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Tag : dimassimo goldstein

Hunting With A Fishing Pole?

The following post is an excerpt from Digital@Speed, authored by digital marketing guru Mark DiMassimo. Visit the official website here to download your free copy today.

Too many people are failing for hunting with a fishing pole. 

Let’s say you’ve gotten this far in life on your fishing skills. But the waters are all fished out and the hunters are bringing home the big dinners now. Do you get advice, read all you can about hunting, find a guide or partner to lead you? Or do you just head off into the woods with your fishing pole and tackle?

Of course not. If you are with me to this point, you of course recognize this as absurd. And yet we all do this in some part of our lives, very likely in more than one. The fact is it’s so hard to keep track of the things we know that it’s impossible to even learn the names and categories of all the things we don’t know.

And knowing is just the first step. Accepting is another thing entirely. Knowing what to do about it is a third. If the thing you don’t know is a fatal flaw such as not knowing how to judge character and quality in people, then that’s going to dog you no matter what you do. You are going to need to address that directly, as quickly and as energetically as you can. You’re going to need to get the best help you can with that, because it will be like driving with the emergency brake on- it not only slows you down, it also stinks.

Work as hard as you can on getting to know what you don’t know. If you don’t know marketing, find someone to trust. Of course you need to learn and check with other advisors, but you want to try to develop trust and a good relationship with a key advisor. Look for proof, for measures of success that make sense, but delegate real responsibility and authority.

Create a real partnership and let it flower.

 

Take The Word “Brief” Seriously

The following post is an excerpt from Digital@Speed, authored by digital marketing guru Mark DiMassimo. Visit the official website here to download your free copy today.

Ernest Hemingway is said to have created the shortest short story ever. Over lunch at the Algonquin Round Table in New York City, Hemingway bey his writer friends he could write a compelling tale in only six words. His lunch mates happily bet $10 each that he couldn’t do it. Hemingway scribbled six words on a napkin, then passed it around. Each writer read the napkin and immediately conceded Hemingway had won. The six words: “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”

At DiMassimo Goldstein, we could say, “We’ll get you to a better place and we’ll get you there quicker.” But we say, “Higher standards. Shorter runways.”

So let’s not ever make each other guess which part of a brief is the important part. Let’s just include the important part. Let’s make sure our briefs are simple, compelling and crystal clear. Nothing in an agency is more sacred. – From the DIGO Standard .

I like to think that it’s called a brief for a reason. This is not about “minimalism” or some fetish for curtness. Before a brief can be a tool for getting the right creative work or media thinking out of a team, a brief is a tool for getting thoughts focused. Focused thinking is elegant. An elegant solution is everything that is necessary to solve a problem, and not one thing more. Looking at it from the other directions, you want it as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Think problem/solution. Question/answer. Stimulus/response. Just as listening well is essential to communicating effectively, defining the problem is essential to creating a solution.

 

Excavate Your People Theory

The following post is an excerpt from Digital@Speed, authored by digital marketing guru Mark DiMassimo. Visit the official website here to download your free copy today.

What do you believe about people? What do you think they work for? What motivates them?

You have a people theory whether you know it or not. No one could long survive in a society without some operating theory of what will work in interactions with other people.

When I was in college, I interned at a psychiatric hospital on the acute care ward. People came in at their absolute craziest. Sometimes they were truly stark raving mad. But for the most part, these people were successful more than half of the time in navigating interactions with other people.

On the other hand, even the most successful don’t have perfect social records. They misjudge people or themselves. They make mistakes.

They too have people in theories in action.

A leader should be as conscious of his or her people theory as possible. Look for your patterns. Write stuff down. Question your assumptions. It’s not easy, but it’s less painful than expensive mistakes.

 

Game Changing Isn’t Game Winning

The following post is an excerpt from Digital@Speed, authored by digital marketing guru Mark DiMassimo. 

I love game changers. They drive the world forward. They are the natural force in national selection. They are the good guys of business. And I want them to win. I want them to end up on top.

But, often they don’t. Because game changing and game winning don’t automatically go together. Think about it this way: Innovation creates a window of opportunity. The window opens with the introduction of the change. It closes when the new way is copied, tweaked, improved and deployed by the competition.

What the game changer does between the opening and the closing of that window is everything. If you move quickly to own the change, to own it in the marketplace, to own it in the minds of your target audience, then you make it much more difficult for your much larger and richer competitors to co-opt that innovation.

Between the opening and closing of the window, there is DIGO.

 

57%: The Number Every Marketer Must Know

We marketers spend so much time on our marketing, we can be forgiven for thinking that it’s the first and last word about the brand.

Perhaps there was a time when this was more or less true. Not today.

Today, the conversation about brands, services and products is never more than a couple of clicks away. People have more tools than ever to find out what other people really think about the things we sell. Advertising is a smaller and smaller part of the conversation.

That’s why an integrated growth plan must start with the behaviors and beliefs of the audience. It needs to embrace the entire brand experience. The customer journey becomes the road map. By prioritizing the touch points with the greatest leverage, real results improvement can often be achieved in short order.

So, what about the 57%? That’s the part of the buying process that a prospect typically engages in before they talk to someone from the company. The other 43% is important, but the whole 100% is where the winners play.

What’s Your Inspiration/Manipulation Quotient?

People pay us to get people to do things.

Isn’t that what you get paid for too?

Think about it. Whether you’re making a product, delivering a service, designing, marketing, innovating or financing – doesn’t the result happen only when you get people to actually do something different?

Actions are the fundamental currency. No actions, no cash.

So, success in business – and in achieving any worthy end – is a battle between manipulation and inspiration.

Manipulation is when we use tricks to get people to do things.

Inspiration is when they do those things because those things are meaningful and satisfying to them.

A business can be built on manipulation for a while. Offers. Urgency. Price manipulations. Sales. Scarcity. Emotional hyping. There is a whole business literature of tricks. Direct and interactive marketers have proven them. Persuasion designers have honed them. Behavioral economists have proved them in double-blind studies.

Manipulation works. For a while.

But manipulation doesn’t satisfy. In fact, it sucks meaning. Organizations that rely too heavily on manipulations build a house of cards, without coherence, loyalty or passion.

Inspiration, as Simon Sinek has said, starts with Why.

When people are doing because they are inspired to do, they value their own actions differently. We saw this when we attracted more customers for an online broker by offering a stuffed monkey (really) than by offering $350 dollars cash, just for signing up.

The monkey meant, “I’m in this crazy tribe.”

The money meant, “I’ll take the bribe.”

Which do you think acquired more valuable customers? Correct. The monkey.

Which do you think acquired more customers in the first place? Also, the monkey.

Most people are surprised by that. Knowing all I do about inspiring action, I was also surprised.

This broker built an incredibly powerful and valuable brand. It inspired passion that converted into fast growth, intense engagement and rock solid loyalty.

Want a metric to measure and manage this by? Call it your Inspiring Action Quotient.

How much do you lead, market, attract, convert and build through Inspiration? That’s the numerator, the number on top.

How much do you manipulate in order to generate the actions that grow your business? That’s the denominator.

Inspiration over Manipulation.

Inspiration/Manipulation = Inspiring Action Quotient

The higher your score, the more brand value you’re building, the brighter your future.

Simple and difficult as that.

Now let’s inspire some action.

The A-List Podcast: Episode 11 with Kash Sree

In this week’s episode of “The A-List” podcast, host and DiMassimo Goldstein Chief Creative Officer Tom Christmann chats with the brilliant Kash Sree, Group Creative Director at gyro New York. Kash has worked at many of the top agencies across the world, from SS&K to Perreira & O’Dell, JWT, BBH New York, and Wieden + Kennedy. Working on such global accounts as Vaseline, DeBeers, Axe, Nintendo and Nike, Kash has helped create some of the industry’s most iconic campaigns, including Nike’s “Hackeysack” spot with Tiger Woods. Kash was also the recipient of an Emmy and a Cannes Grand Prix for his inspiring work on two different Nike campaigns in the same year.

Tune in to hear Kash discuss his journey from martial arts teacher to art director to copywriter, what he looks for in creative talent today, and why kindness – to yourself and others – is key.  Full episode and show notes below!

Show Notes

  • [0:00 – 1:55] Intro
  • [1:56 – 7:42] Growing up in East London, eating Kentucky Fried Chicken every day, and trying not to be noticed at school.
  • [7:43 – 10:20] Working as a kung fu instructor and trading in martial arts for design school
  • [10:21 – 18:19] Beginning his journey into advertising and proving his professor wrong
  • [18:20 – 20:52] The importance of research in being a great creative and making a great ad
  • [20:53 – 30:05] Getting fired from Ogilvy after 5 months and moving to Singapore
  • [30:06 – 34:22] Learning to stand up for his work and switching from art direction to copywriting
  • [34:23 – 39:05] Getting a crash course in advertising
  • [39:06 – 44:09] Seeking inspiration in culture and applying lessons from martial arts to advertising
  • [44:10 – 50:12] “Staying stupid” to avoid bad briefs
  • [50:13 – 61:43] Being motivated by fame, getting sued and winning an award
  • [61:44 – 69:42] How today’s creatives can impress Kash
  • [69:43 – 71:06] Outro

“The A-List” is a podcast produced by DiMassimo Goldstein, recorded at the Gramercy Post, and sponsored by the Adhouse Advertising School, New York’s newest, smallest, and hippest ad school. You can subscribe and rate the show on iTunes or listen along on SoundCloud. For updates on upcoming episodes and guests, be sure to like the A-List Podcast on Facebook and follow host Tom Christmann on Twitter. If you want to be interviewed for an upcoming episode, contact us at AdhouseNYC.com.

Inspiring Action Brand of the Month: Bombas

Five years ago, Randy Heath and David Goldberg stumbled upon a quote that would change their lives forever.

“Socks are the number one most requested clothing item at homeless shelters.”

Not coats. Not gloves. Socks. The very same items that we subconsciously put on every single morning also happen to be a luxury to millions of people in need. Socks are what’s called a “wear through” item, which means that you cannot donate used pairs due to hygenic issues. This makes sock donations particularly difficult, putting them in high demand in homeless shelters across the country.

Surprised and upset by this heartbreaking insight, the two began to brainstorm. They wanted to help bring awareness to this under-publicized issue. They wanted to make a change. They wanted to inspire action.

So they did just that. They quit their jobs and launched Bombas, a sock company built from the ground up with an inspiring idea above commercial intent. To help the over 560,000 homeless people in the United States, Bombas would use the same buy-one-donate-one model made famous by TOMS Shoes and Warby Parker to help deliver to those in need.

But a brand is only as strong as the product and experience it delivers. If Heath and Goldberg were to succeed, they would need to design a product that was superior to whatever was already offered in the marketplace.

They spent over two years on research and development, studying the industry, experimenting with countless fabrics, and dissecting every pain point associated with socks.

The result was a perfectly engineered sock, with every minute detail designed with the consumer in mind — perfect for both athletic performance and leisure.

But the needs of the homeless and the needs of the Bombas consumer are very different. With that in mind, Heath and Goldberg reimagined the structure of their donation sock. The donation sock is engineered with reinforced seams for greater durability and a longer lifespan. It contains an anti-microbial treatment that prevents the growth of fungus and odors, and the socks are in darker tones to show less wear and tear. The refashioned sock is a testament to Heath and Goldberg’s commitment to fight homelessness with innovation and further solidifies Bombas’ reputation as a brand that’s driven by purpose rather than profit.

Stitched inside every Bombas sock is the brand’s mantra “Bee Better.” The name Bombas is derived from the Latin bombus, which means bumblebee. Bees are small, but together, they can make a huge impact. Bombas is no different, and the mantra serves as a constant reminder that we are all connected, and that even the smallest of actions can make a big difference.

Anxious and excited to share their product with the world, they went to market with the goal of donating 1,000,000 socks by 2024 – but it took just two years.

Word of their inspiring brand story spread like wildfire, and people flocked to be a part of it. It was human to the core, and consumers felt emotionally connected to the brand’s purpose and mission. It’s much more than just a pair of socks. It’s an experience that leaves you feeling impassioned, rewarded and inspired.

Today, Bombas has donated 2,287,666 socks to charity – a number that rises by the thousands with each passing day.

2,287,666 random acts of kindness. 2,287,666 inspiring actions.

That is why Bombas is our inspiring action brand of the month!