Flash-forward a year, I was given an assignment to put together a piece to send away to potential employers in hopes of them taking my classmates and me on as interns. Our idea, which was to piece together a video asking industry professionals about their first mentor, won. We began setting up appointments with industry people all around Ottawa to find out who their first mentor was, and gain some knowledge through their wisdom.

In the end we had interviewed a handful of industry pros, ranging from junior positions to agency founders. From every interview we conducted, I found that it was unanimous that small agencies are the most exciting place to be. It was clear that small agencies can be the most fun to work at, as well as the most rewarding in the sense of being able to learn about everything, and have a hand in all sorts of clients and campaigns.

With this newfound knowledge I began to update my search. I always wanted to live in Toronto, and that was where I started to search for smaller, boutique agencies. Naturally, I went to Google and searched for “Toronto advertising agency.” After scrolling past the big boys like Taxi, John St, BBDO, etc. I stumbled across 88 Creative. I had never heard of them before. My teachers at Algonquin had never mentioned them; none of my classmates said anything about them; but my favourite NHL player is Patrick Kane and his number is 88, so I figured I might as well check out their website and see what they’re about.

After about an hour of creeping through the rabbit-hole of the 88C website, social media accounts, and blog entries, I had never been more excited about an agency. I started telling all of my friends about this little place in Toronto that has dinners together, goes away on cottage trips, and has people with the same interests and humour as me. I started reposting a bunch of the blog entries to my LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, and sending them to friends telling them to read the gold that I was sending them.

After discovering 88C, I knew I wanted to do something special to try and get their attention. In my mind, this wasn’t a place that you can just send a nicely worded email to. I got a friend and my camera, and we went to an outdoor rink and filmed a bunch of stuff that I could make a video from to show off my personality and interests. I read over the blogs once more, and noticed that the ones I enjoyed the most were actually all written by the same person, Jason Giles. I got his contact info from the 88C website, and sent him an email telling him how much I enjoyed his work, and if he wouldn’t mind checking out this video resume I had made. Not even a couple hours later I got a reply thanking me for reaching out, and asking me when I would be able to meet, and the rest is history.

Creative Mornings

Creative Mornings is “a breakfast lecture series for the creative community.” With chapters that span the globe, CM is a great place to hear some very inspiring people speak about their personal experiences based on monthly themes, like Climate, Ugly, Chance, and Crossover. The Creative Mornings community meets on the last Friday of every month at different sponsored spaces around the city. Find out more here.

Meetup

Are you a runner? Do you like brisk winter hikes? Are you interested in learning more about startups? Are you a builder, maker,  or student? Meetup has an event for you, no matter who you are or what you’re into. Another international organization, Meetup aims to bring people together and create communities around similar interests.

Brainstation

For those of you that are interested in tackling new fields of interest but don’t know where to begin, I introduce Brainstation. Here you’ll find classes for people looking to begin a venture into web development or for those who want to learn more about designing for user experience. Locally, they have classes in Toronto, Waterloo, and Ottawa but if you’re in New York, Vancouver, or even Costa Rica you’ll be able to find classes too.

HackerYou

Learning to code has become a skill that isn’t just for engineers anymore. It’s a great asset for graphic and visual designers and can also be useful for anyone working in the digital space. Coding skills can solve many issues digital marketers come across, whether it be errors on a WordPress blog or installing tracking codes. HackerYou offers full and part-time courses that range from JavaScript development to front-end web design.

Ladies Learning Code

This one is self-explanatory. Basically, Ladies Learning Code is a place for women and girls to learn coding languages, but many of the people involved with the program will tell you that it’s so much more than that. It’s a community of people looking to support women and girl developers and carve out a place for them in the industry.

Have you used any of these resources? Give us your feedback! You can find me on Twitter at @DFabes or leave a comment below.

Note: This position is now closed. Thank you to everyone who applied.

We focus on two core areas at 88 Creative, digital marketing & design. Due to client demand, we’re branching out to include a third core area: public relations. We’re hiring our first-ever PR manager to work with existing clients and to bring in new clients to focus on PR.

What is 88 Creative?

We’re a team of 8 based out of a brick-and-beam office at Adelaide & Peter in downtown Toronto. We work primarily with clients in the real estate, consumer/lifestyle, and technology categories, helping them with social media management, digital strategy & consulting, influencer outreach programs and digital campaigns, and design projects.

We’re owned by BuzzBuzzHome, which is North America’s largest database of new construction projects. The BuzzBuzzHome team is over 40 people across 3 offices, and 88 Creative is a small startup within the company.

Position details:

This person will be spearheading 88 Creative’s PR efforts with existing clients – putting together communications plans; writing press releases, backgrounders, and pitches; compiling media kits; handling all media relations across Canada; compiling media lists; and putting together post-campaign reports. You’ll work on existing digital marketing clients to augment our current offerings, and handle any PR-specific clients who come on board. 

We’re looking for someone with 2-4 years of experience in PR (preferably at an agency), and a degree in either public relations, communications, or journalism. We’re also looking for someone ambitious, resourceful, and creative who can lead the PR team as it grows.

Here are the qualities we’re looking for in this hire:

• Existing media contacts & media relations experience: We need someone who can hit the ground running and who has a wide range of experience with media relations
• Experience at an agency is a plus, but not necessary
• Degree in communications, PR, or journalism is a plus, but not necessary
• Background with consumer/lifestyle PR a plus
• Social media literacy: you not only use social media in your personal life, but have incorporated social media into your PR campaigns in the past
• Resourcefulness: You won’t always know the answer to a question, but you can source it on your own
• Love for words: you love writing, whether it’s a press release or a communications plan. You have a passion for nerdy things like spelling and grammar, and would never be caught dead using the wrong your/you’re or its/it’s
• Personality, both online and off: We’re a small team and we like to have fun, so we want someone who fits the 88 Creative culture. We also need you to have a personality that shines through for each client, while still staying true to that client’s goals and voice
• Creativity: We’re constantly cooking up creative ideas for our clients, and we need someone who’s not afraid to throw out 15 crazy ideas to find the one idea that works
• Great time management/attention to detail: You’ll be working on several clients every day, and juggling multiple content creation/engagement/analytics platforms
• New business prowess: This role will involve building 88 Creative’s brand in the community, and you will be responsible for sourcing new PR clients

Perks of the job: 

• Competitive salary
• Paid flex time
• Comprehensive benefits plan
• Stock options
• Positive, open and supportive work environment
• Uber-casual dress code
• Unlimited healthy snacks

Think the job is a great fit for you? Email [email protected] with your resume, your LinkedIn profile, and any work samples.

The basis of this talk was a Yahoo/Ipsos deep dive study into Canadian content habits. I expected a middle-aged Yahoo exec with a buzzword-filled PowerPoint, and I got one. There were graphs. There were charts. There was fear in the souls of brand managers over 40. This post will end positively, I promise. To the highlights!

Lesson 1: Appreciate the Niche

The Internet is a place where people can really let their freak flags fly, which is why 77% of digital content consumption is in niche categories. Think Dr. Who fan clubs, Paleo recipe blogs, and Corgi discussion forums. Gaining traction here is difficult – people build these communities on their own time, and they don’t take too kindly to advertisers jumping in. Gain their trust slowly, and use influencers to help you speak their language – but remember, you’re a visitor, not a member. That leads me to point #2:

Lesson 2: Don’t lie…

One of the most common complaints about branded content is lack of disclosure, so put your intentions on Front St. by clearly labelling your ads. Never will a reader reach the bottom of your advertorial and cry “Wait, this was sponsored by Schneiders? These folks really get me, I better go get myself some Country Naturals Thin Sliced Ham!” Instead, they will write Youtube-level comments because they feel alienated and stupid. If you’re tricking people into viewing your ad, your ad sucks. Stop it.

Lesson 3: …and try to be honest.

67% of people will share something emotional (“This Commercial Will Literally Make You Cry So Hard You Might Enter Cardiac Arrest!”), but that’s not the only way to go. 60% will share something informative, and 61% will share something deeply personal. Encouraging play with a game or engagement, or offering information and knowledge will also encourage over 50% of readers to share. A value exchange goes a long way in a world of clickbait. Capitalize on your audience’s low expectations (I mean, sorry, it is what it is), by surprising them with quality.

4. Get in and get out

Did you know every time you pick up a device you get a teeny shot of dopamine? After that, reader enjoyment goes downhill fast, so keep it short and sweet. 50% of people rank brevity as a key factor in reading and sharing, because tech-related changes in our neuroplasticity have altered the amount of time we can spend interacting with content without dying of boredom. Cap your yapping at 500 words, or 7 minutes of video – but remember over 80% of users want cross-platform content, so if you have a lot to say, segment it into the right channels.

5. Content is not hard

Take another look at this list – all of these lessons are blindingly obvious. Be sincere, up front and use media intelligently – lessons Jeff Goodby would give you in 1996, or Don Draper in 1966, if you prefer. It is the onset of buzzwords – so, so many buzzwords they’d fill the screen of my Phablet – that’s creating a feeding frenzy of confusion and failed content campaigns. Did we need a million-dollar study to tell us people like jokes and cute animals?

So, remember: Be transparent, give the people something they can use to better their lives, brighten their day and a reason to trust you, and you’ll be just fine. If you’re already a bad advertiser, well, content won’t make you a good one.

You can follow Meaghan on Twitter.

The stats above were taken from the Yahoo/Ipsos panel at FFWD2015.

The always-connected nature of modern public spaces means that disconnecting is now a choice, not something we’re forced into doing. And I want to make that choice more often, not just for my sanity but because there are so many cool things to do in life that don’t involve staring at my iPhone (I think).

I was inspired to consciously disconnect by my friend Renee Warren, the co-founder of startup PR agency Onboardly. Renee is a tech-savvy entrepreneur with two young kids, and even thinking about her busy daily schedule makes me tired. Like me she’s constantly online reading industry publications, responding to emails, working with clients, and keeping up with social networks. Over the holidays Renee posted on Facebook about how she had just disconnected for three days – no laptop, no phone, no TV. She said it left her refreshed, allowed her to connect with her fiancé (also an always-connected entrepreneur), and gave her time to read, think, and plan 2015.

Her post made me realize that I haven’t gone a day without my laptop, iPhone, or TV (yes, I have cable and watch TV daily) in…well, forever. In fact I can’t remember the last time I spent 24 hours without any devices, not even while I’ve been on vacation. Which is frankly quite sad, and makes me wonder if I’m just bad at taking vacations.

In the spirit of making an effort to consciously get offline, a couple weeks ago I went to my favourite place to attempt to disconnect, Ste. Anne’s Spa. If you haven’t been before it’s an oasis of tranquillity where you get spa treatments, spend all day in your bathrobe, and lounge about in the outdoor hot tub. There are no TVs, they encourage you not to use your phone, and most common areas are never louder than a whisper. I try to get there at least once a year for my annual “try not to look at your phone” retreat, and on this recent overnight trip I promised myself I’d leave my phone in my purse and not look at it until I left. I stuck to it for the most part, but then it made me anxious that I couldn’t share my amazing fireplace and the snow-covered grounds with my Instagram friends (confession: I totally cracked and posted that dang fireplace photo).

It made me realize that I’m the only one to blame when it comes to my always-on mentality. I could easily disconnect for 24 hours every weekend, but I like checking Facebook and posting photos to Instagram. I like checking my email every few hours to make sure there are no client emergencies. And I like watching TV, regardless of how mindless it may be, and yes I’m often using a second (or third) screen while Jeopardy is on.

Disconnecting is a choice, and I unconsciously choose not to on a regular basis, even if I know I’d rather be the person enjoying a good book without the compulsion to check their iPhone every 3 pages. I want to be the person who’s more concerned with taking in the rainforest then snapping a perfect scenic photo for Instagram, but alas I’m just not.

I wouldn’t mind forced solitude every so often though, since I believe Renee when she says it’s liberating. So if you know of a remote non-Wifi-enabled resort somewhere in the South Pacific, do let me know. I might need to escape there to recalibrate and plan for 2016.

The company was founded by Tim Ray, who previously founded & sold FoodScrooge, a daily deals site for, you guessed it, meat. He decided to combine two things people love – “of-the-month” clubs and meat – to create the ultimate artisanal meat delivery service.

Carnivore Club partners with local providers in Canada, the U.S., and the UK for each of their boxes, so if you’re Canadian you know you’re getting chorizo from a farm in Ottawa, or locally-produced cured bacon from Vancouver. Each month they profile the local producers so you get the story behind the meat along with the delicious, delicious monthly featured items.

Our team at 88 Creative will be helping Tim and his team with their social media efforts, so make sure to follow along on Twitter at @CarnivoreChief, Facebook at facebook.com/thecarnivoreclub, and Instagram at instagram.com/thecarnivoreclub. We’re also working with their team on email marketing, design, and of course the fun campaigns that make 88 Creative so awesome (meat puns anyone?!).

I hope you’ll take a minute to check out this awesome local startup, and maybe even order a box for your Valentine’s Day gift. After all, nothing says I Love You like a box of bacon.

Erin is the Managing Director at 88 Creative. Follow her on Twitter @erinbury.

It’s a well-known fact around the office that I’m obsessed with Christmas. Like “I have a theme for my wrapping paper, I PVR the Michael Buble Christmas special” obsessed. “I wait all year for Festive Specials, I listen to holiday playlists on Songza starting on November 1st” obsessed.

So naturally I take our holiday initiatives VERY seriously at 88 Creative. We have holiday-themed backgrounds on Twitter and Facebook. We have jazzed-up holiday logos for our social accounts. And naturally we had a themed Christmas party organized by yours truly that featured every holiday decor item sold at Target, and a pretty awesome holiday photo booth.

But our big initiative for the holidays is called #HaveYourSelfie a Merry Little Christmas. The idea is simple: we ordered almost 200 custom 88 Creative holiday toques from our friends at Rightsleeve, and we’re sending them to our favourite people – clients, media, agency partners, friends. Each of those people is being asked to tag a toque selfie with #HaveYourSelfie, and all the holiday photos are featured at HaveYourSelfie.com (I know, I couldn’t believe the URL was available either).

Not only that, we’re giving away 10 of the custom toques to 10 random winners on our social channels. All you have to do to win is tell us why you love the holidays & tag your post with #HaveYourSelfie. We’ll be announcing the winners end of day tomorrow!

I know you’re being inundated with holiday cards & messages, but I do want to say happy holidays to everyone reading – whether you’re a client, friend, or random internet stranger. If you’re not on our email list, check our holiday e-blast below, and make sure you’re on the list for next year. It’s been an awesome year at 88 Creative, so THANK YOU to everyone who supported us in 2014. I know 2015 is going to be an even bigger, better year, and I can’t wait to see what the new year brings!

1. There is cool stuff everywhere you look.

In Osaka, while killing time before catching a train, we saw a street sign pointing to a shrine. There are shrines everywhere in Japan so we weren’t expecting anything out of the ordinary. Then we rounded the corner and saw this guy:

2. Never-ending city.

On our last night in Tokyo, we went to New York Bar on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt. You might remember the place from Lost in Translation. You have to go pretty high up to get an idea of how enormous Tokyo is. Absolutely no regrets about the many Yen we blew on cocktails here.

3. So polite!

I know, Canadians are famous for being polite. But in my experience, the Japanese take politeness to another level. Even the cashiers at 7-Eleven seem determined to provide the best customer experience they can. A simple purchase isn’t complete without several rounds of thanking and bowing. Nowhere did we encounter an apathetic public-facing employee who let on that he would rather be in bed. Speaking of bowing, we decided we like it. One of my favourite examples of Japanese formality and politeness is fire trucks. While there are sirens, I guess they’re considered a little too brash and abrupt, so the trucks are also equipped with a person with a megaphone telling people to “please get out of the way.”

4.  The awesomeness of 7-Eleven. 

Forget potato chips and endlessly rotating hot dogs. The 7-Elevens found on every block in Japan are full of real food options like sushi, edamame, and even hot soup and other hot meals.

5. People don’t steal each other’s stuff.

Japan is famous for having one of the lowest crime rates in the world and it shows. People don’t even litter. Coming from Toronto, one of the most shocking symptoms of this well-behaved society is that most people generally don’t lock up their bikes. The bike in the photo below is locked to itself (which you sometimes see), but I chose it because I love the custom colour palette (which is also very Japanese).

6. Green tea everything.

In Japan, matcha (essentially green tea) is right up there with chocolate and vanilla. The matcha soft serve pictured below is enough to make me want to go back.

7. Things that are really, really old.

I love Canada, but it is still a country in its infancy without the long, rich history of countries in Europe and Asia. The Airbnb apartment we stayed at in Kyoto was run by a writer from Los Angeles and his wife, a native of Kyoto. Her family has been running this soba noodle restaurant since 1465. With a legacy like that, you really don’t have the option of letting it go. Plus, the lunch we had there was freakin’ delicious.

8. Neon!

If you come to Japan expecting to have your corneas inundated with neon lights, you will not be disappointed.

9. Matsusaka beef. 

In North America, Kobe beef is the one that got famous, but in Japan, Matsusaka is equally valid if you’re after a deluxe piece of beautifully marbled meat.

10. Next-level photo booths.

While somewhat disturbing, most arcades and shopping areas come complete with photo booths that process your photos to give you whiter skin, bigger eyes, and makeup. You can also write and draw on your photos before printing them out. In general, we got the impression that teenaged girls in Japan have a lot of purchasing power.

11. So many cute little characters.

From safety signs, to menus, to street art, there are cartoon characters everywhere. Hello Kitty is just the beginning. We especially loved seeing nods to Japanese classics, like this Astro Boy mosaic found on the side of a building.

There you have it: 11 extremely Japanese things I found on my trip. I could keep going with 11 More Amazing Things I Found in Japan, but I have to get back to work now.

Gabriella is a Creative Director at 88 Creative. Follow her on Twitter @gabriellainga.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, my ever diligent co-worker Danielle spotted an email from Buzzfeed that stated they were opening up the ability to create quizzes as a community post. Previously a sponsored quiz on Buzzfeed would run you about $20,000. Yikes.

That being said, I wanted an outlet to test out just how much fun I could have with a Buzzfeed quiz. We work with a lot of smaller outfits who don’t exactly have the $20,000 handy to drop on a custom quiz, so it’s nice of Buzzfeed to open up their functionality for the rest of us.

But what were we going to write a quiz about? We’ve talked a lot about how our company culture is tantamount to the way we work and how we all get along. It only seemed right that we could use this as an opportunity to showcase who we are and maybe get a couple of laughs out of it. We came up with “Would you fit in at 88 Creative?” quiz, which includes three possible outcomes (none in the least bit negative, it’s supposed to be all in good fun after all) and the options would be influenced by a lot of our own personal preferences.

For example, I am Skittles, #ThrowbackThursday, Indie music, Basic Bitch (long story), Twitter, XYIENCE, iOS, Hockey and Iron Man. It’s only if you’re really weird do you get a disapproving look from Erin as a result.

Innocent right?

So why is this getting a ton of attention from the media? It just so happens to be that we published the quiz while conducting a search for a new coordinator.

Before the quiz we had already received about 20 resumes based on us spreading the word over social (no Workopolis for us). After we launched the quiz we had about 30-40 more applications, they’re still coming in despite the position being filled (sorry!).

Did this quiz have any relevance to who we hired? Absolutely not.

Did Erin force these poor applicants to take the quiz during their interview? Nope.

Was it some goofy fun meant to promote our agency and culture? Totally.

Did we include a call to action to apply to work here? No, because it’s less of an actual recruitment tool and more of a goofy idea we had.

The key learnings from this are similar to previous marketing stunts (yes I’m referring to them as stunts, as it is neither part of a campaign or long-term strategies) we’ve pulled.

1. If you have an idea, run with it. Don’t let “The Man” tell you what to do.
2. Simplicity is key. We had about 10-15 questions that I had to pare down. Some of them got eerily specific.
3. Don’t be afraid to go where no one has gone before. Do you really think someone would get hired from completing a 1-minute quiz on major content site that specializes in 90’s nostalgia and GIFs? Come on.

Check out the press we received in Digiday,  Marketing Directo, Marketing Mag and oh, The front page of the Toronto Star. No big deal. 

So as it turns out, both us and our office mates at BuzzBuzzHome happen to be startups. Which is perfect because we just signed up to host an open house as part of Startup Open House Toronto 2014.

What is Start Up Open House Toronto? Well for starters, it’s a really long name that’s a pain to type out but beyond that, it’s a chance to get an inside look at the industry and how startups work.

That’s why on Oct 30th from 4-7pm we’re opening our doors to the general riff raff – um, we mean public – to get an inside peek at how we do things.

• Open concept office? Check.

• Crazy art on the wall? Double check.

• Animals in the workplace that double as official mascots? You bet.

• An old timey, scary-looking freight elevator? Yeah, but it’s back behind the ping pong table and I’ve never seen it used.

• Want to see a bunch of engineers debate philosophy in Star Trek TNG while writing millions of lines of code? WE HAVE THAT.

• Want to see Erin type at 114 words per minute? WE HAVE THAT TOO.

• Want to know how to execute a social media strategy? We can do that.

• Want to pet the office dog? You’d have to ask Matt but I’m sure he’d be cool with it.

• Want to get in an epic ping pong match? Well we’d have to pull the table out and then find a ping pong ball and it’s a whole thing but hey, do you want a beer?

Anyway, feel free to stop by and say hello to any and all of us, as we’ll be here from 4-7. Except Claire, her home planet needs her that night.