Strategic Insights – We’ve Got Ideas

Funny how things work out. 2007 was supposed to be the year of Dave. Not to be confused with the summer of Dave. That was back in the mid 90s. What I mean is, I hadn’t been satisfied with my last couple agency posts and I was finally going to do it… Go completely out on my own.

I had worked at various ad agencies, startups and dot coms since 1996 as a Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Web Producer/Developer and various combinations thereof in the US and abroad. Some of these shops are still around, some aren’t, some are just limping along a shadow of their late 1990’s selves. After having been through their ranks, occasionally downsized or made redundant (as they say in the UK), and having contracted for some limited stints as well, I decided it was time. I wanted to be the master of my own destiny, I had enough connections, I knew others who were successful doing it, this was the year.

Quite content and enjoying my new found freedom, I was getting out there and actually making a go of it. I was a freelancer and it felt good. When people (sometimes from shops for whom I was contracting) would ask me if I would ever consider going back to the agency world again, I would respond with a smile and a polite no, not likely… but if I did, it would have to be the perfect scenario with the right people, vision, direction etc. All the while thinking to myself how unlikely this was and that it would probably never happen.

So as I sent out an email to family, friends and former colleagues last month, announcing that I had just accepted an offer to go full time at an agency in Raleigh NC, called Strategic Insights, I was expecting a few surprised recipients to lecture me on never, saying never etc. or at the very least, some gentle ribbing. Funnily enough, most remembered my caveat and congratulated me saying, wow, you really must have found that elusive ideal scenario.

And it is. Strategic Insights is the perfect combination of award winning, very bright, very creative, driven people who fully embody the things that I think an agency should be.

They must be, otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing this…

Well that, plus they always make the “new guy” do a blog entry.

David H. Ford  //  Director of Web Services  //   Strategic Insights