Mark DiMassimo
Mark DiMassimo (Creative Director) is Chief of DiMassimo Goldstein, an “inspiring action” agency which he founded in 1996.
A creative entrepreneur since his teens, DiMassimo began his agency career working for the author of “Direct Marketing: Strategy, Planning & Execution.”
Son of a silicon chip engineer—inventor of speed dial, and core technology from communications satellites to nuclear supercolliders— DiMassimo saw the direct model revolution coming. He understood that faster processing speeds would make it possible for companies to know their customers. He recognized consumers would increasingly demand direct relationships with organizations. He also saw that most direct and digital marketers lacked the skills and understanding to build dramatically outperforming brand experiences.
DiMassimo set a goal to start an agency that would bring the benefits of great brand building to direct model innovators, particularly those that offer life-changing services directly to clients.
The promise would be simple: drive brand value up and cost-per-acquisition down.
This immediately led to his participation in over fifty historic firsts, including the first social network (SixDegrees.com) the first Internet delivery service (Kozmo.com), the first online weight loss company (eDiets) and the first electronic stock trading network (Island ECN, INET, INSTINET, NASDAQ).
Before starting his own agency, DiMassimo spent a decade of making tongues wag with his work for a who’s-who of top direct and integrated Madison Avenue agencies, including BBDO, J. Walter Thompson, Chapman Direct Advertising, Deutsch and Kirshenbaum & Bond.
Mark is the author of Digital@SPEED, and co-founder of the Tappening and Offlining movements. He serves as the Chair of the Creative Development Board of the Partnership to End Addiction, and has served on the board of Rare and of the Financial Communications Society. He was named a Future 50 CEO by SmartCEO magazine in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
DiMassimo is featured in the best-selling book Leadership Secrets of the World’s Most Successful CEOs, by Eric Yaverbaum. He is co-author of Inside the Minds: INNOVATION and Branding as an Advertising Strategy and is featured in Passion Brands, by Kate Newlin, for which he also wrote the foreword. A familiar face on CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, FoxNews, and Fox5NY, DiMassimo is often quoted in the media.
Mark teaches advertising undergrads at The School of Visual Arts. Mark lives in Rye, NY, and is the happy husband of Jill and the devoted father of Max, Alex and Jack.
588: Mark DiMassimo, part 1: Leading with integrity
We start with one of the great cases of a corporation choosing to act with integrity in the face of pressure and incentive not to. Mark and his agency, DiGo (DiMassimo Goldstein), worked with the team that chose for CVS drug stores in rebranding to stop selling cigarettes. The choice was superficially difficult in that cigarettes made them billions of dollars in profit and their competitors could gain market share. But it was easy in that if they wanted to identify with health, there was no question.
Mark shares inside views of that story, then connects with leadership and integrity. We look at comparable cases, like New York banning cigarettes in the work place, people projecting losing business to New Jersey.
Mark focuses on what changes behavior. He asked what someone can do. I suggested intrinsic versus extrinsic, which led to doing the Spodek/AIM Method. He participated and deconstructed it as we did it. You’ll hear his enthusiasm for doing The Spodek/AIM Method, his commitment, and building on the technique. It seems inevitable that we’ll collaborate beyond this one commitment.