The Story of TAG The Agency by rosasantanadesign

WE ARE TAG

THE STORY OF TAG THE AGENCY

WE ARE TAG

CONTENTS

WE ARE TAG

WE LOVE TO PLAY

WE WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER

WE DO THINGS WE LOVE

WE ARE TAG

HELLO! Welcome to TAG The Agency! Together we are building a new way of advertising and doing things on the Internet. Your role is an important part of how we do what we do and who we are. We have put this book together to help guide you in the development of our business and brand. This is a living document that will change and adjust as the business grows, so if you have any thoughts, ideas and better ways of doing things let us know! We are all a part of this company; we all have an impact on the culture and on the services which means we all impact on the success of the company. If you win, then we all win and we play to win! So thanks for being part of the team and for helping us re-write the game rules of social and digital advertising.

WE ARE TAG

WE ARE PEOPLE We know we are not perfect, we all have strengths and weaknesses, and we will all make mistakes. At TAG The Agency, mistakes are part of the growth, we learn from them. We fix them and we become more awesome from them. Success is delivered through care and collaboration, we love to talk and we love to celebrate the successes of our people. We are focused on building great people who will do great things, both at work and in their personal lives. We care, we have a passion for people and we never hire just for skills, we hire for attitude and a willingness to learn, we hire the whole person. This means itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just about your work but also about YOU as an individual and as part of our team. We love YOU so thanks for being you! You are amazing and we will do amazing things together!

WE ARE TAG

WE LOVE TO PLAY

WE ARE TAG

TAG THE AGENCY

WE LOVE TO PLAY

HOW WE WORK We have tools and systems in place to help increase the communication, knowledge and productivity of the team. With these tools we encourage autonomy and freedom within the company and how you solve a challenge or resolve an issue. If you get stuck, ask, as we are here to support and build each other up. We follow the same approach with our time. Start and finish times we don’t believe in, we let you make your mind up on when you want to start and finish your day. The main requirement is that you are available for our regular WIP meetings at 10am Monday and Wednesday mornings and that you are at the office during the day. Working away from the office is an option, but we believe that no matter how much technology we have, team collaboration happens best when we are all together, so keep this in mind when you are planning your day. We have the expectation that you will still work a 40 hour week, but the hours you work are up to you. Keep in mind that we are a service based business and need to focus on billing at least 70% of our time to clients. If you are light on work, let your manager know as it’s our job to keep you busy with creating and servicing our amazing clients. And remember our guiding rules: We don’t miss deadlines. Pixel perfect is what we want.

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You’ll need to track your time in Harvest and your job progress in Trello. The great thing is these tools are all cloud based, so you can update them anywhere you can access the internet. This philosophy of freedom goes for everyone – from the newest staff to the oldest. We know that sounds awesome, but here’s the rub: With freedom comes a tonne of ownership and responsibility, and remember you still need to complete a 40 hour week, log time and serve your team mates and our clients to the best of your abilities. Life is pretty simple when someone is telling you what to do. It’s also really boring, and it prevents you from being invested in what you’re doing. Since you control your own destiny here, you’ll likely be more emotional about your work. We believe that’s better than the alternative. Can you imagine coming to work each day and not caring? We can’t.

WE LOVE TO PLAY

WE ARE A TEAM! Playing the game of life means we are a team, we all need to work together for the common goal of loving our clients. We all have the opportunity to lead and grow our responsibilities, leadership from big projects to small is important to how the team develops, so we expect everyone to step up and own part of the project. It’s kind of like playing basketball: When someone passes you the ball, you’re in charge of what to do with it next. And just like a game, win or lose we will stand next to you and learn and support you, we will celebrate the victory and we will own the loss, together. We work as a team, no departments, no cost centres, no rock stars. Just one awesome team that owns the projects and solutions we provide to clients. We work hard to avoid anything that is last minute and we really don’t like the words ‘Urgent’ or ‘ASAP’. If we plan well and invest our time wisely we never need to use these bad words. Always remember, planning is 80% execution is 20%. This way we allow ourselves time to get the job pixel perfect and never miss a deadline.

WE LOVE TO PLAY

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The team at TAG The Agency is a dedicated group of digital experts who are passionate about the game of social! With a wide range of in-house skills and experience TAG The Agency has the gameplay to help brands win on the digital fields of social. So, wanna play?

WE LOVE TO PLAY

We have three key values:

Transparent Be transparent and open with the team and our clients.

Awesome Be awesome in your work and our brand, work not for the money but because you love what you do. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your future, we are here to enable you, but you have to do your part and be kick ass!

Grounded If you are not grounded in your views you can not learn, at TAG we are always learning and improving on solutions for ourselves and our clients.

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T ransparent A wesome G rounded

WE LOVE TO PLAY

Aft

WE LOVE TO PLAY

INSPIRING CUSTOMERS

CLIENTS BEFORE BRAND

OUR CLIENTS DESERVE

EXCELLENCE

LEAD OUR GUIDE THE THOUGHTS SOLUTIONS

TAG PRIORITY

STAFF AND CLIENTS

INNOVATION CREATIVITY DESIGN

EXCEPTIONAL

IS OUR EXPECTATION

VISION ASSOCIATION BEFORE PROMOTION

NEXT GLOBAL AGENCY AN AWESOME PLACE WHERE THE STAFF ARE PROUD TO WORK

WORK HARD PLAY HARD ACHIEVE GREAT THINGS DO MORE IN LESS TIME

DO MORE OF THE THINGS WE LOVE

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ter HAVING FUN

FLEXIBILITY

AWESOME HAPPINESS IS THE KEY

EVERYONE IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE CREATIVE TEAM AND PROCESSES

SIMPLICITY

LESS IS MORE

HOW

Values

TRANSPARENT

GROUNDED

CELEBRATE SUCCESS LEARN FROM FAILURE

PLAYFUL Tone Language

STRAIGHTFORWARD CONFIDENT

ENERGETIC

TAG, you're it Wanna Play Let's play TAG us in We play to win

WE LOVE TO PLAY

TALKING With the freedom and industry we are in it requires heaps of communication between the team and clients. So let’s not over cook it. It’s pretty easy, no bullshit acronyms or over complicating things please, no need to confuse clients or team members, let’s keep it simple and respectful. This way we all know what we are doing and meaning, and we don’t waste time.

keep it simple, here are

1. Pretend

handy tips

you’re talking to your mum.

Your mum doesn’t know what “CPM” or “programmatic planning” means. And it’s not because she’s not a smart and savvy lady. She’s just not entrenched in industry jargon. So if you are using technical phrases, make sure you explain it so the client is on the same page.

2. Don’t

be afraid to ask.

Sometimes you need to stop and ask the room to define what exactly ‘responsive design’ or ‘social influence’ means to them. It’s OK, we love questions and to help each other!

3. Get

on the same page.

Sometimes the words don’t matter as long as everyone’s speaking the same language. Try to acknowledge when words are getting in the way and do something about it.

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4. Plan

and communicate.

Plan ahead to avoid those bad words of ‘urgent’ and ‘ASAP’. Communicate the requirements and timeframes clearly with your team to avoid any back and forth. While we are talking about tips, here are a couple more:

Things

you should say

• “Why are we doing it this way?” • “Is there a better alternative?” • “______ worked really well last time. Can we do it even better on this project?” • “Who needs a coffee?”

Things

you shouldn’t say

• “It is what it is.” No, it’s not. It is what you make it. • “That’s the way we do things round here” Heck no! If there is a better, faster, more fun way, you bet we’ll give it a crack! • “That’s not my job.” If you ever hear someone say this, start flipping desks. It’s all your job. • “Who cares?” Well, WE do.

WE LOVE TO PLAY

EVERYONE IS CREATIVE But nobody is a ‘creative’. Creativity is a quality, not a title. So don’t ever say, “I’m not creative.” We will find the creativity inside you and drag it out, kicking and screaming. We don’t put our energy into questions like, “Whose name goes on the award entry?” Instead, we ask questions like, “Is this project right for us?” and “How can we do something unique and innovative that works for the business?”. If you have an idea, share it, we are a team and ideas can come from anyone at anytime.

Don’t

be precious

We’ve found that the best creative breakthroughs happen when people can have a good, passionate argument about an idea, not when they spend weeks tiptoeing around each other. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind. Just be honest and respectful, if it’s ugly, say it’s ugly.

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BEING REAL People

are not perfect

Don’t be afraid to fail. And when you do, you might as well fail spectacularly. This is how we grow and learn. We will stand by you and help, learn with you and become a stronger team for it.

have voices

Yours is as valuable as anyone else’s. Use it. Singing out loud is encouraged and it happens often.

are unique

Do you love death metal? Do you prefer your desk covered with sunflowers or toy cars? There’s no need to hide it. Be yourself. That’s how you’ll fit in here. Remember you’re awesome and we hired you for you, skills can be learned.

are real

People are not a ‘resource’. We don’t have an HR team, when we hire the interviews are done by the people who will actually be working with them. This way we hire for the right team and the right reason, not just because we need the resource. This also means you all become accountable to each other as a team member.

WE LOVE TO PLAY

Keep

it real

We make great digital things for people, simple. We always need to ask ourselves “would I use this” and let’s not talk about it too long, walk the walk and do it!

love games!

When you walk through our doors, you enter an environment where work and play often intertwine. But there’s a difference between being childish and child-like. We are adults. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. There’s no reason to pretend you’re busy. You don’t need to hide the video you’re watching if someone walks by your desk. No one is monitoring the websites you look at. We aren’t going to report you for taking a long lunch. Just do great work and meet the needs of our clients and the world is an awesome place!

has to look good!

If you make something that doesn’t look good or isn’t usable, we’ll let you know. Don’t worry—this is how we get better. We are very particular about this, and soon you will be too, as pixel perfection is our goal.

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Our code should be clean, our designs should be flawless and our presentations should be elegant. Our videos are designed to inspire. Detail is everything. Find one and make it awesome.

awesome

We want to push the limits of our clients, blow their minds with the latest tech, or inspire them to step outside the norm. But remember, clients are all different, some will be bold and some will be quite excited with a simple video. For every client we want to elevate what we did last time with him or her, we want to be awesome, every time.

Quiet

time is all-good

Let’s not forget that we’re digital natives here, and many of us are stuck nose-deep in creating content, code or editing videos or are simply quiet folk. Once someone’s settled in and working, they often don’t break their gaze to greet you as you pass by. They’re not being rude, they’re just plugged in.

Office

noise

According to science, the best noise level for a creative workspace is somewhere around that of a vacuum cleaner. Hence, tunes. But if you need some quiet time, don’t feel guilty about finding a hideout or popping some headphones on.

WE LOVE TO PLAY

Sometimes, you need quiet. Not only for your own peace of mind, but because we have a guest who doesn’t want to walk into a meeting and have to shout over the sounds of Wu Tang Clan. Same goes for filming, sometimes we’ll be filming on site, we’ll ask you to go into headphone mode and to keep quiet, not because we don’t love the sound of your voice, it just means we reduce our post production time in editing out your voice from our clients production ;)

Weekends Our space belongs to the team; you are welcome to come by on the weekends. Just be responsible and respectful, no parties, no large crowds and don’t forget to lock up, turn off the lights and look after our space, thanks!

Change,

oh yea that happens a lot!

Nothing is set in stone, we have processes and systems, we map out what we do and we work constantly to improve the delivery of our systems. We change as fast as the technology and social networks we work on change. It is constant, so embrace it and love it!

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TAG The Agency

is one big experiment

Which is made up of a bunch of smaller experiments. This place is constantly changing. And change is something people resist more than anything else. It’s nobody’s fault; it’s just a biological thing. Yet as much as we resist change, it’s also how we grow and improve. It’s the sign of a healthy company. And it’s why each team here has a mix of new and seasoned folks. With new blood comes new thinking – and so we continue the ongoing experiment that is TAG The Agency.

Seriously,

TAG

for real?

All this may seem a little odd, possibly a little uncomfortable. But underneath we are a real company with goals, vision and focus. TAG The Agency is at its core an Advertising Agency. We specialise in digital storytelling for brands though social media and digital innovation. We are an ever-evolving business and our market will change and grow with new platforms and technologies, which means we need to constantly be on the lookout for the next new thing – if you haven’t picked up on it, we LOVE change! As a business we aim to innovate in the space of campaigns, content creation, marketing and advertising. We love the team and clients, they are

WE LOVE TO PLAY

always our priority, without either we have nothing, we celebrate success and learn from failure. We work hard, we play hard and we want to achieve great things with and for the team and our clients. We are building the most effective and influential cutting edge advertising agency, focused on the stories of a brand and set on TAG becoming the next global agency; where innovation, creativity and design lead our thoughts and guide the solutions we build for our clients. An agency where our solutions for clients are put first and celebrated before our brand, an agency that is famous by association and not by self promotion. We will provide solutions and services to our clients in this innovative industry that is better than ‘good enough’ as our team and our clients deserve excellence. We are all awesome, so let’s be awesome! Pixel perfect is our goal!

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THE GOALS â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FOUR MOTTOS 1.

Do more of the things we love

Forward >> always

Pixel perfect is our goal

We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss deadlines

TAG is an environment where creativity and innovation is to be cherished and nurtured. Everyone within the agency is an important part of the creative team and process, all ideas are good and valid, not all will stand the test of the market but all ideas inspire more ideas and greater solutions that are innovative and dynamic. With this view, TAG The Agency has a goal of changing how work and the working environment is viewed, we spend too much time at work not to love what we do. We track our time to help improve efficiency and to keep within budgets, but we ultimately want to do more in less time, putting the value of the solutions and service we provide at the top of our priority. Where we love what we do and our passion is reflected in our output. Where exceptional is our expectation. We want to be in the space of beyond where our clients want to go, exciting them further than what we have into the area of true innovation. Meeting needs not where they are, but where they want to be, move forward >> always.

WE ARE TAG

WE WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER

WE ARE TAG

TAG THE AGENCY

WE WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER

WE ARE PRODUCTIVE We have a few tools and online systems, these are to enable us to effectively measure our ability to deliver for clients and to see where we can improve and become more efficient. Please read the following with a serious voice on:

TIMEKEEPING All billable client work is to be recorded in Harvest at the end of each day, or start and stop your Harvest timer as you go, which will give a more accurate representation of your time spent on a project. You can also log your time via the iOS/Android mobile app. Please ensure you always add descriptions of work carried out in a professional tone as this is sent to our clients each week in a report, keeping them up to date with our progress. This is extremely important as this is the information we use to bill the client and maintain profitability, forecast growth and to keep the team aware of progress and budget spend. Your time is to be tracked as you go and submitted weekly. Either on Friday when you finish work, or first thing Monday morning. PRODUCTION/WORKFLOW Our daily workflow is managed via Trello and with weekly WIPs every Monday rain or shine at 10am, you will have your own designated board which you will be responsible for keeping up to date. Please ensure

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all information is added (job # etc) and that due dates are recorded if applicable. It is really important that you are prompt in your responses via Trello to allow production/workflow to move along smoothly. There is an iOS/Android mobile app which sends you notification of cards youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re involved in/and or tagged. We would ask that Trello is checked at a minimum of half hourly if you are not using your notifications. All cards are to be set up by the leadership team on that project. BRIEFING Do it once and do it well! We have spent time and energy in developing our briefing tools. Using these will enable clear communication with the team ensuring we deliver on time and on budget. These tools also avoid miscommunication and time spent on the wrong solution.

LEAVE All leave is to be applied for and tracked via the SmartPayroll mobile app, you will be notified once it has been approved/declined. Please ensure it is also loaded into the generic TAG The Agency calendar and give a minimum of 2 weeks notice of planned leave when possible. If for some reason you cannot access your app, please ask your manager and they can reset your login information. We will always be as flexible as we can and we

WE WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER

absolutely understand that sometimes life happens, be honest and we’ll be as accommodating as possible when it comes to all types of leave. If you can’t be, then this probably isn’t the place for you. OFFICE HOURS All staff have full and unrestricted access to the office, the work hours are up to the team and the individuals within it. We are in a creative industry and creativity doesn’t hit us all at the same time. Our philosophy on this is: work smart, deliver well and focus on efficiency. This is more important than sitting at a desk from 9 to 5… We provide great flexibility which is designed to inspire you to stay happy, be awesome and deliver great stuff for our clients within deadlines. Our expectation is for individuals in the team to deliver at least 40 hours of work per week, we want to provide the space (physically and mentally) to create within this time, be proactive and take advantage of being in this dynamic environment, ask if you need more work, share your ideas and let’s make this place amazing! Everyone is present for the WIPs at 10am (Monday and Wednesday), this is either in person or through tech like Skype, we believe that no matter how much technology we have, team collaboration happens best when

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we are all together, so keep this in mind when you are planning your day with your team. Use Skype, embrace technology as it will help grow the business, if a team member is not in the office, jump on Skype with them and talk through your challenge or roadblock, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait, take action and keep being awesome! As a company our views are to never let your team down and to never miss a client deadline. This is only made possible if we follow our internal processes such as Trello, Dropbox & Harvest, working as a team to deliver the quality results we expect for our clients and ourselves. 80% planning and 20% execution will help to make this possible. ON-GOING TRAINING AN IMPROVEMENT We can always learn and we can always do better. At TAG we encourage you to actively pursue personal development, we recommend that you look to attend seminars, conferences and courses on a regular basis. In practical terms you can spend up to $500 NZD to attend a seminar, conference or course of your choice up to three times per year. Any more than this, just ask, the same goes if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more than $500, if we can we will do our best to help make you more awesome.

WE ARE TAG

WE DO THINGS WE LOVE

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WE DO THINGS WE LOVE

THE SERVICE OFFERING There are seven key pillars to the company’s service offering, these are:

Strategy

∙ Social media ∙ Brand and design ∙ Digital

Creative

∙ Creative campaigns ∙ Social ads ∙ Designs

Production

∙ Content ∙ Facebook apps ∙ 2D video ∙ Photography ∙ Animation ∙ Illustration ∙ Graphic design

Influence

∙ Campaign development ∙ Social media influencer management

Event promotion

· Amplifying live events through content · Photography · Videography · Live streaming

· Innovation · Wherever the internet will take us · Change, it’ll happen so we love it

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WE PLAY TO WIN Welcome to TAG The Agency! Built on the foundations of social media, our focus is on delivering innovative and creative stories for brands through social and digital channels. We specialise in innovation. Our philosophy is simple - focus on the audience to deliver content that resonates and inspires them to act! TAG The Agency â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we play to win.

CMYK

We like how the combination of different CMYK colours and strengths produce a beautiful picture. We believe we can provide your brand a beautiful and functional solution by combining a variety of our services to achieve it.

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THATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S IT, GO BE AWESOME! So thanks for reading this book, we hope you find it a useful way to understand this very unique business and how we do things, we thank you for joining us as we continue on our adventure of building a new way of being. If you have any questions please ask and if you think this needs an update, let us know! You are awesome, now go and be awesome! The team at TAG The Agency THE END

WE ARE TAG