Roxanna Guilford-Blake's exclusive interview this week: Mark DiMassimo, CEO of DIGO Advertising and Eric Yaverbaum, CEO and Founder of Ericho Communications
Whether expressing an opinion on some Fox or CNN show or offering an insightful critique of Super Bowl ads, Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum are nationally known figures—and not just in marcom circles. What sets these two apart is how they spark off each other. Longtime collaborators (12 years), they've worked on various projects, including Tappening, a campaign dedicated to promoting the health, environmental and financial benefits of drinking tap water.
Their current effort, Read to Vote, calls on members of Congress to pledge never to vote for a bill they have not read. What's more interesting that the collaborations themselves, however, is their approach to the process. DiMassimo—an ad man—insists that PR, not advertising, should be on top in the marketing mix. An authentic collaboration yields success for everyone involved, including the client, he believes. He describes their approach this way: "We don't launch stories. We launch into stories that already exist. What was it that Lao-Tzu said? 'To be a leader, find a parade and get in front of it.' There has to be a parade. That's a PR principle Eric brings to the table."
Since seamless integration between PR, advertising, integrated marcom and even social media is so often the goal for clients and companies—yet one so often missed—we asked Yaverbaum and DiMassimo for the secrets of their success. Their responses—and lessons:
The two of you have a long and successful history of collaboration. What are you doing right?
Yaverbaum: The notion of integration of PR and advertising sounds good, but often, it doesn't happen. With Mark and me, it is a genuine collaboration between the two arts. Magic can happen. We've agreed that if we are not launching an 11 on a scale of 1-10, we'd rather just take a pass.
DiMassimo: Part of what's worked is that we set a standard that's high but that clients can understand and respect. Everybody works so hard to get a campaign out. It's exactly as much work if it's an okay, passable idea than if it's an 11. So we go on agreeing not to let each other make the mistake of launching with a compromise.
My whole career has been about integration. I didn't study advertising. It just turned out I had a good head for it. So I wasn't wed to any particular mindset about it; I learned from what I saw, and a lot of what I saw was people failing to understand how to collaborate well—or not wanting to work together.
The first 10 years of my career, I thought the most important kind of integration was between general brand advertising people and database-driven direct marketers. But then I realized: The most important type of integration is between the paid media people and the unpaid media people, which roughly divides along the advertising/marketing people on one side and the PR/social marketing people on the other.
So the two of you bridged that gap?
DiMassimo: One reason Eric and I have aligned so naturally is that I realized early in my career that PR people, at their best, have higher standards for message for than advertising people. They have to tell a story so interesting that people will write about it for free. PR people can't force anyone to write stories.
In advertising, we can say anything a client will buy. The incentives in the ad business lead to poorer storytelling than they do in the PR business at its best.
If we start to write to that same standard, I'd say, "Show me the press release or the headline and then I'll evaluate that idea. Tell me what people will say to each other at cocktail parties." Suddenly, my standard is higher than other advertisers. It's not that I'm more talented: It was a matter of setting that higher standard, a PR standard.
When I met Eric, we could get in a room for 15 minutes and our brains were working the same way, we were aiming at the same target. After 15 minutes, we had an idea to go with it.
Yaverbaum: The stuff Mark is saying—it's not rhetoric, it's not paying lip service to PR. It's why his stuff works. It's why our stuff works.
And the same goes for me. I have incredible reverence for the creative they deliver. PR knows what will elevate the coverage, but not without the goods. And Mark delivers the goods.
One of your newer collaborations is Read to Vote. What sparked that idea?
Yaverbaum: I'm on Fox every week. And one day I brought in a copy of the healthcare bill; we were debating it every week and I realized no one had read it.
On the heels of Tappening, it seemed to me to be something worth using our skill set on. With the money we made from the incredible success of Tappening, we could finance Read to Vote. We wanted to do something great, to get a great message out there.
DiMassimo: We're both fathers. We both want to feel like that, when our kids are thinking about what impact we had on the world, they will have good stories to tell.
This is what excited us about Tappening. Some people go into business and make money, then give away some as a way to do good. We are confident in our unusual ability to be persuasive. So what better way to give than to be persuasive for things we believe are good and important and helpful? It's about having an impact. But in addition, what we learn makes us better in commercial work.
What you have is unique. Other than "find the perfect partner," what lessons can our readers draw from your experiences with Tappening and Read to Vote?
Yaverbaum: It's not about finding a partner; it has nothing to do with the fact we like each other. It's about speaking up for your own discipline. Every dollar Mark and I spend is worth five for us and our clients, because both disciplines are equal partners at the table.
We—PR professionals—sit at tables and we're told our discipline is so important and we are going into this integrated pitch. And then at the end of the day, on a $20 million campaign, PR gets $200,000 and is told how to spend it.
I've been a "bright shiny object" to many a pitchman. But PR doesn't want to be the shiny object guy. I won't sit at a table quietly.
DiMassimo: I wrote an exhortation to ad agencies, telling them to wake up and realize it's a social world now; advertising is no longer the lead discipline. It was, for years, because it was the most efficient way to aggregate an audience and deliver a message. It no longer is. Now PR is the lead discipline. My advice to ad agencies? Find a brilliant PR person, make them head of your agency. I don't expect many agencies to take me up on that. I really do believe it is that stark.
Decisions are made socially now; everyone searches for the way to make important decisions. Today, decisions are made in context of the results that come from a good reputation. PR has to lead.
The ad world wasn't built for this world. It needs to re-architect itself and put PR on top.
We've been in the independent agency business for a long time. Look around. Independence rarely lasts. Agencies are closing their doors. It's tough out here.
One advantage we have is that PR's standard a higher standard. Another comes from how the competition works. The way these holding companies are built up, the advertising agencies are more powerful than the PR agencies. Not always, but on the whole. There's a battle over the revenue. Too often, PR is an afterthought.
I know how hard it is for other agencies to put an empowered PR person in the conversation early. And the keyword is empowered. It's not enough to have someone at the table. They have to be in a position where they must be heard.
Through our collaboration, Eric is able to tap into a gold mine of creative resources to bring PR ideas to life in a way most PR agencies can't, at a quality level most PR agencies can't meet. But they could, if they could understand and value that kind of creativity and bring in those creative skills through partnerships that work.
But that's the catch, isn't it? Partnerships that work?
Yaverbaum: Exactly. But PR doesn't have a voice at the table because PR lets it happen. You can make PR a true partnership. When you don't allow that, you dilute its value. Only at the crisis table does PR get the respect it deserves.
DiMassimo: It's not safe to play it safe. If you are going to be in this business, you really have to go for it. Somebody out there is going to read this. They are going to take the advice and they will succeed.
Yaverbaum: People get inspired but what happens in this industry, way too often, is people don't remain committed to what they know. That's why clients don't stick around.
So, what about those who follow your advice and speak up with bad advice and weak ideas?
DiMassimo: Someone smart said there are no great agencies, just a few great clients. If you speak your mind, you will get the clients you deserve and you will get the feedback you need to be as smart as you can be.
When you get in the room with the smartest people, there's conflict. As you move up the smart food chain, there's more conflict, but it's cheerful conflict—people who trust each other and the process. You throw out your idea, you say what you believe, you challenge the client, and you know what? They appreciate it. Because they are also looking to be made smarter.
Yaverbaum: They pay us to give them our advice, to get to bigger and better answers. The intellectual friction that goes on in a room of bright people is not tense at all. It's a fun thing to watch. Smart people rub off of on each other, They aren't offended by disagreement; that's how you get to those bigger and better answers. And that's what we all should be doing.
What makes you most excited about what you're doing?
DiMassimo: We love what we do. It's fun. We get to work on things we care about and with people who are a constant education. We get to do what we're good at. We think we have an answer for a lot of the world's problems: Apply more advertising and PR advertising creativity to them.
Yaverbaum: I'm revved up about what I do for a living and have been ever since the very first time I made a difference in the world. It was in a small way, in 1985, when I helped end the Major League Baseball strike. I was 24 years old and I realized "Wow! Look at what I do for a living! I can actually motivate large numbers of people to do things, and I can make a difference."
I could have retired a long time ago, but I will never retire. This is too much fun. | 
