Padres Dodgers

Thanks Sony

Vegas

Poolio 1

Vegas

Skizzie

Vegas

Poolio 1

Silence Is Sound Film Trailer

Silence Is Sound - Documentary Trailer from The Practitioner on Vimeo.

Office Space: A place for distraction

Don't know about you but I find that if there is a specific labor
intensive task I need to complete to get my day in track, I am failing
to get it done when I show up to work. I have now resorted to waking
up a bit earlier and working from home for an hour or more and finding
that I am setting my day up for success by getting a task ahead or
complete, or simply getting ahead on email and calendar.

Bottom line, the office is a collaborative atmosphere that is ripe
with ideas and strategy building. But when you need to get down and
dirty, sometimes there's no place like the quiet, focused atmosphere
of home.

It's not about getting in early, it's about being effective.

Sterling Doak
Head of Brandology
Fishtank Brand Advertising

Sent from my Fisheye Phone
(please excuse my typos)

Brand Development Immersion

Doing some research for a new biz pitch I came across a proposal from another agency - a fairly large one, different client. Anyway, I am looking at their timing for brand dev stuff and Phase 1 is Immersion. Now, maybe it's just me but before this proposal is out of the gate, it already blows it with Phase 1. Immersion... review existing research, market trends, competitive landscape, bla, bla, bla. This is immersion? That's like asking someone to tell you a little bit about themselves and then immediately cut them off and start making assumptions about them by their appearance and what you already know about them. But is that really them? No, you need to immerse yourself before you know someone. So what the hell does the "competitive landscape" have to do with immersing yourself in a client's brand during Phase 1!

You can't know anything about a brand until you immerse yourself in the organization. Brand dev starts from the inside out and as this proposal is sitting on my desk - this very, very expensive proposal - there is zero mention of actually walking in the shoes of the business. Never mind consumer insight... where's the insight of the employee, the manager, the CEO?

Every brand has personality. It has a life force. A magnetism. So, find it by immersing yourself in the brand and then telling it's story from the inside out. Don't be like the big agency here who is going to rely on the outside world to tell this brand who they are. They already know. Shut up and let them tell you a little bit about themselves.

Uncle Steve

in Santa Fe

good print ad

still, my best work to date

Petco Park

It's an SF night in SD - cold and cloudy.

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Relaunch

Hey gang... for all of my handful of readers (sup yo's!) please be aware that I will be relaunching the blog to coincide with my move to San Diego in a few weeks. Please update the URL - the new blog will be sterlingdoak.com. I should have it up and running after I have settled in to my new job at www.fishtankba.com as the new Head of Brandology.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

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ADDY

jim scripps

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ski santa fe

Ski Santa Fe... it's in Santa Fe... New Mexico. This pic is from the chairlift taking us to the top runs. As you can tell, we were in a light storm. At this point me and Uncle Steve are heading to 12,ooo ft. It was probably -15 with wind chill at the top and we raced like hell to get back down to mid lodge where we promptly did it again. The snow at the top was still nice, obviously more icy and rough, but the schrowder in between trees was insane. I am not a woodsman in traffic, but there was literally no one up braving the heights, so we got all up in that shit. One of the finest days of spackling I have even experienced due to me having to keep up with Steve the Skeeve. Dude. Still tired.

up the double, 10 degrees, frosh schrowder

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