It’s the season for summer internships and Allen & Gerritsen’s latest crop of interns is fully immersed in the day-to-day activity of our agency. We’ve seen all types of interns here at a&g (and nearly all of us have started out as interns ourselves, including the most famous intern, CEO Andrew Graff). We have found that successful interns share the same traits.

Interns that make an impression are hungry. They dive into their assignments and ask for more work.

Interns that are successful are curious, they like to discover and learn new things. They ask questions.

Interns that are memorable embrace the culture of the company: they believe in the company, are proud to be a part of it and most importantly, advocate for the company.

Interns that receive recommendations have the traits described above but are also on time, buttoned up (appearance-wise and work-wise) and take good care of their borrowed workspace.

Interns have to make themselves vital to the company. There will be opportunities for challenging projects, but everyone has to spend some time in front of the copy machine or entering data into a spreadsheet (and may of us still do).

Employers who foster successful interns provide a comfortable environment for interns to ask questions and learn.

Employers should only take on the responsibility of an intern if they have a role to fill and work for the intern. Prior to each semester, we evaluate our intern needs and fill them accordingly.

Employers can help interns contribute to the agency by mentoring and remembering that there are “coachable” moments every day.

Employers can empower their employees to learn about management by taking on an intern: they will learn hands on how to delegate work and give and receive feedback.

At Allen & Gerritsen, we receive an average of 500 internship applications per semester. We make sure we hire smart, passionate interns and sometimes are lucky enough to have them return for another intern stint and in a few cases, join our agency full-time.

The Boston restaurant and marketing communities converged in Dialogue’s first Eat Drink and Be Social event. Thanks to Tyson Goodridge , I had the privilege of moderating the panel on location based marketing in the restaurant business. The panel featured the CEO of Foodspotting, Alexa Andrzejewski and the mop-haired, minor pop culture icon (he’s no Justin Bieber yet, but they have the same haircut), Dennis Crowley of Foursquare. We discussed the platforms, their potential and how to activate in the space.

What is Foodspotting?

Foodspotting is media-first, location second. People take pictures of food that inspires them and then tag them with a location to share with friends. It is focused on providing a window into the entire dining-out world. The exploration options are particularly strong. Not only can you follow people and the food that inspires them, you can follow updates on places and dishes. This is excellent because there isn’t really anything like it in Twitter or Facebook. It takes advantage of tagging to improve the overall information received by the user. We are talking about the incorporation of business intelligence into the tool. Foodies are always on the lookout for the next great food destination and this could inspire them not only to try places in their locale, but travel to other places with interesting fare. It can also be used for competitive intelligence / community monitoring by restaurants.



Alexa encourages restaurants to create Foodspotting accounts to showcase their favorite dishes along with the user community. The platform is still in its infancy, but growing quickly. They have 100,000 active users in just 3 months time. Users can connect their accounts to their Twitter and foursquare accounts (and I am told Facebook is coming soon) which gives Foodspotting exponential reach.

Foursquare Activation

Location and Foursquare are the hottest things in social media and emerging technology right now so we grilled Crowley and Alexa on specific ways that people can use their technologies to promote loyalty and increase share of wallet. Mayorships are great, but they give a benefit to one person. Crowley talked a lot about Foursquare specials, which are benefits given to anyone who checks into a location on Foursquare. They are free for any business who wants one, but there currently is a bottleneck in the process. Each business needs verification to ensure that the owner really is the owner and that people are not putting phony specials on a business. Seems this is the responsibility of the new business lead, who is also trying to graduate from Stanford. Foursquare has a serious, yet dreamy problem. Everyone wants to work with them.

The queue for business verification is 10-15,000 businesses deep and they have 20 people on staff only one of whom is dedicated to new business. Per Crowley, the company is working on tools to automate the process. An interim, cost efficient step could be to contact a call center in Omaha to call businesses and verify the ownership while automation is being developed. Why aren’t they doing this already? When I asked Crowley how much it costs to use the “specials” feature, he said it was “totally free”. They are probably reluctant to place resources in a verification bucket without a quantifiable return for Foursquare.

The original question was: “How does the restaurant business activate? How can we better understand the components of your services model? How do we activate? What is the cost?” Custom services like badges for achievements are available, but his focus in answering my question was more on how local businesses, specifically restaurants can use Foursquare to attract people. What it takes to create custom campaigns and badges was a little murky and suggests that those are opportunistic and pricing, details and timing are up to the discretion of Foursquare. You need to make it easy and lucrative for them. Why is this? To paraphrase Dennis, everything is happening faster than they imagined and they are focusing their resources on scale. They are only 20 people. They are working on figuring it all out.

When Foursquare first came out, I used the hashtag #failsquare every time I could not check in. It was supposed to be funny and they took it really seriously and not personally. They have done an amazing job of keeping foursquare up and running while adding 15,000 users a day. The system is fast, lean and until version 1.8 which has had a few recent hiccups (although not near as many as Twitter in its early days), largely bulletproof.

What about you?

I asked the audience too: If you could be the mayor of anywhere, where would you be mayor and what would you want the special to be? Me? The Ginger Man in Austin, TX A beer on the house. How about you?

The 14th Annual Rosoff Awards, presented by the Ad Club, recognize companies that have meaningful diversity, mentoring, and inclusion programs and was held (fittingly) at the John F. Kennedy Library this week. In addition, $110,000 worth of scholarships were presented to eleven gifted and diverse high school students - “Rosoff Scholars” - who will be mentored by a sponsored company throughout their four years of college.

Given that the advertising industry has been challenged with increasing its diversity practices, I am proud of the Ad Club for leading the way. As Kathy Kiely, President of the Ad Club pointed out in her introduction of the Rosoff Awards, Boston has a rich history of Human Rights firsts and we are a city that is arguably one of the most tolerant places to live in America.

Our Keynote speaker, Harvard Business School professor David Thomas , author of “Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America” talked about applying business practices to diversity. In other words, diversity initiatives should not simply be an HR program, they should be woven through a company’s strategic business plan.

Some of Thomas’s thought provoking points included (paraphrased):

In order for an organization be diverse and support differences in the workplace, executive leadership needs to form relationships that are transformative.

We want a diverse workforce, but are not always willing to learn from our diverse employees.

With these points in mind, I challenge my fellow CEOs:

Get out of your comfort zone and get to know a business colleague or form a new business relationship with someone different - not the same people you see at every event. Learn from the experience. Shake things up.

Be inspired by the companies that were honored by the Rosoff Awards and other companies that work hard to support diversity, not only because it is the right thing to do, but a smart business decision in the long run. Use the Rosoff Awards as a model in your city.

Show support for programs like the Rosoff Awards through sponsorship, volunteering and mentoring - offer up what your company does best. Show your employees that these types of programs matter and encourage their participation (setting an example from the top down is the best way).

The Ad Club has stepped up its commitment to fostering diversity since the Rosoff Awards were founded 14 years ago. How can you do your part?

The Boston Celtics are in the midst of another great post-season run. After winning their 17th NBA Championship in 2007, they are back in the Eastern Conference Finals - playing their best basketball of the season. Led by future hall of famers Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen, and emerging superstar Rajon Rondo, the green have seized the attention of Celtics nation and NBA fans everywhere.

But does their post-season success materially impact the Celtics brand and business? You bet it does.

The Celtics are among the most successful and storied brands in all of professional sports. Their 17 world championships over five decades is a testament to their organizational drive and continued commitment to their fans, community, and to themselves. The core essence of the Celtics brand is championships, driven through exceptional talent and a will to win. Competing, and winning, in the post-season both affirms and advances that brand image.

Winning in the regular season is entertaining, but it’s only in the post-season that legacies are made and brands become legends. Ask the Cleveland Cavaliers‚ fans about the post-season, and it’s crystal clear that for all of their regular season success and highlights, it means nothing without post-season validation.

Post-season success connects a team to its fans, its community, and its business partners. Winning both deepens connection with loyal fans as well as brings new, casual sports fans into the franchise. For the Celtics, it reassures fans that the 2010 Celtics are driven to be Champions, just like the 17 Championship teams before them.

The success of the 2009/2010 Celtics team has virtually assured the organization of high renewal rates from season ticket holders, another sold out season at the Garden, and strong support from their numerous corporate sponsors and partners.

And in a sports crazed town like Boston, it also serves as a point of pride that its the Celtics who are occupying the front page of the sports section, dominating blogs and providing positive content for talk radio. There is a real buzz about this team, and it’s good for business.

As the marketing and advertising agency of the Boston Celtics for the past six seasons, a&g is thrilled to be a small part of this great franchise. We know the important impact that post-season success has on Celtics fans, the city of Boston, and the business success of the organization.

We’re looking forward to seeing Banner 18 in the rafters - go Green!

Allen & Gerritsen (a&g) CEO Andrew Graff announced today that Catherine Kolodij has been named Senior Vice President of Strategy at the agency. This move, combined with shifts in a&g’s organizational structure is part of Graff’s strategy to accelerate growth for the agency, which has experienced double-digit percentage growth over the past three years. The agency recently landed five new business wins in the first quarter of 2010.

“Since joining a&g, Catherine has shaped our thinking as an agency, for our clients and for each other,” said Andrew Graff, CEO at Allen & Gerritsen. “Her vision for the seamless combined disciplines of online, offline and personal contact has expanded our relationship with clients and attracted new business.”

In her new role, Kolodij will oversee Audience Intelligence (where she served as VP, intelligence director), Connections Planning/Media and Contributions/Analytics. Strategy will work in tandem with newly restructured practice areas at the agency including Creative Ideas, Relationship Management and Delivery Management.

“At Allen & Gerritsen, Strategy identifies the starting point for disruptive ideas that extend across paid, owned and earned media,” said Kolodij. “Working in close partnership with creative and marketing, the Strategy group looks forward to enabling creative thinking that pushes the status quo, continues to significantly impact our clients’ businesses, and fuels a&g’s growth.”

Prior to joining a&g, Kolodij was responsible for consumer insight and brand positioning at Hill Holliday as VP, Strategy for the Liberty Mutual, Procter & Gamble, Rockport and Cognos accounts.

Last month, a&g announced a major boost to its creative power, with the hire of Creative Director Eivind Ueland, a copywriter who has created campaigns for such high profile clients as Anheuser-Busch, Dunkin Donuts, Novartis, John Hancock, CVS/pharmacy and Tyco.

About Allen & Gerritsen

Always focused on what’s next, Allen & Gerritsen (a&g) strategically combines technology, creativity, media and analytics to develop digital, experiential and traditional branding experiences. Ranked by Advertising Age as one of the Top 50 Independent advertising agencies in the US, a&g creates conversations and builds connections that contribute to the bottom line. Their roster of global, consumer and BtoB clients includes The Boston Celtics, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Bonefish Grill, Hannaford Supermarkets, MFS Investment Management, Ninety Nine Restaurants, WBUR, Partnership for a Drug Free America, Toy State, Waters Corporation and Zildjian.