Actor Danny McBride, in character as Kenny Powers from the HBO show Eastbound and Down, walks in to a boardroom continuing a conversation on his cell phone, “…I don’t expect to be standing in an [expletive] parking lot with my pants around my ankles with a tranny!”
For the next four minutes, McBride/Powers goes on to berate executives from K-Swiss and make a list of demands including a “big-ass trailer” stocked with porn, a tattoo “of a naked Russian chick on my arm.” Next, he floats some ideas for a K-Swiss commercial, including one scenario where he rips off a fighter’s head and dropkicks it out of the ring.
What is this? Is it advertising? A skit? Both? Actually, it’s a hybrid often filed under the broad category of “branded entertainment,” which has drawn top brands and A-list comedic talent together. In recent months, Ford, Denny’s and Juicy Fruit, among others, have tapped well-known comedians and writers to create campaigns that sport a level of wit that is more sophisticated than most mass-market advertising. And, in some cases, the campaigns appear to hitting goals set by the marketers — to create social media chatter and skew the brands younger.
A prime forum for this new type of advertising is Funny Or Die, the website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Chris Bruss, producer of branded entertainment for the site, says the site produces about 10 to 15 branded entertainment pieces per quarter. The model that the site is using — a sponsorship approach vs. straight-up advertising — is on the rise. According to Internet Advertising Bureau stats released last week, revenues for sponsorships grew 88% in 2010. “Obviously, everyone is gravitating towards doing things online and moving away from traditional media,” Bruss says. “Marketers aren’t just buying some ad units on the site, they’re partnering with us to create content.”
Not surprisingly, others are looking to get in on the action. Earlier this year, actors Jason Bateman and Will Arnett launched DumbDumb, a production company that creates branded entertainment. DumbDumb’s first such effort, Always Open for Denny’s, launched in early March. According to research from YouGov, the series, which features Dave Koechner, Sarah Silverman, Bateman and Arnett, among others, has raised the brand’s profile among 18-34 year-old consumers. YouGov based its findings on a daily online survey of 5,000 people. The scores average positive views of the brand (+100) with negative ones (-100).
Likewise, Ford’s online-only campaign around Doug, an orange puppet, may have contributed to skewing the brand younger, according to the chart below. But the effort, which features Paul Feig, a director for The Office and Freaks and Geeks, and The Simpsons writer Rob Cohen, among others, was primarily designed to get people talking in social media about Ford’s 2012 Focus. Jon Beebe, digital marketing manager for Ford, says the campaign has met that goal. So far, Doug has racked up more than 700,000 views on YouTube and has gotten 19,000 fans on Facebook. “We call him a provocateur,” Beebe says of Doug. “We wanted to get people talking about it and saying ‘Did you see this puppet thing?’”
In each instance, the branded entertainment campaigns are sharper than the TV campaigns you’re likely see from the advertisers. On the other hand, K-Swiss has been so enamored with the foul-mouthed Kenny Powers character that it has featured him in a cleaned-up TV ad. Glenn Cole, co-founder and creative director at 72andSunny, the ad agency behind that campaign, says the brand knows that the character is polarizing. “But to the consumers that matter, Kenny is kind of worshiped.” Thanks to the affiliation, the brand “is in the sports/cultural conversation for the first time since the ’80s,” Cole says.
As proof, K-Swiss vice president of marketing Chris Kyle points out that Footwear Newsrecently listed K-Swiss as the brand with the biggest jump in buzz. “It’s led to a lot of reset thinking as to what K-Swiss is about,” Kyle says. “It gets them talking about a brand they thought they knew.” In this case, a tongue-lashing from the Powers character (given to actors standing in for K-Swiss execs) was a small price to pay.
For a look at some of the other funniest branded entertainment efforts of late, see the video gallery below. Please let us know in the comments if you think this is a smart strategy for these brands and which videos you thought were the funniest.
Note: Many of the videos use NSFW language.
K-Swiss Meeting with Kenny Powers
Danny McBride, in character as Kenny Powers of HBO’s Eastbound and Down insults K-Swiss execs and demands porn for his trailer in a meeting hashing out his endorsement deal. This is possibly the most profanity-laden “commercial” ever.
Snoop Dogg vs LL Cool J: The Ultimate Halo Smackdown
The two rap legends go mano a mano in a game of Halo and, for some reason, the guy from Chuck is playing too. So is a Las Vegas legend who makes a cameo at the end.
Jeremy Piven for Hot Wheels
Jeremy Piven plays a nerdy guy who desperately wants to join the Hot Wheels team.
Always Open with David Koechner for Denny’s
Dave Koechner and Jason Bateman discuss primal screams vs. sighs in a seemingly improvised dialog.
The Prom Date with Jason Bateman and Will Arnett for Orbit Gum
Orbit Gum has a magical, mystical power in this 5-minute skit featuring Jason Bateman as a dad whose daughter is about to go on a date with a sleazy Will Arnett.
Press Conference: Ford Taps Doug (the Orange Puppet) as 2012 Focus Spokesperson
Ford’s new spokesman’s affinity for the ladies is evident in this skit, which shows him being introduced in a disastrous press conference.
Serenading Unicorn Serenades Sarah Silverman for Juicy Fruit
Sarah Silverman’s unicorn boyfriend seems to be two-timing her, but she doesn’t care. Must be the animal magnetism.
Epic Nerf Battle: Life in the Trenches
Two dorks get caught up in a Nerf battle that has consumed all their energies for the last few days. Good thing there’s plenty of pizza to go around.
Piranha 3D: For Your Consideration
Pirahna 3D never really had a shot at winning an Oscar, but members of the cast make a case anyway.
What Would Keith Stone Do? for Keystone
Keith Stone, spokesman for Keystone beer, has all the answers for a guy who’s considering dumping his girlfriend via text.
Flickr currently hosts more than five million photos taken on a Sony Ericsson K800i, more than seven million snapped on a Nokia N95 and in excess of 45 million captured with an AppleiPhone. These phenomenal figures show just how much we’re shooting on our smartphones.
In most cases, the phone has become our primary camera, but despite tech developments that can see high-end options, most of us have 5-megapixel or less snappers with limited functionality. But this doesn’t mean you can’t take great photos — it just means you have to be smart about getting the right shot.
If you’re interested in taking better photos with your phone, then have a look through the gallery for some hints, tips, tricks and ideas for shooting success with your camera phone. Let us know your tips in the comments below.
1. Manage Light
Camera phones often struggle with extremes of light. Although these shortcomings can sometimes be used to create special effects, for the average snap you want to manage the available light as well as possible. If you can, position your subject so that the light hits differently to see which angle gives the best result. Alternatively, use the manual settings on your camera phone to try pics with and without flash. For example using flash as a fill-in effect on a sunny day can create a sharp photo with little shadow. Turning off a harsh flash and shooting with available light can also be effective for portraits.
2. Ace the Capture
It’s essential you get to know your camera phone’s characteristics in order to take the best photos possible. One feature that’s worth spending some time testing is the camera’s capture — does your phone snap a pic at the press of a button or when you release the button? How much lag is there from when you hit the button and the photo being captured? Once you get familiar with these characteristics, then you’re more likely to take the exact photo you want — rather than what happened two seconds later.
3. Reduce Camera Shake
One of the biggest challenges for smartphone photographers is camera shake. Although occasionally this can help make a stunning image, more often than not it’s an unwanted result. Try and keep your phone as stable as possible. You can improvise “tripods” from objects around you (tables, fences, mailboxes, etc.). If there’s nothing you can use to help stabilize your shot, you can crouch down and use your knee, or hold your phone in two hands and tuck your arms into your body.
4. Fill the Frame
Don’t ever use the digital zoom on your cameraphone. All this does is zoom in on the existing pixels, which snaps a less sharp image. If your camera boasts optical zoom then fine, but if not, get close to your subject and fill the frame. If you have to crop a photo down afterwards, then you’ll lose size and quality.
5. Consider Composition
Familiarize yourself with the principles of good composition, even if it’s only to break those rules to create interesting images. The rule of thirds, center of interest and dynamic symmetry are all worth exploring. Understanding of good composition will help improve any image, whether it’s a giant oil painting or a smartphone snap.
6. Use Motion
You have your camera phone on you when you’re on the go, so why not make the most of motion to create some amazing photos? Panning — moving the camera at a similar speed as the subject — can create great motion blur. Alternatively if you’re standing still, a phone’s (typically) slow capture can make for great action shots of moving objects around you.
7. Go Monotone
In certain situations, such as ones with richly textured subjects, an image can look more striking in black and white. If your camera has a monotone mode, then you can experiment. Otherwise try stripping the color and upping the contrast levels of suitable images in your desktop photo-editing software afterwards.
8. Try Different Angles
Add interest to your photos by shooting from unusual angles. Get low, shoot from above, the side, backwards, inside-out — you get the picture. The great thing about digital photography is that you’ll never run out of film. Take ten shots from different angles and be prepared to delete nine of them. The best images are born from creative experimentation. Now, go create!
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Patrick Kerley is the senior digital strategist at Levick Strategic Communications. He is also a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog™ and can be found on Twitter @pjkerley.
Driven in equal parts by regulation, litigation, and new levels of public awareness, today’s companies are working harder than ever to ensure that they are prepared to manage the many communication dimensions of a product recall.
With the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) now on the books, companies are not only liable for the problems that led to a recall but for the effectiveness of the recall itself. Under the law, strict penalties can be imposed if regulators sense that a company has fallen short of its responsibility to notify consumers and ensure that dangerous products are retrieved in a timely fashion. Should the government find fault with a recall, it’s a safe bet that the plaintiffs’ bar — armed with regulators’ findings — won’t be far behind. Add the brand damage that can be incurred when consumer anxiety has been stoked by numerous high-profile recalls of toys, baby formula, pet food, and a host of other products, and the need for advancement in recall communications is readily apparent.
It comes as little surprise that companies are increasingly turning to social media to limit legal risk and maintain consumer loyalty when a product liability crisis arises. From Toyota to Similac, crisis teams are learning from the online successes enjoyed by their counterparts in the marketing and brand management departments and leveraging that knowledge into recall solutions that communicate concern for, commitment to, and action on behalf their consumers.
Of course, there is more to integrating social media into recall communications than a Facebook update and a well-timed tweet. The following five tips will help ensure that companies maximize the potential of social media to protect consumers and their brands in the midst of any product recall situation.
1. Anticipate Your Likely Recall Scenarios
Before a recall ever materializes, the team responsible for managing it must sit down to develop a plan. What are the company’s most likely recall scenarios and what keywords will consumers use to search for information? Which social media content channels will be utilized for outreach and who will be monitoring those channels? How will messages and responses be approved prior to posting? The quickness with which information must be shared demands that these questions be answered well in advance of a recall. Companies should also prepare templates for web content that can go live on the corporate website, blog, and social media profiles the moment they are needed.
2. Preempt Consumer Questions
Today’s consumers are as informed as ever and will likely hear about a recall the moment it is announced. Further, as with so many industries, a push to put data and tools on mobile devices means consumers will have access to information anywhere.
For example, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have released a new mobile app that enables consumers to access up-to-the-minute information on product recalls directly from the retail store aisles.
The same savvy consumers who take advantage of mobile technology will likely be the most outspoken and the most apt to connect online. They will turn to the company’s website or social media profiles to find out the specifics of the recall and to provide commentary of their own. Before this crucial early adopter/early responder audience begins researching and posting about a recall, it is important that information about the recall be readily available. Without your information, consumers will be left to make their own determinations — which could have dangerous consequences on both their safety and the trust they put in your company.
3. Control Sources of Consumer Information
Anyone can post and disseminate information — or misinformation — about a recall. It is important that Facebook updates, tweets, and other recall-related social media activity serve as a portals to facts and good information sources. This means using social media to link back to the corporate website or another venue where the company has total control over the messaging.
Once the online conversation surrounding a recall gets going, users will likely be posting their own remedies to corporate social media profiles. While their intentions might be good, their tips might not comport with company policy or instructions from federal regulators. Thus, it is essential to ensure that users understand that solutions officially prescribed by the company can only be found on an official corporate website.
4. Contribute to the Conversation
Never assume that a single Facebook post or tweet telling consumers where to go for information is enough.
Content gets buried quickly on social media. Make sure that you repost and update often enough to keep your messages up top and easily within view of the people who need to access them.
5. Follow-Up
Even after the majority of recalled product has been accounted for and the surrounding anxiety has seemingly died down, continue to monitor social media for signs that consumers are experiencing problems. While recall news spreads quickly in today’s media-driven marketplace, there will be those who haven’t yet taken all the necessary steps to protect themselves or return affected products. By remaining vigilant, companies further ensure that every consumer who needs assistance gets it. It will say a great deal about that company’s commitment to consumer safety.
Interested in more Business resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
The path to YouTube marketing success can be littered with potholes that budget- and time-strapped small businesses can’t afford to fall in to.
We’ve spoken to three top experts in the video marketing arena to get professional advice about the common mistakes that small companies make on the video-sharing platform so that you can avoid making those same errors.
For your viewing pleasure and enlightenment, we’ve also included a few successful YouTube videos that were produced by small businesses.
1. Having Unrealistic Expectations
Some businesses mistakenly believe that they just need to upload a video to YouTube and wait for viewers to watch by the millions. According to Sarah Wood, founder of social video distribution and engagement company Unruly Media, this rarely happens.
“Yes, there is a massive appetite for online video content, but there are 35 hours of video content uploaded to YouTube every minute, so the competition for eyeballs is intense,” says Wood.
You need to manage expectations when it comes to the success of your YouTube content. There are a ton of high-quality, company-made videos on YouTube that never manage more than a few thousand views.
“Remind yourself that having a video go viral is a notable success, not the norm,” says Matt Smith, director of strategy at digital agency The Viral Factory. Smith counts Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” series (see above) as one such success.
“Blendtec happens to be one of the most brilliant viral marketing campaigns ever, and it’s the exception rather than the rule,” he says.
No matter how good your content is, you can’t just upload a clip, sit back and wait for people to come to you — you need to have a promotion and distribution plan.
“You need to think through why you’re on YouTube and what you want out of it, then tailor the content and the delivery strategy appropriately,” says Smith. “Putting content on YouTube is step one, step two is getting out there and promoting it.”
Justin Gonzalez, social media strategist for creative video agency BARS + TONE agrees that videos won’t go viral on their own — you must allocate time and resources to seed it properly.
“Try using social networks like Facebook and Twitter to get your social strategy started — then promote your video using those vehicles. At the very least, friends and family are a great way to get a video to start circulating,” says Gonzalez. “After all, you put money into making the video, so you better do it justice and get it in front of the right people.”
2. Thinking Small
Although expectations need to be kept realistic, don’t think that viral success is totally out of reach just because you’re a small business.
“There are plenty of small brands that think they need to be a Nike or an Adidas to be successful in social video,” says Wood. “This is simply not true! Any brand, large or small, can score a hit in social video.”
And Wood has a great example of a small business with a successful video: Alphabet Photography’s Christmas Food Court Flash Mob (see above). The clip was one of the surprise hits over the holidays last year, garnering more than 30 million views and almost 773,000 shares on Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere, according to Unruly Media’s Video Viral Chart.”
3. Treating a Viral Video as a Commercial
YouTube is new media, it’s social, it’s about engagement. Don’t sign up for the platform with a limited, old media perspective.
“When you go into online video with the understanding that it can do more than just sell a product or service, you’re already ahead of the game,” says Gonzalez. YouTube is a social channel where people want to consume and share fun and engaging content, so don’t hit them over the head with a sales pitch.
“YouTube requires as much thought as any other social media channel and shouldn’t be looked at as a dumping ground for marketing videos,” says Gonzalez. “Everything you post should represent your brand’s personality and inspire some type of reaction from your viewers -– whether it’s provoking thought, laughing out loud or making a purchase.”
4. Putting All Your Eggs in the YouTube Basket
It’s certainly the biggest, but don’t forget that YouTube isn’t the only online video platform, and it may not offer the best chance of success for your brand. Vimeo, for example, could be considered a more credible platform for creative professionals.
“Businesses that want to leverage the word of mouth potential of social video need to focus away from just YouTube and explore the world of social video that exists beyond YouTube, Twitter and Facebook,” says Wood.
Wood also names action-sports site Mpora and comedy site Funny or Die as effective outlets for hopefully-going-viral videos because they can “deliver high-quality video engagement to a more targeted and niche demographic.”
5. Basing Success on View Counts Alone
Too often, businesses produce videos and hope to get 1 million views. On today’s social web, success isn’t always counted with stats or measured in view counts — meaningful engagement is what matters.
“At Unruly, we place a greater emphasis on brand engagement, so we also look at the number of times a video has been shared on various social media platforms, time spent with the video and uplift in relevant brand metrics,” says Wood.
Gonzalez thinks this is a particularly important point for small businesses, which have limited resources and must decide from the outset what they hope to gain from YouTube.
“Sometimes marketers get bogged down in looking at the metrics and trying to determine whether the number of video views really made a difference in the bottom line, or whether it was just enough to build buzz around the product or service,” says Gonzalez. “When you can clearly define why it’s necessary for your business to be on YouTube, you’re ready to move on to the next steps.”
BONUS: Don’t Underestimate the Power of Cats
And finally, Smith chimes in with the most insightful and important point of all that will help any brand on YouTube — regardless of size or industry.
“Don’t ignore cats. Failure to put a cute or funny cat in your YouTube marketing material will cost you dearly in terms of exposure, credibility, sales and reputation,” he opines. “Everyone will know you are a failing business, and they’ll hate you and your product.”
Shane Pearlman tweets about his misadventures in running a 100% freelance driven agency at @justlikeair.
Every person on a career path has a dream. Musicians want Grammys, startups want acquisitions and surfers want world titles. When I chat with freelancers, the most common aspiration I hear is, “I want to partner up with other freelancers to take on a bigger project and build a company.” When running an agency in today’s new economic model, you are bound to end up using independent contractors in your business. If that is in your plan, how do you get started successfully? How do you transition from a one-person shop to a team using other freelancers?
When Does it Make Sense?
When should you use a subcontractor? The answer is in the definition: A person who offers his or her time and skill over a limited engagement in exchange for compensation to multiple parties. Either you are too busy and need help (time), want to take projects outside your specialty (skill) or need to adjust your team to improve work cycles (limited engagement).
Time
How do you know when it is time to subcontract (or raise your rate)? The answer is simple: when you are extremely busy. You are turning down 50% of legitimate opportunities and are booked solid on great projects for months with a reasonable to high rate for your niche. Simply put, you have projects for people to work on and are personally out of time.
Skill
Bigger projects typically address more complex problems and require a wider range of skills. While you might be a master designer, have serious HTML/CSS chops or have people banging down your door for SEO lessons, there’s likely something you can’t or don’t want to do. Some of the best subcontracting relationships are between people with complementary skills. Designer + developer + content creator = a higher quality complete web product. Figure out where you are most effective, and keep that for yourself. Then find good contractors to tackle the rest.
Work Load
One of the greatest differences between a contractor and an employee is control. You can tell an employee when and where they need to be available. Of course, you have to pay for an employee’s time, even when they aren’t producing. Nothing is more painful than paying people to play Angry Birds during those valleys between projects. If you have work that is intermittent, seasonal or temporary, then freelancers are a great fit.
During our sales process, I warn our clients, “We are terrible at on-call support.” If you call me and need something immediately, I’ll ping our network. If someone happens to be available, great, we’ll do it. But, we work exclusively with freelancers, which means we can’t tell them when to be available. It is not typically an issue with advanced notice, but there are projects we turn down because our business model simply can’t provide a win for the customer.
Perspective
Sometimes, you simply get stuck. If you are lucky, the problem is small and you can tap your community for an answer (co-workers, Twitter, Facebook, Quora). Other times, you need an expert who hasn’t been staring at the same issue for the last three months. Bringing in fresh blood for a quick infusion of new ideas can be a huge help.
Freelance Isn’t Free
None of the factors above point to cheaper labor. While a well-managed team of contractors could save you money (since in theory you pay for productivity rather than presence), it is not a plan you should count on. Look for value beyond cost. We rescue many outsourced projects from companies that went with the cheap option, thinking it would save them short term dollars, when all it caused was long-term headaches.
Picking Your Team
When I first started subcontracting, I was a full-time web technician. All I wanted to do was offload tasks to someone else in order to have more time. It didn’t work out well. I quickly learned that delegating is not the same as abdicating. I spent a good part of the day interfacing with the customer and managing the subcontractor’s work. When that was done, I took the rest of the night to do my own work. It was brutal, and this is a very common story. Successful subcontracting requires the right mindset, the right team and the right systems.
Manage Expectations
The team starts with you. After all, you are now both a contractor and a customer all on the same project (a bit strange, isn’t it?). Start with a clear plan of what you want done and how you will measure the success of the project. Add some clear deliverables (what is due) and milestones (when it is due). Have a clear budget in mind ahead of time. What you can’t do is simply hand the project off and forget it. Or “hand it off” and still do it all yourself.
Where Do You Find Good People?
Some of the best people we’ve found come from interaction with the content we contribute to major blogs and our own site. If someone consistently comments in a positive manner on our content, then it’s likely they share our perspective. I look at every link from people who comment in an interesting manner to see if I can find a portfolio that makes me excited.
We are quite active in open source projects, and they are some of the best recruiting hotbeds for developers. You see people’s work, how they communicate with a team and, for us specifically, how they handle being distributed.
We use a number of job boards including jobs.freelanceswitch.com, authenticjobs.com, and tech-specific places like jobs.wordpress.net. We also ask clients and friends for referrals and have had great luck. While we haven’t scored big through Twitter and Facebook yet, I expect it’s only a matter of time before it pays off.
Finally, my personal favorite is our “Hobo Technique,” which is great for conferences, mixers and other events. Make a sign with exactly what you want from people. We all know you didn’t go to the networking mixer just to make new friends. You have a business agenda. Having your needs clearly stated allows people to instantly decide if they are interested, and it serves as an excellent conversation starter.
If you get a lot of responses, how do you sort them? We’ve had as many as 300 responses to some of our project postings. It can be overwhelming. We make three piles: delighted, satisfied and unsatisfied. Then we focus on delighted and ignore the rest.
Try Before You Buy
We have a $200 budget to try a person out on a small task. If that is a nice experience, we offer a slightly larger gig (if we have something available). Kick butt again, and we’ll line up a solid project. It’s kind of like dating. They key is to build patterns for failure into your subcontracting process. New unknown people shouldn’t get large, long-term contracts until you are ready to commit to each other.
Personality Often Matters More Than Talent
In 2010, we tried 43 contractors, 15 of which received multiple contracts. So why did people fail? A few weren’t good enough at their specialty, but most got the boot because their personality and communication styles were a poor fit. A third of our contenders were simply no fun to work with. They didn’t engage the team or the project. They weren’t helpful. The majority, however, simply weren’t accountable. They were very talented but did not have the maturity to communicate expectation effectively.
Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest complaints in the industry. Companies are afraid to trust contractors because they get let down all of the time. Want to make a lot of money in any field? Be dependable. When you find an accountable person, pay them well and hold on tight.
Craft the Deal
You’ve had a few dates, and now it’s time to make it official. The more work you can do upfront to set expectations, the more likely you will get to live happily ever after. The key is to get it in writing.
It Doesn’t Matter What It Says if They Don’t Understand
Have you read the iTunes user license agreement? I tried once and gave up.
A contract exists to document an agreement. If I have no idea what it says, do we genuinely have an agreement? The best way to avoid a conflict is clear communication. So let me make a plea: Please, please write your contracts in plain language. Then have your lawyer review it to ensure that it’s legally viable.
The Contracts
You will want two contracts with your freelancers. A Master Services Agreement (MSA) and a Statement of Work (SOW). The MSA lays the groundwork for your relationship. The SOW defines exactly what you expect them to deliver. Both are important.
In our MSA, we put a couple of legal requirements set by groups like the IRS (you are a legit contractor), a few cultural things (you are a nice person), some relationship things (what can you share, who owns the materials) and what happens if things go kaboom. We built everything into it. We used to send four different files (contract, tax docs, NDA, proof of business). Now we send one single PDF. It is a delight to work with compared with our prior setup.
In our SOW, we work together with the subcontractor to put in the specific project deliverables (what), milestones (when) and budget (how much). We also discuss what happens after the project is done (support and warranty).
Manage the Relationship
Two years ago at a Freelancecamp, my colleague attended a session about how to land and keep long-term clients. We spent a while following that conference, discussing how long-term clients were like a marriage. I’ve been finding that building teams of long-term contractors has a lot in common with personal relationships as well.
The Setup
I can usually tell you if a project will succeed or fail at the kickoff meeting. I recently heard an excellent talk on agile project management where the speaker asked us, “If I sat down every member on your team and asked them to write out exactly what success would look like on your project, could they answer? Would they respond consistently across the team?”
Does your subcontractor have a solid understanding of the project beyond what they are being tasked with? Do they know how they are being measured and how their own success with you is being defined?
The Systems
It’s likely that the person you just subcontracted is a technician, which means that unless you hired a project manager, you are the project manager. The most important tool in your belt is the regular checkup, often called a “scrum.” I talk to everyone on my team on a regular basis and ask:
What did you do since we last spoke?
What are you doing next?
Anything I need to know about?
Do you need a longer meeting to hash anything out?
Lather, rinse and repeat. I don’t leave a meeting without everyone knowing the next time we will connect.
You will also need some very specific tools to tackle a wide range of challenges. Setups may vary, depending on the size and distribution of your subcontractors, but our process generally works like this:
Get them signed up on our project management system (ours is a modified version of Redmine).
Make sure they have a profile pic (it is nice to see their face when they post on stuff).
Get an instant messaging program or Skype (I use Adium, so it doesn’t matter what platform they prefer.)
You need some sort of version control. We use SVN for code and Dropbox for non-code (PSDs, DOCs, etc.).
A conference call system if you have more than two people. We use Skype, iPhone merge calling, and freeconferencecall.com.
For collaboration, I like join.me and Skype for screen sharing, and Jing or Skitch for annotating and screen casts.
Get their socials and follow them. The best way to know what’s going on in their lives is through Facebook and Twitter, and since there’s no water cooler in your virtual office, making personal connections online is essential.
Don’t Be The Client You Hate
We all have those clients — two months late on payment, missed the last three meetings, never replies to e-mails, asks you to do “just one more thing,” and frustrates you to tears. So, knowing full well what great clients look like, what a perfect opportunity to be one.
When It Fails
When something doesn’t work the way you were expecting, take notes on it. Then ask yourself: Could I have managed this better? Ultimately though, your relationship with someone is based on agreements. If they can’t fulfill those agreements, you need to move on. By taking clear notes on those agreements and how things played out, you can remove the emotion from the equation. That’s they key to an amicable separation.
From Freelance to Agency
The advantages of running an agency built entirely of subcontractors is huge. We have access to top notch talent that we typically could not afford on a full-time basis. Our costs are directly in line with our income. As we make more, we spend more on our team. In the valleys between project cycles, our talent costs dip accordingly. Since we are fully distributed, the world is our recruiting ground (although we strongly focus on North American time zones and culture).
The cons can be just as huge. We compete for our teams’ attention with other customers and projects. We have no idea whether someone will be available in the future. If we need a huge push to accomplish something super-human, contractors are less likely to “take one for the team” as they are not quite as invested.
There are a lot of factors to weigh here, but hopefully this gives you a clearer picture of the ins and outs of subcontracting with freelancers. Are you a freelancer or a project manager? Share your best tips for a smooth workflow in the comments.
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