The program is promoted inside the walls at MONO and anyone and everyone is encouraged to participate. It's a super simple construct. A few times a year we ask employees to submit an idea that feels cultural, innovative, relevant, etc. The entire agency then votes via the Wrk+Rec app. The idea with the most total votes wins. A true meritocracy. The only catch: you have 30 days and $5,000 to make it happen.
The first winning idea came from producer Amalia Nicholson. It was a bold and brave idea called the Borrowed Interest Podcast. The purpose of the podcast was to create conversations around women and people of color and the lack thereof in the advertising industry. Super relevant when you look at what's going on in the world right now. Props to Amalia for producing the entire thing herself.
The next winning idea came from the creative team of Adam Ridgeway and Brett Lakanen. At the time, Super Bowl LVI was coming to Minneapolis which meant thousands of out-of-town football fans were pouring into the city unprepared for the extremely cold weather. COLD AF was born so fans could order a piping hot flannel hat and get it delivered in 45 minutes or less via bike messenger. So simple. So cool.
The best part about this project was that for every COLD AF hat ordered, a jacket was donated to Coats4Kids. It was so cool to see a good idea benefitting a good cause. In the end, MONO donated more than 500 jackets.
