Purple Squares – Purple Squirrels

`Purple Squares – Purple Squirrels’ – I read an article recently on AdWeek, “What’s a Purple Squirrel, and How Do You Become One?”, written by Ko Im. At once intrigued by the obscure name “Purple Squirrel”, as well as the obvious synergy with Purple Square, I was curious to find out more, and ultimately inspired to put finger to keyboard.

A Purple Squirrel is a term coined around 2000 to sum up the best of the best from a recruitment perspective, in our world the elusive marketer whose all-round skills include deep technical understanding, coupled with an intuitive visualisation capability for what customers want from a brand. The right combination of expertise and emotional intelligence to make a person very, very valuable indeed. Not everyone agrees. Elon Musk tweeted in 2012, “Do not search for purple squirrels! Giving them attention only makes them want to be more purple.”. But what does Elon know, it’s not rocket science…

It got me thinking about what I have always looked for in Purple Square employees when hiring over the years. Other than the basic “giving a crap” (which is harder to find than you might think in the modern workplace), we look for people like us. Bilinguals. Able to clearly speak the language of the modern C-Level Marketing Officer while simultaneously translating requirements into more abstract objects like HTML code and database SQL queries. It’s rare. Odd-coloured tree-rodent rare.

In Purple Square, we’ve distilled our whole bilingual ethos down to four core values, Be Responsible, Inspire Others, Strive for Excellence and Act with Integrity. They’re not buzzwords, they are truly the result of reverse engineering the best of us, the people in Purple Square we looked up to the most, and tried to put into words what we admired most about them. We call it being Purple, have done for years. You can see why I was so drawn to Ko Im and her excellent article.

We’re always on the lookout for good people who fit into this mould, and also for new clients for whom the values might resonate for who they might trust to help them with maximising their marketing spend.

Purple Squares, Purple Squirrels. Kindred spirits. Get in touch!