We maxed it this year having finally got to the size that we can sensibly hire a big house for a massive December Party. Alongside some extreme Scottish weather, 34 of us headed up to Glasgow on the big orange bird in the sky. The 120 mile an hour winds had disappeared by the time we landed leaving 3 roads closed and blizzards closing in. The plan evolved with two Coach companies dropping out last minute seeing Sapna and Prateek wheeling and dealing our way to the transfer from Glasgow to the Scottish heartlands; Argyllshire on the west coast of wintery Scotland.

For those of us lucky enough to be with a local driver, we took full advantage of the 3 hour earlier arrival time and checked out the pallet of local booze that greeted us. By the time the last of our crowd arrived we matched their low on spirits with ours, greeting their cheery little faces with highballs filled with Single malt. A 6am bedtime preceded a hearty breakfast and a snow covered treasure hunt and theatre experience all fuelled by enthusiasm, cheating and Team Italy’s faviourite Bunnahabhain.

Alongside extensive training sessions, business updates and state of the nation presentations. Friday night kicked off with a mobile-made-video competition celebrating Hive’s 4th birthday (Entries to be YouTubed later this week). Dinner by Louise and her team included loads of  game, pastry, chocolate and a few bottles of wine. Hearty dancing supported by the democracy of our Spotify account.

Dangerous moves lasted until morning (even the Malt was single!). A beautiful dawn saw bedtime, a waking fire alarm and scenic trip through the countryside and across the ferry to the mainland. Diet Coke, airport-floor-sluping and the slow journey back home saw it over until another year.

I think this trip has been the best ever. All of us together, a new venue,  snow and whisky – perfect. With photos slowly being edited, deleted or uploaded our Christmas story can be enjoyed courtesy of Flickr.

February 2009 saw us update and evolve the look and feel, bolting on some additional social media and a little more functionality.

It’s now time for another change of wardrobe. An easier interface, more access and search functionality for our 50,000+ word-bank of blogs, links to Patient Centricity News our curated Scoop.it publication and a load more bits.

The migration takes place over the next 24 hours. Once it’s done make yourself at home, have a play around and let us know what you think.

My bugbear with these multi day extravaganzas is with the foundation icebreaker sessions. This is more rant than thought through critique. (I am sugar rushing from some charity cake from brought over by the guys at The Nursery)

Surely we all get paid to attend, think and deliver. Surely we all consider it a default to work within a team, even an unfamiliar one. Whether that be off the cuff or after permitted thought. At no point is the voicing of ideas, public thinking and discussion considered god given, it’s not easy or natural for anyone. But it is a paid for requirement. The day job.

I increasingly struggle with the rationale for;  sharing the content of my wallet, climbing through imaginary tires, providing public facing previously unknown facts and almost feigned cardiac stress prior to a ‘colleague’ shoulder massage.

Are we all caught up in the entertainment aspect of this lunacy? This initial agenda item is slowly morphing from a simple required introduction into a corporate versions of Big Brother. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next meeting started with us all having to milk a boar. It’s getting a bit unnecessary.

You can’t manufacture or facilitate intimacy, if anything this can achieve the opposite of what’s required. Strangers soon become partners once you are midst a task. Is it unreasonable to consider human beings a social species?

As we haven’t had a poll in a while I though I would take this to you our reading public.

We netting out (I think?), with a conculsion that cultures a bloody difficult thing to define – but it drives all the organisations we are involved with. Our digital innovation agency Ebee’s culture is pretty unique and different from ourselves at Hive, yet both add terrific value in terms of our identification and cohesion. Its been interesting recently for us, as over the next few months we have a mate in the office setting up his own agency and sharing the space. Dom’s been really interesting to chat to on this – to see a partisan view on what makes us tick, in terms of a clear perspective on our ‘working environmental soup’. How ‘it’ maintains itself in the absence of us, hows it’s intelligent and spirited, how our philosophy connects us all. How its what makes ‘beapart’ not just ad toss.

At hive we manage this with a mixture between individual behaviour, spirit, personality and a collection of ad hoc and planned occurrences that drive all that we want our business home to be. I came out of the van (still not considered a business expense by the guys – despite its clear status as our mobile boardroom), with a better understanding of another perspective.  I had prioritised a proactive event supported culture (but definitely not compulsory fun or timetabled pizza) over individual behaviour and the impact on the environment we create by being us. Both sit within a framework  of unwritten rules, that we could take months to define and hone, but we are probably better just getting on and driving it by being us and not being too bothered about the minutiae of our special soup’s recipe.

Its the sum of these parts that make us dead special and a our space a destination for new entrepreneurs, the best talent in the business and some seriously good times.  Its not the cliche of pizzas at meetings, but effort to be constantly bothered, to behave and deliver what feels the right way.

So what did you do to drive culture today?

It’s especially important for us agencies to get out there, not just to be passionate about communications,  science and stuff. But to be aware of the real world. For 3 days various members of the agency job swapped with our local NHS.  All of us upping sticks to get up close and personal with actual patients. After a few hours worth of training we dived deep into it.

Despite the relatively short period we have been exposed to some pretty diverse experiences. Day 1 saw Ian run an infusion clinic, patch up a old lady and bed bath a homeless man.  Day 2 got Luke to restrain a drunk man in the waiting room, and Jas got to drain a blister. Even Kate got the chance to get hands on with eppinifrin and quarterize a haemorrhoid.

It’s been Adam that has visibly gained the most. His work experience has demanded the most of all of us;  that of A&E Consultant. Although his role in the agency is very specific he has risen to this generalist requirement faster than expected. A clear display of talent that has led to him being asked back when staff are on sick leave.  From cardiac arrest to sprained ankle, from multiple trauma to a child with a wheezy chest, the variety of clinical problems he has had to learn about, and treat has been diverse. As you know the A&E department sees more new patients than any other clinical department. Half of these have been minor injury or illness requiring no further follow up or medical care, with the remainder needing admission to hospital. Adams stood in as one of three consultants, and each has had a responsibility to ensure that each patient receives an accurate assessment of their condition, proper initial treatment, and appropriate ongoing care.

The one element of the role that Adam’s taken to like a duck to water has been the demand for structure and organisation. Clear parallels exists with his role as Creative Director. If there is one attribute of successful A&E consultants then it is organisational ability, both of their department and of themselves. Most clinical days start with routine review processes. This may be of patients admitted the previous day to the observation ward, a review clinic, or going through case notes. Quality control and audit are daily routines, with x ray reports to review, blood results to check, and notes and electrocardiograms to review. The rest of the day may include seeing routine new patients, moving the large mountain of mail, and administrative tasks that are a part of any consultant’s workload. Meetings, teaching sessions, and continuing medical education all have to be fitted in.

A unique demand on A&E consultants is the need to be available at short notice to give help, especially in the resuscitation room. Very much like that last minute client amend that’s made the font bigger, and the pictures black and white. Sometimes you just have to get stuck and paddles at the ready and save a life.

Adams also added hugely to the process of Westminster Teaching Trust and Hospital, with the first few hours of him being in role, he brought in Janine,  to help smooth out and traffic the patient though and ensure that all doctors and nurses were not dilly dallying around. By the last day, Adam was even managing not to come back to A&E, after a longer lunch than normal at NHS favourite – Hix.

Beyond the usual collection of fish bones, broken wrists and light bulbs. Adam’s been the one that after the 20 hour shift has been really enthusiastic to return; I think for me  his words that really connect, so I shall end with these;

“It’s not unusual for me not to know what I am going to work on from one minute to next. I quite often have needed to get involved, without having time to look up how I should do it. With one emergency I had we had no choice but to get a ballpoint pen out and go for the throat. All of these experiences have been very transferable to the World of A&E.”

Google have always come up with great promotional ideas,from the Google Search Stories to the Google Chrome ads, and last year’s interactive Arcade Fire video.

But recently they may have outdone themselves. They’ve found a way of achieving every marketer’s dream  getting their consumers to make their advertising campaign for them, for free, and in a way that comes across as not only authentic but also pretty cool, and even appealing to any googlephobics (if such people exist) . It’s called Demo Slam.

Demo Slam is a place where boring tech demos become ‘gotta-show-my-friends awesome’, thanks to the creativity of Google users. You can watch the Slams and declare a Champ of the week. Then each week new featured slams will vie for your attention and a shot at demo glory.

The videos demonstrate how Google technology can be used to achieve both

great and silly things. In one example, a group of kids use Google Voice Search while their mouths are stuffed with marshmallows. Another shows teenagers creating a virtual parachute experience using a projector, bungee ropes and Google Earth. These videos take tech demos from mundane to mind-blowing, and encourage people who may never watch tech demos to watch and even share them with their friends. Making Demo Slam a truly ingenious form of viral advertising that is perfectly disguised as shared fun.

As much as I’d like to think I’m immune to even the most sophisticated marketing techniques, I can’t help but ask…is anyone up for making a Google Slam?

]]> http://hivehealth.com/2011/03/slammed/feed/ 0 http://hivehealth.com/2010/12/singing-and-giving-this-christmas/ http://hivehealth.com/2010/12/singing-and-giving-this-christmas/#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:41:18 +0000 Jas Hummel http://hivehealth.com/?p=2199 We thought hard about how to wish our clients and friends a happy Christmas this year. The following video was my genius idea and was created with love and warbling.

Please enjoy the Hive team’s rendition of a merry Christmas ditty. Our own Kate Kinsey and Helen Scott are playing their respective violin and cello and we hope you agree: they make us sound quite good actually!

It is of course a time for giving. For every hit on our website in the month of December, we will donate £1 to a Christmas charity fund. We hope to raise £1,500 (we get about 1200 hits per month on average) and will divide this between two excellent charities Crisis and Chance.

Please enjoy the video and help us get lots of clicks this Christmas. From all at Hive, a very Merry Christmas and a big thanks for your business in 2010.

My first Friday morning was soon upon me and I donned an outfit that for most companies out there would be frowned upon (jeans and t’s) but I soon learnt that their enthusiastic approach to dressing down was something that definitely added to the play hard, work hard ethos of Hive.

I had been told that I would be briefed over breakfast at the Wolseley, and that breakfast would be on them, a real treat for anyone, but especially for a broke student like myself. Over breakfast myself and two of the account executives (Clare and Claire) were given our brief: that there are not enough graduates, science graduates in particular, aware of Healthcare communications and in particular Hive. Our aim was therefore to find a way to educate and drive awareness of the industry amongst science graduates as well as about the attractions of an account executives role (the entry level position.)  Over the breakfast meeting we chatted about how the 2 Cla(i)res – both Oxbridge graduates – had got into the industry ; as well as other just general welcoming conversations, our favourite pass times and in particular about Tim’s recent  trout fishing adventure with one of the other directors (Tip : your passion for fishing would be a great topic to bring up in an interview if you want to impress them both!) After finally figuring out how to use the tea strainer (very embarrassing !) we began to look like we ate breakfast here all the time and set about brainstorming a few ideas. The rest of my time at Hive continued in this manner, a lot of good fun, but even more hard work .The energy levels I found within Hive were awesome and I think this shows in the great end products that they produce.

Back in the office I immediately felt fully integrated with the team. For the whole time I was there I didn’t feel like a newbie, but instead someone they were intent on treating as an equal. Whilst on work experience I was never once asked to make a cup of tea, or to do any filling.

Later that day Tim ran through all the stages of the Hive business, firstly so I would get a greater understanding of what was going on but also so that at the end of my time with Hive I would be able to see if I had covered all bases.

Over the next few days in the office I spent my time researching and re-grouping with Clair and Clare. We shared our findings and any ideas we had, before speaking to the creative and copy write teams, who, following our brief, produced two amazing advertising posters for us. Once we were happy with these we set about compiling and then practicing our presentation and this was when the nerves began to set in. After spending  so much time working on this project I didn’t want to let the other girls down, or make a complete idiot of myself in front of the board of directors! Thankfully, they all seemed very pleased with our work and they are currently in talks about the budget that might be set aside for our project.

One of the great things about my work experience at Hive, other than the people( who definitely don’t live up to the typical stereotype placed on some Oxbridge graduates) was that I was able to work on a project from start to finish. I witnessed all the stages within the process, and to see the final result was great. I suspect that there are not many other places where a work experience student would be able to tick off all the departments and work stages at the end of their time with a company.

During my time at Hive I discussed with the team just how hard it was to get the right balance for a person on work experience, in that both the person and the company benefited from them being there. I don’t know how they feel, but I definitely think I got the better deal, but that just seems to be the thing about Hive. Unlike places I’ve heard about from friends, Hive are willing to go that extra mile to make you feel at home, to help you out, and most importantly to provide you with excellent work experience that not only inspires you but educates you as well. So if any of you reading this are even slightly interested in this industry and in particular Hive I would strongly advise you to get in touch with them as soon as possible and sort out some time with them to experience for yourself just what they get up to!

The process of getting us to the Communiqués is pretty simple. 1. Write award submission, with full knowledge that the date can be extended for a few pounds. This year saw me and a fellow entrant Jan at Lucid, at all-day brand planning for a shared client, both of us confident that we would get it all done in time that evening.  I was also regretting the offer to ‘just leave it with me’ stubborn in me need to right the wrongs of last year. Later and way into the early hours of the morning I finished the subsequent poem, supporting team mime that contribute to our entry – send them to a snoring Ian and Jas for review.  2. Make it through to the next round. We receive the invite to an interview at Royal Society of Physicians – prepare presentation and practice the company song once again. Ian’s ‘bee flat’ joke practiced and delivered with aplomb. The audience was a cross section of agency folk, potential clients, all chaired delightfully. This year’s questions focus on the figures and the business structure rather than last year’s people focus – I guess a function of our recession. Frankly, we could have been better at the presentation. We were presenting at right angles to the screen and it was pretty weird as far as getting it together we could help but compare to our previous losing effort – which was pretty slick – we left the 2009 interview buzzing. We left this one and headed for a grumpy lunch. 3. Make finalist stage – email from the delightful Debbie T, thus far this is a road well trod for us losers. 4. Decide on table – old friends, new friends and bit of both. Last min drop outs (why does this always happen?!), last min replacements. 5. Attend event. Black tie – tied bow ties, dinner, drinks, and nerves. Prosecco shared in the agency. With ’09 in the mind we thought we would repeat last year’s example of film noir. This year we wangled a special pen spy cam courteously of Q-branch (Ebee) with the mind that you blog readers can share the moment with us. You know the beapart bit by now. So here goes;

(Unfortunately the special spy pen – is stuck in Kate’s bag. Film goes here)

WE LOST. WORSE THAN LAST YEAR. At this rate by 2015 we will be not even allowed to buy tickets.  Consistent losers  – I feel like Andy Murray. Congratulations to the winner’s awesome job. Brilliant news on Lucid s highly commended – lovely people.

Jas and I returned to Mayfair to lick our wounds. The rest of the evening saw a big crowd of us dancing until 6am and me getting advice on not taking winning too seriously by a very helpful Lawrence Dallaglio. Jas also had similar sage advice from a Russian dancing chick, who offered “to make good for losing by you spanking my behind”, an offer that remained untaken.

Thanks loads to all the many friends who shared commiserations with us, really lovely to feel us being looked after. Total respect to Bruno’s the location for post club breakfast – who returned my left watch to me this morning.