Tim Donnelly: January 2009 Archives

THIS WEEK'S POSITIONS:

1. UI Designer
2. Flash Developer
3. Production Artist/Junior Graphic Designer
4. Copywriter/Creative Service Manager
5. Sr. Marketing Analyst
6. Regional Account Manager
7. Associate Marketing Manager- CPG (Bilingual)
8. CPG Associate Marketing Manager
9. Brand Strategist

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. POSITION:  UI Designer

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 4+ years of UI design experience  
• Must have mobile wireframe samples
• Must be able to lead a team and mentor Junior Designers

PERKS!:

• Big brand company 
• Great work environment

PAY:

• Up to $100K

LOCATION:

• South Bay

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. POSITION: Flash Developer

TERMS: Freelance (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 2+ years of AS3 development experience
• Must be able to work in agile development environment
• Gaming experience a plus

PERKS!:

• Fun start up
• It's a gaming company!

PAY:

• Up to $60 an hour

LOCATION:

• West LA

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. POSITION: Production Artist/Junior Graphic Designer

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 1 to 2 years of experience
• Corporate style with an edge
• Experience in hospitality industry a PLUS

PERKS!:

• Creative, fun environment with strong growth potential
• Great hands on experience for someone wanting to learn a lot

PAY:

• Up to $21 an hour

LOCATION:

• Mid Wilshire

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. POSITION: Copywriter/Creative Service Manager

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 2 to 3 years of experience in corporate marketing environment with strong
  experience writing copy for materials
• BA in written communication in Journalism, Advertising,
  Communication, or Marketing
• Strong experience communicating marketing initiatives to various
  audiences
• Strong proofreading skills a must

PERKS!:

• Great benefits: medical, dental, vision, 401K, pension, holiday pay, and more
• Creative environment with great people

PAY:

• Up to $65K

LOCATION:

• Mid Wilshire

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. POSITION: Sr. Marketing Analyst

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• Degree in Math/Statistics, Marketing, Finance, Behavioral Sciences, or equivalent
• Strong knowledge of data analysis and prototyping tools (SAS, SQL, advanced Excel)
• Knowledge of Web analytics tools a plus (Omniture, Google Analytics, DoubleClick/DART)

PERKS!:

• Top tier ad agency

PAY:

• Up to $70 an hour

LOCATION:

• LAX area

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. POSITION: Regional Account Manager

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (Off-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• At least 2 years of experience in corporate benefit/HR package sales is required
• Business development
• Must be a Sales Maverick!
• 50% Travel  (Domestic)

PERKS!:

• Green technology company
• Self-motivated, results-oriented entrepreneurial position 
• Presenting and working with executives and benefits professionals

PAY:

• Up to $100K + commission

LOCATION:

• Off-Site

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. POSITION: Associate Marketing Manager - CPG (Bilingual)

TERMS: Freelance with Possibility of Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 2 to 5 years of marketing experience in traditional CPG, preferably with food
  or beverage products
• Must have experience with US Hispanic markets
• Fluency in both Spanish and English
• MBA preferred

PERKS!:

• Global CPG company
• Household name!

PAY:

• Up to $45 an hour

LOCATION:

• Glendale

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. POSITION: CPG Associate Marketing Manager

TERMS: Freelance with Possibility of Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 3 to 5 years of marketing experience in traditional CPG, preferably with food
  or beverage products
• P&L, market research, and analysis experience
• Experience with promotions, product and packaging development
• MBA preferred

PERKS!:

• Global CPG company
• Household name!

PAY:

• Up to $45 an hour

LOCATION:

• Glendale

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. POSITION: Brand Strategist

TERMS: Freelance (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 5+ years of agency or in house brand/strategic marketing experience
• Experience in brand messaging and positioning and consumer research and analysis
• Strong interview and group facilitation skills

PERKS!:

• Leading non-profit

PAY:

• Up to $40 an hour

LOCATION:

• Burbank

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

You may or may not have heard that the U.S. Postal is considering cutting back service to 5 days a week, citing "rising costs and an ongoing decline in mail made worse by the global recession." This, of course will have to be approved by Congress as there is currently a mandate for 6-day delivery weeks.

So before we all start believing this is just another story of how tough it's getting for businesses in this economy, I think we have to consider the mail we're getting 6 days a week and whether any of us really need that extra day, especially if it's going to push the postal agency off the balcony into the traffic below.

The Postmaster General says the USPS may face a deficit of more than $6 billion in the current fiscal year and that cutting a day out will save them $1.9 billion a year.

I'm guessing, if you read this blog, you're probably one of those tens of millions currently paying bills online, because it a) is faster b) is easier c) doesn't waste paper or energy by producing or delivering a bill and d) is more easily tracked.

On a daily basis, most of what I get are catalogs, direct mail, and threatening letters from my uncle (don't ask).

Here's a bigger, more historical picture: the deliveries made by the post office, since it was created said deliveries would be made ""as frequently as the public convenience may require". (The rest of this is from the USPS site).

* The 1922 Annual Report of the Postmaster General noted that business sections in smaller cities received three daily deliveries, those in large cities averaged three to four, and those in the largest cities received deliveries three to seven times a day.

* In 1949, steps were taken to reduce all four-trip routes to three trips in business sections and all three-trip routes to two trips in strictly residential areas....businesses continued to receive multiple deliveries during the week.

* An order dated April 17, 1950, limited the number of deliveries in residential sections to one each day.

* Although areas in New York with exceptionally heavy mail volume received two daily deliveries until the late 1990s, this practice has been phased out.

Are you seeing a pattern here? I know I love to see the Postman, but 4 times a day would really be pushing it (especially when it's that angry one who wears the pith helmet).

The Washington Post spoke with Robert Cohen, a former Postal Regulatory Commission official, who said "the post office is now primarily a broadcast medium relaying advertising from businesses to households." (Except, of course during holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, and Valentine's Day.) In other words, email, the Internet, UPS, and FedEx have taken a lot of the business away from USPS. So, yes, the USPS has less business.

Back to practical terms; if Mr. Cohen's statement is correct, then how do you think eliminating a Tuesday or Saturday delivery day will effect Direct Marketing efforts and the magazine publishing industry?

You can post your answer here or I'll see you at the post office.

Full Washington Post article here.

(Thanks to Ryan for the article pass along! Photo by Svenstorm)

Announcing: The Greatest Yard Sale in the Long and Tenured History of Yard Sales

Is this your normal, weekend yard sale? Sir or madam, it most certainly is not. Did you even read the intro? This will be, without question, the best yard sale you've ever attended or heard tell of on a bleak Monday around the water cooler.

When is it? It's this Saturday and Sunday from 8am until our doors close (well, not technically our doors, but until I place a sturdy neighborhood kid to guard the stacked tables so I can shuffle everything back into my less-than-secure back yard).

Where is it? It's centrally located near YOU, my friend, where 3rd meets Melrose on a rather characterless lawn that my landlord has no intention of watering, much less mowing.

What items will be available at prices so low that your head will try to spin off its axis? Oh so many, many things!

As an aging hipster moving into a newer and somewhat smaller apartment, I have nearly a decade of accumulated garbage to foist upon you, the ready and buying public. Here's a little peek at items so compelling that you'll wish the sale started today instead of Saturday. Not to worry, you'll have plenty of time to stop by your bank or Savings & Loan so you can withdraw enough cash to have on hand for this veritable Carnival of Cast-Offs.

VIALS OF MYSTERY. Two small glass vials with plastic screw caps. Were they once used in a nefarious scientific experiment? Could they have held a Potion of Invisibility? They're both exactly the right size to hold a fountain pen, much like the one that once leaked on an airplane and ruined a perfectly good shirt, the inside of a suit, and an entire day. They hold 30ml, which is almost exactly one shot. Probably a coincidence. (25 cents for both)

VIDEO CASSETTES. Before there were flimsy, easy-to-ruin DVDs, home entertainment was conveyed by these bulky, easy-to-ruin VHS tapes. A wide selection available: incomprehensible Japanese animation, popular movies of the 90's purchased under duress, and well-ignored fitness tapes. Buy a dozen and get a free soda! ($1/each)

UNASSEMBLED ELECTRONIC KITS. What kind of idiot buys geegaw after geegaw from popular catalogs like Edmunds Scientific, yet can't muster the follow through to put such things together? Probably the same kind of guy who'd switch his major 8 times over a 5-year college stint. Build Your Own Crystal Radio, Robotic Hand, Ultrasound Receiver, they're all here, each taken out of the box only long enough to discover something really, really interesting on television. ($3/each)

AUDIO COMPACT DISCS. Personally collected by someone who gave no consideration to the opportunity of placing their money into a 401(k) or tax-free IRA, this vast selection of music including popular (Warrant), ironically purchased (Olivia Newton John), and obscure (Okinawan folk music) is sure to delight young and old alike. Due to bizarre personality defects on the part of the former owner, these do not come in their original packaging. ($1/each)

FLINTSTONES NOVELTY GLASSES. Imagine the Flintstones were real. Imagine that they somehow managed to win the lottery. Imagine that, as a result, they replaced the bone-and-hide drinking glasses they normally use for fine crystal replicas of the bone-and-hide drinking glasses they normally use. Imagine no more and buy instead! Perfect for nerds, pointless nostalgia enthusiasts, and cavemen with exquisite taste. ($1.50/each)

"HIP" BLENDER. This perfectly functional blender is either an authentic antique or is trying very hard to convince us that it is. Real glass bowl, smooth space-age Bakelite frontispiece, and quad blades that come within a few yards of being sharp all included. Perfect for serving frou-frou tropical drinks to your insufferable hipster friends. ($2.50)

PUNK ROCK SKATEBOARD. Whether you're a hardcore grinder, a person with an annoying little brother, or an aging punk rocker desperately trying to recapture your faded youth, this is what you've been looking for. This sturdy skateboard comes festooned with stickers championing no-longer-existent punk bands and capable of supporting even the heftiest of sullen teens. (A mere $5)

UNFASHIONABLE CLOTHING. A vast selection available, featuring tattered and out-of-date dress shirts, decades-old 'ironic' t-shirts (i.e., Nuke the Whales), and denim jeans that remove all doubt regarding how heavy I've become. (50 cents each)

GERMAN-LANGUAGE "ILLUMINATI" CARDS. If you are like most people, you have a dear friend from Switzerland, Austria, or Germany who greatly enjoys playing conspiracy-based collectible card games. So you know how hard they are to shop for! Well, worry no more: this is the ideal gift for the Nordic game nerd in your life. ($2 for a full set)

FOOD PULVERIZER. Hailing from the fashionable Hamilton Beach area of southern Wackamolia, this motorized dingbat in delicate off-cream is designed to receive edible foodstuffs and reduce them to pulverized, blended, sliced, chopped and/or julienned states of nature. Perfectly functional, but aesthetically marred by the presence of a melted plastic corner, the tragic legacy of a failed relationship with an abusive toaster. ($5)

LOVE METER. Hard to believe anyone could ever part with this exotic bit of hand-blown glass filled with vibrantly colored liquid that boils within a minute of handling. Maybe it would make sense if you'd already broken one and discovered that it eats the finish off of and permanently discolors kitchen tile. Great gift for that person who has no interest in getting their security deposit back! ($4)

COMPLETE OUTDOOR WEATHER STATION. Ever wonder what the weather is like on your porch? You know, the place a mere sliding glass door's distance away from your breakfast table? Wonder no more! The maharishi of weather forecasting will let you know whether it's blazing hot, wet, muggy, or hailing bullets. Of course, you will have to step onto the porch to get a gander at the thermometer, barometer, rain gauge, and windsock, but it's a small price to pay to be "in the know"! Locked for reasons long forgotten, you'll need to purchase a bolt cutter at your local hardware store for immediate access to the instruments of prognostication. ($7)

Come one, come all!

Buy enough items and I will most likely give you free food and a beer.

Tell your friends, relatives, and anyone else standing near the ATM where you are withdrawing your hard-earned cash.

Please no early birds or people who stand around asking endless questions while their husband blocks the busy street with their late model Cadillac.

I mean it.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Hot Talent

Featured Talent This Week

That Bit at the End - "Portrait of the Consumer as a Young Man"

Subscribe | Unsubscribe Information
__________________________________________________

HOT TALENT

It's not often we include discount codes in our Hot Talent Newsletter.

But that's usually because our headquarters won't invite us to events.

Lucky for you, we're not only invited to the Web & Interactive Design Summit in March at the Renaissance Hotel, we're free to pass along a 25% discount to you. So you can participate in workshops and hear speakers like Lance Loveday, CEO of Closed Loop Marketing and our own President of Aquent Graphics Institute, Chris Smith.

Just click here (LINK) to read all about it, then pop in the words "AquentClient" when you're ready to register.

And, once again, here's our awesome Aquent Talent to save you BIG TIME on your next Creative or Marketing project.

We guarantee it!
__________________________________________________

FEATURED TALENT THIS WEEK

Rania M. - Sr. Print Designer
Dan F. - Consumer Marketing/Ad Sales
Jason G. - Web/Flash Designer & Programmer
Nicolas Z - Flash Designer and Developer
Luke W. - Administrative Coordinator
Vivian P. - Project Manager | Asset Management | Photo Retoucher
Kristee L. - Web Project Manager  | Jr. Web Producer
Danielle L. - Interactive and Print Art Director
Genevieve P. - Visual UI Designer Web + Mobile
Jennifer S. - Web Project Manager
David C. - Marketing Communications Specialist / PR Director
__________________________________________________

Rania M.
Sr. Print Designer

Rania is a true Master in print design. And by Master, we're not kidding, she has her MFA from Boston University!

She's a versatile Designer with solid experience in agency, retail, entertainment, book cover design, and CPG.

Originally from Lebanon, Rania brings agency experience from her role as Art Director for Info Markets International, sister agency of Saatchi & Saatchi and DDB in the Middle East. After moving to the U.S., she gained experience in retail as Graphic Designer at Talbots, where projects included catalogs, collateral, in-store signage, and gift cards. She's now in LA and has experience freelancing for BLT & Associates and Amazon's book publishing service, BookSurge.

Give us a call and we'll send over her portfolio that showcases versatility married with a great design sense. You'll just have to meet her to get a sense of her fantastic personality!
__________________________________________________

Jonathan W.
Sr. Marketing Manager

Jonathan is an extraordinary Senior Marketing Manager who has 15 years of overall experience and a long, fruitful partnership with Aquent.

He was most recently at Volkswagen, AG as their Head of Entertainment Marketing, where he specialized in branded entertainment, product integration, licensing, and original content opportunities in television, feature films, home video, and new media. While onboard he managed a $200M marketing partnership with NBC Universal and Universal Studios theme park.

At A&E Television Networks, he realigned brand strategy, established channel personality, and renovated the on-air look of the Latin American channel. Jonathan has international marketing and domestic Hispanic experience and is fluent in written and spoken Spanish and proficient in Portuguese.

Jonathan was previously Regional Marketing Manager for DIRECTV Latin America and developed strategic alliances with key marketing partners such as Sony, HBO, The Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros., Major League Baseball, and the NBA and NFL.

Jonathan is a super creative marketing Talent, ready to add direction and outstanding leadership to your team!

__________________________________________________

Dan F.
Consumer Marketing/Ad Sales

Dan is seasoned in strategic and consumer marketing and he's brand new to LA!

Not just a stellar promoter, he's also a stellar promotee, having been promoted and/or recommended by his employers throughout his career. Everyone loves Dan!

In Consumer Marketing at MTV Networks on TV Land, Nick at Nite, and The N, he worked on huge productions where he introduced current and upcoming shows while acting as liaison between internal marketing and the outside agency, C2. He was responsible for online media kits (including copywriting), proofing scripts, creating promos, and researching and recommending pro-social initiatives. He did such a great job at Consumer Marketing that they brought him onto the Ad Sales team where he created media kits, helped line up programming, and built relationships through sponsorships.

After layoffs at MTV (they were sad to see him go), he was quickly scooped up by C2, the agency he worked with through MTV. There he worked on more pro-social initiatives for CNN and Spike TV.

Entertainment and advertising are his forte and he's got the names on his resume to support it: MTV, 20th Century Fox, Bates Worldwide, and Crispin, Porter, and Bogusky. On top of it all, his personality simply shines and with his ego-free attitude, Dan is sure to thrive in LA!
__________________________________________________

Jason G.
Web/Flash Designer & Programmer

A Web Designer with awesome hands on skills, Jason creates hand-made, intricate, and novel coding that accompany a wide variety of graphic styles.

He has 7 years experience in the graphic design communities of New York and Los Angeles and for the past 2 he's managed his own team on interactive projects from fine arts promotions to corporate brochures. Clients include Red Mango, Human Ear Music, Botanical Nutrition, and many more.

Jason's skill set includes the latest in Web standards: XHTML, CSS, AS2 and AS3, PHP and MySQL. He is at home as a staff member or a one-man show, and is able to design, code, and project manage with aplomb. He also works in Flash animation, can work with dynamically loaded content, and works in PHP.

Is there anything this guy can't do? Yes: stick around forever! Call us now about this Web Guru!
__________________________________________________

Nicolas Z
Flash Designer and Developer

Nick recently finished a project with Hamon & Associates, where he created Flash Designs and developed for large sites like Thermador, Bosch, and The Related. He also created rich media banners and edited reels for clients using DVD Studio Pro. He's well versed in AS2, Flash animation, and Web design and is the perfect mix of animation and development.

At TBWA \ CHIAT \ DAY (TEQUILA) he created banners for biggies such as Nissan, Infiniti, and Shutterfly. For CauseForce.com, he created and coded the 2008 Conquer Cancer Campaign, including the main landing page and banners for local markets.

He is fast, proactive, and will work wonders with your sites!
__________________________________________________

Luke W.
Administrative Coordinator

Most recently Luke was at The Walt Disney Co. as the Assistant to the Disney Foreign Exchange and Corporate Treasury Staff. While on staff he processed wires, expense reports, supply orders, scheduled meetings, submitted expenses, and arranged travel along with any other incredibly busy departmental needs.

As Marketing Coordinator at Penguin Putnam, he wrote, assisted, and planned strategic market research and publicity for books under the Viking Imprint banner, helping double revenue in the process. As Executive Assistant working in Product Development at Talbots, Luke ensured every call, question, letter, PowerPoint presentation, travel itinerary, report, and everything else these busy offices could generate was taken care of efficiently and effectively.

His skills include: Microsoft Office, PowerPoint, FileMaker Pro, and SAP (casual buyer, travel and expenses).

Luke has been working with Aquent since '04 and we think he's the most dynamic, friendly, and professional Assistant/Coordinator you'll ever find!
__________________________________________________

Vivian P.
Project Manager | Asset Management | Photo Retoucher

Vivian was at Disney's Animation Research Library for 12 years managing over 200 projects a year requested by various departments and external vendors including Feature Animation, Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Interactive, Hyperion & Disney Publishing, PIXAR Animation Studios, and internal & external DVD production companies.

She trafficked assets throughout the acquisition process; prepared and delivered weekly management project status reports to maintain budget goals and maximize profit margins; and managed schedules, timelines, and budgets. Aside from being a team manager and leading a staff of 4 Researchers, she handled oodles of exacting Photoshop retouching work.

Most recently she worked as Project Manager at a design studio that creates promotional items for WB, New Line Cinema, and Disney. Vivian handled project proposals, budgets, timelines, meeting with vendors, and developing and trafficking marketing materials (print and merchandise).

Whether you need tracking and managing of thousands of assets or top-notch retouching (or both), call us about Vivian!
__________________________________________________

Kristee L.
Web Project Manager  | Jr. Web Producer

Kristee is a Web Project Manager who has just finished working at Disney Channel.

There she managed the creative development of digital marketing campaigns for Camp Rock, Hannah Montana, Cheetah Girls One World, Wizards Of Waverly Place, and more. She worked on Flash ad banners, rich media ad banners, widgets, and viral and mobile marketing. She also managed the development, testing, refinement, and rollout of creative with ad agencies & rich media vendors with close attention to metrics (interaction rates, click thru rates, etc).

At Trailer Park she helped produce Websites, ad banners, online games and viral activities for Disney, Miramax, WB, Paramount and more.

Kristee is enthusiastic, "can-do", and is able to interface at all levels of a project. She'd make a fantastic addition to your Web team!
__________________________________________________

Danielle L.
Interactive and Print Art Director

Danielle is an Art Director with outstanding interactive, print, and branding experience.

Most recently she was Senior Art Director at Centric Agency, an advertising agency whose clients included Princess Cruises, Joico, Memorex, Grateful Harvest organic foods, and more. She put together concepts for full campaigns: print, interactive, outdoor, direct mail, and branding and identity for clients.

She also has experience from How2.com, where she created the whole look of the site and managed the team. At interactive agency 2-Lane Media she was Designer and Producer for large clients in entertainment and the corporate world.

Call us for a look at her resume and awesome portfolio site!
__________________________________________________

Genevieve P.
Visual UI Designer Web + Mobile

Genevieve is a superstar Web and Mobile Visual UI Designer who has done projects for Virgin Mobile, InfoSearch Media and was previously Art Director at Amp'd Mobile.

In addition to her impressive mobile client list, she's worked on Web design projects for the likes of Woo Agency, Kaiser Permanente, and Transamerica. She has a terrific sense of design that really pops and while she can manage teams of Designers and freelancers, she remains a die-hard, hands-on Art Director and Sr. Designer. She also works well with clients and has great presentation skills.

What's not to love?!
__________________________________________________

Jennifer S.
Web Project Manager

Here is a solid Web Project Manager who won't be around for long! 

Jennifer has 5+ years of standout Web project management experience working with such companies as American Apparel, Euro RSCG Worldwide, and Dreyer's brand ice cream. She recently planned the complete redesign for American Apparel's in-house music streaming site, which provides audio content for all their retail storefronts. While on staff she handled feature development that included Website redesign, blog features, and design of new digital download sales. She developed all documentation including wireframes, budget roadmap, scheduling, and technical requirements. 

Prior to American Apparel, Jennifer was Project Manager at Kadium/Euro RSCG agency acting as a lead for their largest client, Genentech, Inc. Her major initiative include a $1M site redesign and a successful launch of Web 2.0 features for a highly regulated pharmaceutical environment. 

Jennifer in fresh on the market and ready to go!
__________________________________________________

David C.
Marketing Communications Specialist / PR Director

David is a Marketing Communications Specialist who has extensive experience in electronics, finance, human resources management, software, and real estate.

He most recently served as Marketing Communications Advisor and Head Writer for the #1 US real estate site, Move.com. Under his editorial lead, their Move Trends blog was taken from obscurity to the Top 20 in real estate, as ranked by LA Times. He also started the company's first Industry Relations program with analyst organizations Forrester Research, Yankee Group, and Jupiter Research.

While at Sanyo as Public Relations Supervisor, he was responsible for internal and external marketing communications, including product promotions for 7 product divisions. His extensive client roster includes Accruent, Discovery Eye Foundation, Golden Rule Publishing, Tippit Inc. (HRWorld, InsideCRM), UGS Software, and Wagner Financial Services.

Here's an Aquent Talent that can take complex subject matter and make it easy for the mass market to understand.

He's a great leader and addition to any team!

Or, rather, where are you looking?

Busy Monday, but Jenn passed along this interesting article from Forbes (yes, JT apparently reads Forbes). With all the bad news in the press about the economy, it's nice to hear about something good for a change, eh?

I mean, hearing about "sectors where more jobs will be created over the next few years" is good news, correct? Those sectors include health care and consultancies.

The full article is here.

THIS WEEK'S POSITIONS:

1. Web Designer
2. Director of Search
3. Executive Assistant (Seattle)
4. Toy Developer
5. Seamstress
6. Packaging/Graphic Designer (Phoenix)
7. Regional Account Manager
8. Account Director  (Promotions)
9. Sr. Marketing Analyst
10. Account Manager

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. POSITION: Web Designer

TERMS: Long-Term Freelance (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 4 to 5 years of corporate Web site design experience
• Prior support of Senior Designers
• Follow brand guidelines with clean, modern style

PERKS!:

• Leading non-profit healthcare organization

PAY:

• Up to $32 an hour

LOCATION:

• Pasadena

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. POSITION: Director of Search

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• Organic search expert
• 7+ years of B2C online experience
• Deep technical understanding of search engines

PERKS!:

• High exposure within the company

PAY:

• Up to $130K

LOCATION:

• Westside

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. POSITION: Executive Assistant (Seattle)

TERMS: Freelance (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• Prior support of high-level executives
• Able to handle heavy invoicing, calendaring, phones, travel arrangements, and expense reporting
• SAP desired but not required
• Able to work in Seattle area

PERKS!:

• Global entertainment company
• Great city!

PAY:

• Up to $20 an hour

LOCATION:

• Seattle

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. POSITION: Toy Developer

TERMS: Long-Term Freelance (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• Experience sketching and concepting toys
• Samples of recent toy ideas and concepts
• Great illustration and Illustrator skills

PERKS!:

• Leading toy company
• Work with some of the best Designers in LA!

PAY:

• DOE

LOCATION:

• El Segundo

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. POSITION: Seamstress

TERMS: Long-Term Freelance (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• Experience creating patterns from 2D design sketch to developing 3D premium samples
• Expertise in draping and hand-sewn beadwork
• Sewing samples and duplicates of original prototype patterns
• Able to sew for doll-scale clothing and sewing on industrial machines

PERKS!:

• Leading toy company
• Work with some of the best designers in LA

PAY:

• DOE

LOCATION:

• El Segundo

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. POSITION: Packaging/Graphic Designer (Phoenix)

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site, No Relocation Fee)

MUST HAVES!:

• CPG in portfolio
• 6+ years of experience in print design and/or packaging
• Strong grasp of designing against strategic objectives 

PERKS!:

• Great company
• Create high visibility packaging
• Phoenix has lower cost of living than LA!

PAY:

• Up to $28 an hour

LOCATION:

• Phoenix

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. POSITION: Regional Account Manager

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (Off-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• At least 2 years ofexperience in Corporate Benefit/HR package sales is required
• 50% Travel  (Domestic)
• You must be a Business Development and Sales Maverick!

PERKS!:

• Self-motivated, results-oriented entrepreneurial position
• Presenting and working with executives and benefits professionals

PAY:

• Up to $100K + commission

LOCATION:

• Off-Site

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. POSITION: Account Director (Promotions)

TERMS: Freelance with Possibility of Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 7 years in strategic marketing and account supervision in promotional marketing agency
• Promotions expert!
• New business experience

PERKS!:

• Great agency (advertising and design firm)
• Amazing opportunity to prepare a promotions deck for new business

PAY:

• Up to $70 an hour

LOCATION:

• Culver City

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. POSITION: Sr. Marketing Analyst

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• Degree in Math/Statistics, Marketing, Finance, Behavioral Sciences or equivalent
• Strong knowledge of data analysis and prototyping tools (SAS, SQL, advanced Excel)
• Knowledge of Web analytics tools a plus (Omniture, Google Analytics, DoubleClick/DART)

PERKS!:

• Top tier Ad agency

PAY:

• Up to $70 an hour

LOCATION:

• LAX area

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10. POSITION: Account Manager

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 5+ years of experience in Account Management
• Must be a self-starter, analytical thinker, and team player
• Advanced proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Word

PERKS!:

• Growing company with a great team environment
• Opportunity to work with different departments and to add great
  experience to your skillset

PAY:

• Up to $70K

LOCATION:

• San Fernando Valley

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

Happy belated holidays, everyone!

I'm sorry that our holiday letter is finding its way to your house late this year, but it was a busy 2008  at the Wolff household, and I just got around to sitting down and writing this.

No recipes this year from me, I just wanted to get this out as soon as possible.

Blaine turned 16 this year, thus completing his sophomore year in high school (Junior year? It's so hard to keep up). Suffice it to say, he's in high school and playing competitive soccer this year for his school. He goes out with his friends a lot. That short kid who has the car with the bad muffler and that lanky kid who is always taking stuff out of our fridge.

I am busy with my knitting (sewing?) and whatnot.  I still insist on watching that insipid show American Idol. And of course, I'm still always on the phone talking to all of you.

My loving, devoted, and heroic husband Chuck is still Sr. Manager at CityCor, setting an example daily for his coworkers and managers alike. His golf game is coming along well; he's finally cured his slice thanks to his brand new driver. The more time he can spend on the links the better. I'm not always the best about encouraging him to get out there and relax with his buddies. So, I've made a resolution this year to get him out there as much as I can this 2009 (heck, the weekend chores can wait, right?), and I recommend all of you wives reading this make the same commitment for your husbands.

You should really see him hook a three iron around a dogleg. It's just amazing.

I'm also going to recommend Chuck watch more sports on TV this season. Ladies, it makes life around the house easier if you just let the guys do what they want. They'll get around to everything eventually. Don't worry.

(On a side note, don't mention the San Diego Chargers around our house. Chuck is still pretty ticked about the appalling calls by the referee during the Broncos game. Don't mention the Chargers in our house. Please remember.)

I did want to mention in this holiday letter some rather sensitive, yet pertinent information concerning orphans.

Over the holidays my irresistibly handsome and talented husband was invited to play in what he thought was a friendly card game.

"What the heck," Chuck said. He loves sports and, like I said, I encourage him to go out with his friends (I'll mention it again to all you wives out there: let the men go out with their friends. It's essential).

Anyway, Chuck didn't know these guys so well, but thought he would play this friendly game with them and have a good time. You know, knock back some beers, shoot the breeze, and play some cards.

Now keep in mind that Chuck had come to play for charity. He fully intended to give all his winnings to the local orphanage, St. What's-Her-Name, downtown. He's like that, Chuck. He loves to give back to the community.

Well, these guys just cleaned his clock. They took everything but the shirt on his back.

How could Chuck know that this "Jim" guy would be able to beat his 9-high straight flush. Where did this "Jim" pull out a royal flush in spades? Come on! This was obviously a set up. And, man, if Chuck ever sees one of these guys walking around town, he is going to let him have it.

Anyway, these guys were all working together to take Chuck's charity money. Money he'd been saving since June to help those poor orphans.

Chuck and I talked, and although I did a little yelling, we resolved the issue. How could I not forgive a caring, wonderful husband like Chuck, a man so hopelessly devoted to his family and community?

So we're asking all of you friends and family to help us get that charity money back by sending checks and money orders to:

Chuck Wolff
P.O. Box 435
Altadena, CA 91001

And we'll forward it right away to those orphans and those nuns or ministers or whoever is taking care of them.

*** Please don't send money to the house! We want to make sure we know where all the funds are. And who knows who might get your check out of our mailbox? This P.O. box is absolutely secure! ***

I should also tell you to NOT to mention this to me, Betty, when I see you next, in the shopping mall or wherever the heck I spend my days now that Blaine is in high school.

If you do accidentally mention it, I will pretend that I've never heard of this poker debt.

It's just THAT painful to think about.

So, if you do let it slip out, I will probably say something like, "What poker game? What Christmas letter I sent out?" This will be your cue to find something else to talk about. Maybe the weather or the price of a rump roast at Vons.

Sound like a deal?

Well that's it for the Wolff family this holiday season.

Wishing you a happy 2009 and all that.

The Chargers are really going to be something in '09.

Don't forget about the orphans!

The Wolff Family
Chuck, Betty, Blaine, and that good-for-nothing cat, Boots

P.S. You can talk to Chuck all you want about the poker game, if you'd like. Just don't ask him what happened to his wedding ring.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Hot Talent

Featured Talent This Week

That Bit at the End - "A Wolff in Sheep's Clothing"

Subscribe | Unsubscribe Information

__________________________________________________

HOT TALENT

A new administration, a New Year, and new Aquent Talent.

They say that great things come in threes, right?

Well, if this list of stellar Aquent Talent doesn't prove that adage true, we don't know what does (certainly not Larry, Moe, and Curly).

Contact us for resumes, portfolios, or anything else you need!

Enjoy!
__________________________________________________

FEATURED TALENT THIS WEEK

Tony T. - Web and Print Creative Director
Dan M. - Brand Manager
Linda W. - Flash Developer
Gabriel M. - Project Manager
Ginger H. - Sr. Print Designer
Michael G. - Director of Product Marketing
Gavin G. - Data Analyst
Heidi F. - Marketing Project Manager
Miki Y. - Executive Assistant
Jennifer Z. - Sr. Packaging Designer
Kate K. - Print Designer with Toy Packaging
__________________________________________________

Tony T.
Web and Print Creative Director

Tony is a top Creative Director for Web and print that specializes in branding and corporate communications via presentations and videos.

Most recently he's been contracting with Baker Brand Communications on projects for clients such as Disney/ABC Television Group, Qualcomm, Allergan, and many more!  He created a video for ABC Television's internal brand launch that will be used globally, and handled everything from conducting the interviews and editing to mixing the audio and creating the motion graphics.

Tony was Creative Director at Satori Arts in NYC where his clients included MTV, Sony, Conde Nast, Goldman Sachs, and many others. He can easily transition between corporate and entertainment clients and really knows how to capture the look and feel of company or brand and make it come to life!

Currently on contract, Tony will be available in early February, so call us now to book him before someone else does!
__________________________________________________

Dan M.
Brand Manager

How many times have you wanted a Brand Manager on your team who has "outta this world" analytical skills? I'm not talking Sherlock Holmes; we're talking beyond that!

Well then you have to meet Dan.

Dan is a Brand Manager who has just what you're looking for. Most recently he was at Georgia-Pacific Corporation where he was responsible for managing and executing marketing plans for their premium Vanity Fair branded products. His biggest success was taking a product, creating a new print campaign, and relaunching it into the marketplace that resulted in adding $100M to their revenue! He also used both Nielson (scanning, Homescan panel, and Spectra) and internal shipment data to identify a $3M distribution opportunity for the company!

Dan is a Brand Manager who is sharp, provides results, and knows how to use data to create consumer profiles, competitive intelligence, demographic profiles, and identify consumer trends.

Don't you need Dan on YOUR team?  Of course, you do!
__________________________________________________

Linda W.
Flash Developer

Linda is a Flash Developer who works in AS2 and AS3 and has a great eye for design!

Linda has been working with Crew Creative on Flash Banners, online games, XML slideshows, and so much more for all the major entertainment studios. She created buttons for an interactive map for the film site "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" and created a "virtual dive" page for Discovery Channel's "Shark Week"... in German, no less!

She's also an expert in interface design for the really cool Wi-Fi device chumby, which works off live RSS feeds. In fact, she designed LA Time's interface for the device, which is featured on the chumby home site!

Linda's worked on projects for the NFL, Ty Toys, Budweiser, and so many more! In addition to Crew Creative, she's worked through WHITTMANHART, Animax, Brandissimo!, The Illusion Factory, and other advertising and design shops.

If you need a Flash Developer to develop and animate banners, use Flex Builder 2, AS2, or AS3, who can also tear it up on basic coding in XML, HTML and CSS, here's the right person for the job! Linda's fast, can handle a crazy environment, can work on both MAC and PC, and always gets the job done right!
__________________________________________________

Gabriel M.
Project Manager

As a Project Manager, Gabriel is currently responsible for setting schedules, updating internal clients, directing and regrouping a team of Graphic Designers and Production Artists, coordinating meetings, AND managing a Traffic Coordinator and Marketing Coordinator.

He is a busy guy INDEED!

Marketing initiatives have included direct mail pieces, international advertising, billboards, and industries include Fashion, Toys, Television, Beverage, and so many more. He currently manages 40 to 45 pieces at once (all in different stages), thrives under pressure, and can successfully ensure that everyone is on the same page and happy with the end result!

He's available right now for your permanent or freelance-to-permanent opportunity!
__________________________________________________

Ginger H.
Sr. Print Designer

Ginger is a wonderfully gifted Sr. Print Designer brand new to the LA area!

She most recently held the position of Graphic Design Manager at The Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa. She came in as Designer and impressed them so much that they realized they no longer needed to use their agency to do their work! Ginger was put in charge, and they hired a team of Designers for her to manage.

With her strong knowledge of print production, she saved them 33% in printing costs in one year alone. She created a multitude of stunning collateral for the resort, and her samples show really thrifty uses of both paper and printing.

Her experience includes publication design (she was Art Director, Designer and Production Artist at Thread Magazine), Broadcast (for the Fox affiliate in Miami), and Web (at Top Floor Studio).

Ginger is an extremely resourceful and talented Designer who can either lead or become an integral part of any team!
__________________________________________________

Michael G.
Director of Product Marketing

Many Aquent Talent shine, but Michael simply blazes!

An amazing Director of Product Marketing with his MBA who just so happens to be fluent in Portuguese and has working knowledge of Spanish. His well-tenured work history includes Health and Beauty (Neutrogena, Herbalife, Unilever, Bayer, and Freeman Cosmetics) and Food and Beverage (Kraft Foods on the Nabisco and A.1. Steak Sauce brands).

He has experience in both international and new business development, and his CPG experience is tops. While at Neutrogena he was responsible for innovation and go-to-market strategies. He was responsible for the core strategic business of $200M in sales and a $50M advertising budget.

This awesome candidate is ready for his next opportunity right NOW!
__________________________________________________

Gavin G.
Data Analyst

Gavin is a motivated Data Analyst with extensive knowledge in database management, database analysis, and professional application support.

He has 5 years experience as a Data Analyst of marketing systems and HR and works in Oracle, MySQL and Access databases. While at Kaiser Permanente he created and modified formatted marketing reports in iReport and BIRT, which also involved some savvy SQL writing. He also prepared campaign reports from SQL data extracts.

Gavin is incredibly sharp, armed with his Master's Degree in Information Systems, and has a real flair for marketing!
__________________________________________________

Heidi F.
Marketing Project Manager

Just now available, most recently Heidi has been doing stellar work for Kaiser Permanente as a Marketing Project Manager, managing the development of print collateral and Web content targeting the Asian market.

At Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, she oversaw the creation of packaging and collateral for all specialty products sold in grocery and club stores and cinemas across the country. She also handled analysis of the company's marketing campaigns and logistics of inventory. Managing their 2007 promotion at Ralph's Service Deli, she achieved a whopping 263% sales growth over the holiday season. Her creation and maintenance of a new budget data system resulted in a $10K savings for Coffee Bean.

As Marketing Manager at New York Life Insurance, she was responsible for customer acquisition and retention, as well as creation and analysis of all advertising and direct mail campaigns.

Bilingual in both English and Mandarin Chinese and skilled in strategic planning, make your project's (and your CEO's) day by bringing Heidi on board!
__________________________________________________

Miki Y.
Executive Assistant

Miki is a top Senior-Level Executive Assistant who was most recently at Diageo North America, whose brands include Bailey's, Guinness, Smirnoff, and Captain Morgan.

Miki provided support to the entire licensing division of 8 including the Senior Vice President and acted as liaison between the licensing department, outside vendors, and their headquarters in London. She also maintained their filing system, as well as handling tons of international travel, heavy calendaring, and an eye-popping array of global meetings.

At pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Inc. she provided support to 15 in their Global Sourcing Department. Miki also has experience within the worlds of entertainment (Nickelodeon), Banking/Investment (Bear, Stearns & Co.), and Advertising (DDB Worldwide)

Armed with an awesome personality and razor-sharp skills (including SAP), she's open to industry and is ready to start today!
__________________________________________________

Jennifer Z.
Sr. Packaging Designer
 
Jennifer is an awesome Graphic/Packaging Designer with over 9 years of experience.

Packaging, art direction for photo shoots, in-store marketing, counter displays, product promotions, window posters, and product knowledge guides...You name it and Jennifer has done it!

She has worked for Mattel, Herbalife, Physicians Formula, YSL Beauty, Gymboree, and Gap. She's flexible, efficient, focused, and has a great sense of color, space, typography and layout and is incredibly adept in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Quark. Jennifer is detail oriented and has a strong ability to handle multiple projects under tight deadlines.

Put her keen sense of style and awesome hands-on skills to work for you!
__________________________________________________

Kate K.
Print Designer with Toy Packaging

Kate is a Print Designer most recently at MGA Toys working on packaging, POP, retail advertising, showroom displays, and more. She worked with the engineering team to create inventive and cost-efficient packages and has a really solid understanding of the packaging process.

Before MGA, she designed for a record company in NYC where she worked on promo materials, identity, packaging, ads, and merchandise. One of the posters she did for Holster Records was so nice that it ended up being selected as a piece for a gallery show!

Kate has project management and production experience to complement her excellent design style, and she's super enthusiastic and ready to work.

Call us about her resume and awesome samples!

Sometimes being an in-house Designer has its downsides. Many times you're working with folks who don't understand you like to wear headphones while you work, for instance. Or think of you as the "unruly left hand of marketing". Of course there are many up sides (working for a steady and stable company, for instance. Or meeting with your client 6 times a day to show them your revisions, if you'd like), but they may not come from the creative community.

Well, HOW is hoping to change that by hosting a competition where you'll go neck and neck with in-house Design teams such as The North Face, Trader Joe's, Kate Spade, and Atlantic Records.

Think your team has got the stuff?

Pop on over to the InHOWse Design competition page.

(From Interactive Account Manager Jenn Tran)

Even the most social butterfly like myself will have those days where it's basically all about finding the nearest rock to hide under.

Now thanks to an article on Fast Company's Website I found out there are at least SEVEN "anti-social Facebook apps" on the site that can help me express my bah-humbug hermit days to all my Facebook friends.

As if there wasn't another reason to not click "ignore" when you get an application request from that person you haven't talked to since middle school, check out the article here.

My personal favorite is "The Whopper Sacrifice", delete a handful of friends and get a free burger?

DONE AND DONE!

THIS WEEK'S POSITIONS:

1. Web Content Manager
2. Project Manager
3. Web Art Director
4. Sr. Marketing Analyst
5. Director of Search
6. Product Manager
7. Digital Account Planner

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. POSITION: Web Content Manager 

TERMS: Freelance (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• Hands on Deltek content management experience 
• 3 to 5 years of professional experience as Web Content Manager
• Strong database knowledge

PERKS!:

• Great hours
• Big Brand name company

PAY:

• Up to $30 an hour

LOCATION:

• Pasadena 

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. POSITION: Project Manager

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 4+ years as a Project Manager (agency experience a plus)
• Traffic background
• Upbeat personality (yes, it's a must!)

PERKS!:

• Amazing team
• Fun projects, get to work with many different groups

PAY:

• Up to $65K

LOCATION:

• El Segundo

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. POSITION: Web Art Director

TERMS: Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 5+ years as an Interactive Art Director
• Must be able to design and storyboard for Flash
• Must have large entertainment clients in your book

PERKS!:

• Awesome people
• Fast growing agency

PAY:

• Up to $90K

LOCATION:

• Westside

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. POSITION: Sr Marketing Analyst

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• Degree in Math/Statistics, Marketing, Finance, Behavioral Sciences or
  equivalent
• Strong knowledge of data analysis and prototyping tools (SAS, SQL,
  advanced Excel)
• Knowledge of Web analytics tools a plus (Omniture, Google Analytics,
  DoubleClick/DART)

PERKS!:

• Top tier a agency

PAY:

• Up to $70K

LOCATION:

• LAX area

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. POSITION: Director of Search

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 7+ years of B2C online experience
• Must be an organic search expert
• Deep technical understanding of search engines

PERKS!:

• High exposure within the company

PAY:

• Up to $130K

LOCATION:

• Westside

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. POSITION: Product Manager

TERMS: Freelance-to-Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• 5 to 7 years of experience guiding strategic marketing, branding, and design efforts for fast-moving, lifestyle, consumer goods business
• Experience in beauty/wellness a must
• Experience managing all aspects of P&L, including direct control
  over operating expenses
• MBA required

PERKS!:

• Growing company
• Great work environment with a very friendly crew

PAY:

• Up to $125K

LOCATION:

• Santa Monica

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. POSITION: Digital Account Planner

TERMS: Permanent (On-Site)

MUST HAVES!:

• Agency account planning or relevant experience
• Ability to generate / analyze quantitative and qualitative data
• Familiarity with online analytics measures, terminology, and benchmarks

PERKS!:

• Hip multicultural marketing agency!
• Unique role involving traditional account planning and online analytics

PAY:

• Up to $75K

LOCATION:

• Downtown

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT AGENT

Here's a first, but probably not last. A Northern California dentist is suing a customer who posted bad review regarding the dentist's services on Yelp.

The dentist and her lawyer have dropped their suit against Yelp because, according to SFGate.com, "he wasn't aware when he filed the suit that Web sites publishing third-party content are protected under U.S. law."

I believe that's an Amendment or something.

So, are there going to be rules around what consumers can post about their experiences on public sites? I mean, if it's not libelous?

The full article is here.

Thoughts?

(photo by jurvetson)

To: All Tenants and Companies of 3550 Sunset Blvd.
From: Office of the Building

After a careful review of the building's blueprints by our architects, we now have confidence that many of the floors in our building have been incorrectly numbered.

This matter came to our attention after Herbert, our new security guard, pointed out that we have no "13" button on our elevator keypads. This was quickly confirmed by our crack legal staff, who crowded onto both elevators and tried in vain to access the 13th Floor.

In light to this recent information concerning our building, all floors above Floor 12 will be renumbered early next month. To determine the exact floor number you are on currently (if you are located above Floor 12), you must subtract 1 from your current floor's number.

As you might suspect, regrettably this leaves everyone currently on the 14th floor smack dab on Floor 13.

We'd like to take a moment to apologize in advance to all our tenants on our new 13th floor, as they will now be subject to hexes/spells/curses, bad feelings, and general ill will often associated with that number. Our unbiased panel of experts agreed that as a direct result of the renumbering, every person on Floor 13 would now experience random computer errors, blackouts, and the queer feeling that the building is listing to one side.

Potential incidents may also include the appearance of room-sized portals in the space/time continuum, swarms of locusts/bees/flies, unexplained murders, and the disembodied voice of Alex Trebek shouting out Jeopardy answers.

Our lawyers on the 16th (now 15th) floor are currently trying to contact the previous owner of the building, Lyle Hampshed, for a report on how such an egregious error in numbering could have occurred. At this time we have yet to receive calls back from his office in the Dominican Republic.

We wanted to thank those tenants who informed us of Mr. Hampshed's attempt to disguise the existence of the 13th floor by deliberately leaving it off the Building Directory and faking a heart attack whenever someone questioned him about the matter, a la TV's lovable Fred Sanford.

All elevator buttons, directory listings, etc. will be changed as of February 1, 2009. Please advise any clients, publications, and vendors of your new address. Be sure also to change your letterhead, business cards, envelopes, and any other collateral that contains outdated address information.

Floor 13 tenants may want to also inform life insurance companies and health care providers.

As a way of saying "Sorry about the bad luck," tenants on Floor 13 will be given a 13% discount on their utilities for the month of January and receive a 13% off coupon good at the building deli.

As we will not be personally delivering this memo to the 14th (now 13th) floor, we hope that someone would do us the courtesy of passing a copy of this memo to those tenants next time they visit.

Sorry, but the thought of stepping on Floor 13 really gives us the willies.

Thank you.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Hot Talent

Featured Talent This Week

That Bit at the End - "Just Your Luck"

Subscribe | Unsubscribe Information

__________________________________________________

HOT TALENT

Attack of the Killer Talent.

What do you get when you combine talent, personality, and blazing hot skills? We did exactly that and, as a direct result, now have a ton of killer Aquent Talent running amuck in our offices concepting award-winning direct mail pieces, formulating brand strategies, and re-editing our Newsletter.

We love them, but we've just got to get them out of here.

Surely you have something for the best Talent in town to do, right?

Ack!... They just rebranded our Web site.

That's the 3rd time this week.

Read on then give us a call.

Enjoy!
__________________________________________________

FEATURED TALENT THIS WEEK

Francine H. - Art Director | Creative Director
Caroline N. - Print Production | Traffic Manager
Jennifer G. - Brand Manager
Russell R. - Marketing Project Manager
Jerry C. - Front-End Developer
Andy C. - Sr. Production Artist
Ben M. - Flash Developer
Kirsti R. - Marketing (Brand) Communications | Creative Direction
Adam H. - Sr. HTML Coder
Sang N. - Sr. Product Manager
Matthew N. - Online Marketing Analyst
__________________________________________________

Francine H.
Art Director | Creative Director

Francine is a fantastic Art Director with many years of top publication and advertising experience.

A true creative, she has a strong love for hands-on design (she's a typography and color expert!) and mentoring the team around her. During her prolific career of freelancing, clients like her so much that they always ask her to come on board full time!

She's well able to manage advertising campaigns and full print collateral and her lengthy advertising client list includes Microsoft, United Airlines, Apple, DIRECTV, PetSmart, and Time/Warner, just to name a few. Her work includes Art Direction for Time Warner publications like People and Life, California Magazine, Exposure and Creative Direction for American Film Magazine.

Francine is looking to work on challenging projects with a great team. No job is too big or too small and her ego-free personality and sense of humor are the icing on the cake!
__________________________________________________

Caroline N.
Print Production | Traffic Manager

Caroline is one of Aquent's favorite Talents and has been partnering with us for 10 years!

She has a proven track record of successfully overseeing project work for print in the realm of identity, brand, and especially collateral. In addition, she also has experience trafficking Web and interactive projects as part of a creative team. She has been in every environment from large advertising agencies to in-house marketing departments of corporate clients. An expert in print production, she uses her prepress and print knowledge to manage even the most complex print projects.

Caroline keeps project teams on track, writes and revises schedules, coordinates with vendors, and contracts with freelance Talent for all aspects of production (including traffic, budgets, specifications and pricing estimates, and workflow through completion to delivery).

Her appreciative clients include, Electronic Arts, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Universal, ABC.com, and Warner Bros.

She's incredibly professional and has a great attitude!
__________________________________________________

Jennifer G.
Brand Manager

Jennifer is a proven leader with extensive Brand Management experience in the food & beverage and beauty industries.

An MBA Talent, she has demonstrated competence in the development and implementation of marketing strategy and plans, segmentation, product positioning, branding, new product development, promotions, market research, and budget management. Jennifer loves to tackle every brand challenge with professionalism and passion, never shying away from large and challenging projects.

At Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages she created, developed, and managed a new Snapple platform (Super Premium Teas) that delivered $19.3M in '06 and $47M in '07, driving overall brand growth and profitability. As Global Marketing Manager at Prescriptives (Estee Lauder) she executed new product launches, restages, and shade extensions for all Makeup Categories (a $100M portfolio).

A terrific Aquent Talent who won't be available for long!
__________________________________________________

Russell R.
Marketing Project Manager

Most recently at Nutro Products/Mars Inc., Russell was responsible for managing marketing promotional campaigns including coupons, sweepstakes, and promotional merchandise catalogs. Not only did he oversee the development of campaign materials for the repackaging of MAX pet food brand, he also managed the creative development and production of in-store POP displays.

At KIA Motors he developed marketing materials and in-store point-of-sale materials for the national dealer network. He's also incredibly number savvy, serving as Senior Business Analyst for Boeing handling incredibly complex (not to mention high dollar figure) proposals for the International Space Station.

Get your next project off the ground at lightning speed, call us about Russell!
__________________________________________________

Jerry C.
Front-End Developer

A well-tenured Aquent Superstar who our clients have LOVED everywhere we've sent him! 

Here's an experienced and unbelievably skilled Front-End Developer who works in PHP, ASP, TCL, SQL, SS/CS JavaScript, DHTML, XML, XSL, CSS, CGI, VB, VBScript, and (if you can believe it) more! He also has experience database programming with MySQL, Illustra, and others.

As Project Lead/Senior Developer at LA.com, Jerry oversaw their system migration and managed outside vendors as well as set up their CMS! At DailyBreeze.com, he was able to streamline their processes and online advertising, saving them time and money, and increased revenue from $400k to $1.2 million in just two short years!

At interactive marketing agency Envision Group, he was a Web Developer for large sites for the likes of Neutrogena, Isuzu, Samsung, and Mazda. Jerry is able to manage teams, large-scale projects, CMS systems, database programming, vendors, overseas teams, and so much more.

If you don't get to meet Jerry, you are missing out on one heck of a Talent!
__________________________________________________

Andy C.
Sr. Production Artist

Here is one Talent so hot, he is on FIRE!

Andy is unbelievably quick, painstakingly accurate, and quite frankly, has production skills that are out of this world.

This superstar Production Artist has worked for clients such as Infiniti, Nissan, Apple, PlayStation, Gateway, Mattress Gallery... okay, you get the point.

Working at TBWA/Chiat/Day, Woo Agency, and The Ballpark, we could go on and on about his chops.

But by the time we did, he'd probably be working somewhere else.

So you should let us know you want to meet him now!
__________________________________________________

Ben M.
Flash Developer

A recent transplant from our Portland office, Ben is the hard charging, "Die Hard" Bruce Willis of Flash Developers!  (From the first "Die Hard," we'd like to point out.)

In his last position through Aquent, he was the lead Flash Developer for Nike. He worked on a complete rehaul of the niketeam.com site, a really cool Flash application that provided teams with previews of their custom uniform orders.

Ben's created many interactive sites for corporate clients on his own and his technical know-how goes WAY beyond AS2 and AS3. His career started in application development as a C# Web Application Developer for a large financial institution and he has heavy experience with back-end, front-end, and database driven applications.

An awesome LA newcomer!
__________________________________________________

Kirsti R.
Marketing (Brand) Communications | Creative Direction

Isn't life beautiful when you can get the whole package in one dynamic Aquent Talent?

Kirsti comes to Aquent fresh from Herbalife International where she was the Global Brand Strategy Manager, leading a team of 50 direct reports and responsible for brand alignment across 70 global markets. While onboard she conducted a company-wide audit of marketing and product collateral to renovate the next evolution of the Herbalife Brand and product launch style guides. She also developed global style guides system to support a broad product portfolio across multiple communication channels.

While Creative Strategy Manager at Amgen she translated business objectives into effective creative strategies and solutions. As Design Manager Creative at Disney Consumer Products she was design team lead (managing 22) for trend research, style guides, packaging, and product development. She was a key innovator on the Mickey brand relaunch, delivering strategy and concept for statement brochure and positioning the brand in a new light.

A powerhouse Aquent Talent!
__________________________________________________

Adam H.
Sr. HTML Coder

We're glad to have Adam back working with us, and you will too!

A Sr. LAMP Developer from Disney TV Animation, he led the full-life cycle development on a team of 3 for an incredibly high volume Web-based production system. During his tenure he was responsible for several new internal application rollouts, in addition to coming up with best practices, coding guidelines and mentoring Junior Developers.

Adam knows object oriented PHP like the back of his hand and thrives in fast-paced mission critical Internet environments! He has PHP/HTML/CSS/JavaScript/XSLT/XSLFO and is highly adept to building out database-driven open-source applications.

He just wrapped up a stellar freelance assignment with Sony and is available to start right NOW!
__________________________________________________

Sang N.
Sr. Product Manager

Sang is a standout Talent with 8+ years of strong online product development experience! 

He was recently the Sr. Product Manager at Sportnet.com managing product launches for community properties such as Motocross.com, Skateboard.com, Swimnetwork.com, Gymnast.com, and MMArated.com. For the latter he managed full P&L duties and complete development of the site through launch. Within a mere 6 months the site reached 600K page views and 160K unique users!! 

Prior to Sportnet.com, he served as the Product Design Lead at the social networking site Friendster.com and Product Design Manager at City Search.com, managing full site redesigns and development of product features (creating all wireframes, mock ups, and functional specifications).

Sang has an extremely strong technical background (he began his career as UI Developer working on corporate sites for Fortune 100 clients) and would compliment any savvy online marketing team!

__________________________________________________

Matthew N.
Online Marketing Analyst

Matthew is a sharp Talent brand new to the LA market, coming to us direct from NYC.

He has 4+ years of experience working as Systems and Marketing Analyst for First Data Corporation (Western Union) and Conde Nast for major publications like Vogue, GQ, Wired, Vanity Fair, W, Details, and many others.

At Conde Nast, he led all reporting and analytic projects for both online and offline marketing campaigns including sweepstakes, promotions, product releases, and consumer information. He has very strong SQL skills, is able to create/modify extensive queries, and can manage all site metrics reporting with WebTrends and Google Analytics. 

He's also served as the Lead Project Manager setting systems requirements and managing vendors for a new Web storage and content management system. 

Don't delay, call us about Matthew!

IN THIS ISSUE:

Hot Talent

Featured Talent This Week

That Bit at the End - "Just Your Luck"

Subscribe | Unsubscribe Information

__________________________________________________

HOT TALENT

Attack of the Killer Talent.

What do you get when you combine talent, personality, and blazing hot skills? We did exactly that and, as a direct result, now have a ton of killer Aquent Talent running amuck in our offices concepting award-winning direct mail pieces, formulating brand strategies, and re-editing our Newsletter.

We love them, but we've just got to get them out of here.

Surely you have something for the best Talent in town to do, right?

Ack!... They just rebranded our Web site.

That's the 3rd time this week.

Read on then give us a call.

Enjoy!
__________________________________________________

FEATURED TALENT THIS WEEK

Francine H. - Art Director | Creative Director
Caroline N. - Print Production | Traffic Manager
Jennifer G. - Brand Manager
Russell R. - Marketing Project Manager
Jerry C. - Front-End Developer
Andy C. - Sr. Production Artist
Ben M. - Flash Developer
Kirsti R. - Marketing (Brand) Communications | Creative Direction
Adam H. - Sr. HTML Coder
Sang N. - Sr. Product Manager
Matthew N. - Online Marketing Analyst
__________________________________________________

Francine H.
Art Director | Creative Director

Francine is a fantastic Art Director with many years of top publication and advertising experience.

A true creative, she has a strong love for hands-on design (she's a typography and color expert!) and mentoring the team around her. During her prolific career of freelancing, clients like her so much that they always ask her to come on board full time!

She's well able to manage advertising campaigns and full print collateral and her lengthy advertising client list includes Microsoft, United Airlines, Apple, DIRECTV, PetSmart, and Time/Warner, just to name a few. Her work includes Art Direction for Time Warner publications like People and Life, California Magazine, Exposure and Creative Direction for American Film Magazine.

Francine is looking to work on challenging projects with a great team. No job is too big or too small and her ego-free personality and sense of humor are the icing on the cake!
__________________________________________________

Caroline N.
Print Production | Traffic Manager

Caroline is one of Aquent's favorite Talents and has been partnering with us for 10 years!

She has a proven track record of successfully overseeing project work for print in the realm of identity, brand, and especially collateral. In addition, she also has experience trafficking Web and interactive projects as part of a creative team. She has been in every environment from large advertising agencies to in-house marketing departments of corporate clients. An expert in print production, she uses her prepress and print knowledge to manage even the most complex print projects.

Caroline keeps project teams on track, writes and revises schedules, coordinates with vendors, and contracts with freelance Talent for all aspects of production (including traffic, budgets, specifications and pricing estimates, and workflow through completion to delivery).

Her appreciative clients include, Electronic Arts, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Universal, ABC.com, and Warner Bros.

She's incredibly professional and has a great attitude!
__________________________________________________

Jennifer G.
Brand Manager

Jennifer is a proven leader with extensive Brand Management experience in the food & beverage and beauty industries.

An MBA Talent, she has demonstrated competence in the development and implementation of marketing strategy and plans, segmentation, product positioning, branding, new product development, promotions, market research, and budget management. Jennifer loves to tackle every brand challenge with professionalism and passion, never shying away from large and challenging projects.

At Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages she created, developed, and managed a new Snapple platform (Super Premium Teas) that delivered $19.3M in '06 and $47M in '07, driving overall brand growth and profitability. As Global Marketing Manager at Prescriptives (Estee Lauder) she executed new product launches, restages, and shade extensions for all Makeup Categories (a $100M portfolio).

A terrific Aquent Talent who won't be available for long!
__________________________________________________

Russell R.
Marketing Project Manager

Most recently at Nutro Products/Mars Inc., Russell was responsible for managing marketing promotional campaigns including coupons, sweepstakes, and promotional merchandise catalogs. Not only did he oversee the development of campaign materials for the repackaging of MAX pet food brand, he also managed the creative development and production of in-store POP displays.

At KIA Motors he developed marketing materials and in-store point-of-sale materials for the national dealer network. He's also incredibly number savvy, serving as Senior Business Analyst for Boeing handling incredibly complex (not to mention high dollar figure) proposals for the International Space Station.

Get your next project off the ground at lightning speed, call us about Russell!
__________________________________________________

Jerry C.
Front-End Developer

A well-tenured Aquent Superstar who our clients have LOVED everywhere we've sent him! 

Here's an experienced and unbelievably skilled Front-End Developer who works in PHP, ASP, TCL, SQL, SS/CS JavaScript, DHTML, XML, XSL, CSS, CGI, VB, VBScript, and (if you can believe it) more! He also has experience database programming with MySQL, Illustra, and others.

As Project Lead/Senior Developer at LA.com, Jerry oversaw their system migration and managed outside vendors as well as set up their CMS! At DailyBreeze.com, he was able to streamline their processes and online advertising, saving them time and money, and increased revenue from $400k to $1.2 million in just two short years!

At interactive marketing agency Envision Group, he was a Web Developer for large sites for the likes of Neutrogena, Isuzu, Samsung, and Mazda. Jerry is able to manage teams, large-scale projects, CMS systems, database programming, vendors, overseas teams, and so much more.

If you don't get to meet Jerry, you are missing out on one heck of a Talent!
__________________________________________________

Andy C.
Sr. Production Artist

Here is one Talent so hot, he is on FIRE!

Andy is unbelievably quick, painstakingly accurate, and quite frankly, has production skills that are out of this world.

This superstar Production Artist has worked for clients such as Infiniti, Nissan, Apple, PlayStation, Gateway, Mattress Gallery... okay, you get the point.

Working at TBWA/Chiat/Day, Woo Agency, and The Ballpark, we could go on and on about his chops.

But by the time we did, he'd probably be working somewhere else.

So you should let us know you want to meet him now!
__________________________________________________

Ben M.
Flash Developer

A recent transplant from our Portland office, Ben is the hard charging, "Die Hard" Bruce Willis of Flash Developers!  (From the first "Die Hard," we'd like to point out.)

In his last position through Aquent, he was the lead Flash Developer for Nike. He worked on a complete rehaul of the niketeam.com site, a really cool Flash application that provided teams with previews of their custom uniform orders.

Ben's created many interactive sites for corporate clients on his own and his technical know-how goes WAY beyond AS2 and AS3. His career started in application development as a C# Web Application Developer for a large financial institution and he has heavy experience with back-end, front-end, and database driven applications.

An awesome LA newcomer!
__________________________________________________

Kirsti R.
Marketing (Brand) Communications | Creative Direction

Isn't life beautiful when you can get the whole package in one dynamic Aquent Talent?

Kirsti comes to Aquent fresh from Herbalife International where she was the Global Brand Strategy Manager, leading a team of 50 direct reports and responsible for brand alignment across 70 global markets. While onboard she conducted a company-wide audit of marketing and product collateral to renovate the next evolution of the Herbalife Brand and product launch style guides. She also developed global style guides system to support a broad product portfolio across multiple communication channels.

While Creative Strategy Manager at Amgen she translated business objectives into effective creative strategies and solutions. As Design Manager Creative at Disney Consumer Products she was design team lead (managing 22) for trend research, style guides, packaging, and product development. She was a key innovator on the Mickey brand relaunch, delivering strategy and concept for statement brochure and positioning the brand in a new light.

A powerhouse Aquent Talent!
__________________________________________________

Adam H.
Sr. HTML Coder

We're glad to have Adam back working with us, and you will too!

A Sr. LAMP Developer from Disney TV Animation, he led the full-life cycle development on a team of 3 for an incredibly high volume Web-based production system. During his tenure he was responsible for several new internal application rollouts, in addition to coming up with best practices, coding guidelines and mentoring Junior Developers.

Adam knows object oriented PHP like the back of his hand and thrives in fast-paced mission critical Internet environments! He has PHP/HTML/CSS/JavaScript/XSLT/XSLFO and is highly adept to building out database-driven open-source applications.

He just wrapped up a stellar freelance assignment with Sony and is available to start right NOW!
__________________________________________________

Sang N.
Sr. Product Manager

Sang is a standout Talent with 8+ years of strong online product development experience! 

He was recently the Sr. Product Manager at Sportnet.com managing product launches for community properties such as Motocross.com, Skateboard.com, Swimnetwork.com, Gymnast.com, and MMArated.com. For the latter he managed full P&L duties and complete development of the site through launch. Within a mere 6 months the site reached 600K page views and 160K unique users!! 

Prior to Sportnet.com, he served as the Product Design Lead at the social networking site Friendster.com and Product Design Manager at City Search.com, managing full site redesigns and development of product features (creating all wireframes, mock ups, and functional specifications).

Sang has an extremely strong technical background (he began his career as UI Developer working on corporate sites for Fortune 100 clients) and would compliment any savvy online marketing team!

__________________________________________________

Matthew N.
Online Marketing Analyst

Matthew is a sharp Talent brand new to the LA market, coming to us direct from NYC.

He has 4+ years of experience working as Systems and Marketing Analyst for First Data Corporation (Western Union) and Conde Nast for major publications like Vogue, GQ, Wired, Vanity Fair, W, Details, and many others.

At Conde Nast, he led all reporting and analytic projects for both online and offline marketing campaigns including sweepstakes, promotions, product releases, and consumer information. He has very strong SQL skills, is able to create/modify extensive queries, and can manage all site metrics reporting with WebTrends and Google Analytics. 

He's also served as the Lead Project Manager setting systems requirements and managing vendors for a new Web storage and content management system. 

Don't delay, call us about Matthew!

If I told you that you could save millions of dollars by bringing your online marketing department in-house, I would expect that you would close this blog and never visit it again.

But if I told you that Eric Waldinger, Aquent's Online Marketing Practice Leader would be presenting this topic in an AMA Webcast, then you would probably be safe to read this blog again tomorrow.

After registering for the free Webcast, of course.

Eric has personally promised me that he will:
 
* Provide an overview of Aquent and the AMA's recent Hiring Trends Survey
* Detail the benefits of bringing your digital marketing department in-house
* Specify how this department should be structured and managed
* Explain how all of this will save your company time and money

If he doesn't, he's said he will take us all to lunch at someplace really, really nice.

Which will be a huge step up from my usual visit to Subway, I gotta tell you.

So let's all tune in and see if we're either going to save some money or get a nice lunch at a place where you don't have to wait in line for your food.

The 'cast will be on Tuesday, Jan. 27th at 11am PST.

Details and registration page right here.
 

(Photo of worthless money by ZeroOne)

(Is this the last customer service person you spoke with?)

All right everyone, I am willing, even after my extended rant last week, to give BevMo! another try.

Happily.

Why, you ask, after all the trouble I had?

What if I told you that BevMo's EVP, David Richards, was scouring the Web for people blogging about his brand, read my blog, and then contacted me with his phone number so we could sort things out?

Fairly compelling, wouldn't you say?

(I remember a few years ago a colleague who worked at Microsoft blogged about a Sr. Executive who stopped to pick up a paper towel in the hallway that someone had carelessly thrown down. She was impressed that an executive would care enough to stop and help clean up company property, when it was obviously not his/her job. Well, this is that scenario magnified by about 5000%.)

First off, David apologized and took responsibility for his company's error. He called the store and investigated what happened. Most significantly, I think he used GoogleAlerts actively searching for Bloggers talking about BevMo! He's looking for the chinks in the marketing and customer service armor, so to speak.

He spoke with me until I had my say, and then let me know what he was doing to correct it (speaking with the store to figure out why there were so many issues, following up with the vendor who sold them the moldy wine), and wondered if we'd try BevMo! out again if he gave us a $50 gift certificate for our difficulties. (Um, absolutely.)

He followed up with 4 more emails letting me know that the wines we bought seemed to be the only moldy case and gave me a suggestion for another Chardonnay we might be interested in purchasing.

Yes, all this from the company's EVP.

This should be a rallying cry to all you Bloggers out there: many of the companies out in the world are actively looking for your customer experiences (I know Aquent for one, is). You are currently a squeaky wheel and it's the perfect time to let a business know where they are failing to deliver or where they're hitting their goals.

After talking to this guy for 20 minutes, I could tell he was passionate about what he does and that he wants his customer experiences to be great. It seems to me that more companies are eager to know their consumer insights and are listening to Bloggers to see what an average consumer's point of view is like (plus it's a very, very public commentary).

So thanks again, David for taking your time and patience to listen to my rant and make things right.

I bet you I can probably find a couple folks around here to drink the Chardonnay you recommended.

We'll wait until after 5p.

Aquent Graphic Institute's trainer Chad Chelius wrote this nice little piece on the Markzware blog, because he loved their inexpensive plug ins which convert either QuarkXPress to InDesign files or vice versa.

If you're in the print world, you might want to put the Markzware blog on your watch list, recent posts include How to Get Started with Twitter (for Printers) and Print Will Rise from the Ashes.

Boy, that last article does not sound really hopeful, does it?

Maybe you should start out reading that one first, then go to the one about the plug ins.

Just watching out for you, man.

Dear friends, family, and coworkers,

Taking a lesson from those folks kind enough to forward me the e-mail with the subject line "FWD: FWD: FWD: Don't Sweat the SMALL Stuff!", I wanted to take a moment to thank you for helping me get my 2009 in order so early in the year.

As the last line of the e-mail recommends, I will now no longer be "sweating the small stuff." Whoever the guy is who wrote it knew what he was talking about. He realized people on their deathbed never say, "I wish I spent more time at the office."

After a long, hard reflection about the e-mail this weekend, I realized there are many things I'll be regretting on my deathbed.

Paying taxes, for one.

I cannot for the life of me, picture myself years from now, on my deathbed, calling my son over to tell him, "I wish I'd paid more taxes." Quite the opposite. I wish I'd never paid taxes. Damn the roads, schools, and hospitals, I could use a plasma screen TV while I am still young enough to enjoy it. Taxes are out from 2008 on.

I also realized that even though I don't work a lot of overtime at my office, realistically I enjoy less than half of the 40 hours I'm on premises. Mostly the part not spent in meetings. So, starting February 1, I'll be scaling back to 20 hours and dropping out of all my weekly update meetings.

Considering those experiences I want to have more of, many things come to mind. I've organized a list and will be devoting all my additional time this year to these areas.

What may come as a surprise to many is that "Spending More Time with My Family" did not make the cut. Don't get me wrong; I love my family, but I have no overpowering urge to spend any more time with them than I already do. As a matter of fact, during the recent winter break from school they all started really getting on my last nerve. Spending my supplementary time with them might actually drive me to my deathbed sooner. Once again, I don't want to spend my final moments calling them over to say, "Could you please all get the heck out of this room before I kill you?" It's not the final thought I'd really like to impart.

The real shocker for me was just how highly "Watching More TV" ranked on the list. I realized with the sheer bounty of excellent television shows out there and the limited time I can spend at home watching them, I'm missing out on quite a lot of fun. Accomplishing this task may take purchasing a second TiVo system, but I'm sure it will be well worth it.

Exercising also didn't hit the Top 10 (or Top 50 for that matter). If I have limited time on this Earth, do I really want to spend it running in the hot sun and getting sweaty?  No. In fact, my family rarely appreciates when I come back to the house from a long, hot run. They just tell me to get in the shower and stop dripping all over the kitchen floor. Once again, this suggests I should be spending more time in front of the TV. Heck, since scientists already suspect people's metabolism goes down just by sitting in front of the tube, if I spend most of my time there, I might just live longer than most people. A bonus, wouldn't you say? Especially to a guy the small stuff fails to bother.

I've also had to face the hard reality that reading the newspaper is a big, fat waste of my time. I realized that I always become miserable when I read it. Most depressing is the fact I still can't figure out the Sudoku puzzle, no matter how many times I have it explained to me. The subscription to the paper is going in February '09.

I've also decided that I'm only going to listen to my children when they have something important to say, thus eliminate a lot of whining, arguing, and non-stop drivel. So I've devised a system so they can email me questions which I can either answer quickly (via email) or delete their messages outright. This should eliminate quite a lot of heartburn on my part.

Boy, this year is going to see a lot less of this guy installing virus updates on his computer, taking the garbage out, recycling, flossing, using salad tongs, changing batteries in smoke detectors, shaving, taking vitamins, setting up Christmas trees, filing, and pausing at stop signs.

What this year actually looks to hold is a HEAPS more time surfing the Web while watching TV, browsing through the Goodwill stores for old vinyl LPs my wife carelessly gave away during the early part of our marriage, and a heck of a lot more Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

Yes, you could call 2009 the Year of the Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

So feel free to forward this e-mail to 10 of your friends!

And remember: It's all small stuff!

Except the TiVo and the Cheetos.

Those two seem pretty essential.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Hot Talent

Featured Talent This Week

That Bit at the End - "Don't Shvitz the Drek"

Subscribe | Unsubscribe Information
__________________________________________________

HOT TALENT

Along with every New Year come so many questions.

Like where did you file that important e-mail you got at 5pm on December 23rd, 2008?

Why did the stack of papers on your desk get bigger during your holiday vacation?

How long will it take for your neighbor to discover that the Sanitation Department has no intention of picking up the Christmas tree he left by the curb?

Though Aquent can't answer any of these specifically, we can provide this week's list of wonderful Aquent Talent who are guaranteed to solve your toughest creative and marketing conundrums.

Please just don't ask them to run the wood chipper.

Enjoy!
__________________________________________________

FEATURED TALENT THIS WEEK

Cheri G. - Sr. Print Creative Director
Chris C.- Art Director
Mark D. - Director of New Media/Web Producer
Torrie I. - Sr. Marketing Analyst
Susan E. - Online Marketing Manager
Michael R. - Marketing Manager
Frank S. - Sr. Online Product Manager
Michael H. - Front-End Developer | PHP
Gene B. - AS3 Flash Developer
Mo T. - Sr. Print Designer
Susann M. - Print Designer
__________________________________________________

Cheri G.
Sr. Print Creative Director

The creme de la creme of Creative Directors.

She is founder of a top consultancy firm specializing in integrated strategic brand design and image development for all media. Since its inception over 12 years ago, Cheri has won recognition for her landmark work in corporate identity and brand extension for such high-profile clients as Sony Music, Mercedes, The Walt Disney Co., Honda, Acura, Cal Arts, LACMA, The Getty Conservation, the LA Arts Commission, and the Beverly Center.

She has won two Grammy nominations and numerous awards for design excellence, and her work has been published in all the major design annuals, "In Style" magazine, and has been featured on HBO and Extra.

In addition to an award-winning book, Cheri is an expert in print production, where she achieves stunning finished pieces while simultaneously stretching the all-mighty dollar. She has elevated brands like Bebe, Mercedes, RYA Design Consultancy, and Sea Island Resort through her creative direction and hands-on design. Her passion for design is as strong as her passion for mentoring a team of talented Designers, she's a great teacher! All the while, she will settle for nothing less than extraordinary results.

Cheri is a top notch Creative Director and the ultimate brand elevator!
__________________________________________________

Chris C.
Art Director

Former Art Director at Hamon & Associates, David and Goliath, Ogilvy & Mather, and Lambesis Communications, Chris has worked on more brands than you can shake a stick at.

Well, maybe if you found a really big stick.

Hyundai, Logitech, Bosch, Mitsubishi, Bacardi, Kia, ReMax, El Pollo Loco, Mattel, Motorola, Airwalk, Proctor & Gamble, Nordstrom? If you need to market anything from shoes to houses, you need to meet this guy.

He's created a new and unique voice for Anheuser-Busch's new beer, done outstanding ID work for the Hard Rock Casino's Mexican restaurant, and served as Creative Director for a start-up cosmetics company that's grown to more than 33 store locations.

But enough of our yakking, give us a call (or email) and we'll send you his resume!
__________________________________________________

Mark D.
Director of New Media/Web Producer

Mark is a Sr. Web Producer with over 8 years of standout experience creating high profile artist sites! His amazing roster includes Tom Petty, Kiss, Robin Williams, Madonna, Ali G, Fleetwood Mac, Def Leppard, and Alice Cooper, just to name a few. 

Since 2006 he has been the Director of New Media/Senior Web Producer at Live Nation, overseeing full-cycle development for sites and e-commerce portals for some of their biggest artists. Mark was charge of all budgeting, functional specifications, wireframes, UI analysis, and vendor management for site development through launch. He also developed the online marketing campaigns which utilized micro-sites, email blasts, SEO, paid search, and social networking initiatives. 

His great personality and awesome skillset are bound to have you singing!
__________________________________________________

Torrie I.
Sr. Marketing Analyst

Torrie is a terrific Aquent Talent with over 6 years of marketing and analytics experience in the financial services industry.

She was last the Director of Marketing at CapNet Financial Services, in charge of implementing analytics and business intelligence solutions for direct mail marketing campaigns. Torrie led the process of switching all data tracking from advanced Excel to a micro data warehouse and reporting structure using SQL, Crystal Reports, and QlikView. She also utilized Google Analytics for tracking all direct mail campaigns with online features. 

Prior to CapNet, she was Strategy Analyst for Five Point Capital, creating predictive models, target market lists, and performance reports for direct marketing campaigns. 

Torrie holds a degree from Stanford in Economics and Industrial Engineering and may just be your best find for 2009!
__________________________________________________

Susan E.
Online Marketing Manager

Brand new to Los Angeles, Susan is a dynamic Online Marketing Manager with 5+ years of experience with big name brands such as Circuit City, AutoLoan.com, and Hamilton Beach

At Hamilton Beach Brands, she managed their complete corporate Website redesign and e-marketing campaigns including sweepstakes, podcast placements, rich media ads, and intensive email campaigns. 

For Circuit City she served as Digital Marketing Manager for their online retention program.  Susan oversaw all strategy, planning, and budget for programs including multi-channel marketing, RSS programs, e-newsletters, and trigger emails that attained sales in excess of $65 million (200% of goal!)

Armed with her MBA with an e-commerce concentration, she's bound to make your brand really blast off!
__________________________________________________

Michael R.
Marketing Manager

Michael was most recently Marketing Manager at The Walt Disney Company. In this role, he was responsible for building CRM (Consumer Relationship Management) programs that increased loyalty & retention, developing and executing integrated marketing plans, developing annual marketing roadmaps, developing new products, qualitative and quantitative research, and acquisition and retention.

Prior to that he was a Marketing Associate at Nestle, where he was responsible for the Coffee & Creamer Category. Michael was responsible for leading product innovation projects, preparing a strategic brand plan, and led creative development of media.

Michael is a proven leader who has strong qualitative and quantitative research skills, P&L experience, and ready take your product to the next level!
__________________________________________________

Frank S.
Sr. Online Product Manager

A Sr. Web Product Manager with over 10 years of standout experience!

Most recently Sr. Product Manger at Helio, Frank directed all Website features and a team of 20 that included Designers, UX Engineers, Analytics Managers, and QA analysts. 

He began his career as a Java and J2EE Developer Consultant for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, supporting top clients such as Warner Home Video, LA Times, WellPoint, and Sears with system architecture and Web solutions. Since then, he's utilized his strong technical background to move into a more strategic product management roll focusing on Web design, enhancements, and integration.

At Helio, he was responsible for all product roadmap planning through execution.  He led a $450K site redesign to launch new features based on UX findings and to support mobile features. Frank also managed their first venture into Web 2.0 by integrating their "Social Etiquette Blog" and mobile community features. 

This standout Talent won't be standing long, so call us before someone else does!
__________________________________________________

Michael H.
Front-End Developer | PHP

A multi-discipline Developer, Michael has a broad skill set and a great track record of creating top notch projects using both client-side and server-side technologies.

Michael was most recently working on Kaiser Permanente's member health pages producing and documenting standards for AJAX/JavaScript and producing HTML for microsites and main site releases.

His extensive experience includes Manager of Web Development at Warner Bros. Records, Web Production Manager at GSCM Ventures, and Web Developer at NextClient.

He loves the creative process as much as the techie stuff and his skills are awesome, nabbing a near perfect score on our HTML assessment. His large bag of tricks includes XML, Flash/AS2, MySQL, Photoshop, and Illustrator, and (avid learner that he is) he's always adding more.

Michael's an awesome Aquent Talent and ready for his next challenge!
__________________________________________________

Gene B.
AS3 Flash Developer

Just finishing up some stellar work at Creative Asylum, doing AS3 coding on the online game for Fox's film The Rocker, Gene is available starting next week!

He is a scorching hot ActionScript 3 Developer with some serious application development skills. Not only does he have a Master's in Engineering from MIT, he has spent a good amount of his development career working in fast-paced financial institution like Barclays and Salomon Brothers!

His time in Southern California has been spent freelancing on his own for several financial and mid-sized businesses where he's developed Flash-based Websites, rich media, online games, and much more. He has a strong understanding of development for heavy database-driven applications and has a ton of algorithm development experience as well! He's great as a one--person show or working cohesively with large teams.

In addition to his Flash development knowledge , Gene has a strong open source development background with object-oriented PHP/MySQL and SQL.

Gene is a hardcore application Developer that can do some serious damage with AS3 and is available Monday!
__________________________________________________

Mo T.
Sr. Print Designer

Mo has 7 years of incredible design experience who was most recently at MVP publications, creating beautiful layouts and ads for Guest Informant and Where Magazine/Guestbook.

Mo is an accomplished team leader as well as a team player. With his hands-on design and production skills, he's well able to see multiple projects through from brainstorming conception to stunning completion. No stranger to tight deadlines, he works diligently to achieve extraordinary results while completing all projects on schedule.

At MVP he designed 2 to 3 books every month, each containing over 100 pages! We don't have to tell you, that's a heck of a lot of work.

Mo has a delightful personality, a great attitude, and is as hard working as they come.

He's available NOW for Permanent and Freelance-to-Permanent opportunities.
__________________________________________________

Susann M.
Print Designer

Susann is a wonderful print designer with 5 years ad agency experience.

Her incredible portfolio showcases her beautiful use of imagery and typography in projects ranging from identity and branding to packaging and advertising. Early on in her career at Buchanan & Associates in Ohio, she had hands on experience in various aspects of the creative process like photo shoot direction, model selection, photo retouching, and print production. In LA she's worked at agencies such as Strausberg Group, M1 Partnership, and landed a cool freelance gig working for SBE Hotels, where she created the identity system and packaging for their Ciel Spa.

Susann consistently achieves excellence while juggling several projects at once and is always hungry for more. She prefers an environment where she can concept, design, and produce as part of a creative team.

Her easy going and bright personality would be a great addition to any agency or in-house team!

Call me a heretic, but I've never liked Van Halen. Or David Lee Roth. (Who I hold personally responsible for ruining the song Happy Trails.)

But I think lovers and haters of both will still flip for the David Lee Roth "Runnin' with the Devil" Soundboard, which allows you to hear whichever Rothism from the song you'd like, from "Ahhh Haaaa" to "Live My Life Like There's No Tomorrow."

Click here to be delivered to David Lee Roth heaven (or hell).

Okay, probably all day.

Dang it, when you get emails like this it just brightens your whole day, doesn't it?

Everyone,

I'm sad and happy at the same time. I guess you know S____ decided to offer me a spot on their employee's roster. I will miss you all at Aquent, even though we only met once or twice.

Thanks you all for having faith in me to send me over to them.  Thanks for answering my questions on the phone about payroll and benefits.  Thanks for putting up with me when I was late on my time cards (hopefully not many).  Thanks for making working for Aquent easy and enjoyable. Thanks for having a website that made me the envy of the other contract workers when filling out time cards. Thanks for the surprise ... milk and cookies!! Thanks for offering me a way to live well.

I don't know what lies out in the far future, but it seems we are all "really" contract people all the time out here. If I do leave my current spot, I hope you will welcome me back if you have a spot for me.

A million thanks,

T.


Let's take this as our big ol' action item today. Thank someone you've gotten excellent customer service from in the past couple of weeks. Let them know they're doing a good job. Give them something to gloat about over dinner tonight.

I'm working on my BevMo! blog - if you can believe it, their EVP read my blog post and has been calling and emailing me to get everything straightened out from my Great Wine Disaster 2008.

You've Asked Annie, appealed to Miss Manners, and even gotten Hints from Heloise, but it turned out none of these folks knew a damn about creative or marketing careers. (In fact, Heloise told you to use mineral oil to remove dust specks from a Photoshop file).

What's an Aquent Talent to do?

Happily, we've found you an answer. Right over to the right there at the top of this page. It's called, "Are you there Aquent? It's Me, Talent" and is the perfect place to ask your career-related questions to the staff at Aquent, whether it be the best way to prep for an interview or the appropriate number of pieces Creative Directors like to see in a Designer's portfolio.

We'll be posting the most compelling questions and answers (that would be, the ones most appropriate to everyone, not "Does this dress make me look heavy?") as they come in.
 
Give it a try! It'll be mostly anonymous! (No salesman will call.)

And, as always, we want to hear your suggestions...

Really!

(Click through the Ask the Aquent staff link to go right to that page, or click here)

(Photo by Kapungo)

You know there's so much to be learned when you're without WiFi for 7 days.

One, that many friends no longer use phones to arrange evenings out (or if they do, it's to send an email to arrange it). Two, it's hard to explain a WiFi withdrawal to people (say, my mother) who don't use computers. And three, it's incredibly strange to be in a place where people lock their wireless networks, but not their doors.

Yes, I brought my computer with me on my vacation. And yes, for the last 7 days my MacBook served as the world's largest iPod docking station.

I realized, after all the parties and finishing my book (The Reader, bought at the airport bookstore), how much I missed my network connection.

What was happening on Treehugger? What were my friends' current Facebook updates? And, maybe most importantly, how long was the comment from the angry, bitter individual going to remain unchecked on my blog?

I felt, well, terribly unconnected.

I have a picture I took at a beach house this summer of my two brothers and brother-in-law all in a row, watching a game on the TV while working on their laptops. (Well, I couldn't figure out whether they were working or looking up who played the first Darrin Stevens on Bewitched.) I hadn't brought my laptop for that vacation, so I figured this one I'd have it with me. Which I did. But it didn't work out quite the way I planned, did it?

So here's the first lesson for 2009: My dream of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail is off until the whole thing is outfitted with WiFi.

I mean, I love campfires, but really, how interesting can they be after Day 3?

Ditto on Everest.