Technology, Innovation and the New Normal with Sara DeViney, Director of Operations and Partnerships, Snowday
Are there any new policies that your company/agency has put in place to help keep employees inspired during this time?
Snowday is a tight knit team built on a culture of sharing and community. As we began to work remotely along with the rest of the industry, it became increasingly important to us to remain committed to maintaining not only our connection, but our sense of team inspiration as creatives. We have two types of gatherings that have helped our team stay connected, informed and creative during our time at home.
The Friday Club: Our full team comes together at the end of the week to discuss the week’s successes, challenges and our weekly assignment – this can be an article, short film, podcast – anything that inspires the team to think about things in a new way. We all take turns assigning the piece on Mondays and have the week to digest before the group discussion on Friday. This has been a wonderful way to keep our eye on fresh storytelling, and tie together the two industries that Snowday straddles, advertising and film production.
Creative Jams: Built with the structure of a coding sprint – as we all began working remotely we developed the ritual of Creative Jams, a 15 minute slot where we bring the team together to “jam” on something creative. Sometimes it’s a time to brainstorm ideas for new projects, discuss when we are stuck on a current one, or just generate some creative discussion among the team. Making connections together, and challenging each other to think outside the box has helped us feel connected, while stimulating creativity… all in just 15 mins!
Has your company/agency developed any local creative initiatives to support the community?
We recently launched our Wear a Mask PSA, submitted to Governor Cuomo and his daughter Mariah for consideration in their call to encourage New Yorker’s to wear masks. Over 5 days, our team sourced more than 100 photos/videos of people in our community wearing masks. This was a wonderful creative project for the team, but also a great way to support our community – Watch here.
Telling stories using UGC (User Generated Content) filmed by real people is a great way to tap into today’s production possibilities. This style of content can be produced and directed in a remote capacity to serve as a backbone for all types of concept or product-driven stories. If you are interested in UGC or what else is possible for production at this time, take a look at our COVID capabilities deck and feel free to reach out with any questions. We’d love to chat!