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Team DIGO | 07/06/2011 | in
Today, scores of former agencies are dropping the “agency” moniker. Where does DIGO stand? As usual, we’re going to give it to you straight.
If by “agency” you mean one of those traditional, hidebound, pretentious, print, radio and tv factories, with initials on the door, drawn from the names of dead white men, massive overhead, executive committees, public stock, analyst meetings, acquisition funds, full-time novelists with ten-year separation agreements, “integration” by acquisition, A-Team for pitches, B-team for clients, C-team for clients spending less than $100 million, trainees for you, bill by the hour and commissions too, “creative” timesheets, “well it’s your fault because you changed the brief,” If that’s what you mean by agency, then DIGO is definitely not an agency.
On the other hand, if by “agency” you mean your passionate “agent” in the world, your committed partner, your confidant and advisor, your arms and legs and surplus brains and guts too; if by agency you mean your team, your comrades, your eyes and ears in the marketplace, people working on your marketing problems and opportunities even as you sleep; if you mean the people who are helping you build your brand and your business, make the most of social, mobile and digital opportunities as well as wring the last bit of efficiency out of traditional channels; if you mean the people who always delight you with unexpected ideas, who sweat with you and celebrate with you too; if by agency you mean the people who make your job possible and your mission attainable, well then DIGO is definitely an agency, and damn proud of it!
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Team DIGO | 06/24/2011 | in
By
Jeff Pundyk | 06/21/2011 | in
By Jeff Pundyk
Back before search, there was browse.
When I first started goofing around with the Internet in the early ‘90s, there was no directed search, no search engine optimization, no organic search, no paid search. We browsed. We looked for directories of links and followed them wherever they took us. We wandered. Often aimlessly. It was the thing that hooked me on the Internet – the idea that I could skip across the globe from computer to computer, driven by my curiosity and by serendipity, until I discovered something. Serendipity was the key. Serendipity meant unexpected outcomes.
Lycos and Yahoo turned up in 1994, providing centralized directories. The term of art was “drill down.” We’d start at the broadest level and with each click “drill down” deeper and deeper into more specialized categories. But we weren’t really drilling down. We were drilling sideways and backwards, up and down, driven by those unexpected outcomes and delighted by them. Think of it as guided curiosity.
Now we search. It’s directed. Not only do we search, but we each get personalized answers to our queries based on our previous searching habits. We get “search results” that are cooked just for us based on our search history. Personalization is everywhere – Netflix, Amazon, Google, ad servers. Our social networks are personalized too, filled with people who think just like we do, and offer an echo chamber of links that ricochet around our networks. And each of our “likes,” “RTs” and “checkins” simply serve to reinforce our borders. Eli Pariser calls it “The Filter Bubble”, the idea that personalization by algorithm and cloistered social networks are fencing us in.
The promise of the Internet is still its ability to connect, whether it be people to people or people to ideas. “The Filter Bubble” warns that we risk only connecting to the people and ideas that we already like. We say it’s not too late. The personalization algorithms are just responding to our own actions. So let’s get out of our bubbles. Visit bloggers with whom you do not agree; expand your network to include some dissonant views. “Like” something unexpected; follow someone unfamiliar. Do not simply accept search results; browse the Internet.
After all, the ingredients for growth are not usually found within our familiar borders. There is little to be learned from reinforcing what we already believe. Rather, growth comes from testing our beliefs against new ideas. Often, growth is found where we least expect it. Seek out serendipity.
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Team DIGO | 06/09/2011 | in
YOU: …wouldn’t be comfortable in any box on an org chart, because you’re too big to be boxed in. You’re ready for
a be-more / do-more / accomplish-more opportunity.
WE: … put people on teams, never in boxes. While we can be considered a thriving independent strategy / research / brand / design / innovation / advertising / direct / digital / social marketing agency, we prefer the handle: brand-driven growth network. We make things grow, from product innovation to every facet of promotion, and are looking for seasoned, multi-talented, Account Supervisors ready to show how they can help make us, and our clients, grow.
YOU have:
- At least 3 years of advertising, or related marketing, experience
- Strong analytical abilities, both quantitative and qualitative
- Excellent oral, written and interpersonal (including management) skills
- Digital and direct experience a plus
- Keen ability to monitor, evaluate and impact the quality of a client’s work within all agency functions
- Inspired by ideas and what it takes to grow great brands
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Team DIGO | 05/26/2011 | in
We are looking to extend our network of Flash Developers, Web Designers and Web Developers to help us make the Internet a better, more beautiful place.
We’ve got a lot of work to do and need an army of creative contractors to help us out. Join our network of interactive talent.
Flash Developers
- resizes based on existing banner ads
- turn static concepts into engaging animations and interactive experiences
- solid knowledge of Flash, Photoshop and AS2/AS3 programming
- knowledge of best practices and ways to keep file size down
- experience with rich media applications, or additional web development is a plus
- please provide examples of banners you have animated
Web Designers
- engaging front end development for dynamic, interactive websites, microsites, apps and content management systems
- create and flesh out wireframes and design user interface
- extensive knowledge of Dreamweaver, Flash and PhotoShop
- familiarity with HTML, CSS, JavaScript
- please include links to websites you have designed
Web Developers
- manage website development team of designers and external programmers from conceptualizing and creating graphic and user interface solutions to implementation of back end development/coding.
- develop projects plans, schedules and SOWs, prepare estimates and manage costs throughout project
- proven understanding of User Experience and Information Architecture
- responsible for QA testing across system and browser platforms throughout development.
- excellent communication and client facing skills and maintaining a positive and solution-oriented attitude at all times.
- Technical Skill Requirements: working knowledge of PHP, MySQL, HTML/CSS, XML, JavaScript, experience with WordPress.
Send resumes, urls, apps or any other way we can get a feel for your work to careers@digobrands.com
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Team DIGO | 05/24/2011 | in
This Father’s Day, we’re looking for an artist who can give the song that made a million dads cry a refresh for the Facebook generation. Are you talented enough to do the job? Visit Offlining.com to enter the contest and find out.
The winning songwriter will get an aggressive P.R. push from one of NYC’s premier public relations agencies. We’ll get your music heard by all the right people (labels, press, blogs, etc). It’s a great way to make connections and get your career going. And maybe even make a difference while you’re at it.
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Team DIGO | 05/23/2011 | in
We never owned one of these. While CEO Joseph Park was kind enough to offer us shares of Kozmo, now worthless, back then we said, “we’re still figuring out how to make our clients successful, and we don’t have time to figure out how to be successful investors at the same time.” So, we value invested the first internet boom. We decided that the value we’d get out of it would be opportunity, experience and learning. We didn’t trouble ourselves about “upsides” we might be missing. Living well is the best revenge, we thought, and we were living well.
Now that talk of a new digital boom (or bubble) is in the air, and the line at our door is once again lengthening, it’s interesting to note how we at DIGO played the first dot com boom and what we learned in the process. If the story of Kozmo.com tells us anything, it’s that boom time decisions can kill otherwise prescient and viable growth businesses. When people manage toward the changing whims of investors, fundamental business values can suffer, and sometimes the wounds are mortal. It’s hard-won wisdom that our clients — today often our partners and fellow shareholders — can rely on. No extra charge.
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Team DIGO | 05/21/2011 | in
Nothing good ever seems to happen without a deadline. So we at DIGO, who build brands and businesses, are grateful to the crackpots out there who periodically predict the end of the world. This way, we get all the benefits of the deadline of deadlines, without having to take the inevitable hit to our brand credibility when it once again turns out that Annie was the better prognosticator, and the sun comes out tomorrow. We well know that there is something in the human heart that does seem to quicken at the thought of a good apocalypse. Of all brands, the U.S. Govenment has mined this insight masterfully and has achieved extreme viral and social marketing success with their new Zombie Invasion Preparedness campaign. The parties. The memes. The jokes. The videos. The tweets. As a marketer and creative person, you can’t not be inspired by the global creativity that arises out of what in the Dark Ages would have just been some pretty bad news. So we thank the misguided zealots who stepped forward and took the extreme brand hit in order to set the deadline. Heck, it even got me to deliver this post!
