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Team DIGO | 10/13/2014 | in
If you want to learn how to build a juggernaut of a brand through inspiring action, you could do a lot worse than to learn from the example of the late Don Roth, founder and proprietor of the sadly also late Don’s Drive In at the border of Livingston and Short Hills, New Jersey.
My grandmother lived for many years just a couple of blocks from Don’s, so I had the delicious experience of imbibing the phenomenon from a very impressionable age.
Some will say Don’s was just a restaurant. Hah! Don’s was a mega-brand in the area. Though Don and his namesake have been gone for years, so great is the demand for his food that several other food services in the area claim to sell “Don’s” burgers and other items.
I could tell you more, but you’ll learn so much from this article about the heart, soul, and work-ethic of a true brand-building genius. Enjoy!
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Team DIGO | 09/30/2014 | in
Think of your social marketing strategy as one of mixers and mines.
Mixers, as in parties. You wouldn’t walk into a cocktail party, and immediately start selling your product or service, would you?
Imagine this in real life – this is clearly a strategy with diminishing returns. Why? Because you would get invited to fewer and fewer parties, right?
So, what do you do at a mixer? You get interested in people. You make some small talk, sure. You’re entertaining or interesting, up to a point. But mostly, you’re social.
You:
1) Get interested in other people, and share their interests.
2) Help others get heard, connected, and social.
3) Meet the people you want to meet, and let them get familiar with you.
Note that none of this looks or feels like selling, but of course one major reason we participate in the social networks is to sell – we just don’t act like the bore spouting product benefits over cocktails.
When you connect with people around genuine interest in their genuine interests, most of them will become interested in you. That’s where the mines come in. (more…)
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Team DIGO | 09/11/2014 | in
By Chris Hansen, Sr. Copywriter at DiMassimo Goldstein
Earlier this week, I was asked to write a blog post describing my proudest moment while under the employ of DiMassimo Goldstein.
I couldn’t do it.
That’s not to say that I haven’t had my fair share of achievements and attaboys. Far from it. I’ve helped win new business pitches, created award-winning campaigns, swayed clients into buying great work, and all the other stuff that’s so frequently celebrated and glamorized in this business.
Who cares?
Seriously. Who gives a damn?
The way I look at it, as soon as you point to a singular moment as your crowning achievement, complacency starts to set in. You surrender to your own ego. You accept where the bar has been set and unwittingly say, “This is the best I can do.”
I’m not ready to settle so quickly.
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Team DIGO | 09/03/2014 | in
Spoiler Alert — We Win!
Many have asked to see this episode of the AMC docu-reality series, The Pitch, featuring DiMassimo Goldstein competing with an all-woman agency for a female-targeted brand, C Wonder.
Here you go:
http://vimeo.com/43933475
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Team DIGO | 09/02/2014 | in
This is the era of the spicy brand. It wasn’t always this way.
Marketing in America used to be a competition of blandnesses. A rust to the white bread bottom of the enormous American pyramid. Wonder bread. Hellman’s Mayonnaise. Campbell’s Tomato Soup. Hamburgers. American Cheese.
Then, the goal was to be the lead brand, the big, boring category leader. The Morton’s of Salt.
And not just in food. In everything. American’s wanted the real thing, and the real thing was generally bland and acceptable to the most people.
They wanted Ivory, Ford, General Motors.
To be exotic was the danger. To be niche was to be invisible. But, today spice is what it’s all about.
Today, the spicy brand is everything.
The spicy airline: Virgin America
Spicy razors: Dollar Shave Club
Spicy Grocery Store: FreshDirect
Spicy Shoe Story: Zappos
Spicy Rental Car: ZipCar
Spicy Cab: Uber
Spicy Fast Food: Chipotle
Of course, with the non-food brands, the spice is in their actions. They are strong, piquant and sometimes a little bit risqué, never bland.
I look at the above list, and I see some incredibly spicy brands, and I see some others that can be taken down by spicier competition.
Let’s do it.
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Team DIGO | 08/28/2014 | in
Paul Alberta
Alisa Shine, Research Associate at DiMassimo Goldstein
Once upon a time but not too long ago, I received my masters in clinical psychology and was subsequently hired as a biomedical informatics research associate right after. ‘Biomedical what?’ I thought at first, and which countless people have asked me as well. So I learned about the interdisciplinary world of biomedical informatics, and it was…meh. Just meh. I soon became dissatisfied with academics overall, and so I left, unsure about what to do next career-wise.
So I tried being a lay-about, then a club promoter, and then a growth analyst at a startup. Nothing seemed to be working out. I felt rather dejected, but what I think was really happening was I just didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up, and NYC prices told me I better grow up fast.
A friend of mine working at an ad agency called DiMassimo Goldstein suggested I intern under him thinking I would be a good fit for some research work. I thought, ‘Why not? I’ll have no idea what I’m doing but I’ll learn.”
…and learn I did. I’m still learning new things everyday here. However, now, I feel like I’m some big shot digital strategist instead of just a research associate. I am the master of Twitter and mother of finding the latest ad tech, and that’s definitely a step above being a lay-about. More importantly, I feel part of something larger and more harmonious, which was missing from my previous experiences. At DiMassimo Goldstein, the only time I’m truly dissatisfied is when I’m looking for more work to accomplish.
Since working here, I’ve been able to clear my head of lackluster academics and insecurities about what to do next on my career path. Finally, I feel like a grownup, and that I know what I want to do in life (for which my rent and bills thanks me). Now I just reflect: ‘Biomedical what?’
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Team DIGO | 08/21/2014 | in
Rebecca Weiser, Associate Media Director
That’s how long it’s been since I’ve updated my resume.
Two and a half years and three positions ago, I was nervously sitting in the hot seat across from Adam Lutz, Lee Goldstein, and Mark DiMassimo, discussing my future as a member of the Proove Accountable Media team. More specifically, I was anxiously maneuvering the delicate yet obligatory balancing act of all interviews: simultaneously convincing the higher-ups to hire me, while searching them for reasons to leave my big agency world – with its big, sexy clients – and become the fifth employee of DIGO’s startup media shop, Proove.
In my naivety, at the time I was convinced that small agency = limited potential. However, speaking with that power-trio about the growth, strategy, opportunities, and leadership I would be given at Proove opened my eyes to the much fuller, more vibrant picture of what exactly I was considering. What I didn’t realize at the time was that small agencies, especially startups, are the dictionary definition of “opportunity.” That most big agencies have come to operate like Eli Whitney’s cotton gin – each employee is an interchangeable part, a cog in the grand wheel of what keeps businesses afloat and profitable. At a small agency, though, each employee holds so much more importance and weight, and as a result, is valued much, much more highly.
Joining Proove in its infancy meant being able to help build a business from the ground up. It meant to establish infrastructure and process… to actually implement my ideas to revolutionize both the way we do business and how we interact with our clients – without running into any red tape. It meant being directly responsible for the growth of our existing accounts, the quadrupling our team, and the acquisition of new business.
Nothing can compare to the genuine high I feel when I get to promote my employees, when my clients personally thank me for the hard work I’ve done in expanding their bottom line, when I set the process and lay the structural groundwork for how this agency will run for years to come … all experiences afforded to me only because I joined Proove. The only way I can hope to describe this feeling is by pointing to my resume, untouched and still intact from that fateful day in the hot seat.
Two and half years and three positions later – I can confidently declare that I am PROUD to call this place my home…. I’m not going anywhere.
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Team DIGO | 08/14/2014 | in
Sarah Block, Director of Public Relations at DiMassimo Goldstein
When I started as head of public relations at DiMassimo Goldstein just five short months ago, my first order of business was to map out a plan to help elevate the agency’s profile. At the top of my list, amid scheduling reporter meetings, mapping out speaking engagements and planning agency announcements, was a submission to Advertising Age’s upcoming Small Agency Award.
DiMassimo Goldstein had never submitted for this award, considered one of the preeminent awards for small agencies in the advertising industry, and I knew this was the type of recognition we needed. Throughout my career, I had helped other agencies take home this industry distinction and knew the potential positive impact it could have on our business.
But I’d only ever submitted my clients for these awards. I’d never submitted one for an agency for which I’d worked. This added a whole new level of pressure… and potential reward. When I learned that we’d been selected as a finalist, ensuring a silver or gold recognition, I was overwhelmed with pride. Gold or Silver!? A Small Agency of the Year!? What?
http://adage.com/article/special-report-small-agency-conference-and-awards/small-agency-northeast-gold-dimassimo-goldstein/294263/
We wouldn’t know exactly what we’d won until the night of the award ceremony, so for the next few weeks, I basked in the glory of the win, whatever it was, and began to make arrangements to send someone to represent the agency at the award ceremony in Austin. Naturally I suggested that either Mark DiMassimo or Lee Goldstein attend, but scheduling conflicts and client priorities prevented either from traveling. So I valiantly volunteered myself to forfeit two days in the office to head to Austin. Hard life, I know.
Would I need to give remarks upon accepting? I had no idea! Would I be photographed with the award? Unsure! Like any New Yorker with her priorities straight, I sprang into action, mentally laying out my acceptance outfit and thinking about what I might say if given the chance. This may be the closest I’ll ever come to winning an Oscar, people! Outfits must be planned and words must be prepared!
Although I traveled to Austin solo, the rest of my team was there with me in spirit, texting and emailing me throughout the evening, requesting updates. “Have you heard yet? How’s it going? What did we win?”
Gold, Northeast Region!!!
Of all the small advertising agencies in the Northeast, a region with highest density of deserving advertising agencies, DiMassimo Goldstein, my new family, was selected as the best. And I was the person chosen to accept on their behalf. A proud moment indeed. Certainly the proudest moment of my tenure at DiMassimo Goldstein, and likely the proudest moment of my career.
The ceremony itself was quick. No time for remarks (phew, I was a little nervous about that anyway!), but I was asked to snap a picture with the managing editor of the publication after I’d accepted our recognition (my outfit shined!).
I was beyond thrilled to share the good news with my colleagues holding down the fort at home, and quickly shot off a few texts before embarking on the rest of the night’s festivities – with the award in tow of course. Like I said, this was my Oscar moment, and I wasn’t going to hide it!
But then the unthinkable happened. Not even a half hour after laying my sweaty palms on the crystal statue, I chipped it! And then I cut myself on the chipped crystal! Oh. My. God. How would I tell Mark and Lee that I broke the award they’d sent me to retrieve?
In the end they were good sports about it, since the recognition is what really matters anyway. And, I’m sure it didn’t hurt that, by the time I got back to New York, I’d already arranged for a new statue to be delivered.
I’m beyond proud to be part of such a talented team that gives me the freedom to do great work on their behalf. And I’m even more proud that that work is achieving tangible results for the agency. But mostly, I’m proud of myself, for finding a renewed sense of inspiration for my industry. Thanks, DiMassimo Goldstein.
