Dear friends of The Zoldak Agency,
Happy new year! That’s what people are forever saying this time of year. The one thing I hope to never say again in my annual letter, is how difficult a year this past year has been. Because each time I have expressed that sentiment since 2020, we (or maybe just I) laugh a little when we (I) see how things can change in twelve months.
I don’t mean to express negativity as you all know that is not me. I am the one with the “we can win this” spirit. (And we do.) Perhaps there comes a time in everyone’s life when one must admit that life gets difficult. It took me awhile to even decide on that last word, “difficult,” because it is just that hard for me even to admit such a thing happens.
Many of you know, at the start of 2022, I lost my spunky Ollie, my 11-month Pomeranian named after Oliver North. I wasn’t myself for months. In the middle of the summer, I lost my mother. I spent the fall cleaning out our childhood home and trying to be the strong person for my brother as we were the only family we had left. Or so we thought.
Because at some point between the weeks spent inside the hospital ICU and months spent going through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, an email arrived.
“Hi Sue and Fred, this is your cousin Carol.”
We had heard of Carol. She is one of my mom’s brother’s children. She was reaching out with her condolences. But then, “When are your birthdays? I want to see what order we all are age wise!” All of whom?
Carol says (I want to use air quotes but will refrain; that’s not quite fair to poor Carol who last I met at Niagara Falls at age 5) that we are 19 cousins strong on my mom’s side. My brother and I, who are the two most insular, private two people when it comes to family relations, were, shall we say, aghast. There are more cousins than Transformers we had thrown out on the living room floor. Something is wrong. Stop the mix tape. We set down the toys.
We give Carol our birthdays. (I know what you’re thinking.) Four days later she wants to plan a get together. Fine. (I think she means “someday” in air quotes.) She puts us on an email chain with additional cousins in California. They want to meet up in Hawaii. (What? Who picks that as the meet up point?) “They” (okay see the air quotes are starting to pile up) want to put all nineteen (is this one of those numbers you need to spell out to emphasize the greatness?) of us on the same email. Not all of us speak English. 你问发生了什么事?
Exactly. This is when it dawns on me Hawaii is the half-way point between us and Taiwan.
I know some of you have your hands raised. Yes, you in the front (cough, Dustin), I know you want to know, “How do you know these people are really related to you?” Yes, I wondered the same thing until something happened.
A few days into the large email chain, one arrived which said, “I decided it was best to be organized so I made a chart of all of us in PowerPoint!”
…
(Seriously, shut up Cunningham)
…
I present to you, from my (no question we are related) Cousin Vincent:
I’m going to assume that takes care of all the hands in the air. That’s what I thought.
What Fate Delivers and What We Make Manifest
You never know what this world will bring into and take out of your life. You don’t know when certain things will happen. So, the only path in life that makes sense is to be the best at controlling everything that is controllable.
If an outcome is obtainable, then assume it can be had. The question is, how hard do you want it to be to get what you want?
For us at The Zoldak Agency, it is with that attitude that we approach what we do. We know we can change the world. The outcome is not in question. When you want to start on the road to victory is. How easy you want it to be to win depends on what we do together.
Some of the things we are excited to help clients with this year include:
Using a deeply holistic process involving qualitative research, quantitative data, and the latest in digital tools to help clients refresh their websites and optimize their marketing campaigns in a symbiotic way
Cutting through waste by unifying your audience data and using the best in advertising targeting
Bringing creative that pulls you forward through the crowd
Asking the right questions when design polling so that you are never left with crosstabs but the question, “what next?”
Some of places I already have on my calendar if you want to talk in person:
Washington, DC – It has been two long years since D.C. restaurant rules prevented us from having large in-person gatherings, but I am delighted to say that DC Media Peeps (the OG format but not the OG location) is back January 31st in person. Get on the invite list here, as RSVPs open this week. It’s going to be a blast! And if you like the format of this letter, my DC Media Peeps email blasts are often like this so you may want to sign up just for updates like this one.
San Marco Island – There is no better place to talk about what’s next in digital than the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting, taking place in Florida in mid-January. From new ad tech to privacy regulation, get all the vocab words ready if you want to chat here.
Ft. Lauderdale – I will be speaking at the Public Affairs Council Advocacy Conference in February on the changing regulatory environment both within platforms and in the statehouse will impact your campaigns. With the big Twitter announcement and five states coming only with new privacy laws in 2023, these are topics a lot of you have questions about.
Las Vegas – You know I am always your Vegas guide extraordinaire. Best IV drip? Best warm stone spa bed? Best whole fish flown in from the Mediterranean? Best haircut (I don’t part with this one lightly as I’ve been getting my hair cut in Vegas for 15 years)? The team will be here for the Campaign & Election Reed Awards and Conference in March.
Coachella – IYKYK
75 Rockefeller – If you are in town for work and want to see the new co-working space on the 32nd floor with a view of Rockefeller Plaza, let me know! We have a full-service restaurant and barista serving breakfast and lunch in-house at Club 75.
Thank You.
On behalf of our team, thank you for being a partner this year. You are only here (on this web page and hopefully enjoying some cookies with your 2022 Edition Zoldak Mug (each year is a collector’s item) because you mean something to us. We are grateful.
On a final note, you may be wondering about this year’s gift box theme. Public affairs and politics kept me in Washington, D.C. for the past 20 years. I love D.C. I have had many offices on or near K Street, I have worked near the Capitol, I have taught at G.W. University. I received my master’s degree at Georgetown, where I met the iconic public policy fictional characters, “Harry and Louise,” who are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. Yet, it has always been my dream to personally move my home from Washington, D.C. to Manhattan. The last few years, as workplace dynamics evolved, I saw that it was the perfect time to make that move. There are multiple other reasons for my new view here from 75 Rock, the new headquarters of The Zoldak Agency, which I will reveal to you over the course of time.
In the meantime, there was no better way to announce our new office than to bring you two icons in one box. Levain Bakery has been famous for their chocolate chip cookies on the Upper West Side since 1995. Ever since, when you ask a New Yorker to name a food brand that is quintessential New York, Levain makes the top of everyone’s list. The other icon in the box we hope you know already.
And now, when we say our fun motto about bringing you the freshest creative with a winning political execution like no one else, it has a new (very wonderful meaning):
We live at the intersection of Madison Avenue and K Street.
Happy new year indeed.
In victory,
Sue
The Zoldak Agency | Zoldak Victory | Zoldak Research – Public Affairs and Strategic Communications Services
Vera Causa News – Editorial
DC/NYC Media Peeps – Networking
And coming soon, Wolthram Inc. – (the thing that’s left to do)
P.S. I dropped many Easter eggs in this letter. I’ll see you here at the end of the year to see if you found the meaning behind them all. ;)
