April’s customer spotlight is a cool advertising agency in Calgary, Canada, FLIPP Advertising. Not only do they have perks like an office jukebox and fresh, local coffee to keep the team humming, they’re constantly retuning their tools and processes to best fit the team. Here’s a peek inside the FLIPP team and workplace via Partner and Creative Director, Craig LePan.
Who are you, what’s your role, and your favorite hand-held food?
[CL] My name is Craig LePan and I’m a Managing Partner and Creative Director at FLIPP Advertising. My favorite ‘hand-held’ food is a campfire hotdog at the lake.
What’s the story of FLIPP?
[CL] FLIPP’s doors opened in February 2009 when my wife, Emily LePan, started the company. Our first office was a warehouse bay in Calgary’s South East industrial area. Three years ago, we moved to our 6th floor office in Calgary’s belt-line district. Our team started as 5 and has grown to a full service agency of 15. We’ve also recently expanded our office to Vancouver.
What’s great about working at FLIPP?
[CL] There is a long list of great things about working at FLIPP! We have an amazing team and a great work environment, from Friday team lunches to a stocked 1960’s beer fridge in the boardroom. Beyond a great benefits program and our modern approach to HR, there are two very important ingredients to a happy team: great coffee and good music.
FLIPP Jukebox: Music plays an important role here and our office soundtrack is powered by a web-based jukebox we built on the RDIO api. Everyone has a login and can make music requests throughout the day. The music is voted on by the rest of the office – if a song gets too many thumbs down it gets “gonged”. Positive votes keep that song in regular rotation.
Crickle Creek Coffee: Life’s too short for bad coffee. We worked with a local coffee roaster, Crickle Creek Coffee, on their branding, packaging and website. Crickle Creek is a common visitor at FLIPP, delivering freshly roasted coffee every 2 weeks.
Please share some insight into FLIPP’s approach to employee and workplace operations. How has Kin played a role?
[SB] We are always looking for new ways to leverage technology to aid in our workflow process and team collaboration. However, we haven’t forgotten the real value of face-to-face interactions. We like taping up and reviewing each others’ work at ‘the wall’ and keep the team connected with weekly ‘stand up’ meetings where the team reviews projects and upcoming work.
“Integrating Kin at FLIPP has revolutionized our entire HR process and organization.”
There are many areas where Kin has had an impact; from onboarding, to job descriptions, and file sharing. The biggest impact for employees was the ability to have direct access to their vacation availability and a central calendar for events, holidays and team availability. On the operations side, it expedited turnaround times and streamlined our ability to track schedules.
Some other tools we use include FLOW for project management and tasking, and Harvest for Estimates and Invoices.
Anything notable going on lately?
[CL] We have some pretty exciting projects on the go at FLIPP! Our recent work for Brewsters Brewing Company & Restaurant included an evolution of their brand, retail packaging for their beer, and just this month, the launch of their all new responsive website.
We’re also busy at work on the brand identity and campaign for a new, fast-food casual concept that will launch later this year. Last but not least, we’re excited to be involved with and sponsoring the JDRF Galas in Vancouver and Calgary. These events help raise funds for research to cure Type 1 Diabetes.