A hackathon is a design sprint-like event in which participants work together over a short period of time to create real functioning software.

The Goal

Solve a known Verblio business/user problem using technology. Demo the solution at the end of the week. Be judged.

Not-so-secret-other-goal: Nurture the spirit of innovation across our company. Get a marketing person dreaming big with a dev and an ops person and watch what happens.

The When

We did ~24 hours over the course of a week instead of 24-straight hours because a 24-hour zoom call sounds like a nightmare.

The Prizes

There were fancier prizes than this but who cares because look at that iridescent corkscrew:

It is magnificent.

The Teams

WD-40

Reducing Friction to writers finding great work.

Feed-Hack

Customers should find giving feedback to writers easy, fun and VALUABLE.

Verblio’s Uban Planning Committee

Civilizing the Wild West with writer certifications and improved audition process.

Optimize Prime

“Optimization is the right of all sentient content”

Delightning

Customers should LOVE Verblio by receiving great content as soon as possible.

The Week

Monday

Tuesday

Our daily slack team challenge mandates that we upload screenshots posing with the things we love:

Wednesday

We’re starting to feel it.

Thursday

Team slack challenge: “Where’s the lie?!” in which we try to spot untruths about our esteemed colleagues…

Friday

IT’S GO TIME.

The Judges

• Steve Pockross, CEO, Verblio 
• Cheryl Gunn, SVP of Operations, LiveOps (heads up all of Client Results and Workforce (agent community, QA, Training))
• Molly Krumholz, writer community manager + data guru, formerly at Blog Mutt / Verblio
• Holly Trytten, Director of Platform Technology, Yara International (also formerly at LiveOps)

The Swag

And the winner Is…

Optimize Prime!

By the skin of their teeth…

We laughed, we cried, we built cool stuff. And now…

The post Verblio’s First Hackathon appeared first on Verblio.

There was an SNL sketch in the 80s about “sniglets” – words that ought to be words but aren’t. (Sniglet is itself a sniglet.) We’ve found that naming things can be cathartic. So, we created a Slack channel dedicated to COVID-themed words that should exist already. There was lots of discussion. The below collection represents the team’s favorites.

WARNING: It’s a pundemic

Got a word of your own? Add it to the comments here, we might even add it to the dictionary.

The post COVID-Themed Words That Seem Like They Should Exist By Now appeared first on Verblio.

As a child, I was exceptionally good at rhyming and making up fake song lyrics.

I had no idea this would one day serve me as copywriter for a company called Verblio. Now I get to send business emails with subject lines like this:

I can explain. And I will. Here we go.

…

2019 started with a magic carpet ride.

We tried to re-create the magic in your inbox:

Since everything is impermanent, we invoked the ominous TIK TOKING of the clock to try and inspire bold moves.

A decade before Tik Tok the app, there was “TiK ToK” the song.

The delightfully trashy first single from Kesha (formerly stylized Ke$ha) opened with the line, “Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy”, which, according to Wikipedia,

came from an experience where Kesha woke up surrounded by beautiful women, to which she imagined P. Diddy being in a similar scenario. 

Bless you, Kesha. Then we brought it back around to Aladdin in the final reminder email.

And the sign off….

For those of you not born yet or without cable from 1984-1995, you might not know about Robin Leach and his iconic show:

After touring the luxury homes of actors, pro athletes, and business moguls, Leach ended each episode with a wish for his viewers: “champagne wishes and caviar dreams.” 

Verblio: the caviar of content.

…

February saw the debut of the Verblio Verbcast, our bi-monthly email where we share all the verbs that propel your content to action.

We gave you our editorial calendar template, a gorgeously organized tool of content creation power, plus other helpful content about content and content creation. 

Why the subject line “A soothing sense of control”?

Because the editorial calendar is a spreadsheet, and spreadsheets spread joy. Spreadsheets make me feel safe in uncertain times. This blog post started out as a spreadsheet, actually.

…

From the bi-monthly Verbcast to other bi things…

“Vid-curious” is a take on “bi-curious”, the mythical phase every college girl supposedly goes through where she wants to make out with all of her girlfriends. When we debuted our video product in March, we tantalized the list with this very softly suggestive subject line and the promise of a free sample video.

NO, NOT THAT KIND.

Quick copywriting aside, adding “curious” to words that rhyme with “bi” is kind of fun:

Back to the emails. 

A spicy subject line gave way to a salty email, featuring everyone’s favorite Turkish chef and 2017 internet sensation Salt Bae:

From there, we reminded folks about the offer by invoking 80s Swedish hair metal:

Sadly, no one took us up on the offer for two free videos.

…

In August we serenaded the list with two (2!) distinct stanzas of rhyming verse. Give me a theme, and I will riff.

In this case, on the ease and beauty of Verblio’s duplicate requests feature (basically a tool that makes it easy to dupe a request and brief our writers).

For non-customers, we waxed poetic about the frustration of flaky freelancers:

“A repeated and frustrating circumstance” sums up so much about the modern experience, doesn’t it?

…

Freelance writer frustration seemed to hit a nerve, so we spun it into a whole campaign based on a made up condition: PFWD.

We made a fake pharmaceutical drug ad and I cast my English Bulldog, Violet, alongside Verblio CEO Steve Pockross.

Don’t they make a great pair?

If you missed the ad, here it is:

Did you know that prescription drug logos are incredibly low-rent and fake looking?

I wanted to create something equally weird for our high-quality content cure.

It’s not a prescription, it’s a SUB-scription.

…

Right before the holidays, I was medicating my own depression with hours of holiday baking shows on Hulu. I learned that the stale-looking chocolate log served at holiday parties is called a Yule Log, and this gave me an idea.

Yum.

…

Our big holiday campaign was feeling exceedingly boring when Kali, Verblio’s content wizard, suggested searching “weird holiday” on a stock photos site to jazz things up.

This turned out to be a goldmine.

Then we needed to impose URGENCY.

Per the first reminder email:

That “urgency” search also gave us the photo that became the basis of the third and final email in the holiday series:

Not everyone was a fan. Someone replied calling it “Pathetically cheap pseudo-erotic BS.” Then the following:

You know this box gets thousands of emails, your vapid lazy sh1t is by far the worst.

We’re not for everyone. Happy new year.

The post Explaining Every Weird & Obscure Reference We Made in 2019 Emails appeared first on Verblio.

36% of our team attended INBOUND and 21% of our team attended Burning Man this year. 

We were going to make a Venn diagram comparing the two, but then we realized it would look more like a solar eclipse than a Venn diagram. Sure, corporate branded t-shirts and LED-light up tutus are a world apart, but really, it’s all just people dressing alike to fit in.

Both events are kind of cult-like and you can’t help but get swept up. Drink the kool-aid, Burners and ‘Bounders, because we’re all in this together.

A close examination of the agendas for each event yielded similar findings. 

INBOUND talk or Burning Man event?

• Creating a Unicorn
• Morning Meditative Flow
• Rediscover Your Lioness Within
• How to Find and Stand Out as Your Most Authentic Self
• Crafting Your Why: A Facilitated Session on Finding Your Why
• Creating True Connections in a World of Distraction and Disengagement
• Tech Communication is Art. Learn the Brush Strokes
• Craving Human Connection in a Digital World
• Co-Create: Creating Better Together
• Poop to Gold LIVE

Surprise! They’re all INBOUND talks. Dang, you marketing people are getting really woo these days.

Burning Man events that should be exported to INBOUND

• Eurotrash Sundown Sangria
• Nicholas Cage Coloring Chill Space
• Electrolytes & Salty Snacks
• Combobulation Station
• LIMINAL ASSASSINATION PARTY
• Oingo Boingo Butt Bongo Jam Therapy w/Bread
• Discovery Dungeon Tour
• Sassy Granny Invasion
• Lazer Maze Obstacle Course
• Circus Stilt Walking Lessons
• Kentucky Fried Breakfast – Bourbon and Bologna 
• Pirate Yoga

Business card barf-off

Inevitably at either event you’ll get stuck in a 20 minute conversation with a woman named Butterfly or a man named Brent who has big ideas about lead-gen through heart-centered awareness. With robots. They’ll hand you a business card with an absurd title and you’ll just marvel at the state of the world. 

Can you tell which event produced which titles below?

1. Professional Weirdo
2. Director of Buzz Development 
3. President and Visionary
4. Rave Rocktor & Treasurer
5. Chief Experience Officer
6. Designer of Fun

Answers

2, 3, 6 – INBOUND

1, 4, 5 – Burning Man

In conclusion, we are all made of star stuff.

See you all at Burningbound 2020!

The post Attending Burning Man or INBOUND? appeared first on Verblio.