What started as a forum to help our independent agency clients discuss operating during Covid has grown into a larger group of agencies discussing not just Covid issues but many of the challenges running a independent agency in a difficult economic environment.

The pace of change at the beginning of the pandemic was so fast that meetings were held every two weeks. It seemed that just when we felt we are getting a handle on an issue, at the next meeting two weeks later everything had changed.

As the pace of Covid change started to slow, meetings went to once per month and the group has now settled into a quarterly schedule. The topics have changed but the benefit of having agency executives from different organization is still there.

I realize that awards ceremonies can be a bit self congratulatory but at the same time it is important to recognize greatness in the healthcare marketing industry. We have awards for up-and-comers and awards for lifetime achievement but great job MM and M for recognizing people in the prime of their career with the Pinnacle Awards.

Congratulations to Frank Powers and Jay Carter for both being recognized for their contributions to the healthcare marketing community. I have know them both for many years and the deserve the recognition.

Congratulations to all of the honorees! You are in great company!

-Mark Schnurman – President — Filament Inc

Med Ad New has named Jay Carter Person of the Year (read here) and it could not have gone to a more deserving person. It is worth noting that this is person of the year not marketer of the year. It goes without saying that Jay is an incredible marketer… to his credit he is an even better person. While he is quick to share the credit for his success with a long list of co-workers and clients it is a little bit more difficult to share the credit for being person of the year.

Having worked closely with Jay for over 20 years, I am happy to see my friend get recognized for his many achievements.

Congratulations Jay!

Last year at this time, I wrote about the prospect of a better 2022. Again, I am writing the same thing. But there is a bit more hope for 2022 than there probably was for 2021. Vaccines are on the way. Treatments seem to better. From a business perspective, we have all figured out work from home or at least figured it out enough.

While I am not sure that a return to normalcy is going to happen any time soon, perhaps a return to a little bit of normalcy is not too much to ask.

Stay safe…stay well…Happy New Year!

As agencies started to consider a post-Covid existence, the issue of reopening the office has come to the forefront. Filament’s Independent Agency Forum worked to combine both qualitative and quantitative surveys to help get a better understanding of how employees will expect to use the office in the future.

MM and M magazine today published some of the overarching themes of the research. Click here to read the article.

After a brief conversation with MM and M magazine, they have expressed interest in publishing the survey findings from Filament Independent Agencies survey on re-opening the office.

While the findings are not complete yet, it is exciting to see so much interest in the marketplace for our survey findings.

We will publish a link to the article when it is published.

The Filament Independent Agency Forum has grown to over a dozen organizations representing a variety of communication firms. As we all get closer to the idea, if not reality, of reopening the forum conducted both qualitative research as well as a quantitative survey with nearly 500 employees respondents.

The research dove into areas of concern including:

• what did staff like about working from home
• what did staff dislike about WFH
• what are staff expectations as we start to consider re-opening the office
• how has the role of the office changed since Covid
• what are tasks are best handled best in the office (or from home)
• what does staff miss most about the office

Some of the qualitative responses were surprising and we look forward to seeing if those responses show up in the quantitative survey.

We will keep you posted as the findings are available.

2020 created an enormous set of challenges for Filament since nearly 90% of work is done in person. While we needed to redesign or organization, we found that there are some significant advantages to changing to a zoom/webex format for training.

Two things popped up as the biggest advantages. First, if most presentations are going to be done in a virtual format, it stands to reason that at least presentation training should be in a virtual format. The second is that fitting multiple, short zoom meetings into agency staff schedules is far easier than dedicating an entire day or two to training.

While there is no replacement for in-person training, zoom/webex have proven to have some significant advantages and will give us different options to meet different client needs.

Who would have thought that something positive, however small, could come out of an otherwise brutal year.

Now that 2020 is in the rear view mirror, I think we can all breath a sigh of relief and hope that 2021 will be an improvement.

While March and April were scary from both a personal and business standpoint, mid-June through the end of the year were incredibly busy. New clients, new projects, new challenges all combined to make for an exciting year. In some ways, being busy with business issues helped to divert our attention from all of the mayhem occurring around us.

We can only hope that 2021 offers all of us a return to some sense of normalcy.

From all of us at Filament, best wishes for a safe 2021 and that we all get through troubled times with as few bumps and bruises as possible.

Happy New Year everyone!

As we move from fall to winter and outdoor opportunities dwindle, it is not surprising that mental health and Covid fatigue are becoming bigger and bigger issues.  Filament’s independent agency executive forum is tackling the issue head on and spent the entirety of the last two forum meetings discussing ways to help employees stay positive and navigate what will likely be a very difficult winter.

While the news of vaccines is certainly very positive, it would be surprising if the distribution would be wide enough to make a significant impact on our agency staff this winter.  As a result, finding ways to boost morale and give people tools to handle mental health issues are crucial. 

The last two forum sessions have given us all a number of new techniques to address the growing issues.  Nobody on the forum feels like they have the answer when it comes to improving mental health and morale but everyone came out of the meeting with a few new tools and techniques that can help.

It is important for us to all work together as we navigate unprecedented times.

Stay safe everyone…