Mortar is looking for an experienced brand strategist/account planner to join our team. We’re a planning-led agency who scours for hidden insight and a genuine connection to the consumer, which provides the springboard for our creative. We only see things as integrated, and we’re looking for a strategic thinker who can work across all media – digital, social, traditional, influencer marketing, and even PR. We’re small and growing, so you’ll have your hands on projects from beginning to end. You’ll create powerful brands from scratch. You’ll craft resonating, untouchable strategies that take a brand from average to spectacular.
You love building brands and telling their stories. You know how to ignite a conversation and make it grow. You can lead clients with your thinking and inspire creative teams with your unexpected ideas. And if you write haikus about spider monkeys in your sleep, you’re halfway to working here.
Qualifications:
5-6+ years brand strategy/account planning experience.
Experience with qualitative research (experience moderating focus groups and interviews a plus).
An innate ability to develop unique and inspiring viewpoints.
Comfortable working on all phases of a project independently, and leading the strategic side of projects from start to finish.
Excellent writing skills.
Ability to communicate, present, and sell an idea effectively.
Adept at building client relationships.
Experience with quantitative research a plus.
Media savvy. You understand how to integrate strategy across a variety of media (brand, digital, social, traditional).
You have a “make things happen” mindset.
Writing a great brief or a strategy comes easily to you now.
You’re not just interested in this job, but you’re also an interesting person. Maybe you skydive weekly, or are extremely passionate about corndogs. We like people that stand out.
Responsibilities:
Be the strategic lead on several accounts.
Make consumer insights happen.
Inspire creative teams to greatness.
Create earth-shattering brand strategies and present them to clients.
Make sure clients love us, our peers respect us, and our competition envies us. But most importantly, make sure our moms still love us, too.
To apply, send an email to sylvie@mortaragency.com with your resume and cover letter, plus an original haiku about spider monkeys. Also, you’re required to have fun writing it. If you get the job, you will presumably meet the infamous Mortar Monkey and grasp why he mesmerizes us so. Here’s a sample haiku to get you going:
We’re not surprised if you’ve heard of Marketo. They were named the fastest-growing private company in Silicon Valley last year, after all. We’ve also blogged about them several times, and we know you’d rather not eat for a week than miss an entry on Ye Olde Mortarblog.
Riding the wave of success that just seems to keep on building, Marketo hosted its User Summit this week in San Francisco, closing with a celebratory gala on Treasure Island. 1,400 people attended, a 300% increase over their last conference. We’re no mathematicians, but that sounds purdy impressive, no?
Local history nerds will know that Treasure Island was the site of the 1939 World’s Fair. That inspired us to build a conference theme around the idea of an innovation expo, with a look and feel that harks back to 1930s art deco. The idea fit just right, since Marketo is transforming the way companies do business, in response to today’s changing customer. These guys are fo’ real innovators, much like the genius who thought up peanut butter by the slice.
Landing on the theme “Marketing & Sales for a Brave New World,” we concocted a series of striking posters, a landing page, and a swing-driven opening video in which we unironically “jazz things up.” See the work after the jump.
Congratulations to our purple-powered pals on a whoppingly successful event. And thanks for giving us a chance to do some real art for a change.
Look ma, I drawed it!
Those Egyptians did an okay job, but THIS is what we call a pyramid.
This bridge was made for the fridge.
Oh this is an island we’ll treasure, alright.
Look ma, it’s a TV commercial! Except, you know, minus the TV part.
Based in Vancouver, our new client Westport Innovations designs natural gas engines that produce up to 27% less emissions than gasoline. Vehicles powered by the Westport WiNG Power System can travel 650 miles before having to refuel, eliminating the range anxiety caused by the latest crop of electric vehicles. Because natural gas is domestically sourced, it’s helping reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil. To top it off, natural gas costs about half as much as gasoline or diesel. (The benefits pretty much sell themselves.)
Later this quarter, Westport will introduce two natural gas-powered trucks to the consumer market: the Ford F250 and Ford F530. To celebrate (or maybe just because it sounds like a crapload of fun), the Westport WiNG Team is embarking on a four-day road trip powered entirely by compressed natural gas. The team started in Detroit yesterday and will be trekking 700 miles to their final destination, Times Square.
They’ll be making pit stops along the way and letting people take the new trucks for a spin. If you want to be one of the first to test drive these bi-fueled babies, below is where you can find ‘em. (Just please try to display more maturity than we would and restrain from making any fart jokes.)
The Route:
Valley Ford Truck Sales, Cleveland OH: May 21, 12pm-3pm
SARTA-Clean Energy, Canton, OH: May 21, 4pm-5pm
Allegheny Ford Truck Sales, Pittsburgh, PA: May 22, 11am-2pm
John Kennedy Ford, Pottstown, PA: May 23, 10am-1pm
Times Square, New York City, NY: May 24, 1pm-5pm
In case sustainable resources don’t excite you, they’ll also be BBQing mountains of pulled pork at the dealerships. Ahh, now we have Nok’s attention.
If you fancy moving pictures, here’s a 3-minute explanation of how Westport is driving the future of transportation. (We’re keeping our fingers crossed for natural gas-powered Hoverboards.)
– Love writing and media relations.
– Are both organized, and fun to work with. (It is possible, you know.)
– REALLY like to pitch, and know how to find and share stories that can earn breakthrough media coverage for clients in the broadcast and online world.
– Understand the art and science of great client service, and enjoy making life easier for the media.
– Have 3 years experience doing PR at an agency, or in-house.
– Have experience creating PR-related social media and web content.
– Ideally have experience in healthcare, medical devices, education and technology, but it’s not a dealbreaker.
– Preferably have an affinity for marmosets, James Brown, hot crispy bacon, or all of the above.
In this role, you’ll work most closely with Mortar’s PR team, but you’ll also collaborate with Mortar’s top account managers, branding strategists and award-winning creatives. You’ll also help our clients create PR-aligned social media programs and campaigns, which includes content development for the web (including appropriate social media sites), distribution and measurement. Best of all, you’ll be part of a different kind of agency where integrated marketing is more than a buzzword – it’s a way of life.
If this sounds appealing, email allyson@mortaragency.com with your resume, cover letter, and a sentence telling us what your favorite kind of monkey is and why. Emails lacking these three elements will be chewed up by our resident chimpanzee.
The type of marmoset you, job candidate, might harbor an irrational love for.
Imagine if there were an iPhone for noses. Not a phone that your nose uses, but rather a product for noses that’s as revolutionary and rule-shattering as the iPhone 4s. That’s PROPEL: a post-surgical implant for patients with chronic sinusitis created by our client Intersect ENT.
We explained the beauty of PROPEL before, and it’s worth a refresher course. In the sinusitis arena, there’s no solution as cleverly designed and multi-functional as PROPEL, which is why it’s such a big deal.
At this year’s Edison Awards in New York City, PROPEL earned the Bronze award in the Science & Medical category. The Emmys of the tech world, the Edison Awards represent the spirit of innovation personified by Thomas Edison, inspiring America’s drive to remain at the forefront of creativity and ingenuity in the global economy. Other winners this year included IBM’s Watson supercomputer, the Fisker Karma electric car, and the iPhone 4s – not a bad bunch to be stuck in a room with.
We already knew PROPEL rocked, but now it’s official. Congratulations to Intersect ENT for keeping creativity alive, and patients well.
