Why we quit our day jobs
The year was 2001: Four years after Seth Godin had written Permission Marketing and one year after the publication of the Clue Train Manifesto. After decades of stagnation, fresh ideas were beginning to stir in marketing. It was asserted that B-to-C and B-to-B advertising were about to go the way of the buggy whip. A new concept called P-to-P was emerging online that would trump advertising and rewrite how brands would be marketed.
This caught the interest of two creatives in Stockholm who had spent 10 years dealing with the challenge of developing brands internationally. They were enticed by the possibilities the internet held for international brands. In this brave new digital ochlocracy, it would take more that creative ad campaigns every few months to woo a captive public. Brands could now cross borders with ease, react in real time, and be accessible 24/7. New types of strategy and communication were called for.
It was against this backdrop that theThe Duffy Agency was founded by ad agency creatives who realized that making great ads for weak brands was like applying lipstick on a pig. It wasn't much fun and had no future. Masking dull brand strategies with creative communication didn’t work online. They believed that creativity needed to start much sooner, with the brand strategy itself.
So they left their ad agencies to create a new type of digital marketing agency where the creative department is the entire company and brands can be seen in public without their makeup. Over the past 13 years many brands have found this a more attractive alternative.
Fast forward to 2014
The heretics were mostly correct. The prophesy of the internet has come to pass. Today, the web is the most powerful tool marketers have to build audience and shape consumer brand perceptions. Yet, if you audit the online assets of most brands, you see a patchwork of uncoordinated and poorly-performing websites, blogs and social feeds. That’s where we can help. We’re a digital marketing agency. Our focus is to build a loyal audience for your brand by creating a more strategic, coordinated and dynamic presence online.
Strategic Skills
Most brand communication strategies were not created to accommodate the type of hyper-exposure brands receive online today. Our strategists work with brands to ensure all elements of their brand strategy such as target personas, position and value proposition are well-defined and web-ready.
Creative Talent
Our writers, designers and web developers work out from the strategy to tell your brand story online. In some cases we may also set up and run our client’s content and social media marketing programs.
Management Competence
Of course your strategy and assets won’t do much good without proper follow through and management to help you reach your objectives most notably to build and develop audience, long-term equity and profit margins.