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Team DIGO | 03/29/2011 | in
Offlining is becoming a growing trend — online. It was a topic of discussion at the recent tech conference SXSW, where Mark DiMassimo exhorted the crowd to step away from their smart phones. DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum are offlining pioneers, having launched Offlininginc.com, a site that encourages visitors to make an “offlining pledge.”
An article this month in U.K.-based magazine Prospect takes a closer look at the phenomenon.
“We have (at SXSW) incredibly smart people, very capable people, very motivated people – and what are we working on? What are we obsessed with? We’re obsessed with engagement, stickiness, gamification, making sure that we’re attracting people to our worlds, engaging them. We are working very very hard at making sure that when people start to interact with whatever it is that we want them to interact with, that they go as deep as they can, stay as long as they can, they come back as much as they can. So there’s this incredible creative energy focused on the “on” button. Where is the business model in the off button? Where is the business model in helping people find some balance?” – Mark DiMassimo, speaking at SXSW.
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Team DIGO | 03/12/2011 | in
– 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 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.
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Team DIGO | 03/11/2011 | in
Mark DiMassimo, C.E.O. of DIGO Brands, participated in a panel discussion at the SXSW Interactive Festival this week, entitled, “Tweeting On Weekends: Are We Becoming Socially Anti-Social?” Mark was there to discuss the insights and inspirations that led him to co-found the Offlining movement in 2010. Check out these beautiful visual notes taken during the forum by illustrator Sunni Brown.
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Team DIGO | 03/11/2011 | in
Nation’s top respiratory hospital launches the second “We Never Say Never” television ad.
National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado, named by U.S. News & World Report as the #1 respiratory hospital in the U.S., has released “Camping”, the second television ad in the “We Never Say Never” campaign launched earlier this year. This spot follows last month’s release of “Basketball”, the first television ad in the campaign aimed at growing the hospital’s national profile and expanding its reach.
The new 30-second ad follows a patient as she literally pushes the word “NEVER” aside, overcoming her breathing condition to go camping with her grandchildren. Like the first “Basketball” ad, this ad features the institution’s motto, “We never say never.”
“‘We never say never’ is the reason so many things that were once impossible are now routine, and it’s the reason that the intractable, the untreatable, the incurable and the unmanageable are routinely turned around at this leading academic medical center,” says Mark DiMassimo, DIGO CEO and Chief Creative Officer.
The 111-year-old institution is known worldwide for treatment of the most challenging patients and for groundbreaking medical research. Its renowned faculty integrate the latest scientific discoveries with a team approach to deliver unsurpassed medical care. Michael Salem, M.D., President and CEO of National Jewish Health, says, “When I heard the line ‘We never say never,’ I realized instantly that these four words describe what differentiates National Jewish Health. Patients hear a lot of ‘never’ out there. At National Jewish Health, we are committed to finding solutions where others have not. It’s enormously satisfying to know that we’re giving patients hope and life. National Jewish Health assigned the account to DIGO in July 2010 after a nationwide search. The current campaign encompasses television, radio, digital, newspaper, magazines and out of home. Media will run nationally.
“We have always been a national institution,” adds Salem. “Patients from around the country with respiratory, cardiovascular, immune and related diseases have come to Denver and National Jewish Health for 111 years.”National Jewish Health is known worldwide for treatment of patients with respiratory, cardiac, immune and related disorders, and for groundbreaking medical research.
Founded in 1899 as a nonprofit hospital, National Jewish Health remains the only facility in the world dedicated exclusively to these disorders. Since 1998, U.S. News & World Report has ranked National Jewish Health the #1 pulmonology hospital in the nation. DIGO Brands, founded in 1996 by Mark DiMassimo, is a brand-driven growth network. Our companies work together seamlessly to help ambitious organizations grow.
DIGO Brands have partnered with visionary leaders on many of the extraordinary growth successes of the past two decades. These include Comcast, Crunch Fitness, JetBlue, National Jewish Health, Island, ESPN, HBO, thinkorswim, Citi, Gateway, McKinsey, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
DIGO Brands includes DiMassimo Goldstein, a leading full-service brand, advertising, direct and digital agency; Proove Accountable Media; DIGO/Ericho public relations and social marketing, brand-driven content, entertainment and digital products; and the Tappening and Offlining movements.
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Team DIGO | 02/27/2011 | in
Growth. Let’s begin with the end, with the goal: 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.
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 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…
Brand. 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…
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Team DIGO | 02/27/2011 | in
In this world of screens, one might be tempted to put on a blindfold from time to time… but that can lead to bad trips. Instead, DIGO has devised new technology for agency initiative OFFLINING. New OFFcovers give your Attention Deficit Disorder a rest, and given as gifts, they send a wry hint to your screen-compulsed loved one. Coming soon for sale to the Offlining.com site, you’re reading about them here first. OFFLINING was founded by Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum in order to you gently nudge yourself occasionally away from the screen. To read more visit www.OffliningInc.com.
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Team DIGO | 02/11/2011 | in
Amanda Ingram feels the force. It’s her smart phone beckoning with messages. The only way she can keep in touch with her friends is through Facebook, she explains.“I don’t think it’s affecting my marriage … yet … but there are times that I feel like I have to check my texts when someone sends one,” she wrote, you know, in an e-mail. With society falling further under the spell of iPads, BlackBerries and other digital devices, two New York guys have decided it’s time to put them down and back away a little, if only for your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day. Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo, who have made a career of using digital devices, are urging people to go “Offlining,” pledging to release their grip on their phones and other digital devices for 10 dinners. To read more click here.
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Team DIGO | 02/10/2011 | in
by Ronit Herzfeld
The Huffington Post
February 10th, 2011
Last week my friend “Julie” and I finally went out to dinner. I had not seen her for a couple of months and we were particularly excited to have a chance to spend some quality time together. No sooner did we sit down at our table than out came her Blackberry. I felt a twinge in my chest, but held my tongue. A few minutes later, I was sharing some exciting news with her and heard that irritating text sound go off. She immediately reached out to check the message and began to respond. I suddenly felt invisible; it was as if I didn’t exist. When she finished, I asked her if there was an emergency or something critical that she needed to attend to. She said yes but gave me no further details. A few minutes later her text went off and she responded again. At that point I requested that — unless there was a life or death issue, I’d appreciate it if she turned her phone off. I could see how hard it was for her to let it go. It was clear to me that there was no emergency, and that my otherwise very sensitive and caring friend was at the mercy of this little gadget. We are all aware of how helpful, expedient and efficient our various technological devices can be. But what is not so clear is how they may be affecting our minds, our attitudes, and our relationships.
To read the full article click here.
