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Robert Berkeley  0:02  

Hello again, we're back with another rousing Eepisode of Inside Jobsjobs brought to you by IHAFI have the leading professional association In House Agencies in house agencies and Eexpress KCS, your design and production partner across print, digital and video. Now this episode is a little bit of a departure from the rest. We're going to meet three creative directors from three award winning In House Agencies in house agencies. And by award winning I mean, they each actually received accolades for creativity, that the reason IHAFI have conference for a number of years, my company Express KCS has been the proud sponsor of the IHAFI half awards show. So I know the event very well and the fine work that's submitted each year very well. Most recently, IHAF I have received over 800 creative entries across 38 categories spanning print and digital media, and the three people that were about to need leave the creative functions within their respective companies. I was eager to catch up with them to find out how it's been going these past how many months now, steering creativity from AFARafar, given, you know what the pandemic. Specifically, I was curious to hear what each of them is doing to ensure that their teams are able to maintain high levels of creative excellence, with everyone working from their respective baunkers. First up, we have Rachel Houk, Seegera, Senior VP and Ccreative Ddirector at Citizens Bank. Rachel, thank you so much for joining me today. And congratulations on your teams. IHAFI have honourable mentioned when for your student lending direct mail package now, what do you think it was the court the judges I about that?,

 

Rachel   1:42  

I feel like the creative that we have been putting out is very simple, and directive. But it's visual so that it catches the eye of the reader. A lot of the work that we have been doing. We've been transitioning from paper into all digital, especially recently this past year. So you say this is obviously good old fashioned direct mail. So this is print design, but you'd say your cross training the team is that right? We share our we're getting everyone up to speed teaching them new tools, and new ways of working. we're innovating and we're constantly learning in order to be able to pivot with the customers needs.

 

Robert Berkeley  2:26  

Yeah, I can imagine. So tell us a little about the the size and the makeup of the In House Agency in house agency you've got there at Citizens Bank.

 

Rachel  2:33  

Sure. So we are growing and flexing according to the workload. We have a total of 30 people who are all creatives. And we have some that are contractors but most of us are full time. And the beauty of in house is we are the closest to the brand. We have designers we have copywriters. We have content creators, photography and video, our latest explorations that we're doing. And it's really an exciting time to be its citizens.

 

Robert Berkeley  3:11  

And it's a well established team you've got there, they worked together a long time.

 

Rachel   3:14  

So fairly new. I have been with citizens just under five years. And we have grown the team over those five years. So everyone who is working together, we've really grown together like a family. But we're you know, crawl walk and just about running. Yeah, well,

 

Robert Berkeley  3:34  

Yeah, well, maybe, maybe maybe this is a clue to what I want to ask you because here we are the the covid- 19 pandemic is raging, unfortunately. But through this, you've managed to not just continue your work as an In House Agencyin house agency, but you've managed to win awards. So tell me how's it been going? working remotely?

 

Rachel  3:56  

I would say it's definitely been a challenge. You know, we all are really, inherently wanting to be with each other to collaborate and create. And I think that it's been a challenge, but in a good way. It's really forced us to reach out to each other a bit more, whether you're through WebEx through video, through texting, through Slack, all of these different ways. just constantly trying to reach out and connect with each other has been, I think, the successful ingredient in the recipe and being able to connect with each other because the creative process really is imperative that you collaborate with each other. Right? But is that something that you've had to kind of consciously cultivate amongst the team or have they have they have the tools and the net, you know, don't do you not use Google or Microsoft Teams or whatever, but do you do people use those tools kind of readily too. proactively reach out to each other? Or is it something you've really had to work on., It’sit's something that I definitely had to work on. I mean, when this pandemic started in March, it was a shock to the system. We weren't regularly working from home, none of us were, we were together. And we were, you know, over each other's shoulders throughout the day, and all of a sudden, you're located physically in the same space in the office, sort of, right. And so, you know, when this occurred, I immediately set up daily meetings, and we were checking in every day after a while. You, you know, people got in the practice of being able to connect with each other on projects that they were working on. But that daily stand up was something I think that helped spur that conversation and collaboration, we now meet twice a week, full team meetings, with our centre of excellence, our project managers, and, you know, questions are asked, topics are brought up. And it's just, it's a constant practice of coming back together again and again, so that we can just stay connected and continue to be creative.

 

Robert Berkeley  6:19  

Do you think that if the team were left to their own devices, if you didn't put these these meetings together, that wouldn't happen? That they would drift apart? This z is really conscious effort that you're doing to keep the team going, I guess, is what I'm asking.

 

Rachel   6:31  

guess, is what I'm asking. It is. And I'm constantly collecting ideas and thoughts and learnings to bring back to them so that they feel inspired and motivated. I do think that if we don't have that way of reaching out to each other, that you can kind of get lazy with it. So it's something that you know, it's something that I practice, I practice meditation and being present is being that that mindfulness, way of thinking and working and breathing so that you can be there for your team. And without that, I think there is that drifting that can occur.

 

Robert Berkeley  7:17  

Yeah, interesting. It's, if from what you know, now, do you think you had to go through all the stages that you did? You started off with daily daily huddles? I guess, and you've evolved to these meetings? I'm sure other things have come along. Did you feel that everybody needed to kind of go on a journey together? Or if it happened again? Would you start it differently? Now?

 

Rachel  7:36  

I don't think so. I think it was a process that we all learned from. And I'll tell you, I also, you know, reach out to individuals, to just let them know that that support is there. So you know, we have each other on our phones, and every now and then I'll do a text check in or we'll be on a meeting. And I want to encourage them during those to speak up when I know that they have something to say right or wrong. Occasionally.

 

Robert Berkeley  8:10  

So it's not it's not a rule that you have camera’s on.

 

Rachel  8:13  

It's not my rule of thumb is I prefer it when people are presenting. Because I think that that's something that's really important. We've also done some get together all of

 

Robert Berkeley  8:24  

Part the communication that they're making, you're watching their body language., right?

 

Rachel   8:27  

Thats right. Absolutely. I think it's easier to sell work if you can see people and and see that passion. You know, we've had get togethers where we're on camera, there's some times where I do request it where we have team meetings, and it's critical to be able to communicate to people that way. But I also know that a lot of people have a lot going on in their lives. And so to require that all the time, I think gets tired and, and is a challenge, especially for people who have small kids around during the pandemic. This past year, we've had three babies be born on the team, you know, we're we're all blending what we're doing every day. And I think there has to be some of that freedom and acceptance there. So cameras on all the time I think can can get to be a little much.

 

Robert Berkeley  9:23  

What are you ready, it raises an interesting issue as well, because the everyone working from home has rather paradoxically led to a lowering of levels of privacy that people can expect in part because obviously you've got the the intimacy of a camera in your house when those cameras are on but also because you're much more in tune, I think with people's private lives than you would be in the office. Right. So I guess you need to draw a new line as to which is the difference between professional and personal, right. As a manager, I mean, in terms of where your interests lie, and you know the things you want to know.

 

Rachel   9:54  

Absolutely. I mean, one of the pieces of the puzzle is I have been encouraged. thing from the beginning of all this to step away. Because if you don't, you're not going to be as productive. You know, if someone., Ddid you not say that to people in the office, then when you were working as a group?, I think it was a little more, you know, you lead by example. So me stepping out, and you know, people being able to see me take a walk outside during the day, and get that break in, I think was that reminder. But when you don't have that kind of visual reminder of I'm setting this by example, I'm going out, I'm getting lunch, anybody need anything, anybody want to come with me? You know, and that that piece of that was not there any longer. And, you know, if you told me a year ago, that everybody I work with would see the inside of my bedroom, where a now a desk is, I would have not believed you know, it's crazy to think and you know, every now and then they see, you know, my 13 year old she wanders in and has to say hello. And it's it's like this interruption, but I think it's so needed, because it allows everybody to have some empathy for each other.

 

Robert Berkeley  11:12  

Yeah, so that's important. So that brings me really to the final question, that's you and your team. And you're obviously able using the approach that you just laid out there to produce fantastic award winning work, but from the point of view of your internal clients, your internal customers, your internal partners, how have you managed to keep them on track as well, and to ensure that they keep expecting the best from you to keep you and your team on your toes?,

 

Rachel  11:42  

I think I manage it in the same way I think relationship and trust building is just so important. And so all of my peers that I am connected with and reliant upon, I reach out and I set up recurring meetings with them. And even when roles change within the organisation, I still connect with these people, they may be doing something new, but we have built a relationship where checking in and hearing how they're doing and telling them how I'm doing, I think really helps break down some barriers and makes the work a bit easier to handle and a little more enthusiastic, because you have that, that history with each other, and you're able to appreciate it that much more.

 

Robert Berkeley  12:37  

Okay. And and I've got another question just come to mind, what do you think will be the long term effect of the pandemic, on on In House Agencies in house agencies in general, and yours in particular?,

 

Rachel   12:49  

I have to say, I feel like the value of in house is just going to be magnified that much more, I mean, the ability that we have had during this to pivot and deliver for our customers. You know, we have gone through so many changes and challenges during this. And we were all right there for each other and helping each other along the way to deliver exactly what we needed to and sometimes even more, because it is what our customers needed. It is what our organisation needed and having that talent in house allowed us to work. No, from our core.

 

Robert Berkeley  13:39  

Well, there's no question expert practitioners have the In House Agency in house agency arts like like you and Citizens Bank are a great examples of that. Rachel, I just want to thank you so much for your time and for telling us about your internal agency, and how you manage during this awful pandemic. Thank you so much for having me, Robert. As we continue exploring what it takes to stimulate creative excellence from AFARafar, we caught up with Jamie FerreiraFerrara, Executive Creative Director of the Ggreen Ddot agency at Deloitte, who of course, is one of the leading global providers of audit consulting, tax advisory services and so on. So Jamie, you also had a win at this year's IHAF I have awards, is that right? We

 

Jamie Ferreira  14:20  

We sure did. We won a silver for our holiday survey and the publications or digital reports category.

 

Robert Berkeley  14:27  

Okay, um, so tell us what was behind that I that that creative? What was the big idea?

 

Jamie Ferreira 14:31  

Sure. Well, the the hottie survey really is our annual report that we put out during the holidays and it's really a beacon of light for our retail clients. Well retailers want to expect a jolly holiday shopping season and you know, in this current climate more so than ever so we we provide all the tools and the insights they need to flourish during the holidays. And you know, the average household plans to spend roughly $2,000 during the holidays and this year, more than ever three quarters, tThe shoppers say they're likely to spend even more than last year. So year over year generally grows a little bit. But this year in particular, I think, due to probably the pandemic, and people being restless, they're being a little more generous to their friends and family. And we poll respondents across the US to reveal consumer perceptions and attitudes and holiday shopping behaviours, mostly. And that's invaluable information and metrics for our retailers. And it's one of our most successful holiday thought leadership offerings.

 

Robert Berkeley  15:27  

So you're, so is there kind of a big creative idea behind the way you present this. In fact,

 

Jamie FerreiraFerrara   15:33  

well, we wanted to create, you know, generally want to create a very dynamic and engaging experience, it's there's a lot of information in there. There's a lot of Leber's, if you will, where you can sort and you can sort by industry, in basically everything within the retail sector. So there's all sorts of sort of interactive bells and whistles, to not only give the user full control over all those metrics they're looking for, but in the holiday spirit, we wanted to create an experience that was also very fun to navigate. So there's lots of moving parts, animations, videos, and really entertainment along the way, so that the experience was a very rewarding one, as well, as you know, getting all the information and looking for all the analytics. And as a result,

 

Robert Berkeley  16:14  

it sounds like you needed Sorry, sorry, it sounds like you needed quite diverse skills, then from your team. In order to fulfil this terms, we had to interpret the information, you had to come up with creative ideas, you had to execute those. Right? Exactly. We

 

Jamie FerreiraFerrara   16:25  

Exactly. We had to come up with a concept, we had to come up with the look and feel we made it sort of a parallel last black scrolling experience so that as you scrolled things were happening and levers were being engaged. And and as a result, this year's holiday survey led to an engagement increase of 186% over the last year. So each year, nearly double, we know that we nearly doubled it year over year. Yeah.,

 

Robert Berkeley  16:46  

Yyeah. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. So So how big a team did you have working on this? And how did they react to it when they when they heard about the award?,

 

Jamie FerreiraFerrara   16:53  

Thisthis was a team of about 30. And this is done within our Deloitte insights group, which is really our thought leadership division of of Deloitte. And the team was delighted, of course, to receive the recognition. I mean, awards, as you know, are very important for not only recognition, but for morale, and simply proof that your work stands out, and you've differentiated yourself. So, you know, I firmly believe that rewards are a byproduct of great work, and great work is equally rewarding.

 

Robert Berkeley  17:20  

Absolutely. So it was an effort like this, it's quite a lot of work. As you said, it harnessed a lot of people working together, the obvious question is, we're in a pandemic, and the working environment isn't what you would have expected for a project like this. How did you manage to keep them all kind of focused and, and on their creative toes during during all this process?

 

Jamie FerreiraFerrara  17:40  

That's a great question. Well, that's probably an easy one for us, Deloitte, because we're inherently virtual, I mean, going fully remote, really wasn't a cosmic shift from our regular working style, or collaboration. Because we don't all sit together, unlike, you know, more of the environment. I was used to an external agencies. But I don't attribute the ease of working virtual to just that. It all has to start with a culture and we have a culture that I've never experienced in any other agency within my career. Deloitte is the most collaborative, inclusive, and just downright nice culture I've ever seen. Everybody just worked seamlessly together and supports each other and always has each other's backs.

 

Robert Berkeley  18:20  

I think they got some recognition about that. Just in the past couple of weeks, we

 

Jamie FerreiraFerrara   18:23  

We absolutely did. Well, that best places to work as a young as a young, what's the word? I'm looking for Best Young career place? I would say,

 

Robert Berkeley  18:32  

Okay, great. What an accolade. Yeah, so good. 

 

Jamie FerreiraFerrara   18:34  

Yeah, so good. Yeah. So, you know, as I said, Well, you know, it's, it's a very inclusive relationship, and, you know, so one person can literally start a conversation and there'll be 10 people willing to, to finish it. So given that, you know, we all communicate brilliantly and ability, you know, the ability to work together. You know, even as an art director, writer conceptually just works. You know, I honestly wouldn't believe that would work if anyone told me that unless I witness it for myself. So beyond the working style, though, you know, we all share ideas and work, you know, regularly, and we have our own internal agency sites, to share and collaborate. So we have other ways to communicate beyond just, you know, the working, sort of brainstorming sessions and what not.

 

Robert Berkeley  19:17  

Right. But have you found that over the time since, I guess, around March or April time, when when you were presumably mostly still working together? Have you found that things have started to drift apart? And, if so, have you have you found ways of dealing with that?,

 

Jamie FerreiraFerrara   19:32  

You you know, I outside of the general discomfort of not being able to sort of really collaborate, you know, on a one to one basis or in groups? You know, we found really interesting ways to combat that, quite honestly. I mean, I think, you know, we showcase our success stories, and we have a internal and external site and the internal site really is a place that we can share kind of work in progress. It share. You know, our Collective sort of success stories from start to finish. We also have many, many team sites per group to communicate that way. And we share everything from just the mundane kind of, you know, pictures of our dogs to to places we'd like to be right.

 

Robert Berkeley  20:15  

Yeah, well, so So it sounds like you haven't really missed a beat, then with the with the transition to working from home. Is there anything you wish you had known at the beginning?

 

Jamie FerreiraFerrara 20:23  

I don't think there is. I mean, I, you know, no one is perfect. And we like I said, we have our ways of working. And, you know, one thing I'll point out is, you know, we have weekly calls with our creative groups to feature great work that's going on across the network that helps us stay connected, obviously, and inspired. We even do things like, you know, every two weeks, we have a can meeting and we look at, you know, we pick everyone, you know, varying times picks the three, you know, most inspiring things, they've seen it either can or one show DNA D. And we all get on a large zoom call and share and talk about the work that inspires us and even deconstruct, you know, what we think maybe the strategy was how they got to the the insights that got to the great creative, how they executed the work and why, why we think it's great, it helps keep us connected, and on the pulse, really, of what's going on around us. And since we can't visit Canada at the moment, I guess it serves as a bit of an escape from the current climate.,

 

Robert Berkeley  21:19  

Bbut it's good to bring in that external influence as well, I guess and to analyse it. And so finally, just just out of curiosity, what what does the future hold? Then? Do you think? Do you see kind of the end of the day, we've all got our vaccinations? We're all back to work as normal and, and work is as it was back in the office? Or do you see things playing out differently? And if so, how can how do you imagine that that happening?

 

Jamie FerreiraFerrara  21:40  

I think, you know, as I said, the GDAGTA, I think it's exceptionally bright. You know, I think we as a group are getting stronger every day in dealing with sort of the differences, you know, of working a little bit differently, you know, we're very critical on our own success in a very positive way. And that drives us to be stronger and better. We're constantly evolving, you know, we have a great team with full capabilities, and we're very pliable, meaning that we adapt and evolve very quickly. You know, a great example, you know, on topic is the pandemic that no one could have possibly predicted. But we immediately transformed a very robust live events production team into a virtual one. So within within days, we were mobilising an entire team to be hyper focused on bringing our firms experiences to the virtual world. And operationally, we shifted, you know, multiple disciplines to better connect as a firm, and started a wave of purpose driven work to help support our clients and our people.

 

Robert Berkeley  22:32  

So what what do you have there at Deloitte that other people don't have? Do you think that's enabled you to do this? I'm not sure you can't speak for other people. But But I'm very curious if you think this distils down to any one or two particular characteristics about your working environment.,

 

Jamie FerreiraFerrara   22:48  

I think, you know, culture is is unbelievable, you know, I mean, it's so important, it really is in our culture is really our, our guiding light, it's our North Star, you know, our ability to work together to be collaborate, and really treat the entire team. As you know, one team approach, we have, you know, all disciplines accounted for under the roof or under the hood, should I say of the GDAgda, we also, you know, work, as I said, sort of across the country, we have a community of a network rather, outside of the US, we have a huge team in India, in Hyderabad, that works with us as well. So we really, you know, we have, in my opinion, we really have mastered the heart of working together, regardless of geography. And I think that, you know, that's why we weathered the storm so well as it relates to the pandemic because we were already poised in a position to be able to to bear that. So it didn't dramatically change who we are. And I believe that the culture lifted us up and allowed us to, to to find other ways to make sure that we didn't distil down or or watered down our culture. Jamie,

 

Robert Berkeley  24:07  

Jamie, thank you so much for taking part in this special Inside Jobs inside jobs, and giving us some insight and Congratulations once again on the award. And here's to 2021. Thank you very much. The next creative leader we're hearing from today is Rebecca Marino, head of design and production at FM Global, an insurance provider that specialises in loss protection, primarily insuring corporations worldwide as well as the highly protected risk or HPR property insurance sector. you Rebecca, I'm so happy to have you today and congratulations on your well deserved gold. It was in I believe the website's category. That's what Yeah, B2Bb2b websites, I think yeah. So that's quite a competitive one as well. Do You Do you remember the the idea behind the creative that they…?

 

Rebecca Marino  24:53  

I do? So you know, we have some very interesting subject matter to promote their energy Hearing topics and natural hazards like hurricanes in this particular case. And we tried to come up with a way to make learning about hurricanes and testing your hurricane knowledge fun. So we came up with the idea of creating a quiz format for hurricane information. And it was actually very successful and very popular and thankfully want to go.

 

Robert Berkeley  25:22  

Ah, okay, well, well, congratulations for that. And I think you're an In House Agency in house agency, of course, and you've been with IHAF I have quite a long time, right? How long?

 

Rebecca Marino   25:32  

I have. I served on the board for about nine years, but I'm guessing I've probably been with IAHF I have at this point, maybe 12 or 13 years?.

 

Robert Berkeley  25:42  

And along the way along those 12 years, I know you've won some other awards. But is this the first time you've got gold in a category?

 

Rebecca Marino   25:49  

It's not the first time No, but it has been a while we were do.Do you?

 

Robert Berkeley  25:53  

You, I don't think it's a rotor system. I really don't I i think i think there's effort involved. But despite dude, given that, you adieu, I suppose your team must have been pretty excited, right? How were they pleased? Absolutely. We

 

Rebecca Marino   26:06  

Absolutely. We kind of had a little little Design Group group chat going on. And we were just so excited and so astounded, because um, you know, it's very exciting. It's, it's, it's great to win gold. And we hadn't won anything at that, at that point for this year. And so it was, it was very exciting. And we were thrilled as a team.

 

Robert Berkeley  26:25  

So it's kind of hard to high five, when you're all working from home, I'm guessing you're all working from home. And even if you weren't, you wouldn't have been high fiving anyway. Not without before protective equipment. So So tell us a little bit about the team that you've got there, how big they are?, Whatwhat are their principal strengths?.

 

Rebecca Marino  26:43  

So the design team in particular is small but very mighty, is myself. A very, very much hands on full time working manager. I've got a senior person named Jeff Lin. I've got a graphic designer, a senior designer named Liz Porcello, who is who was the lead on this particular award winning, shout

 

Robert Berkeley  27:01  

Shout out for Liz, Yes.

 

Rebecca Marino   27:02  

Yes. And then we've got James Ferguson, who was another graphic designer on the team. And then we have some production support from Super Tdraining. And that is the entire design team. But of course, there was a much larger team involved in this particular project. We have a team of editors and strategists that were helping with this particular project.

 

Robert Berkeley  27:24  

So were they all internal? Or did you bring in external ones?, they're

 

Rebecca Marino   27:26  

Aall internal. And it was a wonderful collaborative effort. And we worked with some interesting kind of new to us saw new ish to a software called Cciros. And which allows us to create these websites internally without any any kind of is or IT support which is great.

 

Robert Berkeley  27:45  

Right, right. Okay. And this team, what else do they do for FM Global?

 

Rebecca Marino   27:49  

So we do pretty much a variety of things. When you're an In House Team in house team like us, you kind of work on all kinds of things is like, let's see, tradeshow things we help we support our loss prevention materials, we work on marketing materials, both print and digital. We, of course, are the leads on protecting and and guiding the visual brand for the for the entire FM Global. And we just went through a brand update recently, after many, many years. And so we've managed that process and helped educate the employee population on how best to use these new materials that we've provided for them.

 

Robert Berkeley  28:28  

That's always a waiting is that your production capacity very quickly? Absolutely. I did some reading up on you guys. You are factory mutual. I read the whole story about how it's, it's about, well, I want to pay a lower premium. If I look after my factory and make sure it doesn't burst into flames. It's a different approach to insurance. Right. So you i think that that's led to this idea that resilience is really important to your business. So So given that, how would you say that you fared from the time from that fateful day in March, when everyone suddenly found themselves working remotely? Was it something you were used to? And and how did your team How did you and your team adapted? Should I ask?asked.

 

Rebecca Marino   29:11  

So we some of us did work remotely on occasion, you know, maybe once or up to twice a week, in some cases, but it was a very different experience. We were if you were working remotely, typically you were on the phone and not video and everybody else was in a conference room somewhere. So there was a lot lost if you weren't in the room. And now it's much more of a level playing field. Everybody is at home and nobody else is together and there's not those subtle cues that are happening visually with body language that you can't pick up on the phone or on video. So it's it's you know, it's a much more level playing field. Now, the only thing lacking for me is the real in person, the in person correspondence.

 

Robert Berkeley  29:57  

What does that lose then the in person but what wWhat have you found that that has taken away from the dynamic?,

 

Rebecca Marino   30:03  

Sso you know, it's just different on screen, you, you really only see somebody from, you know, the mid chest up. And so you're missing a lot of body language you're missing, you know, reactions. In some cases, depending on how your screen is set up to what other people are saying, I find there's a lot of speaking over each other, because you're not picking up on those subtle cues that somebody is about to speak. So it becomes a little bit more challenging. But, you know, it also has forced us to become more creative.,

 

Robert Berkeley  30:35  

Iinteresting. So when you say creative, do you mean in terms of the way you work? or in terms of the output of what you're producing?

 

Rebecca Marino  30:41  

I think both. I mean, initially, when the pandemic started, we all had to get more creative about what we normally do, and how and how we would do it differently and remotely. And I think when you start thinking creatively, creatively for a new way like that, I mean, creativity does breed more creativity. So when we were forced to think differently about how we were doing things, it made us also think differently about what we were doing. And we had the benefit of also just having launched a brand new brands update. And so that the end of that kind of happened as we were starting this whole renew remote world. And we kind of pivoted quickly and just made it work. And I'm really proud of how we how we adapted so quickly.,

 

Robert Berkeley  31:28  

Wwhat is it that you're most missing, that when you finally all work together again, in the same space, you'll you'll get back?,

 

Rebecca Marino  31:35  

I think that right now I'm missing seeing people that I don't necessarily directly work with. Right now, if I don't have a meeting with you, I'm not going to see you unless I reach out to you for some other reason. I miss those Hallway Conversations, I miss bumping into people in the cafeteria or the ladies room or getting a coffee, I miss those types of you know, unplanned connections with people because often times they can be very helpful to what you're trying to do and giving you ideas.

 

Robert Berkeley  32:07  

Sounds like you think that this is sort of almost I mean, pandemic and the tragedy of the pandemic aside, this way of working, has had tremendous benefits. But it sounds like from what you're saying it's not sustainable. You couldn't, you couldn't go on like this, you need to be checking in with each other on a personal basis, which hopefully, pretty soon we will be.

 

Rebecca Marino  32:28  

Wellwell, we have found new ways to check in with each other. It's just you have to be a little bit more deliberate about doing that. And so I tried to check in with my team, each member at least once a day and also reach out to somebody new that I haven't spoken to once a day. So it just kind of keeps my network kind of moving and growing, even if it's a virtual one.,

 

Robert Berkeley  32:54  

Rright. So there has to be a conscious effort to do something that would have otherwise come naturally. Exactly. Do you find that's the case with your internal customers as well? Yes, absolutely. How do you keep front of mind when you're not front of eyes? Yeah, it's

 

Rebecca Marino   33:07  

Yeah, it's difficult. It's really difficult. I can't just pop by somebody's office anymore, I have to schedule something or set up some sort of a call. And it's, it's I do miss those unplanned connections. Yeah,

 

Robert Berkeley  33:21  

Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. And so you do, it is always a case of being with anyone's client being front of mind. And that's not difficult this way. Or at least it's different. I don't know if it's more difficult. I don't know if it's my job. But it's just different.

 

Rebecca Marino  33:33  

Agree. It's just different. But those connections are important. And without them, you're missing out on a lot. So it's important to keep those connections going, even if we're virtual. It's just in a different way.

 

Robert Berkeley  33:45  

So cast your mind forward a year, I won't hold you to this, by the way, Rebecca, but how do you think the balance of working from home versus working from an office will play out? When we return to some form of business as usual?,

 

Rebecca Marino   33:59  

I would imagine that perhaps the in person in office five day workweek might not exist any longer, I would imagine that there will be a blend of both in person and virtual. Because there are definite benefits to both scenarios. And I would like to see us kind of harness the best of both worlds and kind of try to get the best out of everything as much as we can.

 

Robert Berkeley  34:26  

But have you thought hHave you found that people talking of individuals? Have you found that any individuals do you think have really suffered from this? You know, in terms of isolation or anything like that? And if so, have you been able to do anything about that?

 

Rebecca Marino   34:37  

I'm sure that's probably the case. I think it would be incredibly difficult to be somebody that lived and worked alone right now. But I'm thankfully I haven't really had to deal with any of that in my immediate circles. So that's a good thing.

 

Robert Berkeley  34:54  

All right. So that's it. Rebecca, thank you very much for your time. And your insights as well. And congratulations on that. Goldwyn, thank you so much. Well, there you have it three award winning in house agencies and their creative team leaders offering perspective on what it takes to unleash creativity remotely, and have proved that they can effectively direct their creative teams and talents from AFARafar. Seems to me that as long as you can respect the new etiquette of video chat platforms, and that you have a strong and nurturing working culture, you really can't go far wrong. I want to thank Rachel, Rebecca and Jamie for spending time with me today for sharing your experiences with our listeners. I also want to congratulate all of this year's IHAF I have creativity award winners. I look forward to being able to shake each of your hands in person without needing sanitizer, but for now consider this a virtual elbow bump in celebration of your achievements. I've been looking down the list and I can see we have some fabulous guests lined up for 2021, so do make sure you subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get yours as ever. My huge thanks to Emily Ffoster director of IHAFI have for her constant guidance and the team at Express KCS for their production help.