2019 was a year of evolution for Savage. We buckled down. We dug deep. We giddied the F up. And we’re ready to take on 2020.
“For the last several years, we’ve been focusing all of our efforts on doing awesome client work,” says President Cory Savage. “With that, processes and workflow started to get away from us. Instead of simply hoping things would fix themselves, we decided to implement change––a lot of it. This required some very tough decisions, but there was no doubt in my mind they were necessary in order to get to where we all want to go.”
Every change we made was the result of us taking a good hard look at ourselves. Who are we? How does what we’re doing now fit into where we’re going? We’re not saying we had an existential crisis or anything like that––although it seems like a lot of people did since ‘existential’ is 2019’s word of the year––but we realized we hadn’t really defined who we are as a team. For instance, we never articulated our values. Sure, we minded our p’s and q’s and we lived by the golden rule, but we didn’t have anything in writing that was holding us accountable.
So, in true Savage fashion, we took action. We put our heads together and unearthed the values we’ve already been living by, and articulated them on paper. Figuratively, of course. It’s a digital world, after all.
Being brave means being honest with ourselves and our clients, and being bold in the pursuit of our collective goals. Being brave is us going for it. It’s us accepting the challenges our industry throws at us.
“For years, Savage has believed in the concept of ‘Brave Creative,’” says Digital Lead Bryce Mikkelson, “this idea that the best work is born out of confidence and intelligent risk-taking. We’ve evolved this idea into more than just the work that we do, now focusing on how we do it, too. ‘Be Brave’ means that we encourage our team to always speak their minds, challenge one another, and challenge our clients, respectfully. It means that we’re not afraid to walk away from clients or projects that aren’t right for us, and we’ll always do what’s best for our clients’ brands.”
Work can feel like a chore if you let it. After all, it’s work. But the bottom line is that we all choose to be here. We choose to come in every day and do what we do. That means we can also choose our attitude.
“We don’t see challenges as roadblocks,” says our Senior Account Executive, Matt Gordy. “ We see them as opportunities to go above and beyond for our clients, to push the boundaries of what a “small agency” like us is supposed to be capable of.”
At Savage, whether we’re dealing with a challenging client or untangling obstacles in a certain project, we choose positivity. It’s non-negotiable. Because at the end of the day, we have it pretty awesome.
Yep, this goes for everything. From big or small projects, whether we’re working on a whole new brand or a brand refresh, building a website or writing what might seem like a simple Instagram post. We promise to do incredible work for our clients, always. It’s part of our Midwestern values.
“We believe every client deserves our all,” says Creative Director Mark Hungsberg. “No matter what we’re working on, we strive to be exceptional––even when no one’s looking and it might be easier to just get it out the door––because we know that everything we put out into the world is a representation of Savage, and cutting corners just isn’t who we are.”
Thanks to our new strategic plan and our core values, we’re going into this next decade knowing that we have the absolute best team not just in the Third Ward, but in the world.
“We have a team that supports one another, an improved client roster, a lot of opportunities, and a plan that we all believe in,” says Cory. “Let’s make 2020 the year we always talk about.”
Cheers to that.