Blog
POSTED BY Team DIGO | February 8, 2010 6:35 pm | PERMALINK
DIGO CEO, Chief Creative Officer Mark DiMassimo and Client Services
Partner, John Mittnacht hold forth on the good, bad and ugly of
SuperBowl television commercials in today’s Wall Street Journal. Click here to read the story online.
Tags: digobrands, mark dimassimo, superbowl commercials, wall street journal
POSTED BY Mark DiMassimo | February 2, 2010 11:40 am | PERMALINK
Jesse,
Thanks for the intelligent, inquisitive note and the charming pdf.
You have definitely appreciated us for what we try to be, and I thank you for that.
Re: the media predictions, I could go on and on but it doesn’t really matter. We need to be ready to create in more media, to invent media, to reinvent media… we definitely need to be generalists.
Re: hard sell vs. soft sell, I’m in an interesting position in that I started out in direct marketing, which is measured on nothing so much as it’s ability to close the sale. My argument for buzz, viral, bonding, social, brand building or whatever you want to call the “soft sell” or indirect route always comes down to “it makes the selling easier and more efficient” so you end up with more revenue — AND I CAN PROVE IT. (more…)
Tags: art director, digo, mark dimassimo, social media
POSTED BY Team DIGO | February 1, 2010 3:24 pm | PERMALINK
“In the ten years I worked for other agencies…I knew that my goal was to one day found a truly great agency. I considered every job I had continuing education, so I never hesitated to hire people who were older, better and much more highly paid than I was.
The most important question I asked every single one of them was, ‘What was the best place you ever worked?’ I’d follow up with, ‘What made it the best place to work?’ These discussions could go on for hours because I never tired of the subject, and I found that even for the best people, a great work experience is rare—they loved talking about it too.
The common theme was competence. ‘We were just good at what we did.’ That’s the representative quote…”
– Mark DiMassimo, quoted in Leadership Secrets of the World’s Most Successful CEOs by Eric Yaverbaum
Tags: digo, eric yaverbaum, mark dimassimo
POSTED BY Team DIGO | January 28, 2010 3:53 pm | PERMALINK
Wouldn’t it feel good to feel good about what you do at the office?
We think enthusiasm is priceless. When you fake it, you lose it. But when it’s real, you have to protect it. People don’t give you their best just because you happen to own the company they work for. This principle was established long ago. People give you their best because they are absolutely enthused to be part of the team. We don’t believe in a network of the owned. We believe in a network of the enthused. We’re enthused to be working together. We’re enthused about the clients we work with. We’re enthused about the things we’re working on. We’re enthused about the ideas and images that we’re putting out there. We choose to be enthused.
We’re good at what we do. We can be incredibly convincing, deeply influential. We don’t want to convince anyone to do anything bad for themselves or the world. But more than that, we know we’re a force, so we want to be a force for good.
We’re a network of people and organizations that want to feel good, very good, about the things we’re being influential about. (more…)
Tags: digo, mark dimassimo, social
POSTED BY Team DIGO | January 21, 2010 9:46 am | PERMALINK
Strategy is different in a social world because brands grow differently when people rule.
We see the signs all around us. Design becomes more important—increasingly, it’s the key differentiator among brands. PR also rises in importance, while advertising falls. Discovering, channeling, exciting and curating expressions of passion become key disciplines.
At DIGO, strategy is about knowing where we’re going and where everyone else is going, too. It’s about solving the problems of today while building a vision for the future in an emerging marketplace.
We believe that emotion drives behavior, and that design details can minimize or remove barriers to action. We discover and leverage the emotional meaning of a brand, then build this meaning into everything we do. Emotion leveraged to action is DIGO’s hallmark as a master direct and social marketing agency.
DIGO’s strategic services include:
- Brand Invention
- Brand Launch
- Brand Relaunch
- Brand Positioning
- Insight-Driven Product & Service Innovation
- Social Media Audit
- Social Media Kick Start
- Competitive Strategy
- Integrated Marketing & Media Strategy
- Marketing & Business Strategy Alignment
- Metrics for Success
Tags: brands, digo, Services, social, Strategy
POSTED BY Team DIGO | January 20, 2010 10:00 am | PERMALINK
The old style divisions between paid and unpaid media, above and below the line, and seemingly infinite silos all end here. Everything we do is “advertising.” We make businesses and brands grow, and we drive the conversation that drives people to our clients’ worlds. Advertising. We love it.
Tags: advertising, digo, Services, social
POSTED BY Team DIGO | January 18, 2010 10:06 am | PERMALINK
Throughout our 13-year history, and for ages before the word became a cliché, we’ve been noted for our ability to create “buzz,” or extended excitement, presence and word-of-mouth regarding a product or brand. This is the kind of advertising you don’t pay for: it’s based on people’s inherent need to share information because doing so makes them feel validated, inspired and unified.
Certain people naturally function as brand advocates, and our job is to inspire and guide these “influentials.” At DIGO, this responsibility doesn’t fall to one department or specialty—it’s a company-wide mission that will be the goal of everyone on your team.
DIGO’s buzz and social marketing services include:
- Social Marketing Audit
- Social Marketing Kick Start
- Social Media Planning
- Social Media Integration
- Social World Mapping
- Brand Buzz Monitoring
- Metrics & Analytics
- Content Creation
- Multiplatform Technology & Development
Tags: buzz, digo, marketing, Services, social
POSTED BY Team DIGO | January 15, 2010 9:57 am | PERMALINK
To us, direct marketing is the design discipline that is obsessed with stimulating action. Our on-site direct experience goes back decades and includes some of the most successful campaigns in recent direct marketing history.
Two forces drive the marketing successes of the future: the data/technology revolution and the need for brands to serve as the guideposts of meaning in an increasingly complex and segmented world. We stay at the forefront of these trends by serving clients who have the need and the vision to innovate and lead. Our founder is a direct marketer, and the disciplines of direct marketing infuse everything we do. We live and die by results.
We succeed when we deliver results for our clients. With this approach, we believe that every employee at DIGO is part of the direct marketing team, as is every client.
DIGO’s direct services include:
- Testing Strategies
- Direct Media
- Analytics & Reporting
- Integrated Campaigns
- Direct Creative in All Media
Tags: digo, Direct, Services, social, testing
POSTED BY Team DIGO | January 11, 2010 7:12 pm | PERMALINK
Guerrilla Marketing’s Newest Revolution
The Art of Being a Charity Case
Adweek
January 11th 2010
Altruistic guerrilla marketing? Yep, just what the recession ordered.
Even for a discount retailer, it was a tough sell. The American workforce was drowning in an unemployment rate of 10 percent (counting those who were underemployed or only working part-time, it might have been closer to 20 percent). Money was tight, and good jobs were impossible to come by.
Bad time to be in the suit business.
But Syms, the 51-year-old clothing chain that sells sharply discounted designer menswear, had an idea. Last July, instead of trying to ignore the rotten job market, it decided it would help its customers to conquer it. The contest would benefit both the brand and the personal fortunes of the shoppers (or, at least those lucky enough to be selected). Syms decided to give away 30 high-end suits to people who were looking for work. Each winner would also receive a session with a career coach and even the attention of a personal stylist. “Suit Camp,” as it came to be known, was an unusual promotion with an altruistic bent; guerrilla meets humanitarianism.
“There is an altruistic aspect in the sense that Syms is giving away value,” explains Mark DiMassimo, CEO, DiMassimo Goldstein, the agency behind the effort. “But what they’re really doing is bonding. Read more…..
Tags: brandweek, digo, mark dimassimo, social advertising, syms
POSTED BY Team DIGO | January 9, 2010 6:36 pm | PERMALINK
Brandweek
January 9th 2010
Even for a discount retailer, it was a tough sell. The American workforce was drowning in an unemployment rate of 10 percent (counting those who were underemployed or only working part-time, it might have been closer to 20 percent). Money was tight, and good jobs were impossible to come by. Bad time to be in the suit business. But Syms, the 51-year-old clothing chain that sells sharply discounted designer menswear, had an idea. Last July, instead of trying to ignore the rotten job market, it decided it would help its customers to conquer it. The contest would benefit both the brand and the personal fortunes of the shoppers (or, at least those lucky enough to be selected). Syms decided to give away 30 high-end suits to people who were looking for work. Each winner would also receive a session with a career coach and even the attention of a personal stylist. “Suit Camp,” as it came to be known, was an unusual promotion with an altruistic bent; guerrilla meets humanitarianism.
“There is an altruistic aspect in the sense that Syms is giving away value,” explains Mark DiMassimo, CEO, DiMassimo Goldstein, the agency behind the effort. “But what they’re really doing is bonding… Read more
Tags: brandweek, digobrands.com, mark dimassimo, social marketing, syms
