Search Results for 'Service Business'
Going up?
Account management with a mission.
Account management is the heart of the agency. Here’s why:
Let’s start with the word “agency.” The definition I like is from Webster’s: an agency is a person or thing through which power is exerted or an end is achieved.
It is fashionable today to run away from “agency” and to denigrate it’s meaning. For ourselves, we completely reject every departure from a pure agency model. We are here to be used by others to exert power to achieve worthy ends. We reject any proposal that might detract from our operating as a pure agent. We won’t create a conflict of interest, for example by trying to own intellectual property in our creations for our client. We don’t want to get confused.
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Anyone who wants to get anywhere in the agency business ought to start out in account management.
Though “creative director” has been the title I’ve held for the most years of my career, I owe a good deal of my success to having started out as an assistant account executive.
BBDO Direct. 385 Madison Avenue.
Pepto Bismol was the agency beverage of choice. There were as many ulcers as vice presidents. But I didn’t know enough to be scared. That was piece of luck number one.
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Tags: account management, advertising, mark dimassimo, the art of client service
Is it the era of the mea culpa for marketers? Could it be that, forced to start a conversation, some marketers have learned that they have some apologizing to do?
In rapid succession, McDonalds, American Express Open and J.C. Penney have all joined the mea culpa trend.
Here’s the story, and a few thoughts on where, when, how and how not to apologize.
J.C. Penney just launched this video on Facebook, under the theme JCP Listens.
It was a good idea to start the conversation, a good idea to listen, and a very, very bad idea to go beyond the first couple of lines of this treacly video.
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Tags: advertising, american express open, brand, JCPenney
Today, Mayor Bloomberg stopped by our client On Deck Capital for an inaugural press conference at their new office. He spoke about their contribution to the booming New York City technology industry, in both innovation and job growth.
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Tags: capital venture firm, mark dimassimo, mayor bloomberg, on deck capital
Happy short week! Enjoy this week’s social updates!
1. Leaked: Myspace Master Plan to Relaunch as a Spotify Killer
2. Facebook Social Jobs
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Tags: facebook, mark dimassimo, mashable, social media, twitter
If you want to see why growth-stage companies have such an advantage, read this little post from Seth Godin about the values of decision-makers in larger organizations: (more…)
Tags: business, change, growth, mark dimassimo, seth godin
Learn how to turn your online presence into an analytic guide to making smart marketing choices in an article our colleague Jeff Pundyk wrote for CMO.com.
Jeff has spent his career creating digital content aimed at professional audiences, most recently at management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Now he’s teamed with DIGO Brands – as you know we’re a full service agency with deep B2B roots — to help our clients use digital to connect with clients, prospects, and recruits in a richer, more sustainable way.
Tags: change, cmo, jeff pundyk, mark dimassimo, marketing
My earliest memories involve shops. My grandparent’s beauty salon. My paternal grandfather’s clothes factory. My father’s laboratory. Thomas Edison’s workshop, just a short walk from that beauty salon in Menlo Park, then and now part of Edison, New Jersey.
I remember the statuettes lined up – all the awards my Grandfather had won for his hairdressing – so that they could be noted or admired by patrons on the way down into the salon proper. My grandfather was the old master by then. The awards seemed dusty and old to me. Something about the salon seemed forlorn. Old ladies flying down from Canada to have their hair done by the one man in the world who they trusted to do it right (more…)
Tags: advertising, change, hair salon, mark dimassimo
Q: Let’s start with the name. Proove.
A. Proove is our twist on prove, which is a value we live by. It is a hard word for some people to commit to…I mean it is quite a word to live up to. That’s why I like it. It says everything we are: accountable, actionable and measurable. And we’re willing to prove it, not just say it. We live and die by our performance, and we’re willing to commit, right there in the name — in the very first thing you learn about us — to standing behind our work. And the extra “O”, that’s because it’s not all science. There’s some magic required too. Some art.
Q: Accountable, actionable, measurable. Can you tell me more about how you do that?
A: What got me excited and challenged about Proove is how we can not only provide service but also drive differentiation. Here is an example: our reporting that we deliver to our clients is robust, but we’ve taken it a step further. We look at factors outside of paid media that could potentially impact media performance, which typically leads to unique insights into our clients business. It’s about the story behind the numbers, the real story. We believe in numbers but we want to go beyond the numbers and offer actionable analysis.
Q: The media landscape is changing so fast. There’s the rise of social, the ever-changing world of SEO, new media outlets, shifting demographics, the rise of mobile and other connected devices and on and on. In the face of all this and more, how should a marketing executive view the planning process?
A: The planning process doesn’t change, but the consideration set when evaluating media channels certainly does. A key piece to staying on top of the landscape is to be aligned with the latest technological and targeting advancements that are being introduced. I don’t want to tell a client that he or she should be doing social, SEO, mobile, etc., just based on content — that was what happened 1-2 years ago and agencies are still making these broad recommendations. I want to tell the client that he or she should have media presence across mobile, social, etc., aligned with relevant content & with “X” level of targeting across these tactics. The cutting edge targeting advancements is what is exciting and what to pay attention to. The planning process will stay the same as the landscape evolves, but targeting is what is truly evolving. We develop a matrix of channels, targets and understand how they work together in an integrated fashion. It’s not just the channel that changes but the messaging needs to be aligned both for that channel, for the target and for the way the channel fits into the target’s life.
Q: You spent many years working at some of the world’s biggest agencies. Why did you start Proove with DIGO Brands, a mid-size firm?
A: Large agencies have their own model, which works for certain clients. I am excited about being at a mid-size agency because we are able to respond to our client’s needs with more nimbleness, flexibility and speed. In my first few months here, I’ve witnessed many examples of creative work, problem solving and innovation happen much faster than the large agencies. I’ve seen things that take literally 6 months at a big agency happen here in a matter of a couple of weeks. At a firm of this size, we’re able to bring our best minds to the table and to think proactively about the client’s business, not just their media. It’s a completely different mind-set and level of customer service.
Q: What keeps you up at night?
A: There is a popular advertising phrase that goes: “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; The trouble is, I don’t know which half”. Proove is about putting that cliche to rest. We are here to eliminate the waste and being able to show the client exactly what happened. We’re not offering guess work. We’re offering to Proove it.
Tags: adam lutz, digital media, media, proof
Research in Motion (RIM) co-CEO’s are stepping down. RIM stock has gone nowhere since 2008. Today, RIM’s (RIMM) market cap is $7.74B. Apple’s (AAPL) market cap: $391.88B. Which means that Apple is 50 times more valuable than RIM! (more…)
Tags: change
By Mark DiMassimo Founder and Chief of DIGO.
You can take the elephants and the dinosaurs – I like the Cheetahs.
I’ve spent the better part of my career working closely with leaders of innovative, fast-growing midsized organizations. I’ve coined a term for these leaders and their companies – I call them “Cheetahs.”
It is a privilege to be able to work intimately with these visionaries. Every working day is like going to the school of my dreams. As a young man living in Paris in the 1920s, (more…)
Tags: agency, book, change, cheetahs, digitalatspeed
You have to try on shoes. So who’s going to buy them online?
Turns out the answer is “a lot of people!”
Zappos earned trust and a lot of loyal customers by taking the cost and risk out of ordering shoes online. (more…)
Tags: change
Strategy is different in a social world because brands grow differently when people rule.
We see the signs all around us. Design becomes more important—increasingly, it’s the key differentiator among brands. PR also rises in importance, while advertising falls. Discovering, channeling, exciting and curating expressions of passion become key disciplines.
At DIGO, strategy is about knowing where we’re going and where everyone else is going, too. It’s about solving the problems of today while building a vision for the future in an emerging marketplace.
We believe that emotion drives behavior, and that design details can minimize or remove barriers to action. We discover and leverage the emotional meaning of a brand, then build this meaning into everything we do. Emotion leveraged to action is DIGO’s hallmark as a master direct and social marketing agency.
DIGO’s strategic services include:
- Brand Invention
- Brand Launch
- Brand Relaunch
- Brand Positioning
- Insight-Driven Product & Service Innovation
- Social Media Audit
- Social Media Kick Start
- Competitive Strategy
- Integrated Marketing & Media Strategy
- Marketing & Business Strategy Alignment
- Metrics for Success
Tags: brands, DIGO, Services, social, Strategy
We are in the idea business. Actually, we’re in the business of executing ideas in service of very specific goals. But, to do so, we need to generate a large number of ideas. And, to do that really well, we spend a fair amount of time thinking about how to get to the greatest number of ideas and then how to separate the good — and even the great ideas — from the right ideas. (more…)
Tags: branding, change, evolution, goals, ideas
Founded in 1996, DIGO is the agency network that specializes in working with growth-stage companies.
Innovative, dynamic, challenging and challenged, these organizations require a unique set of capabilities, efficiencies and attitudes in a growth partner. In order to help them achieve brand-driven growth, DIGO brings together the best of what makes great brands and businesses grow.
BRAND.
At its core, a brand is an experience that you can repeat. Even just by telling yourself a story about it. To make sense of life, to motivate themselves, and to guide choice in an increasingly complicated world, people need stories. Becoming one of those meaningful stories, through what you do and say, is the ultimate growth fuel. That’s brand. The art and science of building and bonding people to brands is the key to leadership, innovation and marketing in a changing world. DIGO provides brand-driven strategy, insights, naming, launching, re-launching, advertising…
DRIVEN.
Growth is driven. Working side-by-side with a who’s who of world-changing entrepreneurs, we’ve learned that driving change is crucial to growth. Those in the driver’s seat at ambitious organizations appreciate our dashboard of growth-driving services. They rely on us to explore and chart new frontiers of technology, media and culture through Brand-Driven Acquisition, Direct and Digital Marketing, Innovation, Product Development, Customer Marketing and Retention, Brand-Driven Conversations…
GROWTH.
Growth. Improbable, competition-threatening, critic-silencing growth is our aim and our comfort zone. It is what our clients have come to expect. It starts with a brand story so large that the only way to live it out is to grow. And then a plan. We help you define what growth means for your organization. We help you to quantify and measure it. We help you define and test a theory of growth. Then, optimize it and roll it out. Rinse and repeat. At DIGO, the entire organization shares a singular measure of success — we succeed when our clients grow.
According to the New York Times, the recent ads spun out of DiMassimo Goldstein (DIGO) might be doing to the bottled water industry what antismoking ads did to the tobacco industry back in the 1990’s – causing major headaches. In case you’ve missed the unfolding “Tappening” campaign, the interactive and print ads are designed to encourage consumers to drink tap water whenever possible. They are deliberately outlandish, poking fun at the bottled water industry’s environmentally wasteful and often misleading nature. One poster claims: “Bottled Water Causes Blindness in Puppies.” Another reads: “Bottled Water: 98% Melted Ice Caps. 2% Polar Bear Tears.” All the ads are supported by an informative website, Tappening.com, where people can learn about the hazards of bottled water and what they can potentially do about them.
“We’ve spent these two years using our marketing and public relations abilities to un-sell bottled-water hype,” agency head Mark DiMassimo told Brandweek. “But I still see cascading waterfalls on labels that do not list the source of that water.” … Read More
- Lee Goldstein, President of DIGO; Adam Lutz, Managing Director of Proove (sm); Mark DiMassimo, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of DIGO
Something to Proove: 3 minutes with Adam Lutz
Q: Let’s start with the name. Proove.
A. Proove is our twist on prove, which is a value we live by. It is a hard word for some people to commit to…I mean it is quite a word to live up to. That’s why I like it. It says everything we are: accountable, actionable and measurable. And we’re willing to prove it, not just say it. We live (more…)
Tags: change, digobrands, media, proove, social media
Eric Yaverbaum co-founded Jericho Communications in 1985, the 11th ranked PR firm in the country to work for and served as its president for 21 years before their highly touted and successful merger in 2005. Yaverbaum now runs New York City agency hot shop Ericho Communications (www.erichopr.com). He brings 27 years of experience to the practice of public relations and has earned a reputation for his unique expertise in strategic media relations, crisis communications, and media training. Eric has amassed extensive experience in counseling a wide range of clients in corporate, consumer, retail, technology and professional services markets and building brands such as Sony, Progressive Insurance,TCBY, Mrs. Fields, Subway Sandwiches, IKEA Home Furnishings, Domino’s Pizza, H&M and American Express, among many others.
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Tags: DIGO, eric yaverbaum, pr, Press, social
by Alan Schwarz
The New York Times
January 21st 2011
A mother worried “about my son playing football.” Two children colliding helmet-to-helmet — with superimposed crashing sounds and force lines rippling from their heads — drove home her fears.
Unveiled by Toyota in November, the television commercial highlighted the carmaker’s decision to share crash research with scientists studying football concussions, and was an explicit reminder of football’s recent controversies regarding concussions.
So explicit, it turns out, that the N.F.L demanded that Toyota alter the 30 second commercial, and Toyota promptly did. Now, the commercial — which originally ran last November but is now running in its edited form — has the mother worrying instead “about my son playing sports.” The helmet collision has been removed. A spokeswoman for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Zoe Ziegler, said in an interview that the changes were made at the N.F.L.’s insistence. If Toyota did not change the ad, she said, the league had threatened to curtail or end the carmaker’s ability to advertise during games. (more…)
Tags: change, DIGO, nfl, nyt, toyota
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Diane Mastrull
Going green in business might seem altruistic.
But just like health care, the environmental industry is a business sector – one of the few these recessionary days with growth potential. And those toiling in it hope not only to do some social good, but also to make money in the process.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Or is there?
A Web poll last week tried to gauge public sentiment on the greening of capitalism. When asked whether two New York marketers who promote the use of tap water and environmentally friendly bottles they sell are “greedy entrepreneurs,” “selfless environmentalists,” or “both,” respondents gave mixed reviews.
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Tags: change, DIGO, eric yaverbaum, green, pr
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