Did He Just Say "Favorite Meeting"? Weird.

By Chris Kerns | 0 Comments | Posted in | Permalink

Recently, Outlook popped up a reminder for one of my favorite meetings.  It’s my monthly meeting with the ZAAZ Creative Director in our Seattle office. We call it the Slide 4 Meeting, and it’s totally awesome. That’s right – leadership from Analytics and Creative sitting together, talking about what we do.

You see, in ZAAZ presentations to new clients or at industry events, the fourth slide in the deck is usually a visual representation of how we work as an agency: the intersection of creativity and logic. Our creative people aren’t just out and about, creating whatever they would like. The creative briefs are goal-based, and the designs are measured once they go live. And our logical people (Analytics, Optimization, Search) aren’t in a little data silo like many agencies that only perform these tasks - they are working side-by-side with the teams that need good solid data to make the web experience better. Both sides are really, really good at what they do – and by actually working with other practices, it makes them even better.

That’s the beauty of ZAAZ – no matter if you call it creative/logic, or call it flexing both sides of the brain. That’s what makes us do great work, and that’s what makes it fun to work here.

So to the untrained eye, the Slide 4 Meeting may seem like two guys drinking beer on a Friday afternoon with the ballgame on the projector, but in reality it’s a checkpoint to make sure that things are working the way they should. To talk through new ideas from another viewpoint, to see some cool stuff or tell client stories that the other guy hasn't heard. This week I saw some spec creative for a new pitch that blew my mind, and I instantly started working through the process of how to measure and analyze the data. We talked about new Analytics work that could use some creative input. And we talked about how the Mariners suck this year.

Even if your organization isn’t set up like ZAAZ, it never hurts to put a monthly meeting with a weird name on the calendar, bring some beer, and see things from another viewpoint.  Worst thing it can do is make you better at your job.  You hear that, Seattle Mariners?