The Little One That Could...

For nearly a century, Komatsu has been a leading name in heavy equipment. Over the past few decades, that heavy equipment heritage has been built into its forklift line as well. So how do you communicate to retailers that Komatsu forklifts are every bit as tough, albeit a little smaller, than their heavy equipment cousins? DENMARK teamed up with Indigo Studios on a fun idea - one that uses CGI to extend the message to web, video and viral communications.

Recession Thursdays

Article: Bogusky Loves Small Shops

Crispin Creative Chief Says Entrepreneurs
Will Lead Us from Recession
Posted by Alex Bogusky on 03.23.09

It's not easy to go out and start a business. Yet somehow, small businesses represent 75% of our gross domestic product. Isn't that astounding?

It's especially amazing in light of today's headlines. We focus so much on the GMs and the Chryslers, we can completely overlook the real engines that drive our country, and the real engine that will pull us out of this recession.

The same is true in the marketing industry. Right now, our country needs these scrappy small-agency entrepreneurs to keep doing their thing, because they will indeed dig us out of this mess faster than the holding companies and big agency networks. No offense. I'm part of a glorious holding company that I love, and I'm confident that larger agencies like ours (I can't believe we're large, because I still remember being employee No. 16) will offer great help to their large clients. But what I'm thinking about right now is the other 75%.

The smaller agencies that make up part of that 75% and will be doing the marketing to help lead us out of recession deserve a tip of the hat. The reality is they can do things for their clients the big monster shops can't. With fewer people and less overhead, they offer the nimble and fast approach to problems a lot of nascent brands need.

>> Continue reading

What’s YOUR Trail?

DENMARK launches new integrated campaign for Russell Lands.

Whole Bakers names DENMARK Agency of Record for national launch in 2009

DENMARK {the agency} has been named by Chicago-based Whole Bakers, makers of a line of gourmet, certified gluten-free, organic and kosher cookies, to launch the brand nationally and to develop online, specialty, and retail marketing programs.

Top 10 Secrets of the Marketing Process

Try these 10 ideas to get you started down the path of scientific marketing tactics:

1. Don’t run out of money. It always takes longer and costs more than you expect to spread your idea. You can budget for it or you can fail.



2. You won’t get it right the first time. Your campaign will need to be reinvented, adjusted or scrapped. Count on it.

3. Convenient choices are not often the best choices. Just because an agency, an asset or a bizdev deal are easy to do doesn’t mean that they are your best choice.



4. Irrational, strongly held beliefs of close advisors should be ignored. It doesn’t matter if they don’t like your logo.



5. If it makes you nervous, it’s probably a good idea. If you’re sure you’re right, you probably aren’t.

6. Focusing obsessively on one niche, one feature and one market is almost always a better idea than trying to satisfy everyone.

7. At some point, you’re either going to have to stick to your convictions or do what the market tells you. It’s hard to do both.



8. Compromise in marketing is almost always a bad idea. Extreme A could work. Extreme B could work. The average of A and B will almost never work.

9. Test, measure and optimize. Figure out what's working and do it more.



10. Read and learn. There are a million clues, case studies, books and proven tactics out there. You can't profitably ignore them until you know them, and you don't have the time or the money to make the same mistake someone else made last week. It's cheaper and faster to read about it than it is to do it.

Posted by Seth Godin on October 20, 2006