iStrategy Labs (ISL) is growing
again. In time for the digital agency's first anniversary in its new space, the company recently hired a creative strategist, its 35th full-time employee. Two recent projects, for
Nickelodeon and MillerCoors
Redd's Apple Ale, brought the agency national attention. According to DJ Saul, ISL's chief marketing officer, the company is working on two internal projects that involved pizza delivery and team competition.
Saul explains that ISL's recent projects, including an interactive
social locker at FedEx Field, are "physical manifestations of bringing digital into the real world." To access the locker, fans tweet at it with a specific hashtag. The locker then opens, and fans have 45 seconds to get dressed in their football best before the locker snaps a photo and sends it back to them. "There were a hundred photos across the first two games," says Saul. The lockers currently reside on the main concourse, near the Fan Zone.
Saul says that ISL's growth is due to "a steady flow of growing and interesting projects. More and more people see what we do out in the world," he explains, "and what to work with us themselves."
Despite the growing workload, Saul and ISL founder Peter Corbett are as involved as ever in the D.C. tech scene. The two still coproduce D.C. Tech Meetup, and ISL is actively supporting 1776's
Challenge Cup and the new makerspace
ideaspace. "We're looking forward to using that space to build our next large interactive campaign," Saul says. He and Corbett are also members of NextGen Angels and have invested in several strategic startups, including Spinnakr and Social Radar.
Back at the office, Saul says he is working on two internal projects. One is called "PiePal,"--an "Easy" button for pizza delivery. The second project is an internal accelerator that he and Corbett designed. "We've split our company into two teams," he explains, "and we're creating two viable products." Corbett's team will produce something in the mobile brands sphere, and Saul's team is working on problem solving for small and medium-size businesses. The two teams will face off and one product will be produced.
"We have no idea what we will be building," Saul says. His team of 18 is currently conducting interviews to gather data. "But if nothing else, it's a really cool and fun way to build intra-team relationships."
And where will the 36th and 37th employees, coming "very soon," fit in?
"We have room for about ten more seated bodies," Saul says. "That should take us into the next six months. We might be full at the end of Q2 in 2014. But I'm reluctant to have that conversation."
After all, ISL just moved into its space a year ago.