It’s been an interesting year here at Jigsaw. Change has been inevitable and the last 365 days of 2010 have reached moments that will never be forgotten and moments we all wish we could forget. Addy and I thought it would be fun to send out an e-mail to everyone asking for their favorite moments of the past year — the responses varied from hilarious to down right sappy — but always, they left us with the feeling of “togetherness” and “great accomplishment.”

So here’s to 2010. Here’s to Jigsaw. And here’s to each and everyone of you that make up this place. Each tear, each chuckle, each politically incorrect statement (those moments could not be included below due to legalities), and of course, each smile. Here’s to some of those moments captured in words:

1. Addy used her business card for the first time when she hired Saxman to play at Miguel‘s 30th birthday. Then Saxman, well, he stood her up.

2. Saddened by the (deep) loss of our 4-year-old, orange, trianglular-shaped goldfish Pedro, in true Jigsaw style, we held a Viking funeral and sent him down the river in a tugboat. We miss you Pedro.

3. We think Steven Wold cleaned his desk on July 12th.

4. 21 people made the Jigsaw website in just 20 short days, we like to call it “Bits & Pieces. The site launched on Sept. 21rst.

5. To date, almost 1,000 messages of Hope have been shared with the world through the “Hope is” project. We continue to help battle in the fight against cancer by growing the community.

6. Talent has expanded and we think it’s pretty nice that we now have enough people to make another softball team. Say hello to our 2010 newcomers: Anne, Addy, Amanda, Ben, Dione, Erin, Eric, Jacque & Sue (please note Sue starred in the 2008 recap of Jigsaw as well).

7. Our fearless coach, O’Donnell, led us to the playoffs in Adworker’s softball league (ok, almost). With a 5/5 record, only 1 injury and almost 500 cans of beer consumed, we like to call it Jigsaw success.

8. At our holiday party, we won (with skill) a “sluty” gorilla (as Wold nicknamed him in an e-mail). Yet to be given a real name, our agency gorilla likes to be naked. But don’t worry, if you stop by he is wearing black “censored” strips thanks to Beki.

9. Rumor has it that Madonna actually hugged someone (but really folks, it’s just speculation, so don’t get your hopes up).

10. In the Adworker‘s Bowling League, both Danielle and Trevor were awarded their gorgeous plastic bowling ball keychains when they achieved something few do in a lifetime: a score over 200.

In the past few weeks the interwebs were flooded with social media and social marketing trends and predictions for 2011. (Let me Google that for you, if you haven’t seen one of the 837467382904 posts on the topic.) What will happen in the social media space in 2011? A lot of exciting things: from average users experiencing social media schizophrenia which will lead to increased consumer content curation, to brands acting more like media companies, to the move from slacktivism to hyper citizen activism, to full integration, although that was a prediction for 2009 and 2010 and still hasn’t happened. Maybe.

But what do all these predictions mean for advertising agencies? What do they mean for people who have social marketing in their titles or college graduates trying to get a job as social media something something?

The traditional requirements for that position still remain relevant. We must (yes, I did say must) know the difference between social media and social marketing. We all should be self-motivated, innovative, business savvy and strategic content creators and curators. But with the changes that have occurred in the past year, we, and the agencies that hire us, should strive for more.

Besides knowing the tools and their capabilities, social marketing managers should also know how people use these tools. We think that everyone is a social butterfly and people engage with strangers on Twitter just because that is what we do. Let’s quit projecting and learn how exactly clients’ audiences use these tools. We should examine how people engage with brands online, which is a very different behavior from how they engage with their niche communities.

We should continue our search for the right measurement systems and approaches. We’ve talked about going beyond clicks, RTs, likes, etc. Let’s refocus from measuring social activity to measuring the success of an integrated effort. Instead of having a social marketing measurement report, we should have measurement reports that give the numbers as they relate to a business goal: sales, awareness, etc. even if that means measuring offline.

Since even ordinary people will get fatigue from social media, everyone would be much pickier about the content we consume, which makes quality content more important than ever. Utilitainment will be a responsibility of every social/community manager and that means we will have to produce valuable (valuable for our clients’ audiences, not for us or for the clients) content for each selected platform. Regardless of the format, content strategy that leads engaging and involving content will be a must. Let’s put our efforts in mastering content strategy instead of producing content just to say we are publishers or media companies.

Most importantly, we should become even better at teaching. Teaching everyone: from clients to account people to creatives to planners. If we do our job well, we will be obsolute in a year or two because social media should be everyone’s job. Instead of having social media managers, gurus, strategists, etc, we should just have community managers. The New York Times eliminating its social media editor position is a good thing. And the same should be true for agencies, even if that means that I won’t have a job.

Scary? Yes! Exciting? Even more so!

What will you change in 2011? How will all trends and predictions change your job, responsibilities and skills?

P.S. Happy holidays!

Awhile back I was chatting with my sister and brother-in-law about the current Get Crackin’ ad campaign for pistachios – which is cute. Hopefully you’ve seen it – but for this discussion it’s not really critical that you watch it before we go further. I commented that I thought it was pretty cool, and a bit unusual, that a nut would advertise. Seems a rather unusual client, no? (“Ohh, I can’t wait to land the Pistachios account!?”)

But, when we gave it more than a second’s worth of thought, we realized that advertising for an entire segment of an industry (across all brands) isn’t all that unique. There are quite a few other products that do this –

Milk via the California Milk Producers Board

Orange Juice via the Florida Department of Citrus growers

and Potatoes via Idaho® Potatoes

And while these advertisers do want consumers to choose the product grown in their state – they don’t specify a brand name. These products are marketed under many, many brand names and the campaign benefits them all.

There was only one campaign that I could think of that didn’t even specify where the product was produced – it was the one for high fructose corn syrup.  It was produced by The Corn Refiners Association. (I do feel responsible to advise other moms that this campaign did NOT stop the dirty looks when I brought the gallon of Blue Razz drinkaid to the daycare picnic. Ugh! I hope no one else fell for that!)

Like the corn refiners, I thought I was going to be able to add the pistachios growers to the short list of advertisers that create campaigns for their industry as a whole…

But wait. Hold up. It wasn’t until I began researching this blog post did I realize that the pistachio commercials are actually FOR A BRAND.  Did you all know this?? It is the Wonderful® brand. Wonderful® pistachios.  I thought they just meant they were wonderful! As in, tasty or healthy or engaging (you know, the way you have to work with your hands to produce the meat part…). But no. They actually mean pick our pistachios, not just any pistachios. I’m sorry Wonderful®, I’m sure you are indeed lovely, but I totally missed that whole thing about your brand name.

So that changes everything – and I can’t resist taking a momentary excursion to explore a different question:

Is it smart to go to market with a brand name that is also an adjective like that?

Not surprisingly, I have a story to spur this debate…

Awhile back on Living Social there was a coupon for Milwaukee’s Best Massage. After purchasing my own, I forwarded it to friends (hoping to get mine for free!). A girlfriend e-mailed me back asking what salon it was for. Reasonable question, right?  “Where can I get this best massage in Milwaukee?” Well, see, the name of the business is actually Milwaukee’s Best Massage. I agree, it’s a tad confusing, where there really need be no confusion. (And though I can’t be certain that it IS the best massage in Milwaukee, it certainly was delightful (as are pretty much all massages, actually). A little plug for Lay.

But back to the original topic of the nut campaign –

Even if I did not understand that Wonderful® was behind the pistachios campaign, does it matter that much to Wonderful® ? Perhaps Wonderful® is just fine with dramatically lifting the cool factor for ALL pistachios – and is confident that, via their well-executed television commercials as well as their well-coordinated distribution channels, that they will BE THERE and look right when we reach to the shelves for this otherwise-never-thought-of nut that suddenly has influence some in our lives.  That would be a pretty sweet place for any wonderful brand to be, don’t you think?

It seems an appropriate time to share one of Jigsaw’s most recent projects. The Alverno College Annual Report. It’s a project that has numerous people’s blood, sweat and tears mixed into 75 pages. And let me just remind you, the act of reading a 75 page annual is much easier then designing a 75 page annual.

Each year (okay for only the last 2), I have happily lead a team in creating this fine report. In true Jigsaw style, we assembled our team from both the agency and the client side, and together we have persevered the worst: pagination flow charts, word count comps, copy drafts, headlines, photo selects, color studies, concepts, designs, presentations, numerous rounds of revisions, countless mock ups, last minute financial reports, retouching, production, paper samples, press checks, embossing tests, late nights, early mornings, our lives…

So what makes me want to do it over and over again? Two things: 1. The people. The way they make me laugh, their non-stop passion and commitment, their suggestions, comments, opinions and understanding that in order to make magic, it doesn’t happen alone. 2. Our client. Because over and over again, they challenge, direct, give feedback, dedicate themselves, work hard on our team and often become the cheerleaders in the room because they believe that we can make magic happen.

So take a look at our hard work. It’s beauty. It’s craftsmanship. It’s content, it’s photos  Because it truly is a magical piece. It’s received many honors and praise and has successfully helped tell the Alverno College story for 2011. Thanks to everyone who touched this project, especially our team at Alverno, Fox Printing and of course, our lovely Jigsaw team.

If you’d like to see a full copy of the report, let us know, we’ll send you one.

See you next year guys (in 302 days to be exact, but who’s counting?).

Foursquare, Gowalla, SCVNGR, Brightkite, Loopt,Whrrl, Facebook Places, ShopKick… Check in, get points, unlock badges, even special badges, get stamps, do challenges, get discounts, or $5 gift cards, or a free scoop of ice cream, or $1 off Frappuccino. Blah, blah, blah. Boring stuff, especially if you live in the Midwest.

You’d think that with all the buzz around geolocation apps there would be some creative ideas on how to use them to connect, engage and involve customers with brands. But besides the usual: special badges, stamps and discounts, almost nothing exciting has happened in this space. I didn’t realize it until I decided to create a list of the ten most creative campaigns using location-based apps. I couldn’t even find five, let alone ten. So here’s my list of the top four most creative ways to use location-based apps.

The most creative campaign using location-based apps is KLM Surprise, an experiment on how happiness spreads. Sounds great, no? And it is. The airline is committing random acts of kindness to people who follow them on Foursquare and check in at KLM venues such as airport lounges. The KLM team studies the tweets of people who check in and surprises travelers with little gifts like champagne, notebooks, watches and traditional Dutch food. A passenger was missing an important football (err, excuse me soccer) game and KLM surprised him with a Lonely Planet guide to NYC with all the best football bars marked. Another passenger was surprised with a package to remind him of home during his long stay abroad. Thoughtful, huh? (Also a little bit creepy, according to some.) I guess there goes my loyalty to British Airways. Or maybe Bulgaria Air will send me a nice package for Christmas.

Who can compete with something like this? Nike, of course, with the famous Destroyer Burrito. In partnership with Koi Fusion, Nike surprised its fans in Portland, and the fans of Koi Fusion, with a free jacket packaged in the form of a burrito. The followers of @koifusionpdx and @nikesportswear were instructed to go to the Koi Fusion food truck near Portland University, check in using Facebook Places and request the Destroyer Burrito.

Numero tres is Jimmy Choo with a real-time treasure hunt around London using Foursquare. A pair of Jimmy Choo sneakers checked in at various trendy locations in London and the person who was lucky enough to arrive at the venue before the trainers left got a pair in style and size of his/her choice.

Last is the PepsiCo and Safeway partnership with Foursquare. Launched last month, the rewards program is built on top of Safeway’s existing loyalty program. Customers can link their Foursquare and Safeway accounts to earn rewards from check-ins. Most importantly, the program doesn’t simply reward for check-ins and frequency, but for behaviors. If participating customers unlock the Foursquare “Gym Rat” badge, they might be offered a SoBe Lifewater; or customers who check in early might be offered Tropicana orange juice or Quacker Oats. Now, all we need is a Safeway store in Milwaukee.

What makes these campaigns and programs special is the unique value they provide: entertainment, experience and utility that converges online and offline and connects brands and customers in a way that special badges and 25% off of Gap jeans can never achieve.

Clay Shirky says that tools don’t become socially interesting until they become technologically boring. But geo-location apps, or at least the way they’ve been used so far, have never been technologically interesting, so how do we expect more than 4% of the people to be interested in these tools?