Uncategorized

Can Counteroffers Help Employers Retain Hard-to-Replace Creative Talent?

Has your employer ever offered you a counter-offer after you have announced plans to accept a job elsewhere? If you accepted it, how did things work out?

According to new survey of advertising and marketing executives conducted for The Creative Group, counteroffers are becoming more common. But they can be a double-edged sword.

Twenty percent of advertising and marketing executives surveyed said the number of counteroffers extended by their company has increased in the last six months. (Only 5 percent said the number had declined.) Thirty-nine percent of executives said the main reason to issue a counteroffer is to avoid losing an employee with hard-to-find skills.

More than two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents who have extended a counteroffer said it is somewhat or very common for employees to accept the bid. But an employer’s problems may not be solved: 28 percent of executives said they would question the loyalty of an employee who accepted a counteroffer; another 21 percent said they worry the offer might not address the issues prompting the staff member to leave.

“Many companies are willing to pull out all the stops to retain their best people in this talent-short market, but counteroffers are often counterproductive,” said Diane Domeyer, executive director of The Creative Group. “They tend to be more of a Band-Aid than a cure — the employee may feel valued in the short term, but the issues that initially prompted the person to consider leaving usually crop up again.”

TCG_0414_Counteroffer_FINAL

The Creative Group advises employers to consider five key questions before extending a counteroffer:

Will it address the real issue? A bigger salary or better job title may not significantly improve an employee’s long-term job satisfaction.

Is it a knee-jerk reaction? Are you asking the employee to stay because of the value he or she brings to the role or so your team won’t be left in the lurch?

Will it set an undesirable precedent? Make a counteroffer today, and you can be sure other departing employees will expect similar treatment in the future.

Will my payscale remain intact? Compensation among employees should be equitable, so if one employee gets a significant raise because of another job offer, it may upset the balance of your compensation program.

What impact will it have on the team? What you gain by attempting to appease one employee may cause resentment and low morale among the rest of your team.

About the Survey

The national study was developed by The Creative Group and conducted by an independent research firm. It is based on 400 telephone interviews — 200 with marketing executives randomly selected from companies with 100 or more employees and 200 with advertising executives randomly selected from agencies with 20 or more employees.

About The Creative Group

The Creative Group (TCG) specializes in placing a range of highly skilled interactive, design, marketing, advertising and public relations professionals with a variety of firms on a project and full-time basis.

LINKS

The Creative Group

.

 

Design Students Convert Urban Parking Garage Into Micro-Homes

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) has unveiled SCADpad, a unique micro-housing and adaptive reuse experiment that transformed the parking structure of its midtown Atlanta location into a sustainable community.

SCAD alumna and featured artist Trish Andersen sitting on the fold-up hammock bed, which accommodates the desk underneath, in SCADpad Europe. The fold-up hammock bed was designed and constructed by Trish and fellow SCAD graduate Kristi Jilson
SCAD alumna and featured artist Trish Andersen sits on the fold-up hammock bed that accommodates the desk underneath, in SCADpad Europe.

The project presents an entirely new vision of urban community and suggests a solution to the world’s growing urban housing challenges. According the UN Report: “World Population to 2300, the global urban population is expected to rise to approximately 5 billion. The U.S. Census 2012 founded the 81% of the U.S. population resides in urban areas — a 6 percent increase over the last 25 years. 

“SCAD is a global university, so we see firsthand the urban density issues that the world’s most populous cities face,” said Paula Wallace, president and co-founder of SCAD. SCADpad focuses the ideas of students and the expertise of faculty and alumni in disciplines ranging from urban design, adaptive reuse, and architecture to interior design, service design, interaction design, design for sustainability and fine art.

The urban micro-housing community projects relevance beyond form and function to the Vitruvian principles of utility, strength, and delight, says Wallace: “SCADpad creates an environment for inventive and artful living.”

SCADpad was designed and developed by an interdisciplinary SCAD team of 75 current students, 37 alumni and 12 SCAD professors from 12 academic degree programs.

The experimental community also features:

A workstation built by SCAD furniture design students. It features a hands-free intuitive 3D printer interface that allows any SCADpad resident to issue a print command to create wall attachments without pressing a single button.

A community garden watered with filtered greywater from one of the SCADpad units. It is fed by a fiber optic sun harvesting system and high-efficiency composting systems.

A waste management center for recycling, composting and trash disposal. Dubbed NuBox, the system is constructed of reclaimed wood. It teaches residents to view traditional waste management as nutrient management.

A park featuring custom-designed furniture from SCAD students that helps to transform the uninhabitable parking deck into a livable space inspired by nature.

Why parking structures?

SCAD believes parking structures represent an untapped opportunity for adaptive reuse,

“Parking structures are a unique and very recent building type,” said Christian Sottile, Dean of the School of Building Arts, SCAD. “It’s not a structure that cities, architects and designers have examined as opportunities for urban living.”

According the to the 2012 U.S. Census, there are 105 million parking spaces in the U.S. – or five spaces for every car. According the Urban Land Institute, the approximately 40,000 parking structures in the U.S. operate at half capacity.

“Parking structures are cold, uninhabitable spaces built for cars, not humans,” said Sottile. “At SCAD, we see many of these 20th century structures as a huge adaptive reuse and historic preservation opportunity to bring art and design together to delight the user and sustainably evolve these buildings already in place.”

About the SCADpad units

Each of the three fully functional, fully furnished 135-square-foot SCADpad units fit within a standard parking space. The SCADpads showcase custom art installations from SCAD alumni on the interior and exterior of the microhomes. The design themes were inspired by SCAD locations in Asia, Europe and North America.

SCADpad Asia: Intended to reflect the culture and aesthetic of SCAD’s Hong Kong location, SCADpad Asia features a striking physical exterior designed by SCAD painting alumnus Will Penny. Inside the unit, the walls are lined with geometric wallpaper overlaying a soundboard, also called human conductive wallpaper.

Inside SCADpad Asia, a geometic wallpaper adorns the walls, which was painted by BFA and MFA painting graduate Liz Winnel. The wallpaper overlays a soundboard designed by SCAD student Ross Fish. When you touch the wall, an algorithm is triggered to produce randomized audio file sounds.
Inside SCADpad Asia, a geometic wallpaper adorns the walls, which was painted by BFA and MFA painting graduate Liz Winnel. The wallpaper overlays a soundboard designed by SCAD student Ross Fish. When you touch the wall, an algorithm is triggered to produce randomized audio file sounds.

SCADpad Europe: The art in this unit was inspired by the medieval landscape and history of SCAD Lacoste. Designed by SCAD fibers alumna Trish Andersen, the exterior of the SCADpad features tonal blue lacquered wood panels resembling travertine tiles, and scalloped copper tiles that border the roof. The inside of SCADpad Europe is adorned with interactive fiber walls woven from 40,000 pieces of fabric. Maximizing the small space, this SCADpad includes a fold- up hammock bed that accommodates a desk underneath.

SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN SCADPAD

SCADpad North America: Reflecting the American spirit of self-determination, SCADpad North America has a minimalist paint treatment on the exterior. The interior includes two felted gray walls made by SCAD students and other surfaces featuring tiny leather strips affixed in a Navajo pattern and rendered in a classic, American palette. This installation was created by Marcus Kenney, a SCAD photography alumnus.

SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN SCADPAD

“The development of SCADpad was more than a classroom learning experience for our students,” said Wallace. “After decades of success as a relevant university preparing students for creative careers, we’ve learned to build bridges from collegiate inquiry to real-life solutions. These 75 SCAD students and 37 alumni joined together to make SCADpad a reality. SCADpad is a testament to the power of innovation, intellectual prowess, research and collaboration.”

SCAD: The University for Creative Careers

The bathroom in SCADpad Europe features op art vinyl graphics on the walls.
The bathroom in SCADpad Europe features op art vinyl graphics on the walls.

The Savannah College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution that prepares talented students for professional careers. SCAD offers degrees in more than 40 majors.

LINKS

About Savannah College of Art and Design

About SCADpad

 

Survey Tracks Changing Relationships Between Marketers and Agencies

SoDA, the Global Society for Digital Marketing innovators, has released the 2014 edition of The SoDA Report. The report includes its annual Digital Marketing Outlook survey of the changes taking place within digital marketing agencies and their clients.

SoDAReportLogoThe findings reveal key shifts in marketer/agency relationships, weaknesses in advertiser expertise, and mismatches between what advertisers and agencies believe are most valuable to clients.

There are also startling perception differences over clients’ attempts to transform their businesses, and disconnects over why clients walk away from agencies.

The research also highlights steep learning curves inside agencies when it comes to acting on data insights, as well as using digital information to propel deeper personalization. As clients increase investment, agencies need to stay ahead in data, mobile and product innovation.

Conducted in partnership with Econsultancy, Digital Marketing Outlook is based on a global sample, evenly split between advertisers and agencies, which represent a total annual marketing spend of $25.4 billion. In total there were 736 respondents, the large majority being senior company decision-makers.Slightly more than one-third (36%) of the respondents were based in North America; 22% were in Europe, and 21% were based in Asia-Pacific nations. Executives with global responsibilities contributed 11% and the rest came from South America and Africa.

Key Findings

After years of dramatic growth, half the marketers surveyed are keeping digital marketing budgets level in 2014 (up from a third in 2013). However, there was a notable rise in spend on non-marketing related  initiatives, including data, mobile and product innovation, with one in three clients increasing budgets in these areas.

  • Nearly 70% of clients believe being seen as an early adopter is key or important to their brand position.
  • Clients are increasingly seeking specialized digital services from agencies rather than looking for the traditional agency of record (AOR) agreement. This is in part recognition of the amount of digital work now carried out in-house.
  • Agencies believe advertisers still lack digital talent, with 50% or more highlighting gaps in paid-, earned- and owned-media strategy and execution as well as user experience and product innovation.
  • User experience was identified as the biggest gap on the client side with 77% of agency respondents citing it as a weakness.
  • The number of advertisers working with zero agencies has risen for the second successive year, with 13% managing the process in-house (slightly up on 2013).
  • The number of agency leaders concerned about off-shoring jumped almost 10%, up from 22% in 2013 to 31% in 2014.
  • The number of agency leaders identifying commoditization of digital product work as a serious problem rose 9% on last year.
  • 86% of respondents said the best route to future growth was product and platform creation – up 3% on 2013.

Disparities – What Clients Want

While all agreed marketing creativity was most important, clients rated product and service innovation second, while agencies rated it fourth in importance. Agencies rated customer-centered marketing for clients third, while clients scored it fifth in terms of priority.

Over 60% of clients felt their digital agency was excellent or good at evaluating digital trends for practical use. However, nearly one in three agency respondents (29%) do not offer any training on current or emerging trends and technologies, a missed opportunity to increase revenue and for clients to capitalize on the changes.

Why Clients Leave

The number one reason for clients walking away was outgrowing their agency’s ability to deliver against their needs (27%). Agencies overwhelmingly pointed to new client management as the number one reason (39%). Agency respondents ranked failure to deliver for clients’ growing needs a distant fourth, a major discrepancy. The specific service areas clients cited the most for termination was dissatisfaction with strategy (11%). Few agencies (6%) viewed this as the root problem.

Positive Outlook

The outlook is bright for agencies that offer the services clients need. Successful agencies saw more buy-in from clients, with growth in retainer- based work (up 21%) and a significant rise in agency investments (up 28%). Agencies that have invested in incubators – 50% of respondents – reported great success with talent retention and new business wins both up.

Other Areas of Difference

Agencies are more pessimistic about the future of AOR relationships than clients. While 57% of agencies believe AOR relationships are disappearing, half (49%) of clients believe that is the case.

Chris Buettner, SoDA executive director and managing editor of The SoDA Report, said: “Clients are doing more digital in-house than ever. But increasing levels of sophistication and elaborate in-house digital teams do not have to translate into diminished revenue for digital agencies. The opportunity is in data, mobile and product innovation – areas of high demand.

“Digital agencies that provide the core value trinity: creative marketing, innovation, and expertise in emerging trends and opportunities, can more deeply embed themselves in internal client teams, build stronger digital expertise across marketing and customer experience, and continue to prosper in 2014 and 2015.”

The SoDA Report is one of the most widely-read publications in the digital marketing industry, with over 250,000 downloads in 2013.

In addition to the SoDA/Econsultancy Digital Marketing Outlook Survey, the report also includes original articles by the industry’s finest minds, exclusive interviews with thought leaders, as well as case studies of the world’s best digital marketing campaigns.

LINKS

Survey Shows Majority of Creative Execs Work One or More Weekends a Month

While some employees are working for the weekend, many executives are working on the weekend, a new survey by The Creative Group suggests. Sixty-two percent of advertising and marketing executives interviewed said they bring work home at least one weekend per month, with 12 percent reporting they do it every weekend.

When asked how many hours they work each week, the average response was 47 hours. More than four in 10 (41 percent) executives are putting in 50-plus hour work weeks.

The national survey was developed by The Creative Group, a specialized staffing service for interactive, design, marketing, advertising and public relations professionals. It was conducted by an independent research firm.

Advertising and marketing executives were asked, “How many weekends each month, on average, do you bring work home with you?” Their responses:

  • Once a month 23%
  • Twice a month 18%
  • Three times a month 9%
  • Every weekend 12%
  • Never 37%
  • Don’t know 1%

Executives also were asked, “How many hours, on average, do you work for your company each week?” Their responses are listed below. The average response was 47 hours.

  • 60 hours or more 18%
  • 50-59 hours 23%
  • 40-49 hours 48%
  • Less than 40 hours 6%
  • Don’t know 5%

“Working weekends is not exclusive to senior leaders, but it may be more common,” said Diane Domeyer, executive director of The Creative Group. “Creative executives manage teams that are spread out across the globe and working on numerous initiatives. They also must keep pace with a field that’s evolving rapidly. These responsibilities can require putting in longer hours.”

Domeyer cautioned that regularly working 10- or 12-hour days is a recipe for burnout. “Everyone needs time to disconnect from the job, unwind and recharge their creative batteries. Delegating tasks and keeping a check on employees’ workloads can help managers and their teams achieve better work-life balance.”

The Creative Group offers five tips to avoid working weekends:

  1. Prioritize. Take 10 minutes at the start of each day to assign a one-to-three “urgency rating” for each item on your to-do list. Tackle top-rated tasks as soon as possible and postpone or delegate items with less urgency.
  2. Empower employees. Performing certain tasks yourself may initially be quicker than explaining them to someone else. But time spent training staff now can reduce your workload later and improve the overall skill set of your team.
  3. Rethink meetings. Take a close look at any standing or upcoming meetings and ask yourself if there are enough agenda items to merit a gathering.
  4. Schedule personal time. Block time on your calendar to relax or pursue outside interests on weekends. Hobbies can feed your creativity, increase your happiness and provide extra motivation when you’re back in the office.
  5. Seek help. If overtime is constant, consider bringing in freelancers to help ease the workload for you and your team.

TCG_0314_Working-Weekends

About the Survey

The national study was developed by The Creative Group and conducted by an independent research firm. It is based on 400 telephone interviews — 200 with marketing executives randomly selected from companies with 100 or more employees and 200 with advertising executives randomly selected from agencies with 20 or more employees.

About The Creative Group

The Creative Group (TCG) specializes in placing a range of highly skilled interactive, design, marketing, advertising and public relations professionals with a variety of firms on a project and full-time basis.

LINKS

The Creative Group

 

Kasia Kay Art Projects Introduces Fine Art Wallpapers

Here’s an intriguing example of the fusion of the art world and interior design. Contemporary art dealer Kasia Kay has introduced Fine Art Wallpapers, a custom wallpaper division of the Kasia Kay Art Projects gallery in Chicago.

"Still Couture" by Sandra Bermudez for Fine Art Wallpapers, a division of Kasia Kay Art Projects, www.fineartwalllpapers.com
“Still Couture” by Sandra Bermudez for Fine Art Wallpapers, a division of Kasia Kay Art Projects, www.fineartwalllpapers.com

Fine Art Wallpapers is an exclusive, curated collection of contemporary wallpapers designed by established international artists. Rich with dynamic forms, these wallpapers combine contemporary fine art with high-end design.

“The curation and ownership of these wallpapers extends beyond an individual’s design aesthetic and speaks to their role as an art collector,” explains Kasia Kay. “Unlike any other custom wallpaper series, Fine Art Wallpaper acts as the perfect link between the two worlds of contemporary art and interior design.”

Fine Art Wallpaper meets all standard building-code requirements. It can be ordered in standard-size rolls or in custom sizes and colors.

About Kasia Kay 

Kasia Kay has a passion for both art and interior design. She opened the Kay Art Projects Gallery in Chicago;s vibrant West Loop district in January, 2006 and has exhibited to international clientele through various art fairs and site-specific exhibition projects. The gallery’s line-up is concept driven and exploratory, striving to maintain a tenuous balance between abstract ideas and expertly crafted physical works. Most of the gallery’s artists are multidisciplinary, working in combinations of painting, drawing, video, sculpture, photography, and installation.

Room 35 by Erika Harrsch
“Room 35” by Erika Harrsch for Fine Art Wallpapers, a division of Kasia Kay Art Projects, www.fineartwallpapers.com

She believes the new collection of Fine Art Wallpapers will be perfect for hotels, homes, and unique properties that express their owners’ passions for great design, art, culture, or entertaining.

LINKS

Fine Art Wallpapers

Kasia Kay Art Projects Gallery

RELATED POST

Can Custom-Designed Wallpapers Hit It Big?

Daylight Is New Platform for Discovering, Viewing, and Sharing Contemporary Art

Publishing entrepreneurs Taj Forer and Michael Itkoff, founders of the art photography publishing brand Daylight Books, have launched a subcompact digital publishing platform, Daylight.

DaylightApp_Brodie-EditionTogether with serial tech entrepreneurs Lee Buck and Peter Bourne, the founders of Daylight aim to bridge the gap between the world of fine art and a rapidly growing mainstream audience of art enthusiasts. Their goal for the platform is to make it easy to discover, be inspired by, and share the most compelling contemporary art of our time.

The founders describe Daylight as “the intersection between subcompact digital publishing, the timeless tradition of art as human storytelling, and a new generation of digitally enabled consumers.” They Daylight users to experience a truly immersive platform for art exploration and discovery. 

Regular editions feature high quality contemporary artwork accompanied by interviews or short essays. Daylight’s minimalist user-interface design and full-screen images allow users to pause in an elegant digital environment that can be compared to that of the world’s top museums and gallery spaces.

Daylight’s first series of curated editions highlight many of the rising stars of art and photography including 2013 Guggenheim Fellow and preeminent American photographer, Alec Soth.

Soth’s exclusive edition (Orlando) appears alongside editions from Cristina de Middel (The Afronauts), Jess Dugan (Every Breath We Drew), Roger Ballen (Lines, Markings and Drawings), Jacqueline Hassink (Arab Domains) and the “Polaroid Kidd” himself, Mike Brodie (A Period of Juvenile Prosperity).

“Daylight is bringing fresh, powerful content with high relevance to a whole new audience. The art has context and meaning, and the presentation in the app and online are beautiful. They’ve got true art credibility and a social community approach that make for an enormous growth combination” said Rob Solomon, Venture Partner at Accel Partners and former President & COO at Groupon.

“We believe the timeless tradition of art as storytelling is vital to the human experience,” said Taj Forer. “For years, my co-founder Michael Itkoff and I have sought to deepen Daylight Books readers’ connection to the world through innovative presentation of curated art and photography. However, print media’s limitations are mounting while digital audiences are growing. That said, most digital content is consumed like potato chips. With Daylight, we are providing digital audiences with the inspiring, compelling art content that they are hungry for. We strive to give audiences reason to take pause with the art, artists and moreover, join the conversation.”

LINKS

Daylight

About Daylight

 

E-Book Offers 50 Tips to Help You Freelance with Confidence

FreelancewithConfidnce-E-Book-350WRITERS. Laurie Lewis, author of the book “What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants,” has published a new Kindle e-book, “Freelance With Confidence: 50 Proven Tips for a Successful Freelance Career.”

While providing useful guidance for any freelancer, the e-book will be especially valuable for newcomers to the field and for those struggling to build a successful business.

The 50 tips in Freelance With Confidence fall into five categories:

  • 10 crucial things to remember about freelancing
  • 10 start-up instructions for new freelancers
  • 10 reminders about working alone and as part of a team
  • 10 pointers for keeping up in a technology-driven world, and
  • 10 insights about freelancing as a lifestyle.

The author has supported herself as freelance medical writer and editor in New York City for almost 30 years.

The second edition of her book “What to Charge” was selected as a finalist in the USA Best Books 2011 competition. It tied for first place in a business category and came in second in the writing division of the 2012 Reader Views Literary Awards competition.

LINKS

Freelance With Confidence: 50 Proven Tips for a Successful Freelance Career

What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants

Freelance Fee Setting: Quick Guide for When a Client Demands a Price NOW