This article was originally published on MMI Agency’s blog. The read the entire article, click here.
You’re sitting at your desk checking emails when your friend sends you a seemingly innocuous YouTube link followed by a crying emoji. You take a sip from your coffee mug, glance around to make sure no one is looking, and click play.
In the course of ninety seconds, you are transformed from a slick, confident business person to a weeping infant who would rather be in the fetal position under your desk than sitting behind it. You try to hold it together, but it’s too late. You know that Judy from Accounting has heard you sniffling and the charade is over. You can’t hide it anymore: an ad just made you cry.
Another day, another item checked off my bucket list. Recently I got the chance to write a children’s book for one of our clients at MMI Agency: Dentistry for Children. To help educate children about oral hygiene, MMI developed a books series for Dentistry For Children featuring a lovable character, Luna the Tooth Fairy. For the third book in the series, I got to throw my hat in by developing a new storyline incorporating Luna and her friends, Lionel and Libby.
The story focuses on a major tooth crisis: the moon, which gets its glow from the shiny teeth collected by Tooth Fairies, is losing it’s brightness. Luna needs to tell kids about dental hygiene, and asks Lionel and Libby to help her.
As I mentioned in my last post, 2013 was the first year I ever made any New Year’s resolutions. After having sworn against doing “silly resolutions” for most of my life, a friend of mine encouraged me to do some, just because. This simple challenge became a yearlong project I like to call The Daily Doodle. For 365 days I drew a doodle a day. Subjects varied from what I did that day to random things in my head, and ranged from goofy to obscure. I posted these doodles on a Tumblr and shared through social media.
Little did I know how big my little project would become. Over the course of the year I received hundreds of likes and reposts on Tumblr, 83 Tumblr followers, a Tumblr “Featured Artist” tag, hundreds of likes on Instagram, comments galore on Facebook, and multiple favorites on Twitter. I even got requests from friends and family for custom doodles. But, most importantly, people told me that they looked forward to my doodles every day. Suddenly, something I had never expected happened: my personal project became a social community – purely because people were able to interact and engage with my doodle process.
So, what did I take away from this year? I’ve learned that people like to be involved. They like to engage, interact, approve, “like,” critique, and share. I’ve learned that people like watching other people achieve something. By acting as an audience, they feel a part of it. I learned that 365 unique doodles are hard to come up with, no matter how creative you think you are. And I’ve learned that I like challenging my creativity every day, even if it’s a little thing like a doodle.
With the year ending and a new one beginning, some people have asked what will happen to my daily doodles. Do I keep going? Do I extend the project? Although my compulsive doodling will never end, I’ve decided to end this project as planned. But that means it’s time to start a new one. On January 4th, I will begin my new adventure: a 365-sentence story.Follow along.
And that doesn’t include the actual work I had to do – plus the fact that I am working late tonight.
So what does one do when there isn’t enough time in the day?
Make A List – Check.
Utilize Your Clone – Although a stereotypical answer, the clone card is still relevant. Sadly, my clone lives in Dallas and has no knowledge of the advertising industry.
Make a Cardboard Cutout of Yourself – The perfect device for being in two places at once.
Ask Siri For Help – It’s worth a shot.
Pitch A Tent – A stellar idea. I’m considering keeping a tent in my cube. In the meantime, I’ll have to settle for a fort made of paper balls, my emergency hoodie, and some paperclips.
Invent A New Time-Scale – If time is relative, then I should be able to make more time. Right? Right. From now on there are 47 Haley-hours in a day.
Cry. Then Do One Thing At A Time. – A cathartic process, but could get messy. And it’s far too practical.
Do Everything At Once – The inevitable solution. Every time.
Thankfully, I’ve been able to tackle my task list and managed to get most of what I needed done. And I didn’t even have to resort to the cardboard cutout.
Tomorrow afternoon I’m driving to Austin for the SXSW Interactive Festival. Many of you already know this because I either haven’t stopped talking about it or you stalk me on Twitter. Or both.
For those who don’t know what SXSW is, here is a brief synopsis: it’s awesome. But in all seriousness, it’s one of the largest festivals of its kind. Spanning several weeks, SXSW is broken up into several sections, namely Music, Film, and Interactive. Most people are familiar with the music and film aspect, but I will be attending the Interactive portion of the festival.
SXSW Interactive focuses on interactive media and emerging technology. The website explains further that “the event features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line-up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer. From hands-on training to big-picture analysis of the future, SXSW Interactive has become the place to experience a preview of what is unfolding in the world of technology.” Cool, huh?
So why am I going? My agency is sending me and four others to the festival in order to learn more about upcoming media and new technology that so that we can gain a better understanding of where our industry is going and the opportunities for where we could take it in the future. So, over the next 5 days I’ll basically be in creative nerd-land listening to some of the brightest minds in the media world. And that is just the place for a young advertiser.
In classic Haley-style, I considered blogging my trip just like I have my other travels in the past (see: Scotland and London). However, I also realized that I’m going to be crazy busy and people may not necessarily be interested in my day-to-day laundry list of activities. Thus, I’ll mostly be logging my trip through my Twitter account. If you’re interested in following my adventure, you can get live coverage by clicking here.
Other than seminars and workshops, I’ll also be getting a lot of free swag, enjoying free parties and food, meeting some cool, like-minded people, and catching up with several old friends who will be attending as well.
Haley Robinson 