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When Crayon’s Arent Enough… CC Chapman Moves Up To Digital Ink

Posted on September 6, 2007
Filed Under Blogs and Blogging, Second Life |

CC ChapmanWay back when I did the occasional joint music podcast with CC Chapman - the Accident Mash at TPN Rock - we left the tape running when he received a mystery package. That turned out to be his pension and benefits package from Crayon, the Digital Marketing Agency focussed on Second Life. Along with Joseph Jaffe, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson, CC was one of the visible names at the in-world launch, and was effectively their point man in the blogosphere; more than paying back their investment in him with goodwill, word of mouth, and positive press (plus he’s got an ideas mill that rivals Stewie in Family Guy).

The romance lasted less than a year - CC has announced that he’s leaving Crayon. And he’s leaving pretty sharpish - his last day is September 14th.

I’ve been in a similar situation [in departing a company with haste that is] and that was with Standard Life Bank. If.com had just poached a number of management, so all the people left in charge just happened to be those who had never been promoted. Oh. Dear. At that point I looked around for another job (and incidentally jumped into the PDA/Electronics line of work) and when it arrived, I marched up to the new Manager, informed them rather confidently that notice or not, the next day would be my last. Make it official or I’ll call in sick… a lot. And I wasn’t the only one.

And with one bound I was free, a weight of my shoulders, free to be in charge of my own destiny again.

The problem that Crayon have now is that while all I did was help run the back office at Standard Life Bank and a web of VB powered MS-Office macros, I was neither visible to the public, nor was I a critical part of the presentation of the company to corporates, consumers and interested parties. CC was. To many people, Crayon was CC Chapman. Without his enthusiasm in the initial days Crayon could easily have been perceived as a money grabbing regular PR firm of sharks moving into the new world. CC (and Hobson and Holtz to a certain extent - who are also no longer with Crayon) took most of the flak, and showed why Crayon would be a good thing in Second Life - and by having an already heavily into Second Life (and new media in general) in Management would mean that it would be different.

CC Chapman

I’m left wondering one thing. It would be two but knowing CC I’m pretty sure he’ll land on his feet (nevertheless, all you big companies at PodCamp Philly should be looking to bump into him this weekend). The first is how Crayon (and digital marketing is still a bold concept to be followed through) will handle the departure; and if it will go with the boilerplate ‘divergence of direction of the involved parties’ line or if there is something deeper going on there. I guess seeing how they handle the expected reaction CC’s friends and commentators online will answer that question.

Nevertheless, CC, good luck with whatever the world hands you next.

Comments

2 Responses to “When Crayon’s Arent Enough… CC Chapman Moves Up To Digital Ink”

  1. Rachel Clarke on September 7th, 2007 0:10

    Crayon also lost Steve at the same time according to CC’s post, so interesting to see how they handle the two gaps in the line up.

    It looks like he gave 2 weeks notice and that’s pretty normal here - so not a quick departure, just the usual

  2. Joseph Jaffe on September 7th, 2007 11:51

    Ewan,

    I posted about this on crayon’s blog and also commented on CC’s post. It is with a heavy heart indeed that we are parting ways…CC is a friend, colleague and one of the best guys in the business. Period.

    At the same time, CC’s community, reputation, equity and potential are soaring and I am personally so excited for him and what he can achieve.

    As CC and I have discussed, “once a crayonista, always a crayonista” - CC will always have a home on crayonville Island and we will constantly look to work together

    For now, he’s made a break…but it’s not a clean break and hopefully never will be.

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