Among many other things, hear him talk about his new company, Baldwin&, how he’s creating a creative environment there, the importance of authenticity in communications, his concerns about how pitching is affecting the advertising industry, and, of course, his view on how to come up with better ideas (including the role bad ideas play in getting to great ones).

Click here to check out Ideasicle.

It’s in this spirit that we launched “Find your Burt” for Burt’s Bees, an integrated idea that promotes solidarity in all things planet friendly. The truth is that just by doing little things every day we can all make the planet a better place to live.

The campaign consists of digital (website created in collaboration with Mekanism, SF) live events featuring ‘flocks of Burts’ spreading the word and handing out “Burt Kit” natural, reusable sample packs, human-powered bike blenders making smoothies from the natural ingredients found in Burt’s Bees skin care products. At the end of our events we compost the waste for a completely Earth friendly promotion.

The site, findyourburt.com, let’s you use your webcam to allow your inner Burt to come shining through by answering a few simple questions and playing with the Burtification tool. You can then share your image on Facebook, Twitter and through email.

Here are a few examples of the campaign video and the individual pieces in action including a closer look at the Burt Kits with the official Burt’s Bees Beard-ana:

This is the second in a series of collected thoughts by various small firms across the country. (Part 1 can be found here.) Our guests: Carolyn Hadlock of Young & Laramore, Indianapolis; John Vitro of Vitro Robertson, San Diego, Calif.; Cabell Harris of Work Labs, Richmond, Va.; and David Baldwin of Baldwin&, Durham, N.C.
As before, readers, feel free to answer these questions in our comments section. We welcome your point of view.

Question 1. Who has the biggest advantage in this economy: big or small firms?

Carolyn Hadlock, Young & Laramore: I’d much rather be looking at the future from a small-agency position than a big one. Small agencies are getting opportunities today they never would have had even five years ago. Clients are moving at the speed of light. Larger agencies are having a harder time staying agile in this economy.

John Vitro, Vitro Robertson: The lines between a big shop and a mid-size shop like ours are much more blurred than they used to be. While most large agencies have built themselves on broadcast (and ignored print), we were able to offer clients something that they couldn’t get at the big shops by creating beautiful, thoughtful ways to connect with their clients. As the role of digital has grown, we’ve been able to move into that space faster than many who haven’t been as nimble while bringing the craft that was always so important within our work.

Question 2: Most agencies think they are different, but it’s shades of gray. Most sound the same. What have you done to shape your firm to be truly different?

Cabell Harris, Work Labs: Whether we’re creating an advertising campaign that will break through the clutter or bringing our own products to market, we know we are ultimately in the idea business. We publish books. We brew our own beer. We’re designers, writers, strategists, professors and students.

David Baldwin, Baldwin&: So many agencies talk about being experts in all fields and then BS their way through. For instance, have you noticed how many people are saying they’re social-media ‘gurus’ now? We ended our name with an Ampersand for a reason. We are committed to the ideas and then finding the right partners to get them done. We know what we’re good at and we know what we’re not.

Question 3: What has the current economy done to help small agencies, and what advice would you give other small agencies to take advantage of what is going on?

John Vitro, Vitro Robertson: Embrace the business. Stop bitching about clients, budgets or how many hours it takes to be better than the guys down the street. Doing good work is hard, but not doing it gives us nothing in return for the hours we spend. It’s a choice we make. If you don’t like these things, do something else.

Carolyn Hadlock, Young & Laramore: What we are finding is that clients demand ideas more than services now — which is refreshing. We believe in being proactive, in taking in ideas before a client thinks of them. The term “full service” is becoming an antiquated one. Nimbleness, resourcefulness and creativity are key to solving client’s problems today.

Question 4: What one moment would you point to as an illustration of success?

Cabell Harris, Work Labs: Moments are fleeting. I hope in the future to look back over a large body of work and be proud of its consistency over the years.

David Baldwin, Baldwin&: Hiring our first person beyond our founders was quite gratifying. It just felt great.

Question 5: In one sentence, sum up your agency.

Carolyn Hadlock, Young & Laramore: Anti-established in 1983, Y&L consistently challenges conventional wisdom.

David Baldwin, Baldwin&: We call the company a creative practice because though we’re an advertising agency, we’ll do anything that lets us live our mission, which is to use creativity to make a difference.

Cabell Harris, Work Labs: We’re all brought together by one common belief: Nothing is more compelling than a smart idea, executed well.

John Vitro, Vitro Robertson: The crafting and humanity that was so important to our earliest work is even more important today.

I’ve been in this business a long time now, but as far as owning my own agency I’m a rookie. I’ve only been at it for just over a year.
When we decided to start the company, the economy was doing just fine. Right before we actually pulled the trigger, the bottom fell out. We had a decision to make. Should we move forward or should we all take the safe route and take gigs at other agencies?

Well, in we dove.

Yes, this has been a challenging time from an economic standpoint, but that’s just an excuse. In tough times great companies succeed.

It’s been interesting to say the least, so I thought I’d jot down a few thoughts on what we’ve learned in this, our inaugural year of business.

Be creatively relentless. I suppose this isn’t a new lesson or anything but man, is it truer than ever. You have to come into any situation guns blazing at all times and not let anything throw you. When you’re new you have to prove yourself every minute of every day. There’s no safety net, no other group to go to if you need to get it done. When you’re small, you’re it. There are no parachutes and how cool is that?

Navigate by your values. You will be tempted by market forces to do things you don’t want to do. If you navigate by your values you’ll always know where you are and where you should go.

The fish bowl theory. When you first start out, you have to decide whether you want to work from your garage or get your own office space. Economically, of course, it makes sense to not start out with any overhead. But our feeling was to start with a physical space. The idea is to get a fishbowl and grow into it. This was a piece of advice from Bob Barrie and it was a smart piece of thinking. For one thing you can’t invite a client over to your house for a meeting and you can only meet at a Starbucks so many times. A space says you’re real from day one.

Think like a band. A company isn’t a building; it’s made of people. It’s so important to work with people you care about and who share your values. A new company is a lot like a band. Play your instrument, carry your own equipment and always make sure the entire band sounds great. Got a free hand? Carry the drummer’s snare.

Make sure you’re passionate about what you’re pitching. It’s also important to believe in what you’re pitching. Especially with what it takes to pitch a piece of business these days. A small company almost always has to compete with big ones, but remember: It’s not the size of the company that matters, it’s the size of the ideas you bring.

Pitch to win or don’t pitch. With what it takes to pitch these days, you literally can’t afford to not win. So do everything, give everything you have. We had the opportunity to pitch for a Burt’s Bees project last year and we decided we were going to win it well before we pitched it. All that was left was the pitch itself. We also pitched a furniture account and we made the cardinal mistake of using the pitch to see whether it was the right fit. Whether it was or it wasn’t, we didn’t win it because we just didn’t want it enough. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

Don’t think like an ad agency. We’re doing mostly everything but advertising right now. We’re definitely doing a bit of traditional work, but spend most of our time delivering ideas in every media. (It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t have legacy departments to support.) Many people start companies and base the business model on the bigger company they just came from. That’s a mistake. Instead, think of things they did and do the opposite. For instance, we don’t have a creative department. The whole company is the creative department; if you touch it you’re creative. It frees everyone up to focus on the work.

Don’t work for free. I’m sure you’ve noticed, but no one wants to pay anything to anybody. It could just be a sign of the economy, but I think there’s something more going on. Clients have more pressure on them, so we as an industry have more pressure on us. Now, in some ways, this plays right into our sweet spot because as a small company we don’t have a lot of overhead and we’re hungry. Interestingly, though, many clients seem to think that because we’re new, we’ll do lots of stuff for free. We are running a business, so that obviously isn’t the case. We talk about ourselves as being a less expensive alternative to a bigger shop, but not cheap. Our industry has done this to itself, turned what we all do into a commodity by giving it away. And we’ve noticed that there’s always someone willing to do it for cheaper.

Underpromise/Overdeliver. Blow them away with your work, not your promises.

There have been other lessons — watch scope-creep, live and die by your craft and ideas — but these listed are the standouts for us as a startup. And as we steer through year number two, I find I learn a new lesson every day. Like, that trash isn’t going take itself out.

Ah, living the dream.

Felisha is a ball of fire. Well not literally, because then we’d have to up our property insurance, but you get the idea. She is a can-do, get-it-done, but make sure it’s fantastic kind of person. She learned her chops at AutoTrader, Crispin, Porter, and Bogusky and then at McKinney all of which taught her not only project management but a fluency in the digital space.

Fmidgett@baldwinand.com

919-680-0900

As we all know, if a company handles a situation badly one time out of ten they will likely get scorched by the aggrieved party. That’s just the way it works. And now with all the communication outlets available to us as consumers a complaint can go big, the United breaks guitars song fiasco, comes to mind.

I recently had an experience with Amazon.com that truly raised the bar from anything I’d previously seen.

I bought one of the first generation Kindles a little over a year ago. Within 11 months, the darned thing crapped out on me. The screen went blank and then filled with black lines and finally resolved into this:

I didn’t know if it was irreparably damaged or if it had just crashed and when I finally got around to researching it I realized that not only was it dead but I had let my warranty expire. To make things worse, I bought it from an Amazon reseller so it must have been a refurb. At the time, the Kindle was sold out on Amazon so it was my only choice.

I emailed the reseller and he told me that I was out of luck and that there was nothing he could do. Furthermore, he pointed out that I had refused the protection plan he’d tried to push on me.

So I emailed Amazon, thirteen months after I’d bought it, and asked if I had any options. They referred me to their Kindle customer service section on their site. The way it works is this, you can either choose to email with a representative or they will call you. If you want to talk in-person all you do is enter in your phone number and hit send and within seconds (SECONDS!) your phone rings and it’s a rep.

I was ready to do battle because my beloved Kindle died within warranty. I knew I didn’t have a leg to stand on but hey, squeaky wheel and all that.

Well, I didn’t even have to ask. I explained my situation and that was it, they replaced my Kindle and paid for the shipping. All I had to do was return the damaged one. Now here’s the kicker, my phone call was on Saturday and I had my new Kindle on Tuesday. And it came pre-loaded with my Kindle settings all I had to do was re-download my content.

Obviously, they’ve inspired me to be an even more loyal customer than I had been before the incident.

We talk about walking the walk to our clients all the time. Don’t just say something, BE it. People have to ‘Buy in” before they buy long term. Amazon has stated, “We’re Building Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.” That’s a heck of a big statement but they proved they mean it.

Well, I’ve bought in.

Art & Copy will be playing at the Rialto on March 10, 6-9 sponsored by the AAF Raleigh-Durham. Executive producer, David Baldwin will be doing a Q&A after the film. The film premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival and came out in theaters in the fall.

This is the core group. If this were Hollywood Squares does that mean David is Paul Lynde?

Come on, follow David. Adweek said so.

Amid the flurry of conversations about the allegedly fake 911 ad for the WWF in Brazil, there is a silver lining.

The One Club is taking a stand, listening to our members (particular thanks to Matt Morin for keeping a level head) and the rest of the industry, and saying, ‘enough is enough.

Here’s the new policy:

Effective beginning in 2010…

1. An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad made for a nonexistent client, or made and run without a client’s approval, will be banned from entering the One Show for five years.

2. The entire team credited on the “fake” entry will be banned from entering the One Show for five years.

3. An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad that has run once, on late-night TV, or only because the agency produced a single ad and paid to run it itself will be banned from entering the One Show for three years.

Here’s the AdAge article.