And so today, I find myself at 10:45 AM saying…What a day. For today is one week after Anna Basso would have turned 19 years old. She’d be returning home for the summer after her freshman year in college. Today is about a month out from what will be the 1 year anniversary of her passing away. In many respects it’ll be a lot like the 340 or so days that came before it. A sense of loss and sadness. And at the end, along with several others scattered around the country, when a thought of Anna drifts into my head, I could envision letting out a sigh and then saying – What a day.

However, let me assure you that is not how today will go. Not at all.

For today we launch the 1 Million 4 Anna Foundation. It is real, it is official and it is awesome.

The fight young Anna started in November 2009 gets kicked up a notch today. And we are on a mission. Quite simply Anna’s legacy will be defined by a simple phrase: Winning the fight against Ewing’s Sarcoma today, tomorrow and until it is gone. And win is exactly what we intend to do.

This evening here in Dallas a few hundred of us will join together to officially launch the Foundation. It will be a wonderful celebration of resolve, commitment and caring. Together we will celebrate the strength Anna showed and had deep within her, clearly placed there by her father David and mother Carol, the powerful woman driving this organization down the path towards significance. And when we gather we will not simply speak about what the foundation intends to do, we will share real evidence of what is already being done in Anna’s name.

For the three pillars of the foundation of today, tomorrow and until it’s gone are real and focused. So we will speak of what is already being done to provide support & care for those suffering today. So those in attendance will hear about the creation of Anna’s Closet and an event for Ewing’s Warriors at a recent Dallas Mavericks game.

When the conversation turns to tomorrow, the audience won’t just hear talk about one day providing scholarships to those who are fighting or who have fought through Ewing’s and are going off to college. They’ll actually meet five brave, bold and worthy recipients of this year’s 1M4A college scholarships.

And when it comes time to explain what we mean about fighting until it is gone, they’ll hear from one of the doctors on our medical advisory board, a physician who cared for Anna during her battle and someone well versed in understanding the role well-funded, promising research can play in leading us to a cure to this awful disease.

A way to assure that one day not too far off in the future, a family like Anna’s can hear what used to be a devastating diagnosis and come away with hope. And confidence. And support. And the uplifting spirit that is surely beaming down from heaven with great pride from our inspiration. One Anna Lee Basso.

Although Anna will not be standing in the room tonight, she is certainly not gone. But because of the foundation created in her name, because of 1 Million 4 Anna – one day, Ewing’s Sarcoma will be.

Man, What A Day!

Mind if we brag real quick? No? Great.

Just this month, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) presented their 2012 OBIE Awards, which recognize the best outdoor advertising of the last year. And, as you’ve probably guessed, we made the list. Not once, not twice, but thrice.

Only three other agencies in the country had more work in the show. The smallest of those is more than 6-times our size and the largest is playing with McDonald’s money. So, yeah, we’re pretty proud.

Add to that a regional Addy win and some love at the local interactive awards show and you’ve got the makings of a pretty good month. As always, a lot of the credit goes to our clients, Interstate Batteries and Stripes Convenience Stores. Behind all great work is a brave client.

Happy Champagne Thursday (recap)! Yesterday, we gathered together as an agency to celebrate all the great things that have been happening around here in the last month.

This month’s get-together had a Cinco de Mayo theme and featured entertainment from our two newest employees. We heard some Smash Mouth from Andrew and the theme song of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air by Will Smith from Courtney.

We also raised our glasses to Blair and Cherie for their hard work this month on all of our clients as well as other agency initiatives. Blair received a bottle cap for her latest blog entry. Cheers to both of you for your very well-deserved corks!

And, next month should be an especially entertaining Champagne Thursday because we will have interns to sing!

While we conduct ongoing tracking for a number of clients, do a fair amount of traditional qualitative, and address a la carte research needs on a regular basis, there are certain projects that reinvigorate you about what it is we do. And we’ve recently undertaken, or are about to initiate, some projects that are exciting because of the new ways they’re allowing us to tap into insights.

We just transitioned a subset of respondents from an ongoing tracking study into an online community where we spent a few days engaged in story-sharing and conversation about the emotions that arise when an unexpected durable good expense arises, how they research purchases and ultimately make decisions.
In the coming weeks, we are building on online panel that will allow us to experience a new food product launch alongside its target consumers, looking to them for ideas about usage, recipes and an understanding of how the new brand fits into their pantries, menus and lives.

It’s projects like these, supported by clients with a passion for insights, that make all this a whole lot more fun.

I have a feeling several people wonder the same thing I did before joining the Firehouse team. Is that place really as cool as it seems?

And the answer is quite simply, yes.

Atmosphere is a huge deal to me and plays into many of the decisions I make. Whether it’s choosing a restaurant for dinner, a place to stay on our next trip, or where I’ll be spending my workdays, that certain feeling in the air and the culture is something you can’t fake and something I can’t overlook.

The environment is perhaps what you’d expect for an agency; industrial, interesting, casual but professional, with an occasional foam dart flying overhead. The concrete floors and clean lines are a nice contrast to the warmth the employees bring. With all the open spaces, the halls are never quiet. In fact, it can even be loud if there is a serious foosball game in action.

It’s what’s inside these walls that wasn’t expected. I found an extremely talented group of people that genuinely cares about one another and is passionate about the work they do. I’ve never seen such a tight group that works so well with one another. Maybe it’s because employees are truly valued and appreciated. Or perhaps it has something to do with the office layout that fosters collaboration and creativity. Or it could be that everyone’s spirits are high and there is a deep sense of pride. Whatever the secret, it makes it fun to come to work.

In my first month at Firehouse, we’ve hosted House Guests, held a fundraising foosball tournament, toasted at Champagne Thursday, shared birthday desserts, and huddled in the staircase together to wait out a tornado. And that’s on top of all the hard work that was cranked out these last several weeks. So it may come as no surprise that I’ve grown very fond of my work family.

Come visit us at our next open house, and decide for yourself. But I can tell you, what you see is exactly what you get. And don’t say I didn’t warn you about the darts.

Last Friday (Friday the 13^th actually), Firehouse hosted its second annual April Foos Tournament benefiting the Taylor’s Gift Foundation.

Here at Firehouse we love to prove our Foospremecy and our annual April Foos Tournament has been a long-standing tradition, but last year we had the great idea to change it up to get more people involved. And, since April is Organ Donation Awareness month we couldn’t think of a better cause to raise money for than Taylor’s Gift. So the tradition continued as we invited friends of Firehouse to join us in our two-on-two foosball tournament. This year, we had 25 teams and raised over $2,000 for Taylor’s Gift.

Today, each of us has the power to help support this outstanding foundation by joining the Taylor’s Gift Challenge, which has set a goal to register a minimum of 1,000,000 new certified organ donor registrants in support of Donate Life’s goal of “20 Million in 2012.”

Thank you for all who joined us in supporting Taylor’s Gift and be prepared to get your Foos on again next year!

Click here for more pictures!

We recently celebrated one of our favorite traditions here at Firehouse: Champagne Thursday – and it was even on a Thursday!

Champagne Thursday is a monthly tradition at Firehouse where we recognize greatness, give props where props are due and occasionally, haze the ever-loving pants off each other.

Nominations are written, songs are sung (by new employees), tears are shed (mostly by Mark) and champagne is imbibed. The corks from the champagne bottles are awarded to those who’ve rocked the hardest during the past month.

In honor of opening day and her first Champagne Thursday, Ashley sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

We also recognized Kari (at her last Champagne Thursday) and Harry with corks for their hard work in the past month.

So please, raise your glasses to Harry and Kari.  Also – cheers to Evan for his SXSW blog posts.

From Snake Oil to keywords, the Shady salesman lives on, but in 2012 his wares may include promises of rankings, traffic, and leads galore. Because not many advertisers understand search marketing, they are forced to put their trust in a small group of “experts” who hold the majority of the knowledge and invest their money in a technology they might not understand.

But Advertiser beware because some search marketers take advantage and advertisers pay dearly in terms of website rankings, which leads to loss of search traffic, which leads to loss of business, and so forth and so on…making all search marketers look unethical.

Here are a few quick tips to help keep you and yours from getting burned.

Tactics Should Be Transparent

Whether it is a paid or organic search campaign, reputable search firms are more than willing to explain to you the tactics they are proposing. On the paid side, you should be allowed to review and provide feedback on deliverables such as:

- Account Structure

- Keyword List

- Ad Copy

As well as know exactly where the search firm will be bidding on keywords (i.e. on Google vs. Kanoodle).

If you have questions about certain tactics, ask them to explain their reasoning…there should always be a method to their madness and it should align with your goals for the campaign.

On the organic side you should be allowed to review and provide feedback on deliverables such as:

- Keyword Strategy

- Link Strategy

- Content Development (if search firm is handling)

Organic search optimization is much more complex in terms of tactics, and you shouldn’t expect to understand everything in detail, but don’t be afraid to ask for explanations about anything that makes you uncomfortable…they should be willing to walk you through any step of the process. If after a thorough explanation it is something that still seems sketchy, it probably is…and while it is not “illegal” to game the search engines, the impact of having your listings pushed deep into the search results might not be worth the reward.

Compensation Model Should Make Sense

There are a variety of ways to compensate vendors for search expertise. On the paid side it can make sense to establish:

- Commission percentage based on media spend

- Revenue share based on conversions

- Hourly wage

- Retainer Fee

On the organic side, since there is no technical media spend, commissions don’t make sense but the other compensation models tend to work well. Remember that what you’re really paying for is the intellectual capital, and the ability to garner traffic (and in turn sales) that would otherwise be unavailable.

With any compensation model, it should be clear how your budget is being invested. If the search firm courting you has a “Just give me your budget and I’ll bring you leads…don’t worry about how I’ll make money” attitude…run.

Because if they’re not willing to share with you what they are keeping as their cut, they know they are charging too much for it.

If It’s Too Good to Be True…

Lastly, it is important to be realistic about what it is you expect from a search campaign, and what it is a search firm will “guarantee.” If they guarantee top rankings for certain keywords, do research of your own to see if they have any search volume or value to you. If your business is in an extremely competitive vertical and they guarantee top rankings for the highest volume keywords, ask how they intend to do that. If they can provide conversion/phone call data without ever having touched your website, ask where they’ve been sending traffic.

Long story short, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

As with any investment, it is worth the time it takes to learn at least the basics of search, and a reputable search partner will be more than willing to share their knowledge…but be careful once you get them started, because they won’t stop.

In recent weeks, we have made a couple of new additions to the Firehouse planning team that are particularly exciting. Though we have been handling both SEO/SEM and social media for various clients, we invested in bringing in dedicated experts to handle both disciplines – Josh Lee joined as Digital Media Strategist/Search Specialist and Ashley Carter as Social Media Community Manager.

It’s always fun to welcome new brains to the team, but it is particularly great to add those who are solid generalist thinkers and also bring a greater depth of expertise than we previously possessed. In both cases, their impact on the value we can add to our clients’ businesses has been evident and immediate. And both Josh and Ashley are natural fits with the Firehouse culture and the rest of the team.

Keep on eye on them and what they can do. Big things ahead.

Photo Credit: Awkward Family Photos

On Friday, brand pages on Facebook, including our new and improved Firehouse page, were forced to change over to Timeline, Facebook’s newest improvement that many users are already familiar with. Timeline was released to the public in January. The biggest changes from the old profile layout are the addition of a new, large header photo, called a cover photo, a timeline on the right side of the page that allows users to quickly look through a pages history, and reformatting of the way content is laid out on a page, including highlighted content from past months, years, and in the case of some brands, centuries.

Without a doubt, my favorite new feature of Timeline brand pages is the ability to look at a brands story from the beginning. I chose to write about this topic after seeing an update on my newsfeed that Adidas Soccer had added 7 milestones to its Timeline. These milestones are what make brand pages so interesting. In the case of Adidas Soccer, the company added product photos that played key roles in famous soccer events, like the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final between England and Germany (4:2).

If you’ve got some time, spend a few minutes checking out your favorite brand’s timeline. Just click “Founded” on the timeline on the right side of the page, and scroll through the years. Facebook’s newest improvement makes it extremely easy to find out what events, ideas, and innovations led to the creation of some of the world’s greatest, most iconic brands.