Problems are obvious. With problems, we nearly always assume the premise. We assume the system the problem lives within. And in doing so, we nearly always accept the boundaries of that system and all its “rules.” Few of us are celebrated for merely solving problems. Opportunities are different. Opportunities create value in ways solving problems rarely does and value is nearly always celebrated.

Last Friday the Hello Viking team immersed ourselves in a 14-hour Google Adwords training session. Search history. Platforms. Tools. Keyword research practice. Ad-writing. Negative filtering. The works. We had 10 people sitting around the table——no one was excused. The discussion was thorough, and fascinating. The art of running Adwords is in the details. It rewards the mind of a math wonk mixed with a copywriter mixed with a programmer mixed with a statistician.

Assistant Producer
Breanne is a recent graduate from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising and a minor [...]

Global Business Development
Lisa Stitzel spent 20 years in business development and consulting for financial services with TIAA-CREF. Her career brought [...]

Senior Software Developer
Neil is a software developer with 10 years’ experience delivering software solutions.
He graduated from Bethel College with a [...]

Graphic Designer
A recent graduate from the Minneapolis College of Art + Design with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Graphic [...]

Last night I had the opportunity to speak on a panel with Meghan Wilker and Nancy Lyons from Geek Girls Guide and Nathan Almquist from Webknowledgy at Brookfield Properties’ Boutique Retail Roundtable. It was refreshing to hear consistent responses from our panel—the industry seems to be coalescing around key elements.

Copywriter
Knute is a writer, researcher and musician.
After graduating from the University of Colorado in 2006, he wrote surveys and ran [...]

A friend who doesn’t work in advertising came to visit the agency today. She asked me to explain what advertising was all about in 2009. I said advertising used to be created from words and images. But then we added technology.

Conversation is not the new advertising. Being a conduit for conversation is the new advertising. If advertising will succeed in the age of increasing consumer voice, it has to stop trying to talk to people, and start getting people to talk amongst themselves.