Roiann Gunnells died Monday, January 20th.

She was our Fulfillment Coordinator from the fall of 2013 until December 2019 when cancer started to get the best of her.

“When I would make client calls, Roiann would sit next to me and ask if I needed anything,” remembered Courtney Buczkowski, our Service and Production Coordinator. “Or she would tell me to give her some of my work to do because she wanted to help me out. She didn’t ask if she could help; she told me she was going to.”

That's how Roiann was. “She always put aside what she was doing if anyone needed a hand,” said BusinessVoice Director Steve Evert. “Roiann was always a team player and willing to help anywhere she could, even while she was sick,” said Accounting Associate Cheri Stewart.

Roiann struggled with her illness for several years, yet her sass and resilience still came shining through. “Once I told Roiann I was having a bad day,” recalled Cheri. “She looked at me and, in her typical Roiann tone, said 'just because you're having a bad day doesn’t mean it's okay to be a jerk to people.' It was the best advice I ever got, and now I smile more every day because of her.”

Nikki Brown is the Director of the MadAveCollective. She knew Roiann long before they worked together at MadAveGroup. “After 20 years of friendship, I have more than a few stories about her. I'll miss hearing her answer the front desk phone and helping callers who just couldn’t get her name right. I’d hear her say, 'It's Roiann. ROI-ANN. No, ROOOIIIII-ANNN.' That always cracked me up.”

“Roiann would bring me lunch sometimes,” said Courtney. “She'd bring in meatloaf when she made it at home because she knew it's my favorite. And hers was the best. I also made her write down her sloppy Joe recipe. I still keep it in my wallet.”

“She always wanted the work done right,” said Fulfillment Manager Susan Harris, yet “I'll miss her laugh and her sarcastic sense of humor the most.”

“She was outgoing; always the life of the party,” according to Cheri.

Courtney said, “Roiann would sing along with the songs that came on the overhead [music system], especially 'Diamonds' by Rhianna. She would sing it obnoxiously, and then we'd just 'shine bright like a diamond' for the rest of the day. Oh, and whenever 'You Raise Me Up' by Josh Groban played she would intercom Jess down the hall and let her know it was on. She knew Jess doesn't like the song, so Roiann called her just to kind of torture her about it. She thought it was funny.” (It was.)

“I'll miss our daily lunch conversations, her hugs after work, and the light that beamed from her beautiful soul,” said Cheri. “I loved her so much.”

“I could go on and on about her, but I think my eyes may float out of my head,” said Courtney. “I miss her already.”

Roiann was just 48 years old.

Portions of a video we produced for Toledo Public Schools have been incorporated into another video that's part of the Robert F. Kennedy / Discovery Education compilation called "Speak Truth To Power - Master Class Series."

"TPS asked us to create a documentary about the Ohio Teacher of the Year, Mona Al Hayani," said Michael Seay, Director of our branding, advertising and design agency d2i. "Mona is also part of the RFK Human Rights group. She was honored by the organization for her focus on human trafficking after she created a curriculum on the subject to educate both teachers and students."

Click here to access the RFK video. After a quick scroll, look for the title "Speak Truth to Power's Cross-Curricular Ties" and click "View Video."

You can watch our original documentary here. 

The list of the 2019 MarCom Award winners includes national brands like Nationwide, AARP, Cisco, Dell, Fender and Morgan Stanley. And once again, MadAveGroup is on that list, too.

Our Caller Experience agency BusinessVoice earned four awards for their Humor On Hold.

Platinum Award: Lakeland Auto & Marine - “Previously”
Platinum Award: Binkelman - “Time Stands Still”
Gold Award: Binkelman - “All Roads”
Honorable Mention: Med-Line - HIPPA-tastic”

On its website, the MarCom Awards is described as “an international creative competition that recognizes outstanding achievement by marketing and communication professionals. Entries come from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, public relations firms, design shops, production companies and freelancers.”

Entrants range from individual communicators to media conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies, and come from throughout the United States, Canada and dozens of other countries.

MarCom Award judges reward those entries that “exceed a high standard of excellence and serve as a benchmark for the industry.”

BusinessVoice is the world’s most-awarded provider of On Hold Marketing. Listen to the winning work in the videos below. 

In April 2019, our CEO Jerry Brown proposed five challenges to our staff. They were encouragements on how to approach not only our work, but our lives.

Jerry urged us to be:

Curious - Inquisitive and eager to learn.

Dauntless - Fearless, bold and not easily intimidated.

Diagnostic - Willing to analyze the cause of a problem, then provide a solution.

Persistent - Capable of carrying on, especially in the face of opposition and obstacles.

Resilient - Able to recover from adversity.

To reinforce those challenges for our team, we produced a series of 20 posters featuring quotes that support the five ideas. We hang a new set of posters every couple of weeks. You can see a few of them below.

What are some of the ways you communicate important philosophies or strategies to your employees? How do you promote teamwork or new ideas? Read a few thoughts in our article “Internal Communication: Your Team is an Audience.”

One of the newer traditions at our agency is the MadAveGroup Olympics.

We close the office to spend a summer day at our CEO's home. Along with enjoying good food and plenty of cold beverages, we compete in fun games like Can Jam, bocce ball, cornhole, and even a giant version of Connect 4. There's also swimming, Frisbee and fishing. Then, we all get together for a big kickball tournament. 

The pictures below are from our 2nd annual Olympics, held in August 2019.