L&S Unscripted

It came and went so fast, it almost has a “did-I-just-say-that-out-loud?” feeling to it.

Eight days ago I didn’t know an official “Social Media Day” existed. Today the Sioux Falls observance of Mashable‘s global celebration is in the rear view mirror. Now it’s time to reflect.

The mention of “social media” generally sparks either enthusiasm or scorn. It’s like Glee. You either love it or hate it. In this digital Blitzkrieg, Switzerland is more the size of Liechtenstein.

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“If they had a major in Social Media, that is what I would want to do.”

“How can I use this?”

“I use Twitter. I’ve got a handle on it. What’s this FourSquare thing?”

These are just a few of the comments overheard during the Sioux Falls celebration of Social Media Day on June 30, 2010.  Launched globally by Mashable and hosted locally by Lawrence & Schiller, Social Media Day was designed to celebrate the revolution of media becoming social.

At the Sioux Falls meetup, we wanted to not only celebrate but also share and learn. Nearly 60 people took us up on the offer. We’re happy with the turnout, especially when compared to other, larger, metro areas.  Using online registrations as a guide, Sioux Falls was on par with Kansas City, Orlando and even Singapore.

Here are some observations from the L&S’ers who lead conversations on Facebook, Twitter, Fourquare, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and What’s Next:

“My impression of the event was that is was really fun,” says Eric Ellefson, who was manning the FourSquare table. “The audience was quite diverse and most of them were astute on the general presence of Social media.”

Courtney Lotzer overheard the following at the Facebook table. “The world is moving so fast. I thought about my kids when we were talking today. I realized I shouldn’t be talking to them about being a doctor or lawyer someday. Talking specifics just puts them in a box. Their profession probably hasn’t even been invented yet.”

“The general feeling I got, and it might be imagined, was that people were past Twitter,” observes Miles Rausch, leader of the Twitter discussion. “From overhearing other conversations, Twitter had been a gateway for people, and they felt they had it figured out. It’s simple and ubiquitous; no one wants to discuss drinking water. It almost felt like, “I use Twitter. I’ve got a handle on it. What’s this FourSquare thing?” ”

“There were conversations for a broad range of people – from one guy who knew nothing about Twitter who was taking notes, to the group of college students who shared stories of how they use foursquare at school,” notes organizer Michelle Adrian. “I also learned how foursquare can be more than just a challenge game between friends, how it can be used in customer loyalty strengthening, especially retail.”

Lawrence & Schiller’s own Derek Soukup recently traveled to sunny Orlando, Florida, escaping the South Dakota rain for the American Advertising Federation (AAF) National Conference. Derek along with Ruth Ann Scott, Executive Director of the South Dakota Advertising Federation, and Eric Vasgaard of Keyframe, attended the conference “Ideas at Work” on June 10-12.

Derek was excited to accept the first-place award for Communications in the National Club Achievement Competition. There are 4 divisions in the competition. SDAF took home the Division III prize. “It was an honor to receive the award for SDAF and for Lawrence & Schiller who designed, produced and distributed this year’s ADrenaline themed club communications,” said Derek.

Proudly lugging around the newly-won honor, Derek heard from Disney’s VP of creative, attended AAF club roundtables and gleaned information from breakout sessions throughout the week. “I really enjoyed learning about how other local clubs operate,” Derek said. “It was reaffirming that we are on the right track with SDAF. We have a variety of members, not just agencies, and successfully secure sponsors for our events.” He also enjoyed listening to the “Around the Water Cooler: What’s Your Professional Reputation” forum. The group  attended the National ADDY Award Show and Reception on the last night of the conference.

The conference was a great reminder to Derek that SDAF is a part of a larger national organization. “I enjoyed seeing people I had met from other districts in the past and making connections with other AAF members. We have a very active AAF club in South Dakota and it will only continue to be healthy if talented, local AdFed members serve on the various committees that make SDAF successful,” commented Derek. 

Derek will be next year’s SDAF President, so feel free to send your ideas and questions his way.

To better serve clients, the Lawrence & Schiller media team recently added another member.

Shawn Peterson - June 2010
Media Coordinator – Team Fuse
Shawn grew up in McCook Lake, SD, which is near Sioux City, before attending USD. He graduated with a degree in sociology and a minor in business. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with family and friends. Shawn also enjoys playing basketball.

VIDEO: Listen to Shawn’s introduction.

Welcome to L&S Shawn!

Lawrence & Schiller’s newest extra-miler arrived this week.

Alex Wollman – June 2010
Web Intern- Team Webworks
Alex grew up in Huron, SD. He will graduate next year from Dakota State University with a degree in computer science and math. Alex enjoys traveling and recently returned from a two-week art tour of Europe. His favorite stop on the trip was Assisi, Italy, a small village near Florence.

VIDEO: Watch Alex’s introduction.

Welcome to the L&S team!

Some new faces are gracing the halls of Lawrence & Schiller. Several new hires and interns have joined the 5280 team recently. Two media coordinators, a financial specialist and a public relations coordinator are the newest full-time employees.

New Hires
	Ryan Gardner – March 2010 Financial Specialist – Team Synergy Ryan grew up in Sioux Falls and graduated from Augustana College. He enjoys playing golf and tennis and spending time with his fiancée, Laura Walton.VIDEO: Hear Ryan’s introduction.
	Lindsey Haskins- May 2010 Public Relations Coordinator – Public Relations Team Lindsey is from Pierre, SD, and attended Northwestern College in Orange City, IA. She graduated a few weeks ago with a degree in public relations and business administration. Spending time with her fiancé, TJ Philips, and being outside are activities Lindsey enjoys in her free time.VIDEO: Learn more about Lindsey.
	Krista Kayser - May 2010 Media coordinator – Team Synergy Krista crossed the border from her hometown of Mankato, MN to become an Augustana College graduate. Motorcycling with her husband and playing with their ten-week-old son, Joseph, are some of her favorite things to do.VIDEO: Meet Krista.
	Maggie Saugstad - May 2010 Media coordinator – Team Synergy Maggie, originally from Madison, SD, spent one year at Dakota State University before completing her degree in business administration and marketing at Colorado Tech. She enjoys going outdoors to do yard work, camp or play kickball with her seven-year-old daughter, Savannah. VIDEO: Hear Maggie’s story.
Interns
	Les Cotton - April 2010 Production Artist Intern – Team Fuse Les is originally from Volga, SD, and graduated from SDSU with a degree in graphic design and fine art. Outside of work he likes to draw and do anything creative. VIDEO: Listen to Les’ introduction.
	April Gregory – January 2010 Multimedia Intern – Deadwood Office April grew up in Lodge Grass, MT and graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in photojournalism and art history. In her spare time, April enjoys outdoor activities such as fly-fishing, hiking, cross-country skiing and camping. She is excited to be photographing for L&S and is enjoying learning more about marketing.VIDEO: Learn more about April.
	Katie Kuyper - April 2010 Media intern – Team Zen Wizards A Sioux Falls native, Katie graduated last May from Augustana College. She is an avid movie fan and couldn’t live without her DVR.VIDEO: Meet Katie.
	Elizabeth Spaans - May 2010 Account Service and Copywriting Intern – Team Fuse Elizabeth grew up in Stickney, SD, which, for those who are rusty on their South Dakota geography, is a small town near Mitchell. She recently graduated from Augustana College with a degree in business administration with an emphasis in marketing. After work she enjoys reading and photography. VIDEO: Hear Elizabeth’s introduction.
	Tracy Hamann - May 2010 Account Service and Copywriting Intern – Team Synergy Tracy is originally from Sioux Falls and graduated just a few weeks ago from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. One of her favorite activities is shopping. VIDEO: Get to know Tracy.

Welcome to the team!

April Johnston shows off her new 10-year watch.

10 years later, the memory is still clear. Interviewing  intern candidate after intern candidate. One in particular stood out… a nervous kid with a great portfolio. Offering her an internship was a no-brainer. The question was where would she go: Art or Web. Thankfully, the brand new Web department was able to claim April Christensen Johnston first!

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Sarah Pitts

Lawrence & Schiller is pleased to announce that Sarah Pitts has been promoted to Designer. Over the past three years, she has been key in producing great work for clients including Midcontinent Communcations, Sioux Valley/Sanford, The Green Project, Lewis Drug, WTC and many others.

Sarah has also been deeply involved in the Bridge Team (web design training) and has been integral in website design, banner ads, email marketing, SMS (Site Management System - L&S’s proprietary content management system) maintenance and online game design for Team Fuse clients and other projects.

Five thousand two hundred and eighty is the number of feet in a mile. It also represents the commitment Lawrence & Schiller makes to go the extra mile for its clients.

Each quarter L&S honors an employee who embodies the spirit of 5280. Someone who has gone above and beyond to deliver significant results for a client. Not just someone who has put in long hours, but someone who has been strategic, insightful and relentless. To this person the Marketing and Advertising  (MAP) Award is presented.

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Keeping with its tradition of promoting from within, Lawrence & Schiller has announced the promotion of seven employees.  According to L&S President and CEO Scott Lawrence, “These moves are all designed to improve the level of service we can deliver to its clients.”

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What’s the ideal training ground for an ad agency president?   If you answered, “being a marching band instructor”, you’re either a master of unconventional thinking, or you’ve spent some time with  Scott Lawrence, the President and CEO of Lawrence and Schiller.

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From travel and tourism to higher education, telecommunications to healthcare, 12 different Lawrence  & Schiller clients took home honors Saturday night, at the 44th Annual South Dakota Advertising Federation’s Addy Awards. The diverse collection of winners represent a 25% higher number of clients than any other marketing agency in the awards show.

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In week two the skinny chicks rule, the integrity of the official scale comes into question and one of last week’s champions falls to an abdominal injury.

The details are brought to you by this week’s sponsor, Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The highest-percentage-weight-lost award goes to Kristy Andersen. Just like the wealthy are often the best savers it appears Kristy knows how to peel the pounds with a loss of 1.75%. She was followed closely by a pack of not-so-skinny-chicks: Kevin Phipps at 1.53%, Jeremy Peters at 1.43%, Mark Henderson at 1.30% and Jeff Hanson at 1.25%.

Overall many found this week to be a challenge while staying even or slightly gaining. A grand total of 11.5 pounds were lost this week compared to 62.5 pounds last week. Based on my home scale I personally believe the official scale is weighing two pounds heavier than when the contest began. As they say, this weight loss thing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Last week’s pedometer champion, John Pohlman, set the standard for everyone at 10,000 steps per day. This week John says he felt like “the mechanical rabbit at the greyhound races” as the Big Losers relentlessly stalked him. The Judge cranked out 17,000 steps on Wednesday with a Stairmaster/basketball combo. Melody Morton turned in 20,000 steps on Saturday, 14,000 on Sunday and a total of 87,263 for the week. Now that’s a smack down. The Pohlman-Morton grudge match is alive and well. Hanson may have trouble keeping up due to an abdominal injury. Details are sketchy but in layman’s terms I think he may have “blown a gasket.” Surgery may be imminent.

Four more contestants exceeded the standard of 10,000 steps per day this week. They are, in order of most steps to least: Pohlman, The Judge, Jeremy Peters and Kristy. Total recorded steps for all contestants rose to 710,873 compared to last week’s 678,266.

Reset your pedometers and let the week three contest begin.

-The Judge

The Week One Weigh-in is complete. A grand total of 62.5 pounds were lost. That’s an average of 3 pounds per person that weighed-in this morning.

The highest percentage weight lost award goes to Jeff Hanson at 4.09%. Jeff says his secret to success is that he quit smoking at the same time. Crazy! Jeff also is tracking goals he set for calories and exercise. All that paid off with an 8.5 pound loss for the week. Michelle Adrian, Kevin Phipps and John Pohlman all passed the 3% threshold as well. Nicely done! Jeff plans to use his $20 in prize cash to buy his old smoking buddies a pack of cigs.

Most steps travelled goes to John Pohlman at 68,001. John’s goal is 10,000 steps per day. (There were only 6 days in Week One.) He’s getting them by walking the dogs and jogging on the treadmill. He says the pedometer is such a great motivator he’s going to purchase a higher-quality unit. John’s earnings of $20 should cover the cost. Jeff Hanson logged the 2nd most steps with 64,000. The Judge came in third with 51,000. Rumor has it that Melody Morton was in the 60,000 plus range as well but she opted out of this week’s weigh-in. I see a grueling weekly battle developing between Morton, Pohlman & The Floating Brain.

The special Judge’s Award for this week goes to Korena Keys for creating the program. Nearly everyone lost weight and the pedometer has become a great motivator for many.

See you at Coyote Canyon.

-Judge Mark

L&S Big Losers,

I have received a number of reports of pedometer malfunctions. Among them are…

• Fell on floor of supermarket and reset inducing embarrassing profanity-laced tirade
• Fell in toilet
• Don’t know where the heck it fell because I can’t find it
• My child reset it
• It locked up at 999,999 steps
• The dog ate it
• Lost it snowboarding at Great Bear
• A bear ate it
• And so forth

It appears the pedometer is an inexact science at best but it is highly motivating and a fun gadget. So we want to keep it as part of the contest.

Here is my recommendation and ruling. Begin a paper log and write down your pedometer reading every night. Those logs will be accepted at the weekly weigh-in. I will allow some “estimating” this week while we’re working out the bugs. The iron fist will come out next week.

Yes, that means we’re on the honor system. But in all reality we already were. It would be pretty easy to strap that thing to the bumper of the car on the way to work.

I purchased a pedometer at Lewis (shameless client plug) for $12 that hasn’t reset itself a single time. Come and check it out if you’re thinking about an upgrade. It looks pretty darn smart on my belt as well.

Another clarification, when you weigh in this Wednesday morning at 7:30 am your $2 fee will be paid out to the just completed week’s leaders in percentage weight lost (scale) and steps taken (pedometer). Please bring cash so I don’t have to turn my office into a retail outlet. Don’t anger the judge. I know where you live and how much you weigh, and I have a blog and team of internet marketing specialists.

Many have been swinging my office to check the official scale. Feel free to do that even if I’m not around.

See you at the Royal Fork.

-Judge Mark