I'm absolutely in love with New York City. There's just no place like it on earth. I'm fortunate to live just a short train ride away (I'm a "bridge and tunnel person"), and spend as much time as I can there. I sent my kids to school there. I have fun on the weekends there. I love working with clients there. And I never, ever run out of things to do, awesome sights to see, and new things to learn and/or be inspired by. New York City is my dirty, lovable, sexy mistress. (Did I just say that?)

 

I want so much to answer this question with "HIPSTAMATIC!". But I can't. Part of that is how I share content through Twitter. Hipstamatic requires that you initiate in Hipstamatic. I don't think like that - I always think of the tweet first, and then the photo. This seems so simple, but behavior affects how we use tools. I'm hoping that Hipstamatic will soon be an option on Tweetdeck, and then I'll answer this question differently.

 

I absolutely love that our lives are being documented in every detail. I can look at the photos on my iPhone, and it's representative of the last year or so of my life. That's pretty amazing. I do have issue with all of the retro effects that we're adding to our photos, though. Here and there it's fun to create a 1970's vibe with a shot. But people are adding these effects to EVERY photo they share. Ten years from now (or probably more realistically three years from now), I fear that we'll look back on the body of work being shared today, and see this as corny and ridiculous. 

 

Wow, they're all my babies! I seriously can't pick one. Here's a few long-time (and more recent) favorites:

 

+ LaughingSquid. I think that we're pretty damn good at finding the awesome juice of the internet on Brand Flakes for Breakfast, but DAMN, the team at Laughing Squid are just over the top great at it.

 

+ SwissMiss. I've never met her in person, but have a total crush on her. I'm jealous of her love and appreciation of design, which I believe puts everyone else in the world to shame Not many bloggers can deliver the quality of content year after year like the totally bitchin' Swiss Miss does.

 

+ Put This On. I don't know how I discovered this blog, but I love their appreciation for dressing properly. Since I'm mostly a t-shirt and jeans dude, reading their blog makes me feel like a slob, yet I sometimes aspire to be better.

 

+ Gothamist. It's my go-to place for what's happening in NYC.

 

+ ThoughtGadgets. One day a long time from now, I would like to be at least as 1/3 as smart as Ben Kunz. Damn, that dude is pure internet genius.

 

Tweetstream. Seriously, neither of these blogs are in my RSS. If something is breaking, I'll see it in my tweetstream, and then read it wherever, without a preference to one over the other. So I trust my stream to sort out what's important, relevant, and worthy of reading time.

 

AdAge or AdWeek?

 

Since I contribute to Advertising Age's Small Agency Blog and Brand Flakes for Breakfast is on the Advertising Age Hot 150 Charts, of course it's AdAge. But I'll give a shout out to Brian Morrissey at AdWeek, who's a constant inspiration, both as a marketing thinker and a runner.

 

Ha! To be honest, I forgot that my check ins are streamed to our agency site. Hopefully, I haven't checked in anywhere truly embarrassing. Seriously, I live my life pretty publicly on the interwebs, have nothing to hide, and so I never really think about it. I figure that if a client were to have a problem with the types of places that I visit, we probably weren't a good match for them as an agency, anyway. But seriously, how could anyone have a problem with a check in at the Meatball Shop?? (My favorite check in from last weekend).

 

As of today, I have 27 badges. I was a late adopter to FourSquare, but have since become addicted.

 

FourSquare. Embarrassingly, I was a late adopter on this one. I didn't see the value, and didn't feel my work/home/work schedule would be of interest to other FourSquare users. What I realized is that's a similar attitude that I hear every day from non-Twitter users. How many times have we all heard people say things like "I don't do anything exciting enough to tweet about." We of course know that's not true. And the same philosophy applied to FourSquare. Once I became a regular user, I saw the value.

 

HumongoNation, in a new way. And here's an opportunity for anyone that's listening - that won't even require VC dollars. We want to take this nationwide social media tour to a new level. We're looking for a media partner that could benefit from some engaging content about marketing and business people. We've got some killer ideas to push this over the edge, but need an appropriate media partner to pull it off. Know anyone who's interested?

 

We're set up for a spectacular year. We're adding a few team members, re-tooling HumongoNation and kicking off with some super awesome new projects and clients. I try and not plan too far into the future, because it just seems a bit ridiculous. We're all operating at internet speed, and in that world, a three year plan is a waste of everyone's time. So short answer? More awesomeness.

 

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Thanks very much Darryl, those are some great answers!