There is a poster boldly displayed on one wall of Dynamic Digital Advertising’s new digs that proclaims, “Don’t be afraid to be different.” I think that is the common thread that binds all who work here; we are each very different. Not weird different, but creatively, healthy, believe-in-ourselves different. 

A specific example would be our Programmers. David says our Lead Programmer,  Amy, can solve any problem to do with code.  She is also a whiz with an electric drill.  Tyler is our “Go To” guy for everything from small changes to clients’ websites to installing a complex phone system, while Reggie has become an expert at building gargantuan retail shopping carts, and Vinnie does a lot of action script work and helps with Coldfusion code issues and other language problems. If you put the four of them together, you would never mistake one for the other, and yet they are linked by this strange gene Programmers have for speaking little and spending hours solving problems. It is like there is a mind meld between them and their computers.  

Dynamic Digital, as an entity, is unusual too. There is no model we followed when David and I first started a decade+ ago. We grew organically, and David’s business instinct and vision helps shape what is our very complex organization today. But from those early days, we never lost the goal of providing marketing, promotional, and advertising services to businesses. Our old self-promotion brochures push digital photography, cd-rom development, graphic design, and print production among other things. We still do all that, but we just keep adding services. So many services that our Lead Designer, Carrie, wonders how she is going to showcase the new service. (P.S.-She always figures it out.)  Check out our website, the timeline graphically shows our growth, the changes, and the new services. And today, May 15th, 2008, I can promise you, there is real excitement planned for the coming year. Stay tuned. 

Every evening after leaving DDA, I pull into my driveway at 6:20 p.m., give or take a few minutes, and the first words out of my mouth are “What’s for dinner?”

Usually I receive a blank stare from my fiancee and a “I don’t know, what are you making?” It may seem silly but condsidering that he is usually home 2-3 hours before me I don’t think it would hurt for him to cook some dinner. When I have to make dinner after getting in from DDA we are lucky if we eat by 7:30 p.m.

On one hand it bothers me that we eat dinner so late, on the other there are days where I wish I got home earlier. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t want to give up our 4-day work week and having off on Fridays.

I get the majority of the house chores out of the way on Fridays. Without having off on Fridays my home would be very chaotic. Four days is just enough to handle a weeks worth of production coordination, print production, SEO reports, SEM campaigns, and invoicing.

I will be out of the office next week, which means I am spending this week getting everything in order to make sure that all goes smoothly in my absence.

Print Production. We have projects that are in the proofing stage. I need to make sure that any proofs that come in next week are forwarded to the client promptly. Also, if approval is received on any proofs, I need to ensure that production is notified promptly to proceed.

SureThing Ranking Reports. I am checking and double checking on what optimization reviews may be coming up. I need to make sure that their ranking reports are completed and sent to our SEO team to be posted for the review. I also have web updates to complete for clients that need to be live before the week’s end.

Production Coordination. I am reorganizing my notes to assure that everything is up to date and clear so that I can pass the responsibilities over while I am away. Everything is fairly straight forward and any questions can be addressed to the project coordinator.

I feel as though I have a good handle on everything at the current moment and that nothing catastrophic can happen. No one will even know that I am not here next week!

The Nike slogan, “JUST DO IT” reminds me of our team because at Dynamic Digital Advertising (DDA), we share a set of core values that adhere to the concept of doing.  We arrive on time ready to tackle projects, we enjoy a quick cup of coffee or tea or hot chocolate, and on Mondays there can be a scramble for the asiago bagels, which the bagel place makes in very limited quantities. Then we settle down, find our groove, and work. 

It is vital to our success as a team of writers, web developers, videographers, programmers, and graphic designers that we embrace our tasks with efficiency, flexibility, and above all creativity. When I read one of the programmers blogs, I am sometimes met with what I call IT graffiti which even I, realize without understanding it, requires ingenious creativity to assemble. Same thing is true of the hoops our web developers often jump through to get the right balance between design, architecture, and usability for the client’s website.  

We make every attempt to understand our clients’ needs, and are confident that we can deliver the results they are looking for. To be the reliable advertising agency that clients think of when they have a project, we have to continuously push the envelope and be ahead of the technology and creative curve. We have become the GO TO advertising agency for many clients, and it is not unusual for clients to depend on DDA for all their print and graphic design and production, and their interactive media, which includes shooting video to add to their websites as well. Yes, day in and day out, at Dynamic Digital Advertising, we just do it! 

Effective communication is everything. Because DDA prides itself on being able to handle anything thrown our way, it doesn’t always come without its fair share of some initial disconnect. As things become technical, we often find it difficult to properly explain why clients can’t have video in certain resolutions or why they can’t use a 72 dpi photograph to print a large graphic. No fault to any of our clients, of course, it’s our job to know all the technical and savvy parts. At the same time, there are times when a client introduces a product to us and the technical aspect of their product takes some time for us to figure out and we may even have to go back to the client to get some additional information. It all comes with the territory, we only know what we know and we can only hope to help each other understand what we don’t know.

This is why communication is always important. Effective communication, that is. Someone at DDA is always available through phone or email to help guide you through a difficult process, or help explain the technical side of things. We also have clients who do a wonderful job of keeping us informed or answering our questions.

How’s this for scary statistics; one hundred million trees are ground up each year to create junk mail. It is a waste of everyone’s time and money. In America, we use three billion batteries annually, and since too many of us throw batteries in the trash we collectively add 179,000 tons to the landfills.  So, today at Dynamic Digital Advertising, we are going to change to chargeable batteries. Not as convenient, more expensive to initiate use for our videographers and photographers, but oh so worth it,  if we want to do one more real thing to help our earth. 

Here’s another important statistic; it takes 2,500 gallons of water to bring a pound of hamburger to market. You do the math. If each of us would give up one burger a week…exponentially…I’m bad at math, but you get the picture. At Dynamic Digital Advertising, we know we are all above average in one way or another. Writers with flexibility to switch from creating content to shepherding projects to conclusion, a Print Estimator in Crystal who also wears a Pay-Per-Click management hat and does production coordination to boot, graphic designers who can work on multiple projects simultaneously. All this taking place in an environment that fosters productive output daily. Let’s take our DDA culture and apply it, each in our own way, to consciously care for our earth every day. 

“Motivation is what gets you started, Habit is what keeps you going.”  Jim Ryan

It’s been talked about before, but we really can’t stress quality assurance enough here at DDA. When websites are transfered, uploaded, moved, or whatever, something can always go wrong. The last thing we want to do is leave you with a broken website. This is why DDA always makes sure to test, re-test, and if needed, test some more, to make certain that any project we do for you, whether website design, video production, or print production, is done right.

This, of course, is not limited to testing the functionality of interactive CDs or websites, but also checking for content errors, layout and formatting issues, or print work from the printers. Everything we do goes through a rigorous testing or proofing procedure to assure you receive a top quality product from DDA.

Choosing DDA for whatever you need means you can rest easy knowing you’ll receive the highest quality products at an affordable price.

If you were to ask ten clients what Dynamic Digital Advertising does for them, you would probably get six or seven different answers. Some clients utilize only our print design and print production services, but these clients come to us for bread and butter business cards, brochures, postcards, and sometimes even a few exotic print projects that include die cuts, special folds, etc. Some clients think of us as their web developer. We build the website, work closely with them to assure their message is clear in word and image, and the site is first rate, and as part of our web services, do their search engine optimization and maintenance work.

I have even heard a client call us “their photographer” because that is all we do for that company. Then there are the clients who work with us because we can take care of all their needs. Maybe this month it is preparing for trade shows and we are tasked with everything from concept to creation of booth graphics to dealing with the trucking companies who deliver the booths and the special furniture and counters, and the extra large TV screens for viewing the videos we created of the client’s product.

So we are a different vendor to different clients. The crucial reality is that as a full-service advertising agency we can and do work diligently to always create custom designs, for each company that chooses to work with us. And we do so with a team that includes graphic designers, videographers, animators, illustrators and some of the best copywriters who also juggle other duties like project coordination. 

If I sound like I am proud of us, it is because I am. I often tell new clients who marvel at the depth of our services, that we are a well kept secret in this business! 

Dynamic Digital Advertising (DDA) is a full-service advertising agency that excels at many things.  One area with exceptional depth is print design and print production. A client searching our print portfolio will see examples from single sheet sell sheets, to trifold brochures, to more sophisticated hybrids of folder/brochures complete with BRC (business return card) attached, to postcards of every size.

We have even developed a very unusual color system so a client needing color critical chips in brochure format to sell a product like paint or lipstick or grout can get an exact match to the product. Yes, to say we create the exotic and unusual in print is an understatement! But we thrive on those kinds of challenges.

We can export this model to any of our advertising services, and examine projects and come up with the same conclusions, DDA ROCKS. Which is to say we have to keep improving and learning and growing so we are ahead of the curve always. And most days we do. Everyone who works in the different areas of graphic design, copywriting, business development, animation, and programming realizes each one is not average or they would not be working here.

This Thursday, I salute us all, and hope we will be blessed again next week with enthusiasm, energy, and passion for our work.