Outhink, Outnimble, Outrun

If You Can't Outspend...

Do you need to increase your position in your market? If you can’t outspend the competition, see what rassak can do to help you outsmart, outinnovate and outrun them.

Leverage the Cloud

Let the big guys waste resources on fat ad agencies. Compete smartly with our scale-on-demand Creative Cloud of killer freelancers. Ably led by Rassak.

Serious Results

Gartner Group cited a (funny) Rassak campaign as helping up-position an upstart. The NY Times called our viral character a "howler". Don't outspend. Outthink!

Brilliance. On a Budget.

We Do 3 Things. And Well!

Strategy

Does your team think BIG enough? Are ALL the messages you send (your advisory board, customer list, product, partnerships, language, image) working to cut you through the clutter ... to get you to the next level? We'll load you up with ideas on how to seriously improve... to UP your position.

Creativity

Creativity is not ONLY about the first spark of an idea. It's ALSO about DRILLING DOWN. What will work within your budget, your competitive space? We'll MAKE A PLAN to outsmart, outrun, outguerilla, outinnovate your competition --- and out-and-out win?

Execution

Winning is about ideas AND execution. It's about build-out, distribution, analytics, follow-thru, and ROI. That's the real world. We are ready. Are you?

Scale-On-Demand Creative Services

The Cloud

Reuben Rude's illustration for Fringe Golf Magazine.

Some featured cloudists:

• Carl Mazer: ID / Packaging: Pizza Hut, Coors, Wacom.
• Heidi Yarger: Designer: Leapfrog, Gap, Target. (website)
• Chris Faloyan: Web: Sony, Cisco, Accenture, Adobe
• Kirstin Mac Dougall: Ethnographer: UC, NBC, Microsoft
• Reuben Rude: O'Neill Surf, Leapfrog, Newcastle Ale (website)
• Sven Wiederholt: Photographer / Strategist: Sprint, McKesson, Clorox website
• Walt Morton: Creative Director: AOL, (website)

Sitemap

Serious (Even When Funny)

Outguerilla-ing McAfee, Microsoft and Symantec

BigFix is a classic challenger. The executive team called on Rassak to substantially increase their market position. They have limited marketing resources compared to the incumbents in their space---McAfee, Symantec and Microsoft. By collaborating closely with senior executives, Rassak helped big(ger) BigFix with extreme creativity. We focused on outsmarting vs. outspending competitors to gain notoriety for BigFix. Over several campaigns, including the Software Truth Commission, Ray Hopewood for President and Hellboy II, we have driven success after success for BigFix. Gartner specifcially called out our work as a reason for adding BigFix to the Magic Quadrant in their sector.

Data rules

Outexperimenting... Slide at CES

Once the word was out in Vegas, people began uploading photos.

Experimentation is often key to success. Especially when tests are controlled and tracked. Slide asked Rassak to generate MANY ideas for their just-launched photo/widget service. One experiment was to test whether offline marketing at big events would be an effective way to drive online registrations. Armed with cellphone cameras and thousands of “You’ve Been Cool-spotted at CES” postcards, our team of mobile-bloggers and coolspotters hit Vegas’ largest tradeshow: CES. While we proved that getting slide into the hands of conventioneers could generate great pictures, we did not see strong uptake in registrations.

Referring sites

Outlistening.... Stumbling Upon StumbleUpon

Careful listening --- to people and data --- led to a powerful, simple idea

In 2006, StumbleUpon was hot (and still is). Their community of 2,000,000 was growing fast and the "StumbleUpon Guys" Justin, Garret and Geoff had just moved to San Francisco from Calgary. They asked Rassak to improve their main revenue stream--selling advertising on their network. When we talked to their current advertisers, most had discovered (stumbled upon) StumbleUpon as an ad medium through their website referral logs. We suggested turning the referral link into a hard-hitting sales page. StumbleUpon’s revenues jumped. In 2007, eBay bought the company for US$75 Million (which happens to be about the same amount of Loonies).

The future of finance

Outinnovating Amex

DEMO, where reporters rock and innovative Advanta launch startups (photo nanpalmero)

Advanta is a provider of financial services to small business owners. Rassak advises senior exeutives and the innovations team. Among other things, we have helped position an Advanta-incubated startup BizEquity (Zillow for small business values) for a launch at DEMO as well as create their Short Short Research Report strategy --- an ongoing channel to small bussiness media.

A startup success story

Outnimbling Major Media

Jane Goldman had been editor at The Industry Standard. She saw an opportunity to serve the Foodie interests of her young, hip, digital-savvy audience. The media elite (Conde Nast/Gourmet, Scripps/Food Network, et al) served an audience with a median age of 50. Rassak helped CHOW challenge the incumbents. We added a board of advisors including Yahoo's first marketing chief. We created partnerships with major food/lifestyle advertisers. And we created digital distribution arrangements. CHOW is a startup success story. The company was acquired by CNET and is now a leading light in the CBS portfolio.

Frontier Creativity

Outhometowning Comcast

Would you like a side of INTERNET with that?

Frontier Communications knows its rural markets where it has been conducting business for many years. The company offers phone and internet service to residential and business customers in 24 US states. Frontier asked Rassak to develop a strategy for launching their new WiFi service. We followed this with creative ads and materials for use in locations offering the WiFi. We worked with Frontier management to brand the service in a way that balanced a feeling of technology, excitement and local flavor.

Pro Bono

Outcrossplatforming... Backpacks meet Ning

A plan led to, among other things, a community site on Ning

Buena Vista Elementary offers bilingual immersion education to a cross section of San Francisco kids. Community communications was a challenge. We created a pro-bono plan that was was truly "cross-platform"--- utilizing auto-dialers, an online social network and plain-old-fashioned-paper-sent-home-in-backpacks. We built the site on Ning... but its success required digital AND human skills.

Where and How Will You Work Tomorrow?

New Media Labs Research... for Nokia

A future worker imagines a place of work

Nokia hired Rassak to help understand the future of work: workplaces, work styles, work technologies-- in the near and long-term. We armed to disarm. With nothing but Nokia n95 cameraphones and a desire to have conversations, a crew of Rassakists interviewed a wide range of people on the future of work. We talked with students from the very young (see above) to grad students in in business and design. We talked with Nokia vendors and partners. And customers.

Rassak New Media Labs

The Future of Marketing

RFIDirect. Futuristic work for a large direct mailer.

Rassakists have been long been on the forefront of the creative application of new, new media. From interactive television to early broadband online entertainment, mobile and social media. Rassak labs develop near- and long-range media solutions for clients (Slide, StumbleUpon, Kicklight, Nokia, AirSet) and on our own account.

In May, the labs will release an experiment we hope will make getting press coverage much easier for smaller businesses. A few slots are available in our private beta. Send us an email if you are interested

3 Locations

SFO

72 Missouri Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 (map)

BCN

Passeig de Gracia, 84, 08008 Barcelona, Spain (map)

WEB

We could be anywhere. Check our profiles under "Team" for our personal contact info. (map)