RH: Jason, you were the first to start a microagency with DMD Network. Why was important for green consulting to work in the microagency approach?

JW: Starting out as a sustainable consultant I knew I wanted to eventually expand the business into "green" marketing. Beyond just the consulting I wanted to provide clients more value through a range of services like design, public relations and advertising. However, this was a clear chicken and the egg scenario; how can I engage large clients with a limited service offering and alternatively how could I hire a design and PR team without the large clients? For me the opportunity to join the DMD Network provided me with the perfect mix of services while allowing us to be nimble and continue to work on the consulting business.

RH: Do you collaborate with other microagencies in the DMD Network, give us an example.

JW: We are very fortunate to have worked now with basically all the microagencies in the DMD Network. We have worked on very high level identity projects for clients like the Canadian Association of Petroleum Professionals (CAPP) with DMD Insight and business start up programs for smaller valve companies with Pixink which is a member of the DMD Network. Whether it's working on interactive proposals with DMDxd or collaborating on reclamation initiatives with DMD Lab in Los Angeles you never know where or which group the next opportunity might come from. That really has been the beauty of the DMD Network for me, you never know where the next project will take you. With the different microagencies bringing ideas and opportunities to us at DMD Green or our group reaching out to the other groups for a particular project, the opportunities generated from the wide breadth of knowledge and experience is really quite amazing.

RH: To date, what have been the big successes for DMD Green?

JW: For us the development of our SocialCycling initiative has been the most rewarding. SocialCycling to me is the perfect mix of marketing, consulting and science based investigation and really encompasses everything I got into this business to do. We are very fortunate to have highly skilled and technically qualified waste specialists working with our marketing and consulting groups bringing real solutions to challenging reclamation projects. Our goal with SocialCycling is not just good messaging or reclamation protocols, but actually making a difference to communities around the world. Thankfully our clients who have joined us in SocialCycling are some of the most progressive and forward thinking organizations making the imitative both a personal and business success.

RH: Sustainability is big news, and big business, how do you advise clients to find the real potential versus the hype and what is sometimes called "greenwashing"?

JW: Greenwashing is something we face everyday on the job. Our clients, their competitors and even us at DMD Green are constantly walking the line of trying to bring the most compelling and sustainable message to market without misleading or over promising something to the consumer. I found myself guilty of the this "over hyping" of green attributes early in my career, luckily being immersed in the sustainable arena for nearly 10 years now has brought some perspective and experience that has hopefully allowed DMD Green to address the non-greenwashed message. The clear path we preach to clients in sustainability messaging is to develop the PACT mentality in communications. PACT being: Performance, how does this product actually perform, Accountability, how are we as a company standing behind this product, Change, what does this product do differently than others, and most importantly Transparency, "this is what we are doing, and here's how".

RH: DMD Green is involved in architecture and the oil and gas industry; what are the similarities there? How are both of these industries approach sustainability?

JW: Architecture and the Energy Industry, specifically the oil and gas business, could not seem to be more different on the surface, yet it constantly surprises me how similar they are. Projects need to be built, owners want high quality materials that won't harm the environment for the lowest cost, architects and engineers sift through the vast array of materials and manufacturers to find the solutions that fit with their designs. Overall the industries are all still singing the same tune, just the words are a little different. The one major difference I do see however is in transparency. The culture of Energy is not pre-disposed to allowing the public to see what goes on behind the curtain. Hopefully this is slowly changing. You can't portray yourself sustainably without transparency.

Posted by rowland
on May 16 at 12:48 AM more...

Melanie Bender has created a real stir with our most recent addition to the DMD Network, DMD Lab. Based in LA right in the heart of the fashion world in the Cooper Building.

Not only does Melanie know fashion's rising stars, she is also a bit of a star herself. About two years ago she joined DMD Insight in NYC as a junior associate. After a brief stint with a larger PR firm (which happens to be my former agency too!) she was stung by the entrepreneurial bug. She's racked up a SABRE nomination and a thriving business in just a few months.

I sat down with Melanie to find out why the microagency concept has worked for her.

RH: You started with DMD a few years back. During your first tenure at DMD you lead DMD Lab, an experimental program to reach up-and-coming fashion designers, which has now been nominated for a SABRE. What did you learn about starting a practice like DMD Lab then?

MB: The DMD Lab pro bono project was the time of my life! For the first time I was really tapping into my raison d-etre (fashion), while challenging myself to take risks and discover what I was capable of. Those eight months impressed upon me how much it shows in your work when passion is your driving force, and that with the right vision, strategy and team in place you can make incredible things happen, like building a new practice from the ground up in a matter of months.

RH: We were sad to see you leave DMD; but excited to see you explore other agencies. What do you think the difference is between a microagency concept at DMD and how other agencies work?

MB: I have nothing but respect for the colleagues and clients I worked with at both agencies, but in the end I was the yo-yo being drawn back home to DMD. Clearly one thing I love about the microagency concept is that it empowers me to pursue my passions, and even succeeds upon my doing so. It also love encourages dialogue and sharing ideas across all levels of the team - the DMD Lab project itself started by me as the most junior team member pitching the idea off-the-cuff to our CEO Rowland, how incredible that I was able to do that. It also means that we're not afraid to try something different - just because no one else is doing it doesn't mean it won't work!

RH: You've now turned DMD Lab into a microagency in LA. How has the microagency approach helped you get started?

MB: We're partners embarking on this endeavor together. I came with the concept, vision and targets for what I wanted to do, and the network really helped me nail down the strategy while providing (essential!) start-up resources and team support. To have someone I can call to bounce ideas off of or tap when something is outside my area of expertise is essential. It's still up to me to make it a successful venture, but I'm not going it alone.

RH: What are your long-term goals for DMD Lab?

MB: Continuing to build the practice by doing what I'm passionate about: finding designers that are doing really incredible and exciting things and helping them grow what they're doing. It's amazing to see that happen - we just worked with the New York Times on the cover shoot for their Sunday Style Magazine, that's like putting your stamp on the fabric of pop culture! And in the short-term, I wouldn't mind coming home with a Sabre Award next week!

Posted by rowland
on May 8 at 07:30 AM more...

Much like the media, agencies have known for some time that the landscape is changing. The lack of change isn't a sign of stubbornness, but something deeper in the agency business model; something that is so fundamental to how we think about what a professional service firm should look like that it is rarely questioned. It has everything to do with uncertainty and fear.

We like to do what we know works and let's face it: the big agency model has worked for big agencies for a very long time. It is this steadfast attachment to the traditional agency model that has precluded innovation. It is this model that is preventing a new batch of agency startups and the intrapreneurs (small groups of highly innovative individuals inside large organizations) from helping to solve both the crises in the media, and the future of the agency. Currently there are big agencies, boutique agencies and mercenaries set up using partner and holding company structures.

Partner Structures
Sole proprietorships and partnerships are created to benefit the owner or partners financially. Independence is good--the argument goes--spurring creativity, bucking the trend, and supporting talent. We tend to describe these agencies with sophisticated words like "boutiques". Structurally, however, there is not much difference here between a small accounting and law firm. The exit strategy is to sell or grow. Value, profit and resources are mostly channeled to partners, and even in very progressive firms, resources don't fund innovation separate from client work.

Holding Company Structures
When shareholders come into the mix, value is created and then driven outside of the firm. Innovation comes from acquisitions and intrapreneurs in existing agencies working in small clusters, but rarely from new strategic ventures. Hiring in the good times, cut backs in the bad: the shareholder model in professional service firms drives value away from talent and clients alike.

Clients have adapted
The long tail of consumer content consumption has been well evidenced, niche audiences have become more powerful, and the economic realities of keeping the fires of large media running are no longer working in their favor.

Marketers on the client side have made adjustments by creating their own networks of various groups to respond to the changing media landscape. They think of three to five people they trust at their global megalith, or their boutique agency alike. To understand the splintering of their customer base requires those account teams to have a deeper knowledge of their clients, rather than broader execution by people the clients do not know, or trust.

Introducing The Microagency
Microagencies focus on a specific industry, service, or expertise. Their teams are small, but each member of the team connects with the client, the end consumer, and understands the needs in that market through direct experience.



A microagency is connected, via a network, to other micro agencies. Knowledge, brand, cash reserves and development are banked here in the network and reinvested in each microagency. The value is not driven outside of the agency to partners or shareholders, but rather through the network of niche business owners.

Creating More Value With Microagencies
Independent agencies lack the resources of large agencies.



Yet, the large agencies often obfuscate the real value that is available to clients: the reality of what can be achieved through their reach is often presented in one way, and executed in another.

But lying at the core of the holding companies are groups of three to five people, true intrapreneurs who create strong value day in and day out. This is where the true value lies, as clients continue to support this work.

Microagencies connect series of small agencies together.

Even in the larger agencies, networks exist in similar ways around certain clients.



But fundamentally, the value is lost. The question from both the small and large perspective, why not create loose structures and networks?

The rise of a Microagency
DMD network is a platform for entrepreneurs. The DMD network is: DMD Insight, integrated marketing; DMD Green, environmental management consulting; and DMDxd, human-centered product and service innovation. We are not large. Indeed we are only 20 people. But we believe that our growth lies in groups of three to five people, not one group of twenty, fifty or a hundred.

Over the next thirty days we will tell the story of each microagency. In so doing we invite discussion about the future of agencies, entrepreneurialism and the future of the media/agency relationship.

Posted by rowland
on April 8 at 02:27 AM more...