Revisiting “Principles of Improv”
About a year ago, I wrote a blog on the principles of improv and how they fit into my professional life. Revisiting this blog for our September “Improvise” month, it’s amazing how much these ideas still ring true. So much of what makes a strong account manager is how well [...]
Cage Match: Pie vs. Cake
Presenting the second in our Cage Match series. An occasional video posting of various d.trio team members squaring off about the little things we find to argue over. This time around Jordan and Tina bicker about dessert. We hope you are entertained and if you'd like to give us your [...]
Brand Reinvention
Reinventing a brand is a delicate science. It requires careful consideration of current brand perceptions along brand aspirations for the future. The most successful rebrands are rooted in truth (e.g., “are audiences perceptions in step with how we are positioning ourselves?”) In order to get to that truth, you must [...]
Humble Minnesota?
The great city of Minneapolis has received a great deal of kudos recently from various semi-useless, semi-pride-inducing rankings. Being a non-native Minnesotan, I’ve taken it upon myself to celebrate all the props my new home has received. Here are a few examples: We’re in Shape For the third year [...]
Social Media: Brands Celebrate Newsworthy Events
With social media’s ever-growing influence over the past decade, brands have been able to more quickly align themselves to major news events or human accomplishments than possible in the past. Using social channels and digital advertising, brands can reach the masses almost immediately after a relevant news story breaks. For [...]
What does your social media activity reveal about you?
We engage our friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues, and random strangers on a daily basis. With the merger of social media into our day-to-day lives, marketers now have vast amounts of data to determine the influence of individuals. What does all that interaction say about you? Klout measures all your activity [...]
Product placement – outrageous or not?
Overall, do product placements in media add or subtract from the experience? Product placements promote the brands willing to pay for the screen time and also create a more “realistic” cinematic experience. We’re bombarded with messaging in our normal lives; it’s logical that movie and television characters would also be [...]
Outrageous Marketing That Paid Off
Sometimes, marketing campaigns break the rules and go against conventional knowledge in order to make a point or build awareness. Since this month’s theme is all about “outrageous ideas”, what better way to celebrate that theme by talking about risky marketing tactics that paid off? Doritos Crowdsources It’s Advertising Back [...]
What’s Make a Campaign Fresh?
We’ve all heard the adage “there are no new ideas; there are only new ways of making them felt.” Whether it’s true or not, we all face the daily challenge of finding unique and compelling ways of getting our message, and our clients’ message, noticed. What makes an idea or [...]
Campaigns I Loved 2012
Thinking back to 2012, I really loved the following ad campaigns for being smart, insightful, and fun to experience. What campaigns did you love from last year? Red Bull: Stratos What they did: Red Bull sponsored a mission to push the boundaries of human potential by breaking the record [...]