Hot Paper Lantern Reviews

Hot Paper Lantern? More like a red hot mess. What was spun to the media (and the marketplace) as a strategic spinoff from Peppercomm was in reality the result of a years-long power struggle and ego competition between the agency's founders, which gradually infested Peppercomm like an incurable disease, ravaging everything in its path. And unfortunately, the remnants of that putrid culture appear everywhere within Hot Paper Lantern, with in-fighting, distrust and petty politics enveloping the agency in a manner no startup should ever suffer. HPL tries to position itself as some sort of "agency of the future" blending digital consulting, technology enablement and marketing communications, but in reality it's just another PR agency doing traditional PR and comms work for the same clients they had at Peppercomm. There is very little intelligent or strategic work being done, almost no integrated marketing work, and zero technology enablement or digital consulting. They're trying to white label other companies' tech products and spin them off as their own, without even changing the products' names, yet to-date they have not gotten a single client to invest. Because honestly, there is no THERE there. It's just copy and paste, and nobody needs THAT. The truth of the origin of HPL is even scarier. When the acrimonious split took place about a year ago, all of Peppercomm's clients were divided between the two agencies, and in a scenario akin to two middle school kids picking kickball teams, leadership literally assembled the entire company in secret and selected teams right then and there, with half the agency moving downstairs to join HPL and the other half (the meaner half apparently) staying upstairs to remain with Peppercomm... whether they liked it or not. The culture at HPL can best be described as lazy, uninspired and unmotivated. Senior leadership is entirely miscast, with business development, creative, analytics and design almost entirely void of experienced leaders, and strategy almost non-existent, completely cast aside from all meaningful decisions, persona non grata, because the rest of the agency views the "smart people" as a threat, because that's what insecure and impotent people do. The rest of the agency can best be described as glorified interns - young 20-somethings who generally care more about "getting along" than doing meaningful work, who spend more time debating the types of gluten-free and organic snacks the office manager should procure than bringing smart ideas to clients, and who prefer to have meetings about company outings to the zoo than spending time enlightening their minds or becoming better marketers. HPL is a microcosm of Millennial culture gone awry - with its unlimited vacation policy, liberal work from home allowance, overflowing quantities of snacks available at all times, sit-stand desks, frequent company outings and meetings about meetings to talk about meetings... but NOTHING actually ever gets done. Mediocrity is not only accepted but expected, and client needs and business goals are ALWAYS usurped by peoples' feelings. Because feelings are what really matter in business, not business results. Oh lord. And finally, HPL is just not good at business. They negotiate against themselves with EVERY new opportunity, with executive leadership routinely bludgeoning proposed budgets before they're even put in front of clients, so fearful of losing that they would actually prefer to lose money on jobs rather than lose against a worthier opponent. In summary, HPL is just a red hot mess, all glitz and no glamour, all talk and no profundity, all ideals but no ideas, and all spin but no substance. Oh, and there is an unwritten rule against masculinity. Seriously - no testosterone allowed within the doors of HPL. If your priorities are free snacks and daily chats with your girlfriends, give HPL a shot. If you want to do meaningful work, challenge and be challenged by brilliant people, live ahead of the curve and be a part of something meaningful, run as far away from this place as possible. They'll be out of business in 3 years or less.