R&R Partners: Build the Brand, Protect the Brand

Remember when you were a kid? Life was pretty good most days. But there were certain days when it went beyond good and made it all the way to great. Your birthday, the first day of summer (and its corollary, the last day of school) and of course, holidays.

For most of us, there was an unofficial hierarchy to the holidays. At the top – thanks to the parade of gifts and the accompanying two-week school vacation – stood Christmas/Chanuka, the undisputed Number One on virtually every kid’s list.

Number Two? Well, for me, and most of my friends, that was easy. Halloween.

The scary costumes, the boy/girl parties, the running around the neighborhood like a pack of unrestrained nihilists – it was pure adolescent nirvana, topped off with bag loads of free candy. That, my friends, is a big day.

Plus, for those of us who grew up in Nevada, the quirky fact that our state joined the Union on October 31st meant Halloween was also a state holiday. No school on one of the absolute best days of the year. Wow.

At R&R, for Halloween we compared costumes -- and car insurance rates

So why all the childhood reminiscence? Because I’m lucky enough to work at a place that takes Halloween as seriously as, well, as seriously as a bunch of 12-year-olds. I’ve been at R&R for 17 Halloweens, and each one has been nuthin’ but a party. The holiday has evolved in my time here, from a day to simply dress up, to a competition featuring incredibly complex and work-intensive skits, to a competition featuring only slightly less complex and work-intensive skits, to this year’s nostalgic return to simpler individual and group costume contests. Our dialed-back, yet still-costumed, response to The New Frugality.

Fortunately, we didn’t dial back on the fun. We ate too much, many had a beer or two, and for the last couple of hours of the day, we put aside the pressures of the world and our jobs to act like kids again.

Now, some might naturally say, “You’re an ad agency; you act like kids every day. Why should Halloween be any different?”

All I can say to that is no, we don’t act like kids every day. Especially over the last couple of years. The Great Recession hasn’t been kind to companies in the marketing and communications business, R&R included.

But ours is a profession that depends on creativity and open minds and thinking beyond boundaries. The way children often do. So every year, on or near October 31st, we bring in our orange-and-black cupcakes, guess how much candy is in the jar, put on our costumes and get back in touch with our inner children.

No bones about it, celebrating Halloween is in R&R's blood.

It may not be the proper thing to do in accounting firms or government agencies, but it works for us. For an afternoon, we put our imaginations to work on something other than brand positioning statements or direct-mail pieces. We remember that creating stuff is what we do and that it can be fun and entertaining and fulfilling.

It’s probably true that our clients don’t get a whole lot out of us on that day, but I believe that the work they get from us the rest of the year is better because of it. Plus, there are bag loads of free candy.

What can be better than that?