How to get more foster parents in San Francisco

One of the many executions in a new campaign seeking foster families in San Francisco.

San Francisco’s housing crisis impacts everyone in the city, including long-time residents who can no longer afford rents and young families forced to move away to buy homes. But one of the under-reported tragedies: It’s also having a devastating effect on foster children.  

Right now there are hundreds of kids waiting to be placed into homes in the city. And without a steady stream of  volunteers, those kids will be forced into homes far from the only city they’ve ever known.

So how does a government agency get fresh recruits? They team up with one of San Francisco’s top ad agencies, Division of Labor. 

The creative brief set forth by the San Francisco Human Services Agency was simple:  Create an attention-grabbing ad campaign that recruits 100 new foster families to join the cause. 

The ask is huge. It’s not like getting people to try a new laundry detergent or switch to a low-fat peanut butter. Becoming a foster parent is a life-changing decision. To that end, we needed an emotional hook that would get people to pay attention.

Inspiration hit while someone on our creative team was walking through a parking lot. He saw a huge SUV taking up two compact spaces. Not surprisingly, his first thought was:  “What a jerk.” But his next thought was “Unless that jerk happens to be a foster parent. In that case, they can park wherever the heck they want!” 

That idea really rang true with everyone on the project. It resulted in an edgier, more humorous campaign that changed people’s perspective on fostering and got them to think about it in a new way.

There are over 40 different executions across billboards, bus shelters, digital banners and social media platforms and they’re all based on the horrible, but not-so-horrible things we all do that can be made up for by being a foster parent. Things like, you might be a serial re-gifter or you might only tip 10% or you might eat all the m&m’s out of the trail mix, but at least you’re a foster parent. The tagline across the campaign: Fostering. It makes up for a lot.

The San Francisco Chronicle did a piece on the campaign launch, along with the perspective of a family who has fostered multiple kids over the years, including a medically-fragile baby they’ve since adopted.

And while ad agencies love free press, in this case, we’re hoping the free press attracts new families, not new clients.

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The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top San Francisco ad agency and digital marketing firm that’s been named Small Agency of the Year twice by Ad Age. The award-winning creative shop services clients on a retainer or project basis. They also offer brand consulting services and hourly engagements for startups and smaller brands. Click here for a free consultation.

New Brand Awareness Marketing Campaign for PagerDuty

If you’ve ever gotten one of those “Aw Snap” screens from a website then you know how annoying it is when technology doesn’t work like it’s designed to. Or if you’ve ever tried to buy something online and you get to the end of the process and the shopping cart doesn’t work? I mean, not the end of the world, but it’s irritating none the less.  

And things that are irritating to consumers are potentially devastating to companies. The business of digital operations management is massive because all companies rely on technology and when there’s something wrong with their network, they’re screwed.

Enter PagerDuty. A digital operations management company that works with Fortune 500 companies, startups, government agencies and even non-profits to ensure incidents are handled expeditiously. Developers can use PagerDuty a bunch of different ways but the main thing is that PagerDuty analyzes signals and data on digital networks of a company and can detect when potential issues might surface and then alerts the developer, or anyone else for that matter, to the incident so adjustments can be made before any problem ever reaches a user. 

A simple example I use because it’s one my tiny advertising brain can process is; let’s say Division of Labor creates an amazing digital video that funnels a ton of traffic to our client’s website. And since our video is so good and funny and emotionally compelling, the increase in traffic threatens to overload our client’s website. (We are that good.) 

But PagerDuty detects the increase in traffic, alerts the developer so she can increase server capacity and avoid any disruption. PagerDuty also learns over time and can implement network adjustments on behalf of the developer or predict future issues so the developer can prepare for them. Developers have even said they won’t work at a company unless they can have PagerDuty. Pretty cool company.

But not enough people know about them. So they asked Division of Labor to help with an awareness campaign to increase brand recognition and drive trial ahead of their big PagerDuty Summit19, held at the end of September in Union Square.

At its core, PagerDuty solves problems before they become problems. So we launched their first brand awareness and digital marketing campaign anchored with the line: Solutions Before Problems.

Division of Labor worked in close collaboration with the folks at PagerDuty along with our partners at MediaSmith. But we also inherited some beautiful brand design work from the folks at Collins. Collins created a palette and brand template for us to work with allowing us to focus on developing the messages and simplifying the communications; from digital and out of home to podcasts and a completely redesigned and rewritten website. The campaign launched in San Francisco and New York with executions in Times Square and Madison Square Garden.

We are now preparing for phase two, but check out PagerDuty if you’re a developer and see what you think. Thanks to all who made this campaign happen.

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The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top San Francisco ad agency and digital marketing firm that’s been named Small Agency of the Year twice by Ad Age. The award-winning creative shop services clients on a retainer or project basis. They also offer brand consulting services and hourly engagements for startups and smaller brands. Click here for a free consultation. 

Happy Anniversary to the Best Small Ad Agency in San Francisco

This summer Division of Labor is celebrating its 10th anniversary as an independent ad agency.  It’s been a long run from our humble beginnings in a backyard shed to a storefront in Sausalito and now a slightly more grown-up office space up the road. Through the years, we’ve worked with lots of great clients, churned out lots of great ad campaigns, and managed to earn a decent living doing it. 

To mark the occasion, we’ll be gathering this Friday in our conference room to enjoy a slice of sickly sweet sheet cake and sip champagne from disposable plastic cups. And while we wish all of you could join us, we simply don’t have space to invite the internet. Instead we thought we’d regale you with tales of what we will likely reminisce about in between sporkfuls of artificially colored frosting. 

Like remember when McCann SF was collapsing and Microsoft gave Josh and Paul a huge project to shoot a bunch of videos for Office and they scrambled to start an agency, without a business plan, financial backing, or even office space?

Or remember when after renting a storefront in Sausalito we hung hand-painted grocery store signs hawking  “mercury tainted salmon steaks” and “genetically engineered corn” in the agency’s window.  And, then some anonymous tipster (read: Josh’s wife) sent photos of the poster to the Marin Independent Journal and a reporter wrote that article about us?

Or remember when we shot a music video for Kris Orlowski and the idea was to have him play live on Chatroulette. And Snoop Dog popped up along with a bunch of creepy dick picks? 

We filmed Kris as he played live on Chatroulette to random people around the world. (Chatroulette.com is a web experiment where you log on and have no idea who might pop up for a chat, But no one could have predicted Snoop Dog would pop in to say hi.

Or remember when Division of Labor was asked to create an ad campaign for a TBS sitcom? Josh then convinced his wife to be a bad haircut model, which  entailed styling her hair and makeup to resemble that of a bad eighties Texas housewife. Putting a black “fashion don’t” box across each of the model’s eyes may just have saved his marriage because her image ended up on billboards all over New York. Thankfully not in San Francisco where she might see it. 

Or remember when Chronicle Books published our book Stop Tweeting Boring Sh*t after a poster series we made to hang in our storefront windows went viral? Besides clarifying etiquette for modern office workers, we studied the behavior of 750 actual office workers around the country and gathered statistics on a variety of topics including, "The most vile office smells and "The percentage of people who steal office supplies." Thanks Paragraph Project.

Or remember when we were shooting that Bart commercial at the Powell Street station and the sun was spilling perfectly onto the stairwell when we yelled “Rolling.” And the footage turned out epic, but for the fact that nobody noticed the junkie shooting up heroin in the background?  

Or remember when you shot that commercial  for Groupon about an unemployed inflatable Gorilla? It was a brilliant commercial that won at the ADCC Awards so it’s in the archives at MOMA. But remember how all the gorillas we ordered from China turned out to be the wrong sizes. So we had to order four new ones and have them express shipped from China. And remember how that cost us about 30% of a miniscule budget? But hey, it’s about the memories not the money, right? 

Or remember when Burt Reynolds wanted $10,000 to use his name in a Roku ad? And our client wasn’t sure it was worth the investment. So we pointed out that if he signed the contract they’d get a celebrity autograph to boot.

Or remember when we filmed a Live Nation video with rodents running on turntables in the Division of Labor offices? Our talent, eight trained hamsters, gerbils, mice and rats, were true professionals.  The baby deer the animal trainer brought along was less so, crapping and pissing in our office every hour on the hour. But what’s a little deer scat among colleagues. And when the video became a Vimeo Staff Pick, it went viral and garnered millions of views, as well as hundreds of reposts to blogs and websites across the planet. 

Or remember when the LA Marathon sold out? And we got Kato Caelin to be a spokesman because he’s LA’s biggest sell-out? And remember when O.J. Simpson’s infamous houseguest upped the ante by showing up in Charlie Sheen’s bathrobe? We have no idea why Kato showed up in Charlie Sheen’s bathrobe, but he was super proud of it and he was a pleasure to work with so we skipped wardrobe and shot him in his treasured robe.

Or remember when you did all that great work for that nonprofit dedicated to promoting electric cars?  And you pitched this idea to use Arnold Schwarzenegger driving an electric car in an epic special effects laden Hollywood car chase scene. And the client loved the idea and arranged for you to pitch it directly to Arnold. And Arnold agreed to do a commercial but not the one you pitched. And then Arnold cut Division of Labor out of the equation by insisting he’d write his own script and use his own production people? Remember that? Well, even if we lost a major account, at least we get to reminisce about the time Arnold Schwarzenegger stole our account.

And remember when Josh finally finished his cake and said, “OK, get back to work. These award winning ad campaigns aren’t gonna make themselves.”

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The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top San Francisco ad agency and digital marketing firm that’s been named Small Agency of the Year twice by Ad Age. The award-winning creative shop services clients on a retainer or project basis. They also offers brand consulting services and hourly engagements for startups and smaller brands. Click here for a free consultation.

The one thing every marketing plan needs.

“If you build it they will come.”  

This catchphrase bastardized in the 1989 film Field of Dreams, has inexplicably become the battle cry of would-be entrepreneurs. The truth is, few products are so revolutionary that masses flock to them.  And that sort of blind optimism has sunk more than its fair share of startups. But rather than squelching that can-do spirit, might we suggest you tweak that mantra:

“If you build it, and invest in SEO, they might come.”  

Most start-ups are strapped for cash. But the first thing they should spend money on is SEO. If you can spend money on nothing else, spend it on SEO. And please keep in mind, we at Division of Labor have been creating successful advertising campaigns with large media budgets and detailed strategic marketing plans for years. But not everyone can afford all that right from the get-go. And when money is tight, you get a lot of bang for your buck with a proper SEO plan.

SEO research isn’t rocket science. But learning how to stay one step ahead of Google’s ever-changing algorithms is a niche field and a degree in computer science is quite helpful. But it’s also a topic that makes many otherwise brilliant marketing officers’ eyes glaze over. And it's for this exact reason, that we offer in-house SEO research. The primary purpose of an ad agency is to take complicated ideas and distill them into simple ones.  We help clients execute an SEO plan, and provide them with marching orders on how to improve their organic search ranking. We’ll lay out the basics, imagining we were talking to our parents who don’t understand the first thing about search engines—let alone optimization, metadata or tags.

The beauty of SEO is that when done properly, it’s a small investment with huge upside. And while paid digital marketing and larger integrated campaigns will absolutely help your brand grow, there’s something very powerful about an organic following. When consumers stumble upon your brand, “organically” they approach your product with less skepticism. But keep in mind, there is no such thing as an organic search result. Every result in every situation is influenced by a number of factors that will be finessed during an SEO audit.

“If you build it, and partner with the right professionals, they’ll definitely come”

Inventors believe in their innovations. And, if they’re lucky, they can often get their friends, families, and possibly, even a few investors to see their genius. But getting complete strangers to buy into your concept is totally different. You can’t make rational arguments with millions of complete strangers. You have to make an emotional connection and lead them to discover the benefits. And that’s what a good ad agency or branding firm can do.

Need help getting your brand to the tipping point? Contact us for a free consultation. Alternately, we encourage you to continue trolling for insightful advertising and marketing blogs like ours. Because, really, reading a few how-to-guides on the internet is almost as useful as hiring a group of seasoned professionals. And, afterward, you might want to crank into this youtube video on how to build your own airplane. It’s a great way to save a few bucks on all future family travels.  

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The small agency blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top advertising agency and digital marketing agency in San Francisco specializing in brand marketing and digital advertising campaigns. Clients include Ford, Dropbox, Roku and San Jose Sharks. We offer the services you’d expect from an integrated, digital marketing agency, but we also offer hourly, brand consulting services for startups, smaller companies and brands that want to start doing something, but aren’t ready to get into a big integrated campaign or media spend. We can help with brand strategy, brand voice, early stage asset development and other communications to get things up and running without breaking the bank. Click here for a free consultation.