güd featured in News & Observer
Burt’s Bees hopes younger women fall for its new line.
By David Ranii, News & Observer
Burt’s Bees is looking to gain sales from younger women with a whimsical new brand of natural products that focus on fragrance as a key selling point.
The Durham company recently launched its güd (pronounced good) line of shampoos, lotions and other personal care products, which come in scents with quirky names such as Orange Petalooza and Floral Cherrynova. They boast colorful packaging as well, which includes an umlaut over the u in güd that’s designed to resemble a smiley face. The brand slogan: güd happens.
Welcome to Baldwin&
Welcome to our website. You’ll notice that there are no fancy Flash acrobatics or whizzy-bangy animated navigation. That’s for a very definite reason. Agency websites have become insane places that are hard to navigate, max out your bandwidth and generally make it very difficult to find what you’re looking for.
Our philosophy is that a website is a tool. In fact, someone once said to me that if your website isn’t a tool you are. Sure it’s an expression of the brand, sure it should be cool, but it should be easy and useable. So we’ve opted for a very simple blog. Our site will live and breathe and change almost daily. We can add content at will. If you find it hard to navigate, tell us and we’ll get on it immediately. We’re also including tags to make accessing anything you want very easy to find
Welcome and let us know what you think.
Baldwin& Burt’s Bees win campaign of the year at the Ad Age Small Agency Awards
Read full Ad Age Article.
Baldwin&, Raleigh, N.C., “Burt’s Bees: Find Your Burt”
Burt’s Bees found itself facing a tidal wave of green-washing going on throughout the $50 billion personal-care industry. With more than 250 products containing the word “natural” on the label, Burt’s Bees’ one true point of difference was in danger of being hijacked. With a limited budget, the brand had to reassert itself as the authentic leader in the natural-personal care movement and connect with female “Health and Beauty Sleuths.” The solution? A (truly) sustainable effort aimed at getting consumers to find their “inner Burt.” At Findyourburt.com consumers could learn about the iconic Burt, his Burt’s Bees products and even craft their own “Inner Burt.” The results? More than 63 million PR impressions, 20% increase in Facebook fans, 1,700-plus new followers on Twitter. According to Baldwin&, the effort was seven times more efficient than running a 30-second spot on the finale of “Lost.”
Special shout out to our partners Mekanism, Driver Digital and Tractenberg. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Click here to see the campaign.
“Don’t Get Me Started” Podcast interviews David.
Yep, another podcast with David. In this one, interviewed by Dan Balser of the Creative Circus during a recent meeting of the board of advisors, the two get pretty reflective about the business and what it’s all about. Click here to listen to Podcast. Episode 90. Weirdest picture ever.
Interviews With Small Agency Leaders: Part 2. Baldwin& featured in AdAge
David was one of four agency leaders interviewed by Bart Cleveland for Ad Age’s Small Agency Diary. That twice in two weeks, not bad.
This is the second in a series of collected thoughts by various small firms across the country. (Part 1 can be found here.) Our guests: Carolyn Hadlock of Young & Laramore, Indianapolis; John Vitro of Vitro Robertson, San Diego, Calif.; Cabell Harris of Work Labs, Richmond, Va.; and David Baldwin of Baldwin&, Durham, N.C.
As before, readers, feel free to answer these questions in our comments section. We welcome your point of view.
Question 1. Who has the biggest advantage in this economy: big or small firms?
Carolyn Hadlock, Young & Laramore: I’d much rather be looking at the future from a small-agency position than a big one. Small agencies are getting opportunities today they never would have had even five years ago. Clients are moving at the speed of light. Larger agencies are having a harder time staying agile in this economy.
John Vitro, Vitro Robertson: The lines between a big shop and a mid-size shop like ours are much more blurred than they used to be. While most large agencies have built themselves on broadcast (and ignored print), we were able to offer clients something that they couldn’t get at the big shops by creating beautiful, thoughtful ways to connect with their clients. As the role of digital has grown, we’ve been able to move into that space faster than many who haven’t been as nimble while bringing the craft that was always so important within our work.
Question 2: Most agencies think they are different, but it’s shades of gray. Most sound the same. What have you done to shape your firm to be truly different?
Cabell Harris, Work Labs: Whether we’re creating an advertising campaign that will break through the clutter or bringing our own products to market, we know we are ultimately in the idea business. We publish books. We brew our own beer. We’re designers, writers, strategists, professors and students.
David Baldwin, Baldwin&: So many agencies talk about being experts in all fields and then BS their way through. For instance, have you noticed how many people are saying they’re social-media ‘gurus’ now? We ended our name with an Ampersand for a reason. We are committed to the ideas and then finding the right partners to get them done. We know what we’re good at and we know what we’re not.
Question 3: What has the current economy done to help small agencies, and what advice would you give other small agencies to take advantage of what is going on?
John Vitro, Vitro Robertson: Embrace the business. Stop bitching about clients, budgets or how many hours it takes to be better than the guys down the street. Doing good work is hard, but not doing it gives us nothing in return for the hours we spend. It’s a choice we make. If you don’t like these things, do something else.
Carolyn Hadlock, Young & Laramore: What we are finding is that clients demand ideas more than services now — which is refreshing. We believe in being proactive, in taking in ideas before a client thinks of them. The term “full service” is becoming an antiquated one. Nimbleness, resourcefulness and creativity are key to solving client’s problems today.
Question 4: What one moment would you point to as an illustration of success?
Cabell Harris, Work Labs: Moments are fleeting. I hope in the future to look back over a large body of work and be proud of its consistency over the years.
David Baldwin, Baldwin&: Hiring our first person beyond our founders was quite gratifying. It just felt great.
Question 5: In one sentence, sum up your agency.
Carolyn Hadlock, Young & Laramore: Anti-established in 1983, Y&L consistently challenges conventional wisdom.
David Baldwin, Baldwin&: We call the company a creative practice because though we’re an advertising agency, we’ll do anything that lets us live our mission, which is to use creativity to make a difference.
Cabell Harris, Work Labs: We’re all brought together by one common belief: Nothing is more compelling than a smart idea, executed well.
John Vitro, Vitro Robertson: The crafting and humanity that was so important to our earliest work is even more important today.
Getting to Year Two: It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp -Nine Tips for Any Communications Agency Startup
David just wrote an article for AdAge’s Small Agency Diary about lessons learned in our first year of business.
I’ve been in this business a long time now, but as far as owning my own agency I’m a rookie. I’ve only been at it for just over a year.
When we decided to start the company, the economy was doing just fine. Right before we actually pulled the trigger, the bottom fell out. We had a decision to make. Should we move forward or should we all take the safe route and take gigs at other agencies?
Well, in we dove.
Yes, this has been a challenging time from an economic standpoint, but that’s just an excuse. In tough times great companies succeed.
It’s been interesting to say the least, so I thought I’d jot down a few thoughts on what we’ve learned in this, our inaugural year of business.
Be creatively relentless. I suppose this isn’t a new lesson or anything but man, is it truer than ever. You have to come into any situation guns blazing at all times and not let anything throw you. When you’re new you have to prove yourself every minute of every day. There’s no safety net, no other group to go to if you need to get it done. When you’re small, you’re it. There are no parachutes and how cool is that?
Navigate by your values. You will be tempted by market forces to do things you don’t want to do. If you navigate by your values you’ll always know where you are and where you should go.
The fish bowl theory. When you first start out, you have to decide whether you want to work from your garage or get your own office space. Economically, of course, it makes sense to not start out with any overhead. But our feeling was to start with a physical space. The idea is to get a fishbowl and grow into it. This was a piece of advice from Bob Barrie and it was a smart piece of thinking. For one thing you can’t invite a client over to your house for a meeting and you can only meet at a Starbucks so many times. A space says you’re real from day one.
Think like a band. A company isn’t a building; it’s made of people. It’s so important to work with people you care about and who share your values. A new company is a lot like a band. Play your instrument, carry your own equipment and always make sure the entire band sounds great. Got a free hand? Carry the drummer’s snare.
Make sure you’re passionate about what you’re pitching. It’s also important to believe in what you’re pitching. Especially with what it takes to pitch a piece of business these days. A small company almost always has to compete with big ones, but remember: It’s not the size of the company that matters, it’s the size of the ideas you bring.
Pitch to win or don’t pitch. With what it takes to pitch these days, you literally can’t afford to not win. So do everything, give everything you have. We had the opportunity to pitch for a Burt’s Bees project last year and we decided we were going to win it well before we pitched it. All that was left was the pitch itself. We also pitched a furniture account and we made the cardinal mistake of using the pitch to see whether it was the right fit. Whether it was or it wasn’t, we didn’t win it because we just didn’t want it enough. Dumb, dumb, dumb!
Don’t think like an ad agency. We’re doing mostly everything but advertising right now. We’re definitely doing a bit of traditional work, but spend most of our time delivering ideas in every media. (It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t have legacy departments to support.) Many people start companies and base the business model on the bigger company they just came from. That’s a mistake. Instead, think of things they did and do the opposite. For instance, we don’t have a creative department. The whole company is the creative department; if you touch it you’re creative. It frees everyone up to focus on the work.
Don’t work for free. I’m sure you’ve noticed, but no one wants to pay anything to anybody. It could just be a sign of the economy, but I think there’s something more going on. Clients have more pressure on them, so we as an industry have more pressure on us. Now, in some ways, this plays right into our sweet spot because as a small company we don’t have a lot of overhead and we’re hungry. Interestingly, though, many clients seem to think that because we’re new, we’ll do lots of stuff for free. We are running a business, so that obviously isn’t the case. We talk about ourselves as being a less expensive alternative to a bigger shop, but not cheap. Our industry has done this to itself, turned what we all do into a commodity by giving it away. And we’ve noticed that there’s always someone willing to do it for cheaper.
Underpromise/Overdeliver. Blow them away with your work, not your promises.
There have been other lessons — watch scope-creep, live and die by your craft and ideas — but these listed are the standouts for us as a startup. And as we steer through year number two, I find I learn a new lesson every day. Like, that trash isn’t going take itself out.
Ah, living the dream.
Art & Copy comes back to the Triangle
Art & Copy will be playing at the Rialto on March 10, 6-9 sponsored by the AAF Raleigh-Durham. Executive producer, David Baldwin will be doing a Q&A after the film. The film premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival and came out in theaters in the fall.
Baldwin& hires account chief.
Indeed we did. In a way, Jerry Bodrie is rejoining us because we all worked together during our days at McKinney. Jerry is not only a smart guy he’s a heck of a good guy and knows how to get the right things done. Hence, his title, superconductor.
Art & Copy
Art & Copy is a movie David has been working on for four years now as an executive producer. The movie premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was the only documentary picked up during the festival itself. The movie will be premiering officially on August 21, 2009. If you’d like to see if beforehand you’ll have to go to one of the many film festivals where it will be appearing in over the next few months.
SYNOPSIS
ART & COPY reveals the stories behind and the personal odysseys of some of the most influential advertising visionaries of our time and their campaigns, including Lee Clow (Apple Computer 1984, and today’s iPod); Dan Wieden (“Just Do It”); Phyllis K. Robinson (who invented the “me generation” with Clairol); Hal Riney (who helped President Reagan get re-elected); and George Lois (who saved MTV and launched Tommy Hilfiger overnight).
Directed by Doug Pray (HYPE! SCRATCH), ART & COPY captures the creative energy and passion behind the iconic campaigns that have had a profound impact on American culture. Featuring rare interviews with the aforementioned industry legends, the film seeks to identify the elements that transform an slogan into a pop culture catch phrases.
The movie was filmed and edited during a four-year period and had an unusual source for its funding — The One Club, a non-profit organization dedicated to the craft of advertising headquartered in New York.
ART & COPY provides a window into the creative process and the individuals who have changed our lives in ways we may not realize,” said Mary Warlick, CEO of The One Club. “The movie looks at advertising not as products flying off the shelf but as the work of a few American heroes who feel passionately about their craft, ideas, and the ability of ideas to change how people feel.”
The tenth documentary feature directed by Pray, ART & COPY was written by Timothy J. Sexton from an original concept by Gregory Beauchamp and Kirk Souder. The film was produced by Jimmy Greenway and Michael Nadeau and executive produced by David Baldwin, Gregory Beauchamp, Kirk Souder and Mary Warlick. The cinematographer is Peter Nelson and the editor is Philip Owens. The original score is by Jeff Martin.
David to speak at Boards Creative Workshops
David has been invited to give the Keynote address at the Boards Creative Conference in Chicago on May 19th.
David Speaks on Innovation at Shift Disturbers
David was recently asked to speak at Shift Disturbers, a creative conference in Toronto sponsored by Stimulant Magazine. He showed a 12 minute excerpt of Art & Copy and spoke about innovation.
David Baldwin interviewed by Boards Magazine at Shift Disturbers
David was recently asked to speak at a conference in Toronto called ‘Shift Disturbers’ presented by Stimulant. He was interviewed by Boards Magazine. Click here to read the interview or see it in its entirety below.
David Baldwin, ECD of Baldwin& and president of the One Club, considers the history of advertising, which began with the creative revolution of the ’60s up until the present day, as Chapter One. Chapter Two, he says, is yet to be written, and those who are bringing advertising forward into uncharted territory are this chapter’s authors.
Here, five questions with Baldwin on his role in creatingArt & Copy, the One Club-produced feature on the industry’s creative innovators, and why tough times like these are the best times to innovate. Hear Baldwin speak at the Boards Creative Workshop in Chicago on May 19.
What’s the idea behind the movie?
The idea for the movie was really to celebrate the figures behind this cultural movement over the last 30, 40 years. They’re anonymous to most people. They know the work, but not the people behind it. There’s something really fascinating about that. We wanted to talk about the art in the work.
It starts with this eureka that Bill Bernbach had back in the ’60s to put the art director and a copywriter together and let them figure it out. That had never been done before and it seems so simple, but it was a revolutionary idea. That’s where the creative revolution in advertising started.
The movie goes up through this creative revolution all the way though to the iPod ad, Goodby Silverstein and those guys, Cliff Freeman, right up in to the modern era. But it really does stop at the end of chapter one. Someone asked Lee Clow why didn’t we include interactive in this thing and he said because the interactive world is only now being turned over to the artists. It has been ruled by the scientists up until now. That’s the next the movie to be made.
An interesting piece is that advertising people and an advertising association is behind the making of the movie, which is very unique. You’d never have seen that 10 or 15 years ago. Now, suddenly in this new world you can do that. You can do anything…
I think a lot of people talk about needing to be thought-leaders. But you can’t say it; you have to be it. I think this is a great example of being a thought-leader. And it’s a great chronicle about why we got into this business and love it.
You’ve said that what’s happening now is not the death of advertising but the death of a business model. Can you explain?
What’s happening is that advertising is not under assault; the business model is under assault. Agencies are getting paid revenues in the millions of dollars for doing mass media television. That’s what’s under assault. There is still a need for clients to communicate their brand and communicate messages. The recession has not helped for the amount of work that’s going on. What’s happened is that the money has shifted around and into a lot more places.
Does the recession put a hamper on innovation?
Any kind of crisis puts pressure on business as usual. What you see is processes start to crack in a crisis period that normally wouldn’t crack when things are good. Certainly, from that standpoint there’s a quickening going on with some business models that could have been around for another five years if things were rolling. But I think from an innovation standpoint, tough economic times actually create innovation because you have to work harder to figure things out. Nothing causes new thinking like crisis. That’s really when new things start to happen.
Even me, starting a new company right in the center of the crash happening, I was very aware about that but kind of excited about it. What better time to create a blank slate, a white page?
Companies are struggling for answers. Is there a right answer?
I don’t know the right answer. But there seems to be this feeling that there has to be one right answer out there. I think we live in a time where there are a ton of right answers and that because of the way everything has fractured, there are all kinds of different business models and ways of approaching this that are going to come out. We’ll let evolution sort out the ones that work and don’t work but of the business models that are out there, there are a lot of right ones. Just look at companies like AKQA, RGA, Crispin and the Barbarian Group, they all have different models but they’re all enormously successful.
What can audiences at the Boards Creative Workshop in Chicago expect from your presentation?
Hopefully hope.
Silver Lining For Start-Ups?
Looks like we’re in good company or should we say companies.
Maybe our balls aren’t as big as we once thought.
An interesting read for all the Naysayers.
Hey, that’s us!
Current One Club chair and former McKinney ECD David Baldwin has teamed with former McKinney GCD Bob Ranew to launch a new Durham, N.C.-based “creative practice” called Baldwin&.
“We call it a creative practice because we ‘re interested in doing advertising, design and branded content solutions,” says Baldwin, whose past projects include Audi’s “Art of the Heist” and the launch of Travelocity’s Gnome campaign. “Everyone here is considered a creative. If you’re a strategic planner, you’re still a creative strategic planner.”
While the shop officially launched in late December, a lot of Baldwin’s recent time has been occupied by his role as an executive producer on Art & Copy, the Doug Pray-directed documentary that debuted at Sundance and shines a light on the ad business with interviews with folks like Dan Wieden, Hal Riney and George Lois. It’s exactly the type of project Baldwin sees the new shop being creatively invested in. “Ideally, we’d like it to be a 50/50 split between doing work for our own brands and others’.”
Right now the agency has a population of six that includes creatives, a designer, a strategic planner and an accounts person and is currently signed up for project-based work for troubled telecom giant Nortel. “We’re taking care of their post-bankruptcy communications, helping them get back on track as a company with a lot of positive things going for it that has had trouble in the current economic climate,” says Baldwin. “It’s a perfect client for us, as we see ourselves as change agents and look forward to working with them more.”
Speaking of the current economy, some might question the sanity of launching a new agency amidst so much financial uncertainty. But Baldwin sees it more as an opportunity to walk the walk. “It’s a great time to launch because we’re always telling clients to be bold and take risks and doing something like this now really shows we believe in that approach.”
Dear Barack
This is a side project/social experiment I’ve been working on for a while now with my good friend Greg Beauchamp. The idea is to see if one man can send an email to Barack Obama by 6 degrees of separation and spread the message of unity in the process.
From Creativity-online.com:
A unifying image for Obama.
“It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.” -Barack Obama
Inspired by the president’s words, Greg Beauchamp, ad man and executive producer of the advertising documentary Art & Copy, has created this graphic and the subsequent poster for Barack Obama. Beauchamp was also responsible for the McCain Dog Poo flags during the 2008 election.
He says he hopes the image will get to Obama indirectly via internet pass along to exhibit that even everyday Americans have the power to reach the president. On Flickr, Beauchamp has embedded a timeline of when states joined the union into a tiled image of the poster.