What do you get when you add a strategic marketing firm, a design studio, an IT company, two development teams, an internet marketing company, and a public relations duo? You get serious talent, with almost no overhead. You get a lean, mean, communications team, who networks with most everyone in Brevard County. You get Giant3.
You’ve seen their work. It is everywhere. From the United Way’s award winning website, to Brevard County’s new branding campaign, built from Brevard Tomorrow’s storytelling workshop. The Cocoa Beach Area Chamber’s InSite, 211Brevard’s branding, Brevard Job Link, WA1A, XL TechGroup, and yes, GreenBrevard are all examples of their work
Ok, to answer your question, yes, the interview for this month fell through, and it’s 3:37 in the morning of March 1st. Is it a cheap shot to interview myself? Yes, of course it is. Yet the story of why I made Giant3 is worth telling, because it’s the same reason we produce this magazine.
Over the past fifteen years, I’ve learned one big lesson:
You can’t do everything by yourself.
In 1992, my partner, Rich Ponder and I were in the process of building a graphic design studio called Blue Earth Press. It was my very first company, and we were both motivated and well suited to work together. Rich owned a comic book shop, and these were the days of the comic revolution, where investors were buying and trading Superman and Spidey issues as much as they were playing the stock market.
Blue Earth Press was making headway coloring comic books. We actually got paid, to do all the prepress, and digitally color all the art. We hit our pinnacle when we did Frank Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated, an ecclectic collection of works by some greats in the business, but that’s another story.
I declared to my compadre that I could make my very own book. How hard was it to produce a comic book?
Rich wisely laughed. “It’ll never happen. It takes a team of people to make one book. Writer, storyboards, pencils, inker, colorists, and even people who did the word baloons. Never mind all the marketing folks.”
Undeterred I countered, “I’ve got talent.” Always the optimist… “I can write, I can draw, I can ink, I can color, I can add the words and I can market the thing. I am motivated.”
“You’ll never do it”.
Days passed. I created my characters, set the back story and wrote several issues worth. I drew, I storyboarded… and learned this valuable lesson in the process: We are built for team effort. We’re genetically engineered to need others. When we strive together, towards a common goal, when we work together, the result is something much bigger, better, much more real, than what you can do in isolation.
And it was not much fun — there was noone to share it with. Life is not a destination, but the journey.
Giant3 was built because we saw something better than an employer heirarchy. I want to work with people who care about what they do. When you are an owner, when you’re a partner in a venture, you are on the line, each and every time. There’s no hiding. It’s do or die. Clients deserve that. The people we work for deserve passion, drive, motivation to help them be the best they can be. And in a clock-punching environment, that just doesn’t happen. Sure, there’s moments of inspiration, and some firms have found a mixture of talent and a formula that keeps it all together. But, for us, we see a better way.”
Teamwork
Giant3 works because together, we can provide so much more expertise, than what one single business can. When you walk into an advertising agency, you pay for the overhead of their entire organization, with us, you only pay for the talent that you use. And that talent we tap into is considerable. Many of Giant3’s partners and associates have been collaborating together since 1994.
“We’ve had brainstorming sessions, where four of us helped solve major hurdles for the client. That’s the owners of a design studio, an internet marketing company, a multimedia firm and a strategic consulting firm, all contributing their expertise.” Needle enthusiastically states. “That’s alot of firepower. With agencies, you might get one creative to work with.”
Giant3, GreenBrevard, and our individual businesses are inclusive. We like to work with others, and invite you to be a part of the mix. We know that rather than competition, together, we are better.
Oh, and I never finished that comic book. I’d like to blame it on the comic market tanking… but to be honest, Rich was right, and I took the lesson to heart.
Eric Needle is the founder and principal partner of Giant3. All about teamwork, Giant3 is a collborative network, made up of business owners, who work together to provide a wide range of services for their clients, in the fields of marketing, advertising and public relations. Giant3 partner companies Longbow SG and John M. DeMarco Communications produce GreenBrevard, and Artemis IT Solutions provides all the technical magic to make it all work.
Contact Eric at 321.757.8909 or email eric@greenbrevard.com
Visit www.giant3.com, go see some of our work
Eric Needle is Principle Partner of Giant3, President of LongbowSG, GreenBrevard and GreenOrlando