What does happiness at work really achieve?

Happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them, they have more energy and are therefore more efficient at everything they do, have a more optimistic outlook and optimists are way more successful and productive.
Happy people are way more motivated – when you’re happy and relaxed, you’re much more open to learning new things at work and therefore increase your productivity. When you’re happy at work the occasional mistake doesn’t bother you much. You pick yourself up, learn
from it and move on. You also don’t mind admitting to others that you screwed up, but you simply take responsibility, apologize and fix it. This relaxed attitude means that fewer mistakes are made, and that you’re more likely to learn from them.
Happy people make better, more informed decisions and are able to prioritize their work. If people are in a good mood on a given day, they’re more likely to have creative ideas, and in our line of work creative ideas are the most important ones!
There seems to be a cognitive process that sets up when people are feeling good, and this leads to more flexible, fluent and original thinking.
So what do I do to make everyone at the office simply happier? It’s just simple things, but these little things make a huge change to someone’s perspective when they have a busy schedule. So I make it a priority to help others in the office when I’m a little loose from my own work – it could be anything from a phone call to filing to chasing payments etc. but a tiny bit of help here and there makes everyone feel better. Even a smile while passing in the corridor helps, so my main job is keeping a nice big smile on my face, it helps everyone to see a happy face in the office.
I love baking and baking makes me happy, so I also bring some of my happiness to work – and believe me everyone feels happier when there is a cake in the kitchen!

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“Today is the first blank page of a 366 page book. Write a good one.”

Do you know what I love about that quote? The word ‘blank’ in all its clean, refreshing glory. Because after the well-needed rest over Christmas shut down, I couldn’t wait to get back to the office, clear out my workspace (which looked like a bomb hit) and get my work-life in order to set the tone for a fresh and tidy start to the new quarter.
I figured I can’t be the only one who does this, so I’m sharing the 5 tips I keep in mind whenever I’m getting myself organised:

1. The one year rule

If you haven’t used it since January 2015, chuck it or donate it. This goes for the clutter on your desk, those drawers full of expired biscuits and that one closet in every office where 90s keyboards go to die. If nobody needed it in the past 12 months, I’m willing to bet that they’ll still be there in 2017.
Sub-tip: If you come across a note or business card that you think you may need for reference some day, take a photo of it. Store it in the cloud or send yourself an email – you’ll be able to find it quicker, and you’ll have one less item cluttering your space.

2. Tame your inbox

Once your physical workspace is clear, it’s time to tackle the digital one. Email inboxes are a super personal space and everyone’s got their own system, but there are a few things which could help you keep things under control week after week.
You can reduce the number of emails you get each day by unsubscribing from newsletters you no longer read, or create specific folders and labels (with filters to match) to have non-essential emails sorted automatically without interrupting your daily flow.

3. Just say no… To irresistible freebies

I added this to my list a few months ago when we returned from yet another conference with bags full of freebies. Piles of magnets, stickers and pens that don’t write the way you like them to. They never survive the January purge, so next time, just say no.

4. Schedule calendar time for your own work

This is a new one for me, and I’m hooked. If you and the rest of the office use Google Calendar, you probably know that colleagues can add meetings to your schedule depending on whether you’re free at that time or not. That’s great, except for when you sit down to work on a Monday morning and find that you’re booked solid for meetings until Friday afternoon, leaving no time to get your own work done.
Problem solved – Set aside time for the work by actually scheduling it into your calendar. This way, your colleagues will know that you’re busy that morning and pick a later date for the meeting. Your calendar will still look pretty full, but this way you’ll know that everything that needs doing will get done.
(PS: Thanks Mel for the tip!)

5. Create 2 work zones

There’s computer work which, well, needs a computer. But then there’s other work that will probably happen a lot more efficiently if you’re not in front of a screen. Think time, sketching or poring over the latest reports for instance. Whether in another room or on the same desk, allocate a space where you can move away from the screen and let your mind work without constant interruptions.
It’s not a fool proof guide and it might not be for everyone, but taking a few minutes to clear up with these 5 steps has helped me keep sane on even the busiest of days at the office. If you have anything to add to the list, I’d love to hear it – drop me a line in the comments!

The post Getting Organised For The New Year in 5 Steps appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

I’ll be writing about Switch

I won’t be talking about what we do. You can head over to a page about it on this site. I won’t even write about how we do it. That’s easy enough: We do a bloody good job of it – just ask any of our clients.
I’ll write about why we do it, and more specifically why I do it, and why I get up in the morning with a spring in my step. About the reasons I do not dread Mondays. About why I love spending time in the place I give most of my waking hours to.
Deep down it’s really all quite simple. There was one main reason I started Switch Digital: and that’s because I really believed that there is scope for much better online marketing in Malta.
As time went on, I realised that there’s a much more important reason. A reason that transcends what we do completely. I run Switch because I want to want to go to work. And this is exactly how I run the company.
Doing this, in my opinion, is completely dependent on three things, all of which are important in equal parts. What makes it great is that they complement each other perfectly, which makes our decision making process pretty straightforward.
The hardest part of writing this post is trying to separate the three, because they’re so intricately linked, that it becomes a chicken and egg situation if you try to decide which comes first.

Produce amazing work, consistently

This might sound obvious, but so many companies around us seem to be OK with work that’s just OK. Don’t get me wrong. We know when good enough is good enough, but most of the time it is not.
If there’s an extra mile to be travelled, we’ll usually do our best to take that road if it means delivering a better result.
This, sometimes, can work against us, because we end up putting far more effort into a job than we’re being paid for – but it makes sense anyway, because we produce work that we’re proud of, and clients appreciate it.
Gauging whether we’re doing amazing work is simple, really. We ask ourselves two questions:
“Would we be happy to share this on our portfolio?” and “Would we have produced this work for ourselves?”

Choose amazing clients

Amazing work needs two ingredients. A great agency and an amazing client. We’re lucky to have quite a few of these, and we’re also pretty adamant on carefully selecting any new clients based on whether they fit us.
It’s important to understand that a great client is defined by a variety of criteria, but the basic areas we look at are:

• How willing they are to learn (about digital marketing)
• How willing they are to teach us (about their industry)
• Whether they believe in digital marketing
• Whether they understand that digital marketing is a long-term commitment
• The freedom they give us to work
• How hard they drive us to produce our best work
• Whether they will treat us as business partners, not suppliers.

A client does not need to have all of the above, but we do look for clients who can offer us a combination of quite a few of them. It is crucial that we’re seen as partners because we always see our clients as our partners, so the feeling must be reciprocal.
For us to produce amazing work, we need to feel ownership, and we will only feel a sense of ownership if the client offers us that opportunity.
And even though I mention that we’re lucky here, it also boils down to our choices. We are pretty open in our first meetings, and we make it clear that we select our clients carefully. We would decline to quote or simply tell the client that we don’t believe there’s a match.

Have an amazing team

Producing amazing work puts you in the enviable position of being able to select your clients. But the only way that can happen is if you have a team of superheroes. And here I can really say I’m lucky enough to have one.
I’m surrounded by a group of people who are energetic, intelligent, talented, hard working and really fun to work with.
They’re the ones who dig in when the going gets tough, the ones who bring my spirits up when we’re struggling with our work-load and the ones to produce the amazing work when we find fantastic clients.
And seeing that the team is so happy and relaxed, our clients love working with us, and that is why we keep receiving positive recommendations. Business owners care that we do good work, but the people we work with are humans, and we aim to be the best humans we can possibly be for them.
We make sure we are more of a help than a hinderance, we’re humble, and willing to serve, but we’re also knowledgeable and ready to impart our knowledge. We make it a point to teach our clients as much as they want to learn about our field, and this runs through the whole team.

And in the end…

Do these three points mean that we run at the optimum efficiency from a financial point of view? Hell no. I’m pretty sure that if we had to run the business in regimental style I could squeeze more minutes out of everyone’s day.
But as things stand we are all happy. We work in a business where the priority is our happiness, our level of output and who we’re outputting our work for.
And, most importantly, from a selfish point of view, I get to want to go to work in the morning. I get to work in a team that produces amazing output for amazing clients. Yeah. Life’s good.

The post Why we do what we do appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

How do I keep myself organised?

With a list of responsibilities and deadlines to meet, things sometimes get a bit crazy. In a position like mine it’s important to keep on top of everything and never let the work get overwhelming.
Over the years I developed a system of work which helps me keep things organised.

My 6 Time Management Tips to Increase Productivity and Improve your Organisational Skills at work

1. Prepare in advance – especially when there’s a tight deadline or a client’s meeting. It’s better to be prepared and plan things carefully. If you’re attending a meeting, create an Agenda so all the line items on the Agenda are discussed and looked into whilst at the meeting.
2. Schedule your time and your day – The workload can be split. No need to hassle and stress. Create a priority list.
3. Start early and don’t waste time :p
4. Be organised – Use a filing system both at home and at the office. If you need to find something and you’re in a rush, it will be easily found.
5. Create a detailed handover for when you’re away of the office – This will help others know what’s going on with your on-going projects while you’re away. Clients would still be happy to receive any jobs that are due while you’re away.
6. Have a to do list or reminders – This way you will never leave something out.

What’s the benefit to all this?

Being more organised means being more time efficient. You lose time looking for lost files and documents or fishing through old emails to track down missing information. You waste time switching between devices to get different information from separate places.
Be conscious of this and keep files and things you will need later organised and easily accessible to make your life easier in the future.
With a few simple changes and adjustments you can save hours during the week and significantly increase your productivity and decrease your stress levels. Of course don’t forget to have some fun and get away every once in a while.
Just remember: you’re the master of your work, not the other way around!

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I definitely don’t consider myself to be an authority on this subject, but I’ve been in the business for 20 years now and have experienced all sides of our industry’s spectrum. Having been through the worlds of Media, Agency, Client and then back to the exciting and creative life Agency side, I’ve garnered significant experience. Here is what I believe to be some factors that make a great “couple”.

A Love Affair

There is no myth to dispel here, but let me be honest: I don’t think there is such a thing as a naturally perfect Client/Agency relationship. Some research seems to suggest that this relationship is bound to be dysfunctional on a global scale. However there certainly are ways of creating a winning formula. It takes two to tango and there  are many examples of great relationships out there – just look at any beautiful campaign. Every time we see a great campaign, we cannot help but think “What a fantastic client”.
Finding a level of natural, effortless understanding between both sides is paramount to the relationship. After all, an extraordinary business relationship in our industry, coupled with the obvious need for exceptional teamwork and talent, can be the catalyst for perpetual creative and effective marketing. Whether you are a client or an agency, work for it together and you both will be rewarded with results you can be proud of.
Mutual respect and trust are two essential elements in this bond. When we work with clients who “get us”, who trust our capabilities and who respect the creative process, both in terms of time and (obviously) fees, the creative output simply hits another level. Harmony is a great state to be in, and is a state which every client and agency should seek for mutual benefit.
Once a creative team can meet to discuss and brainstorm a project without feeling the pressure of time, whilst being in good harmony with the client/brand, creative workrate hits top gear. I’ve seen some pretty amazing things happen in such conditions. I call it Exponential Creative – that moment in a creative session where every member is feeding off each other and building fantastic ideas that are quickly superseded by even better ones.
But there also is an important ingredient that amazingly, sometimes is actually missing from the pie.

What Brief?

I’ve learnt how to write a good brief when I first studied the subject of Marketing (at school!)… never mind how long ago that was. We’re in 2015 and yet, I keep experiencing and hearing from friends in other agencies, that the written brief is somewhat mysterious. It appears, every so often. Let me make this clear, and I’m pretty sure that my peers would agree: The best work ALWAYS came from a well-written brief. Yet it seems to be something that is far too often undervalued.

The written brief is not important. It is essential. Be it a creative brief or one of a tactical nature, it should be written by the client and should be done with obsessive attention to detail and thought. It should also be read by the agency with a passion towards the brand, to clearly understand the project and interpret it correctly. Any unclear brief should be clarified. I cannot stress this enough – it really is the Agency’s duty to make sure that nothing ambiguous is left that way. Read some tips here and here.

Pushing

Every agency should aspire to output the best work at all times and every client has the right to push its agency to its creative limits. We always aim to push our own limits, doing it religiously. But I’ve experienced situations before in my career, where clients push their agency for more and being received with disappointment from the agency’s end. Any pushing from the client’s end should always be met with a positive mindset. Many a time, I’ve seen remarkable results coming from this sort of client prodding.
Dear client, please be constructive, sensitive and polite, and make sure that any issues do not arise from a lack of information in the brief.
Dear creative, even your most prized work will get critiqued and may also be ditched, so do send it off with a touch of humility and zero expectation.

My Advice

– Treating each other with due respect and trust doesn’t just mean being nice most of the time. Yes, being polite at all times should be a given, but you should both obsessively seek that effortless understanding. If you know you are on the same page at all times, trust will simply be the bi-product.

– Communicate well. Write good briefs without fail. Read and interpret them properly and where unclear, ask.

– Truly treat each other as though you are one and the same team. An Agency/Client relationship is not one of a buyer/seller nature. You are one team. You win together. You lose together. Pointing fingers when things go wrong does nothing positive to the relationship. If you made a mistake, admit it to yourself and others on the team. You’re human. Everyone makes them.

– Make sure that you deliver what you promise. There is more to business than contractual obligations. There is your reputation and the relationship at stake. If you said you would deliver remarkable work, a brief, a payment, whatever that may be, by a certain date – deliver.

– Push yourself at all times and be ready to give and accept constructive criticism. It is an important element in transforming great into remarkable.

Your relationship MUST be mutually beneficial. You’ll quickly see that respect rewarded with trustworthy, timely, creative work, and a business relationship that is quickly becoming extraordinary, ultimately resulting in giving you a remarkable product.

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1. Ignore your emails

Most of us in the office get pop up notifications whenever we receive an e-mail. This means that we’re constantly stopping whatever task we’re doing to check an e-mail. This can interrupt your work flow and it can be hard to get back into the zone. So sometimes we just turn the pop ups off! We don’t suggest you do this for a long time because you might eventually get back to your inbox to find ” IMPORTANT URGENT ANSWER ASAP” casually sitting there from 4 hours ago. But turning off notifications for an hour or two won’t hurt!

2. Track your time

Plan how much time something should take and then do your best to stick to that slot. We use Paymo to track how much time we spend on projects – eventually we figured out more or less how long something should take us which makes planning our day so much easier!

3. Keep things close at hand

Working on a variety of projects means a variety of specifications and needs. Create lists of the different things clients need and keep these close at hand. Some of us tape lists to the wall, others write them on a big sheet of paper stuck to their desk, and two of us have turned their work area into a post-it-note hangout! Call us old school, but it works!

4. Plan, plan, plan!

Busy days don’t just drop out of the sky (okay, sometimes they do!). Plan your week and make sure you make time for everything you need to do. If you’ve got a relaxed day use it to do some behind the scenes work which would simplify things for you in the future. Whether it’s stock image hunting or creating titles for future blog posts make sure that you use those quieter days to their full potential.

5. Have resources

Speaking of stock imagery, we’re always working to improve our database of beautiful royalty free images. But whenever we’re really stuck in a jam we like to use one of the many sites on this great post over at BeeWits. It’s been a lifesaver more than once!

6. Set reminders

Schedule in reminders to remind you about things at intervals (1 week before, 2 days before, on the day). We’ve got a weekly reminder for our 10 Before 10:00 posts, and other reminders for our newsletters. This combined with numerous post-it-notes, and verbal reminders from members of staff ensures we never miss anything!

7. Hold regular meetings

You can’t spend 8 hours a day staring at your monitor isolated in the digital world! Sure you can communicate on Skype, but nothing beats sitting down at a table with a mug of coffee and a notepad. Having regular meetings not only helps you plan work strategies- it also increases team dynamics. So if you can’t remember the last time you had a team meeting it’s about time you have one!

8. Get yourself a whiteboard

We’ve got a white board at the end of the room and we’re proud to say it’s quite a beast! It’s got our marketing strategy fully laid out and whenever we’re in need of some inspiration we go through the (never-ending) list. It provides us with a great visual on the aims and motives behind our work. (Plus who doesn’t love a whiteboard?) If you really can’t get a whiteboard go ahead and write on the glass. Just make sure you don’t use a permanent marker and wipe off any joke comments before client meetings!

9. Lose yourself in background sounds

While we’ve got a very sociable office environment each one of us has a pair of headphones. Sure most of the times we can still hear what’s going on in the room but the music does drown out the office sounds. If music doesn’t work for you why not try rainymood or coffitivity? Sometimes a thunderstorm combined with coffee shop murmurs is just what you need!

10. Feed your brain

We’re massive foodies and over time we’ve learnt that you can’t focus on low fuel. While we advise you to stay away from a giant plate of carbonara, we do recommend that you stop for lunch and have something yummy to recharge your bodies and keep you going. There are many great recipes out there dedicated entirely to feeding your brain so why not carry out a quick google search?
All in all how you work depends on your own personality – are there any tools you find indispensable, or do you have some sort of secret which helps you get through things quickly? Let us know!

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― Chuck Palahniuk,

You might not have read Chuck Palahniuk but you know who he is and what he stands for. He wrote ‘Fight Club’, amongst other great novels. The wacky ‘Pygmy’ is probably my favourite but I’m not recommending it to anyone. Read at your own risk.

In any case, he’s dead on the money about inspiration. Think of tasks you’ve performed when they’ve been dictated by others who supplied very specific instructions, leaving you no room for inspiration. You’ve put plenty of effort into these jobs and walked away after having completed the job knowing that it’s done but feeling no joy.

But life is too short for such nonsense, too bloody boring when devoid of inspiration, and too valuable to be lived leaving nothing but barren copies of the work of others as a legacy. Luckily for us, inspiration is in plentiful supply and, given the right frame of mind, can almost drown everything else out if we gave it the attention it deserves.

Here are five obvious rules to make sure your efforts are inspired

1. Only accept jobs/tasks from clients/superiors/peers/kids/partners if they leave room for a bit of your own inspiration. Change the brief to allow for an open door through which inspiration can flow.
2. Keep your eyes and ears open. ‘Silly’ pictures posted to your timeline by that guy you haven’t seen since you left school could strike a chord. Subscribe to an online music service that will prevent you from resorting to the same iTunes playlist you created a while ago.
3. Stop whatever you’re doing for a while. Take a break. Run an errand that’s due tomorrow. Park far from where you need to go and walk the last ten minutes. Then get back to your task.
4. Don’t let deadlines rule your life. The creative process is not bound by time. Clients should understand that if they want excellent work, they have to wait for it to happen to you first. Work with them to bring briefs forward and seek inspiration before rushing into the job.
5. Take time to shut out the world completely. Your life’s experiences so far have been exceptional and varied. Only ‘silence’ can create wonderfully unexpected links between the millions of entries in your internal album of sights and sounds.

The post 5 steps to Inspiration appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

The Challenge

We had one job: Make the Facebook page work for the brand, while sticking to the Global Brand Guidelines.
Max Factor has an incredible history, excellent products and a reputation like none other.  The brand has been around for decades (100 years, to be precise) and is well known locally among women who have used them for years. Ask your mothers and grandmothers about their favourite make up brand and there’s a good chance that Max Factor will spring to mind. What the company needed to do next was work on making the brand relatable to teens and young adults while maintaining the interest of their current loyal customers.

Our work was cut out for us: build brand awareness among a younger audience, and generate engagement to boost the organic reach of the page. All without spending a penny on promotion.
A worthy digital challenge? Definitely — those are the best kind.

The Work

Strategy & Planning

First, we scanned every post that was published so far. We identified what worked and what didn’t, what fans loved and what turned them off. Next, we built strategy that would work in tandem with Facebook’s news feed and reach algorithms to slowly, but surely, increase the percentage of fans that would see the post organically.

Content Creation

We then set to work on building a content calendar for the job. It was vital that we included not only product information and special offers, as many brands do, but also throw in plenty of curated, relevant content from all over the web. Blogger content, product reviews, magazine features, catwalk news and updates from the world of make up artistry all made the list. Each post was accompanied with carefully crafted copy, designed to elicit a response.

Contest Development

The client regularly offered fans the chance to win products through the Facebook page, but none of the contests seemed to benefit the company in any way. So we tweaked the strategy behind the contests to match our original plan of action. By asking fans for their opinions, we encouraged thoughtful engagement (and also learned a lot about what makes them tick!) By choosing a winner by random draw, we set no limit to the number of participants who wanted to enter.

Blogger Management

Beauty bloggers who write posts about Max Factor products soon became fast friends of the page. It’s a simple system, really. They promote the brand, and we promote them! Local blogs and vlogs provide excellent material for Facebook pages, which is why we value these relationships with everyone on our blogger network.

Client Management

Last but not least, we took over every aspect of customer management on the Facebook page. Whether they’re asking about a product, looking for their nearest store or just want to share an opinion, we always do our best to respond within a few hours. The way we see it, if they wanted to wait, they would have sent it by post.

The Results

It was the end of Month 1. We held our breath as our analysts drew up the report. Did it work? Did we manage?
You tell us:

We’re now well into the second month of the job, and we’re determined to improve on those results with every report.
If you’re curious about what we’re up to, follow the page on Facebook!

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