As we celebrated our 35th year yesterday in Chicago it struck me just how long 35 years is. And isn’t. For all that’s changed, many of the essentials haven’t.

We have been, are and will always be problem solvers. Sure, we make ads. And websites. And brand experiences. But first, and foremost, we solve problems. Business problems and people problems. Ideally, with a single solution that addresses both parties’ wants and needs. Towards the end of building business.

The idea was king, is king and will be king. Creativity – no matter how you define it – is what drives value at the end of the day. We’ve been able to succeed for three-and-a-half decades because we’ve been able to innovate and inspire. Recognizing and executing game-changing ideas wins. Period.

We’ve always lived in a constantly brave new world. For 35 years, Laughlin Constable has been solving new problems with new ideas in a constantly evolving world. The world may be changing faster now than ever before. But we’ve gotten comfortable managing the new. The uncharted is part of our daily routine.

The tenets that have allowed us to get to this point are the same ones that will carry us forward. Our vision of The Future Of Marketing is based on what we’ve learned so far. And the future depends on marketers’ ability to re-think, re-invent and re-new. Brands, in particular, must always strive to be new. And that’s why – while we got together in honor of the past – it was the future we celebrated.

So happy birthday, Laughlin Constable. Welcome to your 36th brand new year.

Interested in more stuff I find interesting? Follow me @casey_flanagan on Twitter.

All of the above landed me in an improvisational theater class my sophomore year. Little did I know that the very class I took for some laughs and an easy A would provide me with real life lessons I could apply to my career in advertising.

1) Never immediately say no.

This is one of the cardinal rules in improv. If someone starts off a scene and says, “Check out this bike I bought you,” you wouldn’t respond, “No, it’s a pony.” You go with it.

The same goes in an agency setting. You’re immediate reaction to an idea might be to shoot it down. But don’t reject it right away. Think on it. Try to make it work. As people around Laughlin say…see if it has legs. Some of the best ideas might not be the ones you’re initially excited about.

2) Listen then react.

My improv teacher always told us:

• Don’t try to anticipate what the other individuals on stage are going to say.
• Don’t sit there thinking about what you’re going to say next.

Listen to the people around you…then react. This is imperative in the workplace. Whether it’s your coworkers, a client, or a vendor be sure you’re hearing what they’re saying. Then formulate your thoughts and react in the appropriate manner. This will help you build long term, mutually beneficial relationships and potentially avoid some strained conversations.

3) Get comfortable with not knowing what’s next.

Improv is all about unpredictability. The uncertainty of what’s coming next. It’s an environment that keeps your adrenaline pumping and builds a strong level of trust between everyone on stage. Your success and failure is theirs and vice versa.

Advertising can be an unpredictable industry. But that’s part of what makes it so exciting! It keeps you on your toes, challenges you to be flexible, and causes you to lean on and trust your team for ideas, solutions and support.

4) Find the humor in things.

Even a mundane, everyday situation can be funny. When you’re performing improv, you’re job is to make people laugh. Learn to find the humor in things and others will see it too.

Advertising can be a trying industry. So whether it’s a late night at the office or a meeting that has completely lost its focus try not to get frustrated. Enjoy your coworkers, laugh a little, like your job. It will make those around you like their jobs that much more.

Here are five tips I wish I had been given on my first day :

Relationships Trump All

Your relationships with clients are no different than your relationships outside of the work place; they are predicated on trust. Your client needs to know that you are a hard-working and capable individual because, at the end of the day, their job performance is partially linked to how well you are able to move projects along. The foundation for this trust is built on the simplest of things : adherence to deadlines, attention to details (like properly formatted documents) and most importantly, the proofreading of all emails. Well thought out and poignant emails can do wonders in terms of helping build the client’s confidence in your ability.

Breathe

Advertising is a business that revolves around deadlines. No one plans on racing against the clock to get an ad/presentation out, but sometimes that’s the case. The worst thing you can do is let the added stress affect how well you perform. There is a natural tendency to want to move things along as quickly as possible when time is getting tight. However, with this stressed mindset, mistakes are bound to happen. Instead of attempting to take care of three things at once, take a deep breath. Get away from your computer and write down a list of tasks that need to be completed in order to complete this job. Not only is this therapeutic, but it also gives you a strategic blueprint to see the job through completion.

Check, Double Check, Then Check Again

Before any marketing materials go out to the client, make sure to triple check the content. Look over the brief again and examine the string of emails you have had with the client regarding the assignment. Is the URL on there? Are the dates correct? Have the changes the client requested been made? The list goes on. You want to make sure that everything the client has asked for, you are delivering. It’s the attention to details that will help you build trust with the client.

Don’t Change Who You Are

The worst thing you can do is create a business persona that is markedly different than who you actually are. Don’t be afraid to be yourself; in fact, do everything you can to embrace your unique personality. Figure out what strengths/traits make you “you” and figure out ways you can use them to your advantage. If you try to be someone else, people will know, Its hard to build trust with someone who isn’t genuine.

Enjoy it

In one of my first meetings at Laughlin Constable, a creative director said something that will always stick with me: “We work in the rock n’ roll of the business world!” Do not underestimate the amount of time and effort that goes into being a successful professional in advertising, but do remember that there is a reason why you wanted to get into this business. We work in a fun, fast-paced, culturally relevant, and openly creative environment that most people envy. Even in account service, we are regularly asked to think outside of the box and find innovative ways to solve our client’s problems.  Very few people are lucky enough to have “creative thinking” as part of their job description.

The Paragon Awards recognize outstanding work in public relations campaigns. Similar to the Oscars, these are the type of campaigns that make you laugh, make you cry, or in the marketing world, make you buy in.

Laughlin Constable is thrilled to have brought home not one, not two but three of these awards last night.

An award of merit was given for work on the Wisconsin Department of Tourism iPhone app launch. An advanced look at the app by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and well-planned distribution of a news release to select media helped make the release of the app a great success. Coverage in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Associated Press resulted in hits in ABCNews.com, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Times-Picayune and many more. The immediate result was more than 80 million impressions, $3 million in publicity and more than 2,000 downloads.

LC also snagged an award of merit for the 2010 Department of Tourism’s press kit. The team used sound media relations, creative ideas and strategic planning to develop a kit that generated significant awareness of all the unique events, activities and attractions in Wisconsin and ultimately, caught the attention of the media. Not to mention, it looked pretty cool (our designers rock). The team met with more than 25 different media outlets in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and Milwaukee and also mailed or dropped off press kits to 30 more outlets. Many of the reporters complimented the team for having designed such a useful and easy-to-navigate press kit and supplementary USB flash drive.

And finally, there was an award of merit for the social media successes for the Department of Tourism.  When the Facebook page, Twitter account and blog were initially launched, consumers flocked to the pages within minutes (okay, not minutes, but quickly). The 2010 summer campaign character Miles Feldspar was introduced on these platforms, and unique content, trivia questions, and giveaways followed. From its launch, the Facebook page has grown to over 24,400 fans, with the Twitter account at just over 2,000 followers. The blog has received over 64,181 views since its launch and is consistently a top 10 content section on TravelWisconsin.com.

All and all, it was a great night. While these are public relations awards, the effort on all three of these campaigns was agency-wide. Our hard work and dedication to our clients really paid off.  So now, after a night of celebrating, where’s the afternoon coffee?

Just to give you an idea of the hostile, post-grad environment we millennials are entering, check out this Fortune blog post by Patricia Sellers entitled Who Cares about a Career? Not Gen Y. The article opens with this bold statement: “Any Baby Boomer who has worked alongside Millennials – Gen Yers born after 1978 – knows how differently they view work and career. While we Baby Boomers typically place high value on pay, benefits, stability and prestige, Gen Y cares most about fun, innovation, social responsibility, and time off.”

While the above statement may be true for some Millennials (every generation has its share of bad seeds i.e. Paris Hilton and this disgruntled internship applicant) I would argue that fun, innovation, and social responsibility are just some of the many aspects millennials looks for in a career – and maybe not even the most important ones at that. So let’s move away from the assumptions and negative statements and take a look at some of the positive traits millennials are bringing to the work force.

Millennials are eager and self-confident.
Millennials grew up being told that they could be whatever they wanted to be. That they would be successful. Special. Now as they launch their careers, they want to make sure that the above statements come true. Most millennials will walk into an organization self-assured, ready to learn, and aiming to climb to the top.

Millennials can multitask.
Millennials have been on sensory overload almost their whole lives. But most of them have learned to manage it effectively and have become efficient multi-taskers. You can likely give a millennial multiple projects without being met with a look of sheer panic.

Millennials live out loud.
Through social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, millennials are connecting and sharing more than ever before. Millennials are likely to post positive things your organization is doing or things they’ve achieved that they’re proud of. They can become some of your biggest supporters and advocates in the social networking world.

Millennials thrive off of positive reinforcement.
It’s fairly simple to keep a millennial happy. When appropriate, give them a good dose of recognition and positive reinforcement. If you’re good to them, they’ll want to work even harder for you.

Sure, I understand that some of you might already be construing ways in which the above positive traits could be turned into negative ones. But I want to challenge you to think a little differently. Perhaps optimistically. So the next time you’re assigning teams for a group project at work, don’t be too quick to rule out the millennial.

For more insights on millennials in the workplace check out this previous LaughlinOutLoud blog post.

But what impressed me most about my two days at sea were all the things that happened below the surface of the ship.  In many ways, I was reminded of this business, in that most people only see what’s on the outside. They marvel at the ideas taking off, sometimes in dramatic fashion, and they stand back and watch as these ideas hit their targets somewhere off in the horizon. But in order for these operations to work flawlessly and with exact precision, everyone has to have the same objective and everyone has to be all that they can be.

After a terrible first night’s sleep on the ship, which required earplugs and a thick pillow to defuse the noise from jets taking off and landing just above my head, I had breakfast with a group of sailors who impressed me to no end.  These were the men and women who epitomized the notion that it “takes a village.”  (With 6,000 sailors on the ship, it is quite literally a floating village.) When asked about their responsibilities they got very excited and wanted to share. They said things like, “I maintain the high-pressure steam activated catapult system, which ensures the planes take off safely.” “The missions could not be completed without my assistance in coordinating the multi-functional satellite augmentation system.” “The planes hit their targets because I’m responsible for the guidance systems on the missiles.” Wow. No navy of one here.

These folks really loved what they did and understood that while they may not be the ones in the cockpit with nicknames like “Goose” or “Ice Man” or “Maverick,” they’re every bit as important. I think that’s the key to our success in the communication business, too. When our clients are happy it’s usually because of the amazing skills of those who work out of the spotlight, below the decks; people who love what they do and recognize the importance of their individual responsibilities. These are the people who claim authorship — and should claim authorship — to a successful web campaign, Facebook contest, TV spot, public relations event, and more.  i.e.: A successful mission.

Pondering this, it reminds me of the old 1969 story about a NASA janitor who, when asked what he did at Cape Canaveral, simply said, “I’m going to the moon.”

Just recently Linkedin got smart and connected with Behance Network, the leading online platform for creative professionals (www.behance.net). Why do we like this? Together they make it possible for creative professionals to “link and sync” their portfolios in both sites — simultaneously with the touch of a button — and paint a broader picture of themselves by telling the whole story using their own words and showcasing their own work. It seems relatively user-friendly too. Simply set up your gallery in Behance, switch over to the Linkedin site, accesses “Portfolio Display” under the application directory and pull in your Behance portfolio — for free.

Often, personal websites do not attract the right audience, especially if you are in a creative industry such as advertising, digital, fashion, design, photography and architecture. Although this feature is rather new, it could help you reach those people more effectively. Plus the simplicity, cost and functionality of this tool might make it a great value (free!), especially when you consider Linkedin’s claims (Linkedin.com).

• Linkedin reaches a larger mass of senior managers than The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Business Week
• And we have “The world’s largest audience of affluent, influential professionals.”

These things are mighty attractive to us. We hope you find them interesting too. Let’s hook up on Linkedin.com soon. Remember to Sync in your portfolio and keep it up to date. This new feature should prove to be extremely helpful when we are trying to find the best talent out there — you.

Connect with Us      

I mentioned this fact to a group of people last week and their responses were eerily similar. As the conversation continued, a young man who was quietly listening to our conversation leaned over and quietly summed up most everyone’s response in one single phrase, “Who’d a thunk it?”

But there are some of us who work in Milwaukee and aren’t so surprised by this best-kept secret. Milwaukee is noted for a well-educated workforce with a strong work ethic. Professional and managerial positions are the fastest growing occupations according to City-Data.com. Private business drives the city’s economy with less than 11 percent of area employees working in the public sector. And while manufacturing is a strong component of the city’s economy, service jobs have shown the most growth in recent years.

Although every city has its highs and lows, something Laughlin Constable can see locally and nationally with offices also in Chicago and NYC, but Milwaukee is a great place to live, play, and visit. According to Hot Jobs, Cool Communities, an annual report card of the hippest places to live and work, Milwaukee ranked #10 as the coolest community out of 221 cities in the United States for young talent.

“Attracting and retaining top talent is key to the success of our region’s economy,” says Corry Joe Biddle, executive director of FUEL Milwaukee as she announced the 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Workplace Flexibility. “These employers are working hard to become the most attractive workplaces for today’s talent force. Workplace flexibility is a must for highly sought after knowledge workers and Milwaukee is well position to become a top destination to live and work.”

Congratulations to all of the recipients of this prestigious national award in the Milwaukee Region. Laughlin Constable is grateful to be in the company of these great businesses.

Every generation is put into a stereotype, some they are happy to be a part of… and some they work their life to distance themselves from. I could go into talking about each of the generational stereotypes… but let’s be honest, I’m a Millennial, and to fit that selfish stereotype, I’d like to keep the focus of this post on, well, my own generation.

Despite the ominous title, it turns out Cleveland’s post was about sticking up for his Millennial associates, and bashing all the popular, negative stereotypes… But I am going to have to disagree with his debunk of some major Millennial myths… as I see them as truths.

1. Millennials don’t like the word “no” – We don’t! (But really, who does…) And I think this is a good thing; it comes as a part of a belief that anything is possible. Look at the library of apps we have access to on our smart phones. We can speak French without ever taking a class. We can find our way in a city we’ve never been to without asking for directions. If someone tells us “no”, we take that as a challenge, not a defeat.
2. We have no respect for authority – Ok, now I won’t say we don’t have respect for authority. We do. But as a generation that has had the world at our fingertips – access to every piece of information and knowledge we could ever want with just a click of a button – we don’t rely on authority as much as our previous generations did. We ask fewer questions, we rely on their knowledge less, and we feel that anything they know that we don’t, we can figure out on our own. I blame this on Google. They feed us the false promise they can provide us with all of the knowledge we could ever need and answers to any question we can come up with.
3. We expect a lot without doing a lot – Also known as the… Get-Rich-Quick Syndrome. There is a lot of pressure on us to have THE next million dollar idea. We’ve seen that it’s possible. If you drop out of college, and spend half as much time as you do in a cubicle on thinking up crazy ideas, you could be the next big thing, and happily retired at the ripe age of 28.

As Millennials, we are blessed to grow up in a world that has ultimately forced us into a corner of seemingly negative stereotypes. Like all generations, we are doomed to face them, and like all generations we will likely be criticizing the ones following us as well (I’m eager to know for what…). Stereotypes aside, the point of Cleveland’s post is that “hardworking young people are an asset to your agency”.  And that is the biggest truth in all of this. Our unique generation brings something different to the table that I am proud to be a part of.

Laughlin Constable Naughty or Nice Holiday Card

Have you been nice this year? Take our Holiday Naughty or Nice quiz and have your list checked twice.  Every person who participates in the quiz will get a personalized Naughty or Nice certificate and a donation to the Boys & Girls Club in their name.

So, check it out and don’t forget to spread the cheer! http://holiday.laughlin.com/

Happy Holidays from your friends at Laughlin Constable.