10:11am
In April our team closed up shop for two days to focus on internal processes, personal development, and team building—an annual event we like to call “Brascopalooza”.
This is an event our team looks forward to each year, and with the addition of six(!) new Brasconians since last year, we were all excited to grow closer together and refine our processes.
“Progress” is our word of the year for 2022 and these two days were the perfect opportunity for us to focus on team goals and personal career goals. We had a series of presentations, breakout sessions, and stimulating discussions. Curious about what that looked like? We’ll recap it! (Scroll to the bottom for a list of resources mentioned.)
First, we expanded our branding knowledge with Jeff Slater.
Jeff Slater, an experienced brand strategist and a valued part of our team at Brasco ///, led us through three different ways brands differentiate themselves from their competitors: reverse branding, breakaway branding, and hostile branding.
While we were learning the various attributes of these branding techniques, Jeff helped us take an internal look at our brand, the Brasco /// brand. We found this incredibly valuable, and perhaps you might be curious to analyze how your own brand is conveyed and how it stands out, too. Here are some questions we tackled:
This was a great first session to kick off Brascopalooza. The ideas were flying—there’s nothing better than a good brainstorm session with a room full of Brasconians.
After branding, we took to social media industry trends.
Dana Cassell, an Adjunct Professor at Meredith College, Small Business Counselor at Wake Tech, and Marketing Consultant for companies, shared her knowledge about the state of social media in a keynote presentation.
We learned the average person spends roughly two hours of his/her day on social media—and then we took a look at our own, personal usage on our phones…we won’t share those results but let’s just say you have some very well-informed Brasconians on social.
Some of the topics we discussed were generational usage across platforms, like how Gen Z and Millennials are killing time on socials, “lurking” and observing content, whereas Gen X and Boomers are reading news sources. Heads up—regardless of how generations are interacting on social, they’re buying! Social selling is booming so make sure you’re pivoting your marketing strategy.
Speaking of people, we all took a personality test to learn more about our habits and how to communicate better as a team.
Brasconians Cady May, Brand Strategist, and Devan Brush, Art Director, conducted an interactive team building activity, centered around how our personalities play a part in our work at Brasco. To analyze this, we each took a personality test which then placed us into different archetypes, such as Analysts, Diplomats, Sentinals, and Explorers. These archetypes were dictated based on how we scored on a series of questions that categorized whether we were:
We took it upon ourselves to share our results which helped us to realize how similar we are and how different we are at the same time. We’ve got quite a few extroverts in the office—but not everyone, so this helped us realize how we can better work together in even the smallest ways, like maybe not scheduling back-to-back meetings for someone more introverted. If your team hasn’t done a personality activity for team bonding, we highly recommend it!
From here we spent some time looking internally.
Our CEO, Brandon Ives, spent some time sharing data on the state of the marketing and advertising industry, as well as the state of our agency within the industry. We discussed trends happening across various sectors, such as video content, omni-channel, and B2B marketing trends.
Lastly, we reviewed agency accomplishments over the past year, which include many successes, community involvements, giving back and of course recognition for some of award-winning client work. Brasco /// received numerous awards from over (5) different professional associations such as Advertising Federation, PRSA, and others. We also discussed performance strengths and opportunities that will help guide agency priorities for the year.
Next up, we went from our place to another place.
Maggie Kane, Founder and Executive Director of A Place at the Table, spent time with our team, giving us the scoop on entrepreneurial life and starting a new type of business in the community. Many of our Brasconians were previously familiar with the restaurant due to its tasty food and passion for helping others, but we thoroughly enjoyed listening to how Maggie pioneered this restaurant in downtown Raleigh. A Place at the Table opened in 2018 with a “pay what you can” business model, where prices are suggested and customers have the option to pay what they can or volunteer their time for their meal.
In the words of Maggie, A Place at the Table focuses on “Community and good food for all…regardless of means.” If you’re looking for a great breakfast/lunch spot or would like to volunteer, we highly recommend stopping by.
P.S. They’re hosting a fundraiser next month, mark your calendars for Sunday, June 5th.
Finally, we dove into mentality.
Colin Bish, our Director of Digital Services, gave a presentation on The Marketing Mentality. This encompasses how we as individuals combat challenges or celebrate successes, how aware we are of goals, how we listen to feedback, and how we apply unique or different approaches. All of this flows from our mindset…we can either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.
Ultimately, a growth mindset allows us to be avid learners (sponges, really), soaking up new information and trying out new strategies. Choosing to have this type of mindset allows our team to approach projects with an intentional, collaborative mentality, keeping the focus on the target audience, industry trends, and the value of the project.
To wrap up the end of Brascopalooza we filled our bellies with mouth-watering BBQ from Southern Q and played at Dix park—who says we’re too old for swings?
We talked, we laughed, we relaxed…and now we’re ready to hit the ground running with fresh motivation to hone our crafts and deliver top-quality work to our clients.
Stay tuned to hear how we continue to take what we learned at Brascopalooza and how we implement it all! #progress
Interested in diving deeper into some of these topics? Here’s a list of resources: