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Team DIGO | 08/29/2011 | in
Here at DIGO, we have a secret.
Some of us were working on interaction design before there was an Internet.
Some of us cut our teeth designing interactive programs — such as Ford’s first interactive kiosks — before interactive agencies even existed.
A few of us learned a lot of what we know about design for behavior change through A/B testing in print, direct mail and DRTV before we ever started applying and refining this knowledge in the digital world.
And, for the past fifteen years, we’ve spent the better part of our time helping direct model businesses grow and thrive. In fact, to gobble up market share and to dominate.
But we haven’t labeled ourselves a “direct marketing agency.”
Our goal from the beginning was to be a premier creative, branding-building resource, as well an extremely business-like marketing shop. And, let’s face it, to the creative people who were key to this equation, “direct” meant “bad.”
We could better risk failing to attract a few clients who should be here than alienating the creative talent that makes DIGO uniquely effective… but, today things are different. Our track record and work speak for themselves. And the creative people are buying into our premise that “direct” can mean “awesome.”
So, here we go… and not for the last time either:
“Direct.”
There, we said it!
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Team DIGO | 08/26/2011 | in
A weekly post on some of our favorites from around the Web.
This week’s topic: Steve Jobs
This week’s bonus: From the archives, Malcolm Gladwell on the creation of the mouse, from The New Yorker.
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Team DIGO | 08/21/2011 | in
Growth Key: Place Style Brands Where The Men Really Are.Trade campaign for ESPN Magazine’s new style section: Style in Sports.
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Team DIGO | 08/21/2011 | in
Growth Key: A National Role.
The premier respiratory hospital in the nation hired DIGO to create its first-ever national campaign.
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Team DIGO | 08/20/2011 | in
We don’t just do digital. We seize the opportunities of the digital age. We test and measure much more because it costs less to test than to fail to test. We use direct response results to inform not just direct tactics but the brand.
We believe that the user experience – of the product, the service, the website, the app, the call, the ad, the online video, the social promotion, or whatever – is the most important thing. Call it UX or user experience design or interacting design or experience, we are all over it.
We believe there are two kinds of media, those that are currently digital and those that are about to be digital. We integrate them all. We test and improve the mix. We work to report on them all in one paid, owned, earned dashboard. We push the edge of digitalization. We try to humanize and civilize the frontier as well. We approach social from the advertiser’s perspective, from the public relations professional’s perspective, from the digital and direct marketer’s perspective and from the social promoters perspective, without ever forgetting the perspective of the members of the social communities we inhabit.
We’ve become discerning appraisers of potential futures. But we also stay foolish, and hungry. Because we find it a lot more interesting on the edge.
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Team DIGO | 08/19/2011 | in
We do lot of things that ultimately add up to one thing: we help companies grow. We do that by building brands. And we do that with a myriad of different tools. Research. Strategic planning. Media planning. PR. Social media. Design. Direct response. All of that in addition to what people have now come to call “Traditional advertising,” i.e. television, print, and digital. All of it just comes down to communicating in a way that makes it easy for people to like your company. It actually strikes us as a little weird that terms like “Traditional media” or “Interactive agency” are even still around. Does the Internet really seem non-traditional to anyone anymore? Doesn’t everyone want their audience to interact with their brand? The labels just get sillier by the day. Technology will continue to give us new ways to reach people. But the fundamental task remains the same – connecting with people. At least until one of those horror movies comes true and some mad scientist creates a species of super intelligent sharks which then escape and breed and soon establish colonies on our beaches and soon thereafter become a new target demographic. But until we have to become experts at making emotional connections with mutant sharks, we’ll remain students of technology and experts in people. Contact us. Let’s grow together.
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Team DIGO | 08/19/2011 | in
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.
What makes an idea the right idea? It’s the idea that stands in service of our client’s goal and fits the brand. There are plenty of ideas that are right for one or the other, but not both. We are ruthless. We do not fall in love with our ideas; we examine them with a hyper-critical eye and fill our virtual garbage cans with good and even great ideas that aren’t right.
We spend a lot of time thinking about where ideas come from (everywhere) and no time thinking about who ideas come from (everyone). Because the thing we know about ideas is that they don’t come from any single person. Sure, an individual may actually articulate the idea that turns out to be right, but that thought did not simply spring unaided from the person. When we reverse engineer an idea’s origin, we find it is always inspired by somebody else’s thought, which was inspired by somebody else’s, and on and on. The “Hey, I have an idea,” moment is not really a “eureka” moment at all. Rather, it’s the product of many moments and many people. It’s the product of conversation, collaboration and even competition. The person who actually says it just happens to be the conduit for that idea.
The idea doesn’t stop there. As we apply it — as we get into the details — it morphs again and again, driven by good questions, logistical realities, and by the goal and the brand. Always the goal and the brand. The idea exists to serve nothing else.
Where do ideas really come from? They come from listening. Listening to our clients, to one another, to trusted advisors, and even to the noise that surrounds us all. At heart, we are in the listening business.
Related Reading: Learning Optimism with the 24×3 Rule
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Team DIGO | 08/19/2011 | in
A weekly post on some of our favorites from around the Web.
This week’s topic: Design (Too easy?)
This week’s challenge: All links posted are culled from Twitter feeds (Still too easy? Yes.)
This week’s bonus: The Green Album — Andrew Bird, OK Go, Weezer, My Morning Jacket And Others Cover The Muppets
