Working hard or hardly working... on a dad joke digital campaign?

Why do we do the things we do... in marketing?

Boy, if that isn't an open ended question.

More specifically, you might ask why we go to the effort we do to create seemingly inconsequential social media posts for the lesser/smaller holidays and hashtag days? This week, we created a series of images featuring our "dads" for a series of Father's Day posts on facebook, linkedin, instagram, twitter, and... what are the kids all using these days? I could answer that question in a variety of ways, but here are 3 answers that might give you some insight into the way we think about work, marketing, and business.

It's Fun

There is a never ending stream of tasks that we could work on every day... every week. Most workplaces understand that a bit of downtime is not only unavoidable, but is actually necessary to regain some energy, reset your mental state, and gain a new perspective on the work at hand. One of our favorite "downtime" activities is actually something that kind of kills two birds with one stone: dream up fun ways to promote ourselves. It's a great break from whatever we're working on and it ends up being useful to the company in the end. In truth, we know that's not actual "downtime" and walks or lunches out are still important. But the activity of having some fun with a goofy project is always rewarding for us. As my dad often said to me: "A change is as good as a rest."

It's Attention Grabbing

This one kind of goes without saying doesn't it? We all know by now that images and video are the kings of social media. What's more is that humor takes a general post even further. So when we thought about the best way to honor Father's Day, we thought of "dad jokes" right away. Then it was just a matter of coming up with some classic dad moments or scenarios to portray visually.

*Author's note: Are all dads inherently goofy? No. In fact, I've heard some critique recently about the way fathers are portrayed in shows and movies today - as bumbling, clueless oafs that are only there to go to work and pay for things. We know that is an unfair characterization of the stable, supportive, loving fathers out there. But we sure do love a good dad joke! Maybe it's the fact that many dad's just tend to be themselves? And when you're not worried about what others think... well, it can be easy to forget to take off your socks when you're wearing sandals.

It's a challenge

 Don't get me wrong, plenty of the work we do is challenging. But doing self promotion gives us the unique opportunity to be our own client. And like with client work, often our timelines are tight, our demands for quality are high, and our budget is limited! When we work on social media or digital marketing projects for ourselves, we get to see from the clients' perspectives. We want to maximize the opportunity, but we also know that we have other work to get back to. There are times that we've decided we can dedicate more time and resources. (see our annual Christmas videos) But there are also times that we just want to crank something out over a few hours in an afternoon. This forces us to think creatively about how to do a micro-production that still maintains the quality we demand of ourselves. We run into limits and have to brainstorm as a team and get better. These lessons benefit future client projects because we've thought and worked through hurdles like how to create 4 hilarious images with relevant text, social media schedule, strategy and integration into our marketing goals (you ended up here reading this article right?) We'll have better answers to the questions that come up in our next creative meeting and more experience to draw from when estimating time and budget for projects.

So, that's why we do these goofy things. Now, I need to go take a walk.