It is difficult for me as a young professional to be the rookie. My responsibilities are often unglamorous and unnoticed. I recently received some recommendations on LinkedIn that filled me with delight. Although both individuals were generous with their praise, I appreciated that they saw the time and effort that I put into my work.

For more recommendations or to add me as a contact: http://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellenoah

My main points of interest were rub on mustaches, polaroids of me being silly, and hints of blue to contrast the cardboard brown.

At first, I wanted to hand draw each card but after #1 (of 16 total) was completed my night was almost over with! Instead I redid my hand drawing in photoshop for a much easier and efficient card! I still wanted some personal touch and drew my signature doodles on the “thank you” portion of the card to help add texture.

Next process was to take all of my polaroids. I am not foolish to think I was the only candidate being talked to so I knew I had to get my mug back in their memory and paired with my name. This had me enlisting my mom for a mock photoshoot where I took fabric I bought two years ago to add touches to my old apartment and made it into a back drop. Then with my handy mustache necklace and 16 awkwardly goofy poses I was all set! The mock ups for this card seemed like a great idea and until I had 16 pictures smiling back at me on the kitchen counter. I promise I love myself only a respectable amount!

Finally, I glued and taped it all together. Wrote a unique note to each individual, stuffed it in an envelope and sealed it with a kiss. Ok, I didn’t really seal it with a kiss… that would be creepy! But I did hand deliver it to the company with wishful thoughts.

To top it all off, I decided I liked my final outcome so much that I redesigned my twitter account to match!

Great brand marketers are comfortable with ambiguity. They realize marketing is a balancing act — it’s numbers and detail, but it’s also flair and vision. It’s qualitative and quantitative; analysis and intuition; perspiration and inspiration. Great marketing requires the balance of both sides of the brain. But the balance has been lost.

- Tom Hinks, Our Biggest Brands Can No Longer Be Managed by Nerds

One of the great lectures from 2010′s 4-A’s by Sean Boyle.

As I search to define my role within communications these 10 points start as a good challenge to the way I think. I am the future of advertising. Yes, you read that right… I am the future of advertising. In 10…. 20…. 30 years, I will be the seasoned professional giving the lectures on what the next future could look like. Right now my mission statement is to be engaging and innovative through account services in a creative environment. As I find my place in this industry, I look forward to shaping and contributing what is to come… Although, I can’t promise no animals in commercials… they are just so cute!

Join OFFICE PDX for the annual Women in Design event, where we ask high

profile women in design + marketing to share insights on how they got where

they are, their challenges + success stories, rules of the road + resources.

This event includes a special sale | 15% off Jill Bliss products.

TIME | 7 to 9 PM
LOCATION | North 1515 NW 19th Ave Portland 97209
PANELISTS | Rebecca Armstrong, North (Managing Director)
Lourri Hammack, Laika (Presidentrix.Ep/House)
Kelly Tweeden, Nike (global apparel creative director, sportswear design)
MODERATOR | Kelly Coller (co-owner, OFFICE PDX)
SALE | Save 15% on Jill Bliss products
FREE | Open to the public. Seating is limited.
RSVP | shop@officepdx.com

I will definitely be in attendance and hope you can make it also. Space is limited to RSVP as soon as you can. You can download the flier here >>

—

Twittenger Hunt

Twittenger hunt made didn’t even make it pass round one. It was deemed “too cute” from all of the manly men while the girls liked it.  Seeing as I am a girl, I liked. Seeing as I designed it, I loved it. Reason #1 I gave up design: I fall in love with my work.

Blood Alcohol Testing Coasters

These coasters made it to round 2… and I think could have made it further if I pushed it more. They were designed in the early stages prior to our brand conception and I think we worried too much of the logistics of how to make it then the idea. In the end, our money was better spent in other areas. I would like to give a little shout out to Veronica Mars for the inspiration!

Microsite

This microsite was my love child. Inspired by Modernista, designed for Remember Tomorrow, we made our site be a media hub for all social media access. Basically, we wanted to keep you on our site for as long as possible without you realizing you were still on our site. Being a trickster is one of my best qualities! This microsite did make it into our campaign but as it was my love child, I felt it was lost in the noise… but that is just me being a stage mom. Anyone else will tell you that it was prominently featured. [Click the first image and then use your keys left/right to scroll]

There are more pages that interact closely with myspace, twitter, facebook, youtube, going, flickr… etc… but I will save you the trouble. You get the jist. When all is said and done… and a year in the past… it was a fun experience. We had a great team and memories. But I am SO thankful it is long and over!

Name: StepChange Group

Location: Portland

Website: http://www.stepchangegroup.com/

Clients: Nestle, Match.Com, Gold’s Gym, Southwest Air…

—Yesterday I blogged all about the luncheon that I attended called “Marketing in Facebook” and today’s post is all about the agency behind the discussion.

StepChange’s mission is to “Partner with brands and agencies on Social Marketing strategy, development, measurement and management.” Basically, they create innovative campaigns that rely on social networking and from what I understand… mostly on facebook. You know that small change of $50 million that Pepsi was taking away from traditional media? Well they are the type of agency who Pepsi would go to. I love the idea of the agency but didn’t really see the profit in it… until yesterday. I had no clue I was limiting facebook to status updates. Honestly, the social media possibilities are endless.

Why I like StepChange: They are creative and innovative in an area that is relatively unknown and under appreciated. Social media is hard and hardly talked about like a commercial on the Superbowl. Also because their area is difficult to measure they have to win clients over by without solid numbers to back them up. Let just say, their work is cut out for them.

Below are a basic outline of my notes, sparknotes version:

Facebook Facts:

• 400 million active users
• 50% of active users log in daily
• 20 million users fan a page daily
• Average users spend 55+ minutes on Facebook daily

Facebook’s Mission: Give people power to share and make the world more open & connected. Their goal is to facilitate the connection to brand & consumers.

Key to success on Facebook is Presence, Activate, Amplify. Currently marketers are using custom tabs on fan pages to take the place of microsites and Facebook’s behavioral targeting is allowing brands to target specific people with ads based on their fan pages. For example Gold’s Gym wants their ads to appear on a person’s facebook page that is a fan of 24 Hour Fitness and Working Out.

In creating a social media campaign there are different areas or levels to incorporate: Wall Posts >> Custom Tabs >> Engagement Applications

• Expect to spend money on ads. (In comparison to traditional media it is low in cost and easy to start/stop)
• Use real estate right (Target fan page users)
• Plan beginning, middle and transition for campaign. (Example: What happens when the coupons run out or contest ends?)
• Integrate with other media
• Create amplifiers (What will make it so someone passes it along or posts it on their wall?)
• Build for lasting momentum

For great examples of brands using Facebook you can look at:

• Dunkin Donuts
• Best Buy
• Match.com
• Traveocity
• Gold’s Gym

Although Facebook just relaunched their homepage there are talks of upcoming adjustments as soon as 3 weeks away. I’m keeping it on the hush so I can pretend to be an insider but the changes will be great for marketers allowing for richer data and access to users.

The moving experience from California to Oregon was… traumatizing, to say the least. Between the 11 hour drive, movers from hell and saying goodbye to my 9 years in California I am a bit worn out. The good news is I have made it to Portland, my furniture is some where between the Silicon Valley and the Silicon Forest and the weather is absolutely beautiful it still feels like I am living in San Jose.

To keep with my transition theme I am reworking my online presence as well. Between my main homepage, photography and design pages they are all being revamped and prettied. Also, this blog (the one you are reading right now) won’t be updated daily like prior to the move. Instead I am going to be shooting for multiple times a week and pushing the smaller posts to my tumblr account (danidotnoah.tumblr.com). Tumblr allows me to quickly reblog my favorite posts from all of my blogs that I subscribe to on google reader and is a lot easier than transfering it and making it look nice for here. Instead, this blog is going to be strictly my words and thoughts. Of course I will recommend you follow both but as long as you are connected to my twitter (@danidotnoah) you should get a reminder of updates.

Outside of online, I am still on the search for a full time brilliant job. I am looking for account management opportunities within advertising agencies or brand management within businesses. In the meantime I am fine tuning my skillset and networking whenever possible.

I can’t wait to share about some exciting events I have been apart of  recently and continue to update you as I go from in transition to settled. Portland is a welcome change regardless of being unable to pump my own gas!

A laptop cover that looks like an old book. Man, everyone at the coffee shop is going to think I am so smart!

Shake things up a bit with TwelveSouth’s ‘The BookBook,’ a vintage Macbook cover like none seen before. The one-of-a-kind hardback leather case is available in red and black versions that are made for Macbook and Macbook Pro exclusively. Not only does this ingenious creation look incredible, it could also act as a deterrence to potential thieves or elevate your status in the oldboys club.