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Team DIGO | 06/02/2016 | in
Last week, we attended the New York Festivals – World’s Best Advertising creative sessions and awards show. Going in, we didn’t know what to expect. Throughout the day, we listened in on four panel discussions and saw an inspiring award show in the evening. By the end of the night, we felt extremely motivated to create work that will positively impact and change the world.
The 4 panels:
Content Disruption with Beth Collins Ellard (AdCouncil), Maya Draisin (WIRED), David Angelo (David & Goliath), and Jennifer Bremner (Unilever)
Is Content Marketing the Only Marketing Left? with Andrew Hanelly (Manifest), Duncan Milne (Imprint), Jacquie Loch (St. Joseph Communications Media Group), and Rachel Jo Silver (Love Stories TV)
Pushing Buttons – and Cultural Boundaries with John Mescall (McCann), Gary Osifchin (Mondelez International), Josy Paul (BBDO India), and Jenna Young (Weber Shandwick)
Beyond Your Portfolio with Raj Ramamurthy (Ogilvy), Jessica Shriftman (Weiden & Kennedy), and Nick Smatt (BBDO)
What We We Learned:
1. Know Yourself: In the first panel, Jennifer Bremner, brand director for Dove Beauty, said “If you know what you stand for, it’s easier to take risks.” If you don’t know who you are, you can’t create anything with real confidence. It’s okay to make mistakes along the way, but strive to always be an authentic brand, agency, or individual.
2. Matching Values: “When an agency and a client understand their core values, and share in these values, genius and magic happen.” – David Angelo, founder of David & Goliath. Agencies and clients who are driven by the same purpose will naturally create awesome work together. If values do not match, relationships will inevitably suffer.
3. The Moment: Not every moment is the right moment. Put your idea out into the world when it makes sense, and has the potential to inspire change. Jessica Shriftman, art director at Wieden & Kennedy, waited for the perfect opportunity to share her creative idea for Father’s Day with the right client at the right time. And Delta thanked her for it. You can watch the finished product HERE.
4. Smart Decisions: Jacquie Loch, vice president of content solutions at St. Joseph Communications Media Group, said, “Don’t feel the need to cover every social channel. Find the ones that work for your brand identity and own them.” Rachel Jo Silver, founder of Love Stories TV, also stressed the importance of brands keying in on social media that fits with who they are and reaches their audience: “Think small when selling on big social media.”
5. Channel Emotion: “Goosebumps good” – David Angelo. Content that stirs an emotion you can’t put into words, but can feel, indicates greatness. Underheard in New York, made by Jessica Shriftman and team, is a perfect example of creating lasting emotions and all the feels.
6. The 70/20/10 Rule: This applies to the usage of advertising budgets. Spend 70% on traditional advertising, 20% on nontraditional advertising, and 10% on experimental advertising. This allows for growth while maintaining stability. The 10% may not work out all the time, but when it does it will certainly pay off. And if an agency believes enough in a new idea, it shouldn’t be afraid to financially pitch in to bring that idea to life.
7. Don’t Be Afraid: “At the core, there is a force of courage in all of us and shame/guilt/fear suppresses it.” – David Angelo. Don’t simply look at numbers. If 20% of people hate your campaign and 20% love it, remember that positive reception almost always outshines negative reception. “Without hate, there’s no love.” – Gary Osifchin, VP, Global Brands and Communication, Biscuits Global Category Team, Mondelez International
8. Live Your Truth: It takes bravery and effort to live your truth. “Staying true to yourself will inevitably alienate people. This creates room for the people that support you for being you.” – Gary Osifchin. See how Gary and his team helped Honey Maid live its truth HERE.
More Inspiring Work We Saw
Touch the Pickle: watch HERE
McWhopper: watch HERE
Love Has No Labels: watch HERE
Today I’m Brave: watch HERE
Winners from the 2016 NYFA awards show HERE
Being in the presence of these great marketing minds reinvigorated our purpose as creatives. We aren’t here just for the sake of making print ads and TV commercials. We are here to change society and impact the world for the better. We are here to inspire action.
– Erica Grau (Art Director), Dan Hickey (Junior Copywriter)
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Team DIGO | 05/26/2016 | in
We proactively work on relationship building. What are you doing this week to strengthen a client relationship?
At DiMassimo Goldstein, we put our values in a document we call “The DIGO Standard.” It doesn’t just hang on the walls and sit on our desks and desktops. We use it every day. People who visit often ask for a copy. Here’s yours, and you didn’t even have to ask.
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Team DIGO | 05/25/2016 | in
Thousands of New Yorkers will escape the city to be liberated by the beach this weekend. We would join them, you know, if we didn’t already have a beach in our 23rd street office.
You heard that right. DiMassimo Goldstein is the only agency in the world with its own beach.
When we said a couple of months ago that we would build a beach in our office, we really meant it. But everyone knows that saying something and actually doing something are two very different things. We’re an agency full of doers. It’s what we’re all about, taking an inspiring idea and putting it into action.
Check out the video below to see how we brought the beach to our Gramercy Park office.
Behind The Scenes #digobeach from DiMassimo Goldstein on Vimeo.
Whether it’s for a nice lunch, a meeting, or just pure relaxation, the DiGo Beach is officially open for the summer. It’s the perfect environment to nurture creativity; a seaside oasis that encourages free-flowing thought. We wanted to build a paradise where ideas could come to life, and we couldn’t be happier with the result.
To read the official Press Release just click HERE.
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Team DIGO | 05/13/2016 | in
Make no commitment without consultation. Give clients something they didn’t ask for. Sometimes, deliver ahead of deadline. End a meeting early and give your colleagues, vendors or clients the gift of time.
At DiMassimo Goldstein, we put our values in a document we call “The DIGO Standard.” It doesn’t just hang on the walls and sit on our desks and desktops. We use it every day. People who visit often ask for a copy. Here’s yours, and you didn’t even have to ask.
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Team DIGO | 05/13/2016 | in
The following post is an excerpt from Digital@Speed, authored by digital marketing guru Mark DiMassimo. Visit the official website here to download your free copy today.
Great brands are like great individuals. Authentic. Idiosyncratic. Unique.
But most brands, like most people, fall into bad habits. And the bad habits cost them dearly. To help you avoid them, here are the Seven Habits of Highly Affected people.
1) Trying to be cool. The coolest clients never brief in “cool”. They focus on relevance.
2) Falling into The Aspiration Trap. Usually, you’re not the target audience. Neither is your Hamptons-dwelling agency head. Remember: it’s about the target’s aspirations, not yours.
3) Briefing from the Trend Report. Great brands create trends.
4) Management Fads. Quality is not job one! Professional management has buckets of specialized concepts. They don’t belong in great advertising, even to professional managers.
5) Believing: “You don’t get it because you’re not the target.” Your job is to get it or you shouldn’t be signing off. Period.
6) Wishful Thinking. Advertising can be a tool for leadership. More often it is a reflection of corporate denial. Advertise the target’s wish, not the company’s.
7) Mistake execution for ideas. It’s easy to fall in love with something beautiful, novel, funny, poetic, witty, or profound. Do fall in love. But first make sure there’s a powerful, convincing idea in the middle of all the artistry. If you’re in the right sort of place, your job depends on it.
Most brands have fallen into one or more of these habits. That’s why great brand change agents will always be busy.
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Team DIGO | 05/05/2016 | in
Today is DiMassimo Goldstein’s 20th anniversary, and we’d like to make one thing very clear:
We are 20 years young…not 20 years old.
Why?
Because as an agency, we must always focus on the future. Before we can ever develop an inspiring idea, we first have to identify the alternative future we exist to prevent. It’s our job to build brands. We come to work each day and work collaboratively to help our clients become the leading brands of 2020, and once they get there, we’ll be focused on 2025. Simply put, we’re obsessed with growth, and it’s hard to grow if you’re busy reflecting on the accomplishments of the past.
Besides, we’re youthful in spirit. Our mission, our drive, and our passion for our clients have not grown tired. We’re just as enthusiastic as we were on day one, and that will never change.
Still, we’d be remiss if we failed to acknowledge this day and this milestone. Not because of us, but because of you.
It wouldn’t be possible to be where we are today if it weren’t for the help of so many others along the way. This is our 20th year of saying thank you. Thank you to our incredible clients, both past and present. Thank you to our team members, both past and present, for making each day so exciting. Thank you to the countless others who have joined us on this incredible journey.
It’s been an unbelievable 20 years. Let’s make the next 20 even better.
–The DiMassimo Goldstein Team
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Team DIGO | 05/05/2016 | in
For twenty years, we’ve been happily helping the innovators of the direct economy take business from the old school intermediaries.
For twenty years, we’ve worked side by side with visionaries helping to create the new direct and platform economy you see all around you.
And, for twenty years, if you weren’t one of our clients, other than our creative work, you probably had no idea what we did.
So, for our 20th Anniversary, if you’ve been one of those clients, we thank you. And, if not, we will tell you:
1) We help the client escape the false choice between selling and brand building.
2) We knock down walls to make results the center of the conversation.
3) We deliver more than enough great creative to test and optimize the great strategic thinking we and our clients have.
4) We bring an uncommon clarity to strategic thinking and our inspiring ideas, which shows in our work.
5) We never settle for the better of a few good ideas – we don’t rest until we get to great.
6) We give the client the power to answer back to sub-optimizing stupidity like mixed-up measurement and last-click laziness.
7) We free the client from the results-killing theft of non-transparent media. (Check out this blog post to learn how)
8) We help the client discover the idea that will organize and change everything.
9) We mine that idea to speed growth by up to 10x and more.
10) We use the ten strategies of an inspiring action brand to do all of the above.
This is why we’re on Inc.’s list of the fastest-growing private companies in America year after year. This is why we’ve stayed happily independent, growing with our clients, focused only on building our clients’ brands and businesses. And this is why the next twenty years are going to be even better than the first.
Thanks for being an inspiring part of our world.
-Mark DiMassimo, Chief
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Team DIGO | 05/02/2016 | in
An excerpt from the Inspiring Action Manifesto
We will not avoid the boss. We will not seek to set up our own fiefdom inside of the boss’s kingdom.
We will use the boss. If we have a founder still in charge, we will recognize that we are rich. Rich in clarity of vision. Rich is simplicity of organization.
If we but love the vision, everything else is available to us.
Have better ideas in support of that vision. Hatch better plans to realize the vision. Execute with great positive effect on that vision.
And you win.
You have something 99% of workers don’t have. Something priceless. You know who decides. You know where the buck stops.
If we report to the CEO, COO, CMO or similarly senior team member, we will consider this person as potentially the most powerful member of our team.
We will never fail to use this power when we can. We will pull this person in. We will choose radical collaboration rather than cautious avoidance.
Of course, we respect that the boss is busy. We understand that we cannot plunge the boss into a morass if minutia. When the boss declines our invitation, we are gracious and understanding – up to a point.
After that point, we must resell the boss on involvement. There are things only the boss can accomplish, and if those things are crucial to the next level of growth, then they ought to be top priorities. We make it as quick and as direct as it can be, but we pull the boss in to get the obstacle unblocked, the connection made or the problem solved.
We use everything we’ve got to build our brand and business, starting with the boss.
