Great news! We are beyond excited to announce that, after a three-month agency review process, Jigsaw has been chosen as the new marketing and advertising agency for VISIT Milwaukee, the accredited Destination Marketing Organization for the Greater Milwaukee area. We’re partnering with VISIT Milwaukee on marketing communications to attract leisure travelers as well as meetings and conventions to the city.

In the words of Steve Marsho, our fearless leader of account service: “We are very passionate about Milwaukee, and thrilled to be working with VISIT Milwaukee to help show the world all that this city has to offer. Many people don’t realize what a beautiful, fun city we have, and what an easy city it is to enjoy; the number of stories to tell and ways to connect people to Milwaukee is an incredible opportunity.”

In other words: Milwaukee rocks, and we will have a blast helping show it off. We previously worked with VISIT Milwaukee on the launch of the DearMKE website – part of a growing community collaboration that seeks to dispel old perceptions and paint a picture of the many facets of Milwaukee as told through the stories of Milwaukeeans.

“We were very impressed with Jigsaw’s creativity and fresh approach to promoting Milwaukee as well as their ability to connect the dots by using measurable research combined with strategic marketing practices. We’re confident this new partnership will result in effective messaging that successfully targets our core markets,” said Paul Upchurch, VISIT Milwaukee President and CEO.

Truly, this is an honor for us and we will work our butts off to make VISIT Milwaukee – and the rest of Milwaukee – proud.

Photo: Trevor Eiler

Growing is something most marketing agencies strive to achieve, and that’s exactly what we’re doing here at Jigsaw. Recently, we welcomed two new members to the family.

Jigsaw’s new hires, Eoghan and Rachel, were given their first to-do:
“Introduce yourself, blog-style.” – Mr. Johnny Abbate

The day I found out I had an interview
Eoghan: Rays of sunshine shining through my triple shot Americano at my favorite Alterra coffee shop. There I sat, chatting with my film team in preparation for our annual 72 hour film challenge. The phone rang a number I didn’t recognize. My favorite kind. I said yes, yes and yes, thank you.
Rachel: The day I found out I had an interview I had just lost my grandma to cancer. She kept a red ribbon with her for good luck. I brought a piece with me to my interview and VOILA.

Position(s)
Eoghan: Front-End Developer
Rachel: Interactive Project Manager

First thought(s)
Eoghan: Downtown, doorman, fancy elevators… very sleek Jigsaw lobby…
*gasp* …and jeans! Alright. Now we are talking!
Rachel: How will I remember which one is Wold and which one is Marsho?

I like this industry because
Eoghan: I am an artist, and everyone sees advertisements. Whether we like them or not they are everywhere, and what is more rewarding to an artist than an audience? I also love the communications side of advertising. Let’s walk. Let’s talk. Let’s conceptualize. And let’s deliver. Now let us celebrate!
Rachel: I get to work and play with insanely creative people.

It’s 3pm
Eoghan: My inner conflict engulfs me surrounding the dire dialogue to latte or not to latte. That is always the question. Fortunately or unfortunately it has the same sealed fate every time: to latte. Roughly at 3:15 pm I am now conflicting over latte or coffee. A good cup of coffee has more caffeine, but a smooth latte soothes the soul. By 4 pm I’ve got some warm drink in my hand.
Rachel: I’m eating something with peanut butter.

For more about our team and agency, tweet with us @Jigsaw_LLC.

Are you looking to further your already successful career in the advertising industry? Do you want to use your passion for problem-solving to make a difference? Can you bring fresh, exciting ideas to the table? Work across all forms of media, particularly digital and mobile? Keep your cool in a fast-paced environment? As an Account Executive at Jigsaw, it’s all about being actively involved.

Responsibilities include:

• Provide support to overall management of assigned accounts, serving as primary day-to-day client contact for projects and client requests
• Build client trust by listening to requests, documenting meetings and conversations, providing frequent project updates and executing with consistent, thoughtful attention to detail.
• Manage and adhere to client budgets by tracking project costs, approving vendor invoices and billing accurately and to estimate.
• Understand client’s business: their customers, how they sell, key information about the industry and the role of communications. Keep current with client-specific media and information to learn about customer trends and industry dynamics.
• Prepare Creative Briefs (to review with senior management) for each project in response to client input.
• Brief the creative team on the communications strategy and meet with them frequently throughout the development process.
• Provide input and budgets for the media team to initiate planning, placement and changes to the schedule.
• Support senior account management with effective account administration: accurate documentation, timely estimates, correct billing and responsiveness to requests.
• Actively prepare for and participate in client meetings, facilitating portions of meeting, capturing meeting notes and generating conference reports.
• Perform, summarize and present secondary research as directed by senior management. Proactively seek out and track advertising and client industry news, trends and insights.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree: advertising/marketing/communications major strongly preferred.
• 3-5 years of agency experience or equivalent professional experience in a marketing/communications capacity.
• Team player who is enthusiastic, flexible, highly organized, implicitly motivated, dependable with an innate attention to detail.
• Strong writing, communication and presentation skills.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office. Keynote knowledge is a bonus.

Interested? Submit your resume and cover letter to humanresources@jigsawllc.com.

Time to update your resume & portfolio.

We are looking for a Senior Writer.

We here at Jigsaw are extremely excited to announce our newest client relationship, with Dirty Girl Mud Run.

The Dirty Girl Mud Run series debuted in 2011 to a sold-out field of over 6,000 women in Wisconsin. The inaugural year also featured overwhelmingly successful events in Colorado and New York. In 2012, Dirty Girl is expanding to 12 cities. Dirty Girl differs from others in the increasingly-crowded field of mud run competitors in that it is specifically designed to be fun and accessible for women of all ages and athletic abilities.

In addition, Dirty Girl is very socially conscious. A portion of all proceeds from Dirty Girl registration fees is donated to National Breast Cancer Foundation. In 2011, Dirty Girls helped donate over $50,000 to help win the race against breast cancer. In each city of the 2012 tour, 250 cancer survivors will receive complimentary registration and special recognition.

In the two short weeks since our partnership with Dirty Girl began, we’ve completed several projects, including a home page redesign and creation of materials for promotion visits to Dirty Girl race markets, such as postcards, posters and vehicle signage. We’ve also begun collaborating on social media and blogger outreach, while planning additional ways to build registration, particularly in new markets for the race.

Jimmy Gohsman, Dirty Girl Race Director, says:

“From the first time we met with the Jigsaw team about possibly doing business with them up until now, our expectations have been exceeded time and again. They took the time beforehand to learn about our business, what we are trying to accomplish, how we are trying to accomplish it, and understood it right off the bat. Their passion shines through in their speedy and remarkably high-quality work, and it’s been fun working with them. It’s very obvious that their goal is to help us succeed by working collaboratively with us, which is very important to us. We are looking forward to a long term relationship with Jigsaw both personally and professionally.”

I, personally, cannot wait to do the Dirty Girl Mud Run here in Milwaukee (Hartland, actually) on August 18th. I haven’t run since my son was born over six years ago (gulp) so it’s going to be an interesting, challenging Spring and Summer.

Check out the Dirty Girl race locations and schedule and Go Dirty Girl!!!