Cossette’s New Year’s Resolutions
Each year comes a time when you need to start thinking about your New Year’s Resolutions. Well… That time has come. Popular resolutions are to manage time better, to stop smoking, to go to the gym more often, or to become more environmentally responsible. A resolution is a commitment to goals or projects.
At Cossette, we set a different kind of goals for the New Year. I asked a couple of Cossette experts to set New Year Resolutions that should be accomplished in their field of expertise in 2012. Here is what they had to say:
Doug Lowe (SVP, General Manager, Production Services) – print and broadcast production resolution
The New Year’s resolution in print & broadcast production is that agencies must continue to find cheaper, innovative ways of producing content. Technology has advanced to the point where the qualitative gap is no longer an impediment, so it’s time to utilize the technology (particularly on the video side) to our advantage and get to market quicker & far more cost-effectively. The days of the 400k+ commercial film shoot, if not dead already, are certainly on life support.
Lane Buie (V.P. Digital Production) – digital production resolution
The New Year’s resolution in digital production is to take a Mobile First approach to web design. Designing for a smaller canvas obliges you to focus, ensuring that needless interface debris are removed. There isn’t room in a 320×480 pixel screen for extraneous elements. Designing for mobile first forces you to prioritize. This should be 2012’s digital production resolution.
Pete McLoed (Associate Creative Director) – five New Year’s Resolutions he’d like the communications industry to make
- To all the malls that add new stores, your New Year’s Resolution should be: I will not say, “Here we grow again.”
- To all you printer ink providers, copy shops, web development services and printers repeat after me. Do not use the headline “We mean business.”
- To all the kids who show me spec portfolios: “I will not sheepishly apologize for the weak ad in my book because I won’t put lame ads in my book again.”
- To the hockey pundits, coaches and players, never say these 11 words again “Good things happen when you put the puck on the net.”
- Now everybody, repeat after me: An invite is not an invitation. No worries is off limits except if you are Australian and try to go five minutes a day without saying LIKE (like that’s going to happen).
Marian Borca (Technology Manager), apps and digital platforms development
At Cossette we develop rich applications on several platforms: applications and mobile websites, social media, e-commerce, loyalty systems, etc. In 2012, we are going to continue to use innovative technologies, and we are going to concentrate our efforts to create multiplatform tools, both at the user experience level and at the measurement and personalization level. Several prototypes of our digital lab will continue to evolve to become live spectacular applications.
Janet McNally (Senior VP, Strategic Planning), strategic planning
The New Year’s Resolution for agency Strategic Planning is to not just connect the dots, but truly blur the dots between brand and digital planning. It’s about merging the unique skills of traditional planning to create not just brand strategies, but engaging brand ideas, with the unique skills of digital planning to understand the much more ‘live’, interactive world we live in. Creating a new kind of ‘Live Engagement’ brand energy for our clients is the future.
Nick Richards (VP, Creative Director), integrated creativity
The 2012 resolution is for internal (client) politics to be a thing of the past. Too many times, internal (client) politics get in the way of the right solution. Right, as in the opposite of wrong. Whether it’s misaligning teams, cumbersome and complex processes, or simply egos, too often the wrong answers get to see the light of day. Sadly, their light is soon extinguished. I have faith that 2012 will be a year of embracing change, disposing of assumed dogmas and putting aside politics. As some wise person once said, “it’s amazing what can be achieved when you don’t care who takes the credit.”
New Year’s Resolutions mean new beginnings. Our resolutions mean evolution.
We promise to look back at every 2012 resolution at the end of the year and provide you a report on how many resolutions came true.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thanks to Doug, Lane, Pete, Marian, Janet and Nick for playing along!