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Team DIGO | 05/07/2014 | in
Chris Erickson, Brand Supervisor
I moved to NYC from Minnesota 3 1/2 years ago on a whim. The only thing I was sure of at the time was that I wanted to work in marketing, and what better place to start than Manhattan? My desperate job hunt landed me at some random social media tech startup with two other people in a shared office space. On day one I received a call on my lunch break from DiMassimo Goldstein offering me an internship, and by 6pm on my first day as a full-time employee EVER I had quit my job to take a chance at a real NY ad agency.
The very next morning I was headed to yet another internship, but this one felt different. This was going to be the one that turns me into a real member of society…the type that has health insurance but can’t afford it. Starting out I did all the glorious and wonderful things that interns get to do, like use the company’s Flip Cam (R.I.P.) to record our Art Director and Designers’…..ping-pong matches.
After a couple months of filming and learning some actual Client Service skills I was hired full-time at an agency that declares themselves as a “Growth Agency Network” for their clients. In just 3 years, 7 desk changes, 1 TV show cameo, 214 late-night Seamless orders, mixed with a little bit of good timing, I’ve found myself in a position that would typically take someone at an “ordinary agency” twice as long to attain. That’s when I started to realize that this place is far from ordinary.
I really have to credit my rapid success to the names on the door and the people inside. It’s a testament to their 18-year-old Growth Agency Network and “Brand. Driven. Growth.” motto which doesn’t just pertain to their clients, but to their team that makes it all happen.
…Now We’re Here!
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Team DIGO | 05/01/2014 | in
Laura Mueller, Jr. Digital Producer at DiMassimo Goldstein
Flash, HTML, CSS, JavaScript. These are just a few of the things that come up in my conversations every day. When I was hired as a Jr. Digital Producer, I had no idea that I had the ability in me to enable some crazy awesome developers to make magic.
With the extraordinary guidance of Cait DeAngelis, I learned, made mistakes, and re-learned. I quickly realized that this job was something you can only learn how to do by actually doing it. The nitty-gritty of it all- you just don’t learn that in ad school.
In my quest to absorb as much knowledge about the digital world as possible, I’ve enabled what I like to call “digital artists” who work with code to create some stellar products. Working closely with and watching these developers turn a layered PSD into a fully functioning website is beyond amazing.
Proudest moment: Sitting bleary-eyed in a coffee shop at 7am, navigating to the website we spent countless hours and sleepless nights on to see it in all it’s glory – LIVE and visible to 2.4 billion people around the globe.
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Team DIGO | 04/30/2014 | in
Brands want their customers to love them—such is the challenge of digital marketing. Yet companies lack the ability to run fingers through their hair or use other seduction techniques traditionally reserved for human interaction.
Haptic Technology adds the sense of touch to the digital experience by supplying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user. This extra dimension of feedback is a trend worth examining cat close range as the new technology becomes more widespread and consumers need more than a clever slogan to feel adored.
You may already know Haptic feedback from the vibrations of video game controllers or your phone. However, the additional ability to deliver very specific experiences to wearable devices will add immersive opportunities to books and magazines. Sensory Fiction, as invented by the MIT Media Lab, is just such a wearable book that uses networked sensors and actuators to mimic the characters’ emotions and physical states through discrete tangible feedback.
Readers perceive the sci-fi tale through programmable glowing LEDs that create ambient light based on the specific page. A personal heating device, secured at the collarbone that changes skin temperature, vibrates to influence heart rate and has a compression system to convey tightness or loosening through pressurized airbags.
““Into the Frame’ on display at Red Gallery in London allows visitors to virtually “hear” and “feel” the painting. The futuristic installation allows viewers (or rather, experiencers) to immerse themselves through touch and sound, extending well past the typical visual art experience.
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It won’t be long before the adult industry catches on to the groundbreaking technology and we start giving each other virtual hugs. More importantly, the high production value of commercials will allow us to experiment with the ability to touch and feel. Soon, we’ll be able to experience the sensation a puppy’s lick in a dog food commercial!
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Team DIGO | 04/24/2014 | in
Many people are falling for hunting with a fishing pole. Let’s say you’ve gotten this far in life with your average fishing skills. But now the waters are all fished out and hunters are bringing home the big dinners. 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 at this point, you recognize the absurdity here. And yet we all do this in some aspects of our lives. It’s so hard to keep track of what we know and impossible to learn the names and categories of all the things we don’t know.
Knowing is just the first step: accepting is another thing entirely. Deciding what to do about it is a third. A fatal flaw could be the inability to judge character and quality in people. This will dog you no matter what you do. You are going to want to address this problem directly as quickly and energetically as you can. Getting the best help is vital; otherwise it is like driving with the emergency break on – it not only slows you down, but it also stinks.
Work as hard as you can to learn what you don’t know. If it’s marketing, find someone you can trust. Of course, you can check with other advisors, but you will want to develop trust and a good relationship with a key individual. Look for proof and measures of success that make sense, and then delegate real responsibility and authority. Create a true partnership and let it flower.
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Team DIGO | 04/23/2014 | in
Jeff Kastin, Business Development Manager at DiMassimo Goldstein
I’ve been with DiMassimo Goldstein for three years now and it all started when Lee Goldstein approached me. How many Presidents do you know that are personally reaching out for you to come into the office for a possible gig? He wanted a new business guy that could “run the machine” and keep a foot on the pedal at all times. After a few interviews and a burger, I was hired. Within the first two weeks we had a new client to add to our roster. We started hot and haven’t cooled off yet! Mark DiMassimo in his own words said, “I don’t even want Kastin to change his underwear.” To be clear — my underwear is clean and the agency is growing everyday!
From being in my own closet office to now working on top of co-workers, seeing new hires monthly, creating new departments and brands, expanding office space — being part of the AGENCY GROWTH is what I’m most proud of. We recently expanded our office and took over the rest of the floor. I’m looking forward to a little breathing room for the time being, but I will make sure that we take over another floor in the near future.
I’m a family man with a beautiful wife and the coolest son ever (shout out to Ryder). DiMassimo Goldstein treats me like family and I’m proud to be part of an agency growth network like them. It’s extremely rewarding to wake up every morning knowing that you can effect so many people in a positive way. It’s not just growing an agency, but growing peoples lives.
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Team DIGO | 04/22/2014 | in
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In the above video, Veritasium explores the growing problem of fraud with Facebook’s paid “likes” advertising platform. We know it’s possible to buy them for pennies on the dollar illegitimately outside the system. But what about those you purchase via Facebook advertising? Even when you target specific audiences, it’s highly likely you’ll wind up with followers from zombie accounts in Third World countries. The last time we checked, these zombies do not engage with your content, and they most certainly do not buy your products.
Where are they coming from? This isn’t an initiative on the part of Facebook to steal your advertising, but rather the result of good intentions–attempts to shut down the shady bulk “like” sales in the first place. Here’s how it works: previously, merchants of bulk “likes” could simply write computer scripts to create millions of zombie accounts that like your page. However, Facebook found it odd that some accounts were only following certain pages in a completely different country; and if they had no other activity, they began to delete these accounts in bulk. Suddenly brands had an unexplained “like crash” about a year ago.
Of course, in this spy vs. spy world, these “like” merchants made adjustments to once again circumvent Facebook’s process. They had to disguise their interactions with customer pages by “liking” as many random pages as possible. This means that when your advertisement is displayed on Facebook, it’s tempting for someone with a fake account to click your ad and disguise their true intent. You not only get charged for a meaningless “like”, but it sticks with you forever. Every time you pay to promote your content to existing fans, you’ll be charged to promote to a person who simply does not exist.
What does all this mean for managers of Facebook pages? Taking a hard look at whether Facebook will continue to be a viable medium for advertisers, it is difficult to swallow the notion that we have to pay Facebook to show content to audiences we have already paid to grow. Now when we pay Facebook to expand our audience, we have to question whether it’s an audience at all.
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Team DIGO | 04/21/2014 | in
On the heels of a busy end to 2013, we decided to avoid getting caught in the clutter of holiday and New Year’s cards and concentrate on a day that has more meaning in our culture. DiGo creates enthusiasm for things, people, services, ideas, organizations and brands; and in order to do this, we first have to find it within ourselves.
What better way than to celebrate Valentine’s Day with clients and prospects? First, we learned that our new client, EverBank, had checked twelve of our references resulting in the testimonial, “all of your clients love you.” (We love them, too.)
We followed this love-fest with what ended up being our most successful email ever to prospective clients–successful, because as opposed to our other brainy and witty efforts, this communication came straight from the heart. Because we love what we do and value our clients, we wanted to honor the day when love is on everyone’s minds. We sent the above beautifully-designed card to our clients and partners with a personal note because, as you know, real relationships require an investment in time, and occasional hand cramps.
More important than gaining qualified leads was sparking new business friendships and mutual admiration from people who share our way of thinking, even if they never become clients. In the end, some of the best business relationships come from mutual inspiration rather than a laser focus on profits.
So whether you’re ready to fall in love with a new agency or simply want to admire us from afar, please don’t hesitate to send some love our way.
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Team DIGO | 04/17/2014 | in
Brittany Harshbarger, Media Planner
When I was interviewed for an account internship just weeks after I graduated college, I didn’t even know that digital media was a “thing.” Yes, I knew digital, and I knew that media encompassed TV, radio, billboards, and all of those other classic media outlets that come to mind. Then I was asked if I would rather intern for the media team because the account interns were a dime a dozen. I took a chance and decided that I was going to learn the art of placing ads online.
It was not easy at first- I had to solve for X, learn which sites day traders use to check stock quotes, and learn so many 3-letter acronyms that I was like, “WTF did I sign up for?” It was a challenge. I quickly decided that I had to either commit to this fully or go do something less brain intensive- like start my own bakery.
I committed to my job as Assistant Media Planner and took every opportunity to learn. My supervisors and Director saw something in me that I hadn’t yet seen. In the wise words of Rebecca Weiser, “you don’t even know what you don’t know.” I commuted to and from Connecticut and had many late nights at the office and long rides home with plenty of time to think. I wasn’t sure if I was cut out for this job, which needed me to think strategically, mathematically, practically, and creatively all at once. I decided that my 2014 resolution was to shed my college girl persona, buckle down and get damn good at this job that I felt lucky to have been given.
Now, 9 months into my time at Proove, I shed my college girl persona as well as the “assistant” in my job title. I could not be more thankful for those late nights. I was lucky enough to be trained in how to take a media plan, traffic ads, pull reports, create dashboards, report to the client, make optimizations to said media plan, and then start planning for the next quarter. The training I received and still receive every day is invaluable.
