Uptown/Lyn Lake : Innovation + Job News

A new venture in Minneapolis is innovating ways to connect nonprofits with young professionals who want to give their time and skills.

Jim Delaney, a former director with The LEAD Project, started Engine L3C after an experience as a board member at the YMCA.

"I wanted to do more than show up once a quarter and provide my advice and raise a little bit of money in the meantime," says Delaney. "I wanted to use what I thought were my skills and capabilities a little bit more directly to solve the problems that the 'Y' was facing."

So many nonprofit volunteer opportunities consist of one-day opportunities, helping out here and there with events and fundraising, he thought. Meanwhile, he understood that most directors were too busy with day-to-day demands to tackle big-picture challenges.

Delaney's idea: put together small strike teams of young professional volunteers to tackle big-picture projects. He pitched it to the YMCA and recruited 24 volunteers to work on six projects. One team created a guide for social media use. Another created a 140-page best practices handbook after analyzing the best practices at each of the local YMCA's 14 branches and camps.

Delaney recruits and matches volunteers to the project teams that best match their skills. A typical project lasts about six months, after which the volunteers are free to move on or get involved in a different way.

The young volunteers, most of whom are between the ages of 25 and 35, get personal and professional development, as well as a more satisfying volunteer experience. Meanwhile, the nonprofits, which pay $1,000 per month per project, get professional services for a fraction of what they would otherwise cost.

After 10 projects with the YMCA, about a month ago Engine started another project with the Neighborhood Development Center. Next, Delaney hopes to get corporations involved by offering the program to their employees as a professional development tool.

Source: Jim Delaney, Engine L3C
Writer: Dan Haugen

A Minneapolis marketing and branding firm is growing into its arty new digs in the Lyn-Lake neighborhood.

Zeus Jones is a few months into its fourth year, and it appears to be its best on a record so far, according to founding partner Adrian Ho. It's grown in the past few years from four partners to about 20 employees, and it's still hiring.

Zeus Jones was founded in March 2007 around the idea that actions speak louder than words. Traditional advertising was, and still is, becoming less and less effective, the four co-founders thought, and there had to be a better way.

"Our whole thing was like, look, let's stop annoying customers and take some of that money and start doing things that actually enhance the product or experience," says Ho. "If you do that, people will do a lot of the talking for you." An example: a recent Zeus Jones project for Nordstroms involved putting photo booths next to the junior department dressing rooms so teen girls could share photos with friends or parents before deciding whether to buy.

Over the past few years the firm has outgrown its 1,100-square-foot Uptown space, and so when its lease ran out it made the move to more spacious digs in the Soo Visual Arts Center building near 27th and Lyndale. The gallery's director, Suzy Greenberg, had been looking for a tenant to help share costs, and "it seemed like a great match," says Ho. " She wanted a creative company and we like the idea of helping to support the arts through our rent."

The reasons for the company's growth, says Ho, likely have to do with the fact that businesses know they're getting less and less for their money via traditional advertising, and that Zeus Jones' small size and flexibility make it easy for companies to experiment. The company's clients include General Mills, Nestle Purina, and Haagen-Dazs.

Source: Adrian Ho, Zeus Jones
Writer: Dan Haugen

Mono, a fast-growing Minneapolis advertising and branding agency, has entered into an agency-of-record relationship with cable news network MSNBC.

According to an NBC Universal press release, mono "will be MSNBC's creative and strategic partner for marketing campaign development and advertising efforts."

"Mono has a strong track record of success and we're thrilled to have them as our strategic and creative partner." Sharon Otterman, Chief Marketing Officer of MSNBC, said in the announcement.

Mono's managing partner, James Scott, said that his firm is "thrilled" to help MSNBC continue to build momentum in the competitive news space, but neither company is saying much else about the deal.

It could be that they're just plain too busy. Mono is one of the fastest growing agencies in the country, adding more than 20 employees in the last 12 months. It expects to add at least 12 more in the coming months. A spokesman says new business is up 65 percent year-to-date compared to 2009, with new clients including Parsons The New School for Design, HGTV, Johnson & Johnson's Rolaids brand, and MSNBC.

Mono was recently named one of the best small agencies in the country by Advertising Age magazine.

The company has a track record in television, too. Mono's very first client was Sesame Street, and it also was behind USA Networks' "Characters Welcome" campaign.

Source: Jim Scott, Mono
Writer: Dan Haugen

A Minneapolis video game developer scored second place last week in a Boing Boing Arcade contest for a game called Infiltration at Dusk.

Creating video games is actually a hobby of Zachary Johnson, whose day job is working as a user experience developer at Worrell, Inc.

The Boing Boing contest asked developers to build a game inspired by a piece of chip music, the chimey tunes used in old-school video games.

Johnson guesses he's made about a dozen video games since the mid-90s. This one took about 30 hours to create and incorporates unique controls. No memorizing buttons. Just mash your keyboard in the direction you want to shoot.

The premise: you're the last gunman protecting a village from a "horde of biomechanical abominations" trying to rid Earth of all humans.

Sound pretty dark? Well, things are looking brighter for indie video game makers.

"The indie game market is big right now," says Johnson. The cost and accessibility of computing power have given hobbyists tools that professionals could have only dreamed about two decades ago.

Meanwhile, indie video game developers have open markets to sell and distribute their creations via mobile devices or web browsers. That said, Johnson has no plans for quitting his day job.

"It's still a hobby for me. For me, it would be more exciting if I made a game that resonated with thousands of people," says Johnson. "It might earn me enough money that I could pour into another game."

Source: Zach Johnson
Writer: Dan Haugen

 

An ad agency whose clients range from Sesame Street to Steve Jobs is growing to keep up with new business.

Minneapolis-based mono announced last week that it's made two new hires, a designer and a project leader, to keep up with recent client growth. They follow three previous hires announced in April and bring its employee count up to 43.

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad at Apple's annual winter gala earlier this year, the giant graphic on stage behind him was designed by mono.

The six-year-old branding and advertising firm is also responsible for producing back-to-school and other seasonal in-store displays for Apple Stores.

Other clients include Macy's, Rolaids, Herman Miller, General Mills, Sesame Street, and Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day.

The most recent hires by mono were in preparation for another large client that's expected to be announced soon.

James Scott, a co-founder and managing partner, said the company is as busy as it's ever been. It grew last year despite the recession, and it expects to grow more this year.

"I think it was because we were able to retain and maintain a really, really smart and talented bunch of people," Scott said.

While others were downsizing, mono manged to avoid layoffs, and that's helped it win new clients, such as Macy's and Rolaids, which it might have missed had the company scaled back, he said.

"We were able to capitalize in a very tough year on opportunities that came our way, and we grew."

Source: James Scott, managing partner, mono
Writer: Dan Haugen