John Alabaszowski

John Alabaszowski, V.P. Group Creative Director at MacLaren McCann MRM presented to the class today. Check him out on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter @JohnAla. John was also on the financial panel at the Fall Tour Interactive so now I've been lucky to hear him speak on two occasions.

John studied New Media at Ryerson and started out as a Web Designer, working for Nurun, Infinet Communications (no longer around) and Alliance Atlantis and freelancing before climbing the ladder at MacLaren McCann.

One point that really stuck out is how web design has become about managing relationships with the consumer as opposed to simply providing information and selling things.

Here are three different Chevy campaigns he showed us, all with a very different approach.

The Chevy Volt site was made using google maps. You can enter directions and find out the fuel usage. This is my 5km commute to Sheridan which would use no gas!


The Chevy Sonic site uses music as a theme and creates a beat that evolves as you add different features to your car.


The Chevy Orlando site includes twitter conversations from "soccer moms" who were given the mini van to test.

Somehow the conversation got on to how different companies handle themselves on the web. We talked a bit about a certain company's (name altered cause someone keeps blocking this video from my blog! hopefully this works) response to the Greenpeace campaign against their use of a palm oil supplier who were clear cutting orangutang habitat. Instead of dealing with it up front they sent a cease and desist order to Youtube where it was originally posted thinking they could control the video. This showed little understanding of how the web works and of course the video lived on. Eventually Greenpeace was able to force them to end their contract with this supplier.

One of the cool things about working at MacLaren McCann is to work on pro bono projects. Camp Oochigeas is one of these clients, a camp for kids with cancer. With one of their campaigns they were able to raise enough money through the Evening of Summer Dreams gala to create a new camp in the city for kids who were too sick to make the trip up north. This is really cool.




Here's some advice from John:

Have an online portfolio
-put your strengths up front
-he looks for good layout and design skills in whichever medium
-show initiative, always work on projects in your spare time
-demonstrate passion
-have it organized

Your interview
-organize your presentation, be prepared and don't fumble for your work
-stand out and leave an impression
-know your company and research them
-start a discussion, ask questions about your work, you can direct this converstion

Your first job
-there is a feeling out process, what can you do
-raise your hand and work on stuff around the office, flyers for company events etc
-find things above and beyond your work duties to work on

Advice from interns- Megan and Mario
-DON'T BE DRUNKER THAN YOUR BOSS!
-but go to social events

ENJOY YOUR CAREER AND DON'T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY

Contact Information:

MacLaren McCann Canada
10 Bay Street, Toronto, ON, M5J 2S3
Tel: 416.594.600