Check out their website HERE and make sure to watch their 100 second demo reel. 

Concentrek Group is "a creative agency offering insight and experience in graphic design, website design, app design and development, video production, motion graphics, animation, social media strategies, public relations and branding." In other words - they're a really sweet marketing agency and do almost everything under the sun. 

The office is located downtown in the Industry Square building, right on the corner of Monroe and Summit. The outside building looks small from the outside; the first floor is a few feet of tile and an elevator. I headed up to the third floor and buzzed in. When I arrived, the person I was supposed to meet was in a business meeting, so I hung out until someone could meet me.

Mr. Paskvan was the one who put me in touch with these guys. His friend, Eric, works as a copy editor, and was able to talk with Kent (the co-owner of the group) to get me in for the day. Anyways, Eric came over after a few minutes of waiting and gave me a tour of the place. It's a large, open space, with a couple rooms lining the east wall. There are two offices for the Account Managers, one for App development, one for Sound development, one for Kent, and one for his business partner. Then there's a printing room and photo studio! They try to do as much photography as they can in-house. 

I was able to sit in on a team meeting where they went through their Best Practices manual. A Best Practices manual is essentially a "what to do, and what not to do" guide for their clients. It gives a general overview as to how branding works, the benefits of having a website + app, what to avoid, ect. It was only six months old, but in need of updating because they are currently trying to phase down out their print services. While they aren't going to stop, there's better benefits in moving towards a more digitally-focused model. 

After that, I spent the rest of the day talking with some core members of the team. I got the run-down of the business from Kent to understand what it's like to be in his position. He has the same mentality as Bill from Madhouse - business execs have to always keep their business moving forward. They have to always be looking for new things to do, ditch what isn't working, and cut some losses.

Kent has a background in journalism, which he said was extremely handy when he started working in marketing. I'm starting to realize that I don't have to pick just one or the other - marketing or journalism - because they can work hand-in-hand. Journalism is a really tough field to stay afloat in on it's own. The world is rapidly changing, and it's moving away from conventional news delivery methods. Look at The Blade, for example - they no longer print!! The need for news will never, ever end, but it's getting harder and harder to get it out to the public. Attention spans are shortening, and hardly any one takes the time to physically pick up a paper anymore. Who knows, maybe the first newspaper using Twitter as their only platform will start up within the next few years. One article = one tweet. I wouldn't even be surprised. Not to mention, it's a great/fast way to get everyone reading a soundbite of news every day...

My time with the Account Managers was pretty interesting too. Despite the fact that it's a desk-job, they get to deal with the external side of a marketing firm. All clients communicate with them directly. Account Managers oversee each project and keep tabs on client happiness. Pricing, billing, scheduling, and communication with the designer is part of their job too. I'm not sure if I'm interested in pursuing this as a career, simply because I feel like I need to be more engaged with the creative side if I'm going to be working at a desk all day. However, a benefit to this job is gaining fantastic people skills. They were so nice to me and super easy to talk to.