At the same time, we have lost some of our people for various reasons over the past few months. It’s always sad to see a valued colleague and friend move on, but many left to pursue great new opportunities — and in a few cases, their dreams — and that’s something to be happy about.

When we look back at things, the change in our production philosophy was a catalyst to a change in our people. We switched from a waterfall method of production to an agile method in January. We also created smaller teams, each with about eight to ten people, that were focused on different types of work. We currently have teams dedicated to mobile, web apps and website development, and we’re looking to create more teams soon.

Using smaller teams and agile production helped us become more efficient in our work, though it also created some staff turnover as roles changed and we focused on building the strongest team possible.

Currently we are 45 people strong, which is about 10 fewer than our peak. But, we are also in a position to hire and grow our team with complementary talent. We’ve already hired a new HR Director and right now we’re interviewing  developers (web and mobile) and designers. We plan on having about 65 people by the end of this year and close to 100 by the end of 2012. Keep an eye on our careers page for new job postings in the next few weeks.

While the team is changing, we truly feel we are in a much better position as a company than we were a year ago. And we will continue to make smart business decisions that have a positive impact on both our people and our clients.

Essentially, the plan is to make zu a more profitable company. To get there, we have to take several steps.

As you know, zu is a website, mobile and web apps company. That’s not going to change. Our first priority is to take the great work we’ve been doing and make it even better. In order to do that, we’ve reduced our client roster so that we can focus on doing better work with fewer companies. This process started in July and should be complete by the end of the year. It’s always tough to end a relationship with a client, but it is something we feel is a necessary step if we are to produce truly world-class work.

Our second priority is to become more efficient. To help jump start this, we are introducing a profit sharing program that gives every employee the opportunity to literally take ownership of their work and be rewarded accordingly. It’s a win for our clients and a win for our staff.

As we continue to grow, developing great digital experiences for our clients, we will start to work with start-up companies as well. This will start in the next year to 18 months.

With these start-up companies, we will not only receive revenue for our services, but we’ll take an equity position. All of the staff working on these projects will have the chance to share in that stake. The reason behind this is that it will allow our staff a good mix of working with both new and established companies — each presenting their own challenges. This will keep our thinking fresh and allow us to share important insights across all of our clients. It also gives our team the chance to ride the wave of excitement that come with working on a successful start-up.

We have some long-term plans that involve setting up incubators for our own ideas as well, but I’m getting a bit ahead of things. For now, we’re concentrating harder than ever on our work and our clients, and that’s something we’ll keep doing for a long, long time.

Perhaps the biggest change has been bringing in Ted Hellard as a managing partner. Ted is the founder, former CEO and current chair of Critical Mass, the most-recognized digital agency in the world with about 750 employees in over half a dozen offices worldwide. Ted has worked with mega-brand clients like Mercedes-Benz, Nike, NASA, Dell and Proctor & Gamble.

For six years, he was also the co-owner, managing partner and president of the Calgary Stampeders. zu worked with the Stampeders on their digital strategy and website, which is how our relationship with Ted began.

When Tony and I had questions abut the industry or needed advice, Ted made himself available. We liked his no-nonsense and visionary approach to the digital world. We kept in touch, talking on the phone a lot and meeting several times. Ted taught us a lot, and we appreciated his business acumen.

When Ted stepped down from the Stampeders at the end of last season, the three of us started talking seriously about him getting involved with zu in some capacity.

Then in June, Ted had an idea about how to grow zu and our client base, while improving customer service and the talent level of our staff. We thought it was a great plan and have been working at it ever since.

Ted’s role at zu will be to help with the interactive strategy for our clients, to help open doors for gaining new clients and to help improve our internal systems.

We are in Saskatoon and there is a huge base of local talent to leverage. The developers and creatives here have the ability to do world-class work. The challenge is that they are young and need some mentorship.

Ted understood this and started to recommend senior people we could tap to come in and help develop our team. We’ve already hired JL Schmidt as our new COO. She has over 15 years of experience managing digital projects, and has worked with Adidas, Nike, Jugo Juice, Good Earth Cafe and many, many others.

JL’s role at zu is to make sure that our teams are operating efficiently and to ensure that we provide the best value possible for our clients. She’s already started implementing a number of positive changes that are reflected in our improved relationships with clients.

We’ve got a lot more work to do, but with Ted and JL added to our talented and dedicated staff, we are moving quickly in the right direction.

Ted is the Director, founder and former CEO of Critical Mass, one of the largest and most successful digital agencies on the globe. He has worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was the strategic online force behind websites that included Mercedes-Benz USA, Nike, Proctor & Gamble and NASA. Ted stepped down as the CEO of Critical Mass in 2003 to take on the role of Co-owner and Managing Partner for the Calgary Stampeders until last year. Now, Ted is turning his attention to the digital space again, and he is excited about new technologies in the field.

“The technical knowledge that zu brings to the table was a major factor in the decision. The digital world has become a very fascinating place in which to develop consumer and personal communication opportunities. This is a great opportunity to build on zu’s strong technical and creative base and merge the two strengths for a more comprehensive international vision.”
– Ted Hellard, incoming Managing Partner, zu

Ted will play a key role in driving zu to leading-edge digital development—creatively, operationally and strategically. He will be working with executive team members Ryan Lejbak, Tony Zuck and JL Schmidt.

“By bringing in Ted as a managing partner, we also bring on board his business acumen and international recognition. We look forward to using some of Ted’s ideas and our talented staff to produce some amazing websites, web apps and mobile apps. Our message to the digital world, basically, is that we are open to partnerships.” – Tony Zuck, President & CSO, zu

The Gold Quill Awards are a global competition held by IABC to recognize outstanding achievement in communication. Cameco recently received the Merit award for its communication effort at Cigar Lake– Mine crisis calls for journey to the centre of the Earth: Restoring confidence after Cigar Lake floods.

Cigar Lake is the world’s largest undeveloped high-grade uranium deposit. The mine is currently in development and is projected to start producing uranium in 2013.

In 2006 and 2008 the mine suffered severe flooding. Cameco solved the operational issues, improved its processes and kept investors and members informed on the developing situation, by hosting tours of the mine site. Those who were unable to visit the site were kept informed via frequent updates to the Cameco website. The company’s forward thinking earned them the Gold Quill award in the category of Issues Management and Crisis Communication.

Congratulations Cameco team!

The Health Quality Council of Saskatchewan (HQC) was awarded Best in Class in the Healthcare category for their Quality Insight Tool. The Quality Insight Tool was launched in December 2010. This web application was developed as a performance management system to help healthcare professionals make informed decisions about healthcare in Saskatchewan. The entry was awarded a score of 485/500. For details about HQC and the Quality Insight Tool, head over to our earlier post, Web Based insights into health care.

In the Hotel/Resort category, Elk Ridge Resort was granted the Outstanding Achievement award. The resort’s website was chosen from among 186 entries and achieved a score of 476 out of 500. The Elk Ridge Resort website underwent a complete overhaul with zu in late 2009. For details about the site’s development, check out our previous post, The Elk Ridge Treatment.

Teck Resources brought home the IMA for Outstanding Achievement in the Investor Relations category. Chosen from among 43 entries, the Teck IR site earned a score of 479 out of 500. Collaborating with zu, Teck relaunched its site in 2011 with a brand new design and strategy. For details about the project, check out our previous post, Teck’s New IR Site.

Cheers to everyone involved in the projects!

Head to the IMA website to see a full list of IMA-winning sites by zu.

The Quality Insight tool was featured recently through media outlets across the province, including on CTV news, in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix and in the Regina Leader Post.

Cheers to HQC and its insightful new venture!

For more information on the Quality Insight Tool, please see our previous post, Web-based Insights into Health Care.

Actor Genie has been specifically designed for actors, but it can be a powerful tool for anyone working, or interested in the film and television industry. It’s the best way to know what’s casting, who’s casting it and where to find representation.

The app is the brainchild of Hollywood casting director Heidi Levitt, perhaps best known for her work on such films as JFK, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, The Rock, Joy Luck Club, Lakeview Terrace and numerous independent films.

As for zu, though we all considered auditioning for the new Conan movie, we’re just as happy to be on the development side of things.

For a closer look or to download it, check out the Actor Genie Website.

]]> http://www.zu.com/live/2010/02/news-events/news/new-iphoneipod-app-for-actors/feed/ 0 http://www.zu.com/live/2009/12/news-events/news/potashcorp-wins-cica-award-of-excellence/ http://www.zu.com/live/2009/12/news-events/news/potashcorp-wins-cica-award-of-excellence/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:56:28 +0000 Michelle MacDonald http://www.zu.com/live/?p=4035 It’s not a first and we’re positive it won’t be the last. Huge congrats to PotashCorp on cleaning house at the 2009 CICA Corporate Reporting Awards. Taking home five awards including the Overall Award of Excellence was not a first for these guys – they have won CICA awards in the past.

In addition to the Overall Award of Excellence, PotashCorp walked away with the awards for Excellence in Financial Reporting, Excellence in Electronic Disclosure and an Award of Excellence for the mining sector. In addition, they collected the Honourable Mention for Excellence in Sustainable Development Reporting.

We’re proud to be an interactive provider for PotashCorp, working closely with local communications firm, Creative Fire. Go team!

Also, big shout out to TransCanada for taking home the Award of Excellence in the real estate/utilities and pipelines industry category.

The CICAs
The Chartered Accountants of Canada Corporate Reporting Awards  is the only national awards program that recognizes excellence and best practices in corporate reporting. Now in its 58th year, the CRA presents awards for excellence in financial reporting, corporate governance disclosure, electronic disclosure and sustainable development reporting.

November 20, 2009. SaskTel, zu and the Saskatchewan Roughriders are pleased to announce that Rider Priders from around the world are downloading the Rider App at an astonishing pace.  Since the public launch of the Rider App on October 8, 2009, it has been downloaded over 11,000 times in 64 countries and with the excitement of the Riders hosting the Western Final on Sunday downloads are growing every day. SaskTel estimates that over 8,000 unique users have downloaded the Rider App.

The Rider App is an innovative mobile phone application that delivers game scores, statistics and schedule information to members of the Rider Nation wherever they go. The Roughriders were the first team in the Canadian Football League to introduce a dedicated mobile app.

“This is a success story that demonstrates both Saskatchewan innovation and the passion Rider fans feel for their team,” Minister Responsible for SaskTel Don Morgan said. “Congratulations to SaskTel, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and zu for helping Rider fans around the world stay in touch with Saskatchewan’s team.”

“The Rider App is SaskTel’s first mobile application and the response has exceeded our expectations,” SaskTel President and CEO Robert Watson said. “We’re grateful to Rider fans as well as our partners, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and zu, for their contributions to a successful project.”

“The positive reaction to the Rider App demonstrates that Rider fans are everywhere,” Riders President/CEO Jim Hopson said. “This has already been a great football season and now Rider fans around the world can follow our progress quickly and easily.”

“We are excited not only to be bringing fans closer to the local fan favourite, but also to be helping move technology forward in our province,” commented zu CEO Ryan Lejbak. “Mobile is the future of the Internet and we are proud to be working with the Roughriders and SaskTel to lead the CFL in this new technology.”

The Rider App, developed by SaskTel in partnership with Saskatoon-based zu, is a free download for compatible mobile devices. Fans can download the Rider App now.

About SaskTel
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation (SaskTel) is the leading full service communications provider in Saskatchewan, with $1.138 billion in annual revenue and over 1.3 million customer connections including over 510,000 wireless accesses, 555,000 wireline network accesses, 216,000 internet accesses and 70,000 Max™ (TV) subscribers.  SaskTel offers a wide range of communications products and services including competitive voice, data, internet, entertainment, national security, messaging, cellular, wireless data and directory services. In addition, SaskTel International offers software solutions and project consulting in countries around the world.  In 2008, SaskTel contributed over $610 million to the Saskatchewan economy through dollars spent with Saskatchewan-based suppliers and sponsorships to non-profit organizations.  SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have a workforce of approximately 5,000 employees.

About the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club
Since 1910, no other team has been a part of the provincial fabric as has the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club. With three Grey Cup championships to its credit, the Riders are synonymous with Prairie football and are one of the flagship franchises of the Canadian Football League. The Roughriders continue to provide quality sports entertainment to their fans, and as a community-owned team, excel in reaching out and giving back to those who support the organization.

About zu
zu is an interactive agency specializing in web strategy, design and development. They are experts in online Investor Relations, social media and mobile applications. zu offers extensive experience in building complex websites, from concept to launch; a proven track record consisting of award winning and nationally recognized websites; 15 years of experience in the interactive industry; and a team of over 50 skilled in strategy, design, and programming. Headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan zu’s client list includes globally-recognized brands such as the Calgary Stampeders, Rogers, Areva, PotashCorp, Cameco and CN Rail.

For media inquiries only, please contact:

Andy Tate, SaskTel Corporate Communications
Phone: (306) 777-4548
Email: andy.tate@sasktel.sk.ca

Albert Jame, Creative Director, zu
Phone: (306) 653-4747
Email: albert.jame@zu.com

The most recent wave of kinetic typography involves fast moving text, rotating camera angles, and an accompanying audio file to help the viewer digest the content. For SaskCanola, we recently launched a Maxtron (Jumbotron) animation using this sort of technique.

Not having the luxury of a voice over with the text presents itself with timing challenges. For high energy, you need quick transitions—and for the legibility, you need to hold the frame a little longer so the audience can actually get the message. In the end, we produced a 15 second typographic animation that airs at the start of each half at Roughrider home games. Welcome to the Jungle by Guns & Roses is the official kick off song played on the PA system, so we included it to give you a better idea of what the final version is like. So at your next Rider game, make sure to pay attention before the kick off, it could just be the best 15 seconds of the game.

twitpitch: Kinetic typography puts the jolt back in video advertising for @zutweets SaskCanola project http://bit.ly/14gw6l

The complete article is available in the online July/August 2009 issue of SaskBusiness magazine.

What’s all the buzz about SMPR?
You could say that the SMPR began as a mere glimmer in the eye of content sharing and voting websites, social media networks, podcasts, and blogs. In layman’s terms, SMPRs are designed to drive news stories to online conversation forums and get the conversation going; they provide readers with the ability to disseminate information and multimedia along with bookmark and sharing tools. They are multimedia press releases that function more like a webpage than a static text document. SMPRs often contain images, video, links, and have distribution through online networks outside the traditional press wire.

Making a case for SMPR
Until recently, our marketing department channeled PR efforts through the traditional media streams of newspapers, magazines and radio—and like most organizations, we’ve garnered positive attention to our business developments by posting news releases on our website. From the outside looking in, there really wasn’t anything lacking in our existing marketing strategy that would give cause to jump on the SMPR bandwagon—except that my marketing DNA would win the battle and have me try anything bright, shiny and trendy.

Baiting the hook
I decided to bait the hook with the recent success and recognition of zuLabs TimmyMe and BucksMe iPhone apps. My involvement with production of the actual Marketwire SMPR was minimal; I crafted a text-based, traditional news release and sent it off to Jay, our Account Executive at Marketwire. I had to package up a few other details in order to build the SMPR, including creation of the following:
• keyword cloud
• video clip
• images
• Technorati tags
After a few emails back and forth, I proofed the document and it was distributed through Marketwire’s traditional and online networks. Access to the online networks is really the strongest benefit the Marketwire SMPR service provides.

Just the numbers
I set up Google Alerts and watched our SMPR take effect: we generated two interviews [including CBC Radio] and 18 online news stories in only a few days. We also observed a 60% increase in TimmyMe downloads during the two weeks following distribution of the SMPR. Collaborating with our resident SEO experts, I initiated some statistical research surrounding the traffic that was generated to our website via the online SMPR during a specific time frame: one month after distribution our unique visitor traffic stats increased 75% compared to our monthly average.

At the finish line
I would have to say that the SMPR is the BMW of news release distribution—it looks sexy and it performs. If you’re anything like me I fuss constantly over brand presentation and lead generation results, and the Marketwire 2.0 SMPR gave me both, loaded with options like: text, audio, video, bookmarking and tagging tools, content voting and sharing portals, keyword-optimized text and images. With one click, the reader can submit the SMPR to Digg, Deli.cio.us, Technorati and other social media content portals. The list of social media aggregation features in the Marketwire SMPR is long and impressive, including a social media newsroom that receives visitor feedback directly from a comment box in your press release.

There are cheaper entry point SMPRs on the market like PRWeb and PitchEngine that package up nicely with all the social media bells and whistles [I will leave the cost analysis discussion for another time], but from a marketer’s perspective, I believe the SMPR has more reach, is more functional and makes it easier for media people, analysts, bloggers and consumers to compile information for the articles they research or want to write. The SMPR facilitates this functionality by breaking down the content into logical sections in a way it can be easily scanned and used.

In my mind, the SMPR is not going to replace or kill the traditional press release any time soon. The SMPR is a tool, not a trend. And it simply improves upon the traditional press release layout, evolving and adapting to the 2.0 revolution. More people are accessing their news and information through web channels, so it only makes sense to meet them there.