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Back to School with Your Favorite Ad Agency

Back to School with Your Favorite Ad Agency

Is it fair to call ourselves a leading ad agency in Phoenix? ‘Leading’ is a fairly subjective term, right? I mean, we’ve garnered a fair amount of awards and recognition over the years. I’m proud of our team’s efforts being honored by the American Advertising Federation, American Marketing Association, Ranking Arizona, and others.

We’re fortunate to have a very talented group of hipsters who get after it every day for our clients while drinking a ridiculous amount of coffee. (author’s note: I have never drank coffee in my life but am now finding myself drinking coffee on the regular) More importantly, we’re fortunate to have super amazing clients who have entrusted us with their brand development as well as their marketing outreach for some thirteen years now.

If that’s not ‘leading’ then I don’t know what is.

How Did We Get Here and How Do We Stay Here?

Marketing is a dynamic industry that changes with great propensity. (author’s note: I have wanted to use that word in one of my blogs now for like five years … this coffee thing is really paying off.) Constant change demands constant learning. One way we stay apprised of change while also being able to deliver marketing excellence is through a commitment to learning. Each month our super cool hipsters pour themselves a big cup of coffee and unplug from their duties in order to plug into expanding their abilities.

This is admittedly very difficult to do as our workload can be very demanding. What’s critical to this process is having resources that provide the type of training that we need either to develop a new skill or to enhance an existing one. We also do a lot of different things for our clients from email execution to web design, to pay per click to traditional media buying. I mean, you don’t get to be a ‘leading’ ad agency by being overly monolithic, right? (author’s note: technically, that’s not the right word but when you’ve got caffeine pursing through your veins it definitely sounds right.)

What are Some Great Learning Resources for Ad Agencies?

Here are a few resources we use to sharpen our skills and keep the ‘leading’ moniker in everything we do:

Adobe Creative Cloud – is a set of applications and services from Adobe, Inc. that gives subscribers access to a collection of assets used for graphic design, video editing, web development, and photography. adobe.com/creativecloud.html

Google Skillshop – this platform will walk you through all things search while also providing tutorials and certifications for using the Google platform. skillshop.withgoogle.com

SEMRush – this online platform offers solutions for SEO, PPC, content, social media and competitive research. semrush.com

Skillshare – this online learning platform is full of thousands of creative classes taught by experts and professionals to help you learn new skills. skillshare.com

We also find a wide array of articles, tutorials, and webinars online that enhance our skills while also giving us the knowledge we need to continue providing cutting edge marketing executions to our clients. Other resources like the Ad Age, the Phoenix Business Journal, and Adweek help to keep us apprised of trends while also providing resources for us to keep learning. (author’s note: why yes, I’d love a second cup…)

Everyone Should Go Back to School

I strongly encourage all businesses to adopt this very important practice regardless of your size or industry. The benefits are quite profound. It keeps your employees learning, it advances the capabilities of your business, and it enhances your overall culture.

Yes, you are paying co-workers to unplug from doing work for clients in order to work on themselves and yes, ultimately that co-worker may move on to another company and apply their new skills for them. That’s 100% OK by me as my co-workers don’t exist to make me money, they exist to build a better life for themselves by applying their skills to our clients’ needs.

If you have a good business or want to build a good business, ongoing learning must be a fundamental component of your business operations. If you are interested in learning more about what we do or how we do it, there’s plenty of room in the classroom for you!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR – Ed Olsen is the president/owner of ReThinc Advertising and Public Relations. He has lots of opinions on all things marketing. To read more of them, click here.

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