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Chemistry of a Successful Collaboration

2010 August 02 By Guthrie Dolin

Complexity requires fierce collaborators
The complexities of working with global brands in the digital landscape require Odopod to be a deeply collaborative company. We are often one partner in a large ecosystem of other agencies and internal teams, all servicing different aspects of our clients marketing and communication needs. For this reason, we have embraced our role as collaborator and strive to forge formidable partnerships.

Knowing our role in these loose confederates is paramount. Too frequently, overreaching agencies debate their area of ownership and jostle for the client’s favor, which can be a recipe for dysfunction and subpar work.

I’ve found that effective ecosystems surrounding a brand must demonstrate the attributes of any productive and successful team – specifically; mutual trust, mutual respect, complete communication as well as a shared purpose and vision.

Beyond merely accepting the idea of collaboration, the larger team must invite it. Desire it. Even, when required, fight for it.

The case of the three-headed ~~hydra~~ hero
Consider our work for DonQ, a family owned and operated rum brand from Puerto Rico reentering the U.S. market after nearly 20 years. Undercurrent, DonQ’s NY-based strategy firm lead an agency selection and brought us to the table.

From our earliest meetings Undercurrent and Odopod openly discussed how responsibilities between our agencies as well as the client’s marketing and sales teams would be divided. And, in some cases, shared. It was an open and candid dialogue that required situational leadership as well as a healthy dose of good faith.

This multi-party situation had a lot moving parts and could have easily deteriorated into numerous flavors of dysfunction. However, what ensued was an exemplary collaboration that’s garnered phenomenal results for everyone.

Here are some of the things that went right (and good guidelines for any collaboration):

Clarity over certainty
We realized early that each group brought their own methodologies and unique processes to the party. Therefore, it was far more important for us to establish a clear, aligned vision about what we wanted to accomplish then to fret about particulars of how our teammates got it done.

Situational leadership
The complexity of the project meant that at different times the project required different leadership. All parties embraced the concept wholly, deferring to the people with deepest expertise and contextual understanding to make the final call.

Common language
While the greater team included the client, strategists, designers and developers, all with their own fancy acronyms and industry jargon, we never used it in our work sessions. The ideas and their execution were often complex, but we always kept the language plain and made sure everybody understood the plan.

Healthy overlap
Undercurrent is a digitally focused strategy firm and Odopod is a strategically focused digital agency. But both of our teams are filled with “T-Shaped people” – deep experts in a particular field, yet with a broad understanding of the complementary. We never fretted about how the top of the T’s crossed over, but instead used them as points of connection.

Mutual respect, mutual trust
Odopod has an unabashed professional crush on Undercurrent. And the feeling is shared. Couple that with both agencies’ deep appreciation of DonQ’s rich history, business values and practices, not to mention their yummy rum. All of this mutual admiration was a rock-solid foundation for building trust and made for some great “business dinners”.

Complete communication
Our communication was always candid, clear and real-time. When in doubt we overly communicated. It was helpful.

“The No Asshole Rule”
We had unparalleled civility throughout the engagement. No egos. No power trips. No unconstructive criticisms. The No Asshole was in effect, but never needed enforcement.

Proof is in the pudding
At the end of our first joint project, we delivered LadyData and the first iteration of the DonQ rum site. The result of our collaborative efforts propelled DonQ from domestic obscurity to the most visited rum site on the Internet. With 4.3 million page views to date, LadyData has become liquor industry's biggest digital traffic driver. Not bad for our maiden voyage.

For our second act we’ve just launched a fully-redesign rum site, already garnering tremendous praise and considerable buzz.

The team is commencing our third engagement for DonQ, and we certainly hope it’s not our last. In fact, we’ll be doing everything in our power to ensure the contrary.