Amsterdam Finds

My first year in Amsterdam has come to an end today and I want to share my favorite restaurant finds. If you know of some more goodies, please leave a comment and share!
First up is pizza. The Dark Angel and I are big fans, and though none of our favorite places are close enough to [...]

Want to work in Europe?

Seems a lot of people do because I’m getting a load of emails lately asking me how I got over here, if I have any advice and if I know any recruiters. So I thought I would share what I know.
Having an EU passport would make your wish a reality a lot faster. It does [...]

Copying should at least rate some in-school suspension

Have you seen the first episode of the new season of CSI? Not only are they using the same frozen scene to tell a story, but there are many too similar elements to Philip’s Grand Prix winning Carousel to just be inspiration. Would have felt like pop culture had adopted it and ran if they’d [...]

Junior Planner Gig in Dallas

My good friend Christie just put the call out for a freelance junior planner. Here’s the skinny:
Freelance Junior Strategic Planner
October – December ‘09
Role: Support department-wide strategic initiatives through intelligence gathering, research design and analysis, creating strategic support materials (i.e. trend reporting, videos, briefing materials, etc.).
* Do consumer insights oddly excite you?
[...]

Can I get a grant

And study the effect of Michael Jackson music being played in stores on purchase behavior? I think this factor alone will pull us out of recession. I hate shopping in Amsterdam because the stores aren’t open after work or on Sunday (generally) so every Saturday is like being in a Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving. [...]

Navel gazing

I received an email yesterday from Wouter, a fellow Amsterdam planner, and he thought it would be interesting to know all of our definitions of planning. Several other people mentioned this in their comments as well.
I think there’s a bit of a hole in our collective psyches for much of the navel gazing that happens [...]

Wrong, right?

Take a look at this video. Now this is a tempting if morally questionable idea – if I skim off even 10% of my salary could I get someone else to do 80% of my work? Could be awesome. But wrong, Heather, wrong!
Could it actually be done? I looked at the salary data and [...]

Survey Results!

Fresh as they come people. I’ve just emailed the I’s through the M’s, I’ll email the other parts of the alphabet in the coming days.

Lots of news in here. I’m starting a competition to select two additional authors for the survey, I’ll write more about that later. And the survey is crossing disciplines. Mariota Essery [...]

Crowd sourcing the planning survey

Going to have to try something new because I’m about to break a promise and get on the plane tomorrow without finishing. There just haven’t been enough hours in the day but I know you guys understand. I thought perhaps the best thing to do was share some of the info I already have compiled [...]

Matchstick houses

I had an ice cream workshop last week where we were coming up with “on brand ice cream flavors.” As a part of the day, we brought in a creative who hasn’t worked on the account before to be a fresh pair of eyes. Luck of the draw landed us with Rob Messeter from our [...]