#SharkSwim: March 2021 Recap

One year ago, in March 2020, all of our lives were irreversibly changed. To recap March 2021, it’s hard to not think about how different everything looked exactly one year ago. As COVID was declared a national emergency, we recall the uncertainty surrounding how the pandemic would impact our business. Employees transitioned to working from home and we did all we could to maintain our sense of normalcy amidst very abnormal times. Many lessons were learned, and a whole new sense of gratitude was gained over the last twelve months.

As I write this blog, we have a newly furnished third suite, all but three of our employees back in the office (with more coming soon!), and the weather is supposed to reach 70 degrees today. Spring is close, and we’re here for it. March was an exciting month for the AdShark team that saw us get some quality bonding time with one another, complete some cool work for some even cooler clients, and get a couple new employees signed on to the AdShark team (more on that next month!).

Brackets may have been busted, but moods never were. Thanks to all of our clients and employees for letting us have a great month! We’ll chat about some of our favorite moments from the past 30 days in this week’s Shark Swim. Let’s dive in.

Jack & Nick Made a Mistake

Last month, we shared how two of our employees (Eric and Tim) celebrated anniversaries in February. Sam Carver, our sweet and talented designer, sat and stared quietly at her screen as she read through the February Shark Swim and witnessed her peers being acknowledged. A few days later, she’d open up about the fact that WE MISSED HER ANNIVERSARY ANNOUNCEMENT! 

Jack and Nick are to blame for failing to update the culture calendar, so they get to wear the dunce caps in this photo. Sam has done remarkable things for us over the past twelve months of her employment and us failing to acknowledge it in last month’s blog says everything about us and nothing about her. We love ya, Sam! Thanks for everything you do for our Creative Team.

Happy Hour at Drekker!

It had been a while since we all shared a beer together, so in early March the crew shut down early to mask up & have a beer at Drekker Brewing Company! Here’s a few of our crew members taking a cliche pic in front of the wall of beers. Shoutout to the plant between Eric and Jack for getting a nice photo-op, too.

Days like this one, where we’re able to reward the team for their hard work, help to refuel our collective spirit. Or should I say, our spirits (bad liquor joke). Thanks to Drekker for the great hospitality and wonderful selection of both sours and porters/stouts to appease all of our employees’ tastes.

Sharks on Sleds: Hope Inc.’s 2021 Tournament!

Hope Inc., a local non-profit that provides sporting and recreational opportunities for children and adults with mobility challenges, hosts their “Hockey for Hope” tournament. On Sunday, March 7th, some of our team members got together to participate in this fundraiser.

We strapped into sleds, used mini hockey sticks with metal prongs on the end to scoot around the ice, and lost (by a wide margin) to last year’s champions. But, more importantly, we had fun and were happy to contribute to a wonderful cause! We’d encourage you to participate next year if you’re able. Not only will it help provide you with a greater sense of appreciation for the great work that takes place in our community, but we need a new team that’s worse than us to come in so we can beat somebody.

Talking Digital with Aspiring Marketers

This past week, we were able to meet with Dr. An (MSUM) and his Digital Marketing class to tell them a bit about life at AdShark. Nick, Jack, and Whitney hopped on a virtual class to speak for an hour about what we do, upcoming digital trends, and more! It was exciting for all of us to see that our local schools are starting to provide more education centered around the wonderful world of digital marketing. If you know of some students who want to learn more from our sharks, let us know! We’d love to chat with them, too.

Helping Promote the Spirit of the Sandbagger

Our friend Jane Pettinger of the Fargo Lions Club reached out to us about a month ago with a neat opportunity to give back to our community. The Lions Club was working on a service project called “Spirit of the Sandbagger” whereby they would be raising funds to help install a public art display near the river in Downtown Fargo. This commemorative art installation will honor the efforts of the thousands of volunteers who answered the call to protect the city from devastating floods. We had the privilege of donating our time & talents to the creation of this website which is officially live. Go see it for yourself! Here’s what Jane had to say about the website:

“The AdShark team was so very responsive and supportive in building the website for our Spirit of the Sandbagger site. They absolutely demonstrated exactly what our project is all about – a community that comes together when the need arises. As we enter into our final phase of involving the larger community in this monument to community spirit, the expertise and the generosity of the team at AdShark will give our efforts a greater reach with a polished flair of professionalism.”

Hiring Efforts on FLEEK

Don’t you hate when companies try to look hip for the millennial and Gen Z audiences they’re targeting by using slang like “fleek?” Anyways… did it work? 

We have a plethora of open positions on our new & improved Careers Page and would love to see you apply if you’re interested! We’re actively looking for digital marketing strategists (to optimize & improve our clients’ results on Facebook and Google Ads) and creative designers who can produce the visuals to make our ads stick! We also have some internship opportunities open (psst… a high percentage of our interns end up with full-time offers at the end of their internship). Spread the word to friends who need a new job in Fargo.

The ‘Shark Wave’ Channel for March 2021

Warmer temps have us vibing differently this month. Take a look at our March edition of the ‘Shark Wave’ Spotify playlist to hear what we’ve been listening to. We almost stopped making these but the praise we’ve received from a handful of clients and social media followers lets us know we should continue. We hope you enjoy listening to these songs that inspired us to do our work over the past month!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7JOnc4zEllkzwF0Jgs7vkF?si=rfMPPSeqSaOJJ0IbqBoY0Q

Thanks for reading about our last month and for continuing to lend your support to AdShark! We’re excited to be popping back in on this blog in the next month with some more cultural updates – as well as fresh, digital marketing content – for you to enjoy. In the meantime, hit us up on Facebook. Talk soon!