2. They’re an ad agency, but you already knew that.
so here’s a few things you might not know...
Clients
• Founded on July 5, 1965. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Also has offices in
London and New York.
• A team led by David N. Martin and George Woltz of Martin and Woltz Inc. won
the Virginia State Travel account in 1968. Originally, they had come up with history
ads, "Virginia is for History Lovers"; beach ads, "Virginia is for Beach Lovers"; and
mountain ads, "Virginia is for Mountain Lovers". This approach was eventually
discarded as too limiting, and the qualifiers were dropped. "Virginia is for Lovers"
was born.
• The idea was that whatever people love most in a vacation, whatever they are
most passionate about, Virginia was the ideal destination.Virginia is for Lovers was
considered bold and provocative, but it was also just plain smart from a marketing
perspective. It planted a seed - a new image of a more exciting Virginia.
• Martin and Woltz Inc. eventually gained prominence and grew to become The
Martin Agency. In 1969, they made their first big, national splash with the "Virginia
Is For Lovers" campaign that continues to run today.
• Martin and Woltz divided the firm in 1975 and Martin renamed the company the
Martin Agency.
• Dave Martin retired from agency in 1989 and started two more ad firms in
Richmond with his sons Rob and Dave H. Martin. Dave Martin passed away in 2012
at the age of 82.
• Today, Matt Williams (CEO) and John Adams Jr. (Chairman) have helped grow
Martin from a small, regional shop to one of the nation’s leading agencies
• Out of the 10,000 advertising agencies in America, The Martin Agency has
consistently been ranked among the top five by national publications and industry
leaders.
• In 2010, Adweek named The Martin Agency "U.S. Agency of the Year."
• In 2014, Martin topped Creativity’s Innovators of the Year list.
• Some of The Martin Agency’s most recognizable work includes the GEICO Gecko
and Cavemen, Discover Card Peggy, the FreeCreditReport.com band, the UPS
Whiteboard campaign, Emmy Award-winning projects for the JFK Presidential
Library and Museum and the Oreo Wonderfilled campaign (Last Wednesday,
Martin parted ways with the BFGoodrich tire company after nearly 10 years
"because of their changing scope and priorities.")
3. what do they believe?
good and tough
“beautifully imperfect”
Good means respect, joy, and love. Tough means pushing,
reaching and never settling.
“Our goal is to create
ideas that clients profit
from, people talk about,
competitors envy and our
people are proud of. We
try to do that by instilling
something real and human
into the work; we encourage
our people to put a bit of
themselves into the work.”
-- Mike Hughes
In an industry that is often focused on short-term stunts,
Martin builds long-term platforms based on a deep
understanding of consumer and brand truths. The result is
work that resonates with culture and connects to an idea
that strengthens the long-term equity of the brand. In
short, ideas with staying power. That's why they have had
so many long-term relationships with brands.
“"When you work at The Martin Agency, you work for an
organization that is, like all organizations, imperfect. You have
to work — constantly, diligently — to right what's wrong. And
here's the big question: Will you find joy in this frustrating,
never-ending circumstance — or will you be one of the bitchers
and moaners who are constantly unhappy?" -- Mike Hughes
This means how everybody thinks they want balance in
their life, but they don't believe that is what they really
want. What you want in your life is joy. You want fun and
you want work that is meaningful, and you want to work
with people you care about.
4. geico: “Unskippable”GEICO is a unique account for an agency to work on. The
insurance industry is one of those industries with a large
amount of clutter. Creating advertising that is capable of
capturing the audiences attention and actually holding it is
very difficult. That is probably the reason GEICO have ran so
many different campaigns over the years ranging from the
GEICO Gecko to Rhetorical Questions and now Unskippable.
The 'Unskippable' campaign cleverly place emphasis on the
first five seconds, acknowledging that they only have those
few moments to capture the audience's attention. “TV spots
that are on YouTube often opens with a slow pan camera shot
and you're bored by the time the skip button appears. YouTube
ads should be designed for YouTube. Martin does that here. ”
Even after the first 5 seconds, it's tough to turn off because you
want to see what happens next. Each clip does kind of a riff on
the Police Squad (and later Naked Gun) closing credits, having
the subjects freeze while the world continues to go on around
them.
Another thing I like about this campign is that it is so clever
that people would willingly seeking out the ad on YouTube. So
not only has GEICO crafted an unskippable ad that will be
seen by millions, but millions more will come to watch the ad
on their own free will.
My only concern is that while the joke is kind of funny the
first couple times around, I'm not sure how long the shelf life
is because”all the spots follow the same basic formula. They
mention savings before the five second mark and then weird
“94 percent of pre-
roll gets skipped
immediately after
the first five
seconds.” -- Adweek
stuff happens. I do give
The Martin Agency lots of
credit for finding a way to
make Unskippable”pre-roll
ads, I have a feeling that,
since this is GEICO, this
campaign will be milked
for all it's worth, until we
can't stand it anymore. I
expect this campaign will
also have its fair share of
parodies as well because it
is such a simple idea.
5. ritz: “life’s rich”Ritz's first campaign in 8 years centers around that insight
that living a rich life doesn't come as a result of the size of a
bank account, but from the shared moments, relationships
and interactions you have that matter most. That's the idea
behind Martin's new "Life's Rich" campaign for Ritz. Martin is
capitalizing on the notion that more people value experiences
over possessions. It is about being able to celebrate the
road trips, baseball games and movie marathons, all those
moments where Ritz crackers fit naturally. Because buttery
rich is a good kind of rich, too.
In the commercial, a voice proclaims: “"May you be rich. So
rich, nothing is out of reach,"” while a little kid reaches for a Ritz
cracker covered from under the table.
According to Adweek, the new tagline, “"Life's Rich,"” is a nod
to the crackers original Depression-era positioning as a simple
pleasure during dark economic times.
I like this campaign and I think it has great potential because
it's something that is new for them, so it's a new brand voice
and it takes you back to all the great memories you have had
when you were with your family and friends and just thinking
about those relationships and memories.
To me, this is exactly the kind of work that Martin excels at.
There are of course some rare exceptions, but I think they are
at their absolute best when they are humanizing a brand. Ritz's
"Life's Rich" campaign was just rolled out at the beginning
of April, so there's only one commercial, but they plan to roll
out more in the coming months, as well as a print and digital
campaign.
“we’ve moved to an era that is about
relationships, connections, just
moments” -- Linda Lee, senior director
of the North American cracker
category at Mondelez International,
current owner of Ritz
6. walmart: “steak-over”The premise of the Steak-Over is simple. Walmart went to leading
steakhouses across the country and secretly swapped steaks in
restaurants with Walmart steaks, capturing the whole experience
on hidden camera.
I know this is a simple concept but from a creative standpoint,
it seemed to me like this campaign was a clear rip-off of the
classic "we've secretly replaced their gourmet coffee with Folgers
crystals"”ads from the 80s. I would like to see something fresh and
original, not a rehash of a 35-year old campaign. With that said,
if they're ripping off any commercial where a blind taste test is
involved, Folgers would be a good start.
When the guy says they’re-replacing the steaks in some high-
end steakhouse with Walmart steaks, I had trouble buying in
for a couple of reasons. First, there is no way that they couldn't
know and that they would actually be okay with it. I'm not saying
Walmart steaks aren't good but if I am paying that much money
to go to an authentic steakhouse, I would need a bit of a higher
grade steak. I can just imagine myself out on a date at a very nice
restaurant. It's a bit of a step up from Chipotle on Marshall Street.
This is probably a fancy place with fancy napkins, where I need
reservations and probably dress up a little beyond my usual t-shirt,
hoodie, and jeans. The kind of place I can only afford to go to a
couple of times a year. As we sit down, I scan the dinner menu and
decide that I'm going to live it up and splurge on the Prime Rib for
$42. For that much money, I'm expecting a piece of meat that is
so good, perfectly seasoned and grilled to my exact specifications
that I would never even consider tainting it with a drop of steak
sauce.
Okay, that's my skepticism showing but as brilliant as the Folgers
concept was, I just don't think that it works here. Things have
changed quite a bit in the last 35 or so years. We are more skeptical
and jaded than we used to be. Everybody knows that many reality”
TV moments are carefully planned, staged, and even scripted. Sure,
these folks enjoyed their Walmart steaks, but how many other
restaurant-goers and steak aficionados knew their meat was not
as good as it usually is and sent their steaks back? The on-screen
disclaimer says real customers were shown and compensated for their
time and participation.” Did the people who raved about Walmart
steak walk out with $500 gift cards to Walmart? Were their reactions
really that authentic?
Additionally, Walmart's brand mantra has always revolved around
saving money from "Always Low Prices. Always" to today's "Save
Money. Live Better." I just don't think it works here at a high-priced
restaurant. I know you can get some nice, quality items at Wamart,
and in my experience, their fresh grocery items are probably on par
with most other grocery chains. But convincing me that a Walmart
steak can pass for one at a top notch steakhouse is just too high of a
mountain to climb.
8. vo: “You can’t skip this Geico ad, because it’s already
over. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more
on car insurance”
robbers: put the savings in the bag!
teller doesn’t move (pseudo-freeze frame).
robbers look toward each other confused, jump the
counter take the money
smash the picture of the teller’s cat and take
her protein bar, yogurt parfait, and the basket of
lollipops on the counter.
hear sirens, see cops stationed outside motionless,
open door, look at each other confused, walk past
cops and drive away.
9. “beautifully imperfect”Their work is beautiful and imperfect. As with most agencies, Martin prides itself
on doing the best work possible. They are brutally honest with themselves and
are their own harshest critic. The GEICO work is fun and different. The Ritz work
resonates with people on an emotional level. For as many good campaigns that
Martin has come up with, there are those that have falled flat, but that's part of
the business – it's hit or miss. As their philosophy states, they are tough on the
work and they will continue to be. As Hughes states, "they can always be better."
Martin's work is really at its absolute best when it conforms to the creative
philosophy of putting a human element into the brand.
Martin does great work transforming old companies into new, hip brands. Look
at Walmart, one of the lowest levels of public goodwill of any company in the
universe and even though I didn't particularly like the Steak-Over campaign,
that is not to say that they have not come up with other good campaigns,
because they have such as "Little Things," "Big Sister," and "Every Cart Tells a
Story." They have found a way to humanize them and that is an awfully difficult
thing to do.
humanizing
I'd hire Martin in mostly any situation, but especially if I have a brand and need
a campaign that is more digitally focused. When Martin is challenged to deliver
something out of the realm of traditional advertising, they tend to always excel.
Their digital campaign work is awfully good, even the ones I did not review.
digital and interactive
10. Good to each other. Tough on the work.
Good place to stay. Tough place to leave.
Good to each other means respect. love.
Teamwork. Collaboration. Open minds.
Tough on the work means push. Reach.
Stretch.
Don’t settle. Work hard.
Have a point of view. Be honest. No B.S.
Good and tough makes everyone better
at their jobs,
and life.
just plain better.
good and tough.
11. references
4 A's (AAAA). (2014). AAAA Agency Search: The Martin Agency Inc.. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from https://ams.aaaa.org/eweb/
content.aspx?WebCode=ViewAgencyInfo&AgencyKey=9ee5f7bd-fcb7-4c71-98ca-76f8c503f413
Buss, D. (2012). What's at Steak for Walmart? More Meat Sales (and Grilling) - brandchannel:. Brand Channel. Retrieved 24 April
2015, from http://brandchannel.com/2012/06/28/whats-at-steak-for-walmart-more-meat-sales-and-grilling/
Nudd, T. (2015). Ad of the Day: Geico Makes Clever Preroll Ads That Are Basically Unskippable. AdWeek. Retrieved 24 April 2015,
from http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-geico-makes-clever-pre-roll-ads-are-basically-unskippa-
ble-163233
Oreamuno, I. (2006). Agency Profile: The Martin Agency. Ihaveanidea.org. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://ihaveanidea.org/
articles/2006/02/13/agency-profile-the-martin-agency/
Parekh, R. (2012). Martin Agency Founder Dave Martin Passes Away at 82. Ad Age. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://adage.
com/article/agency-news/martin-agency-founder-dave-martin-passes-82/237554/
Richmond Times-Dispatch,. (2015). Martin Agency drops BFGoodrich as client. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://www.rich-
mond.com/business/local/article_cdd2de40-306a-5e99-a2f4-d715443eb86f.html
Smiley, M. (2015). US Ad of the Week: Ritz 'Life’s Rich'. The Drum. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://www.thedrum.com/
news/2015/04/22/us-ad-week-ritz-life-s-rich
The Martin Agency,. (2015). Where We're From. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://www.martinagency.com/history
The Martin Agency,. (2015). Who's With Us. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://www.martinagency.com/client
Winiecki, S. (2013). The Beautifully Imperfect. Richmond Magazine. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://richmondmagazine.com/
news/the-beautifully-imperfect-12-23-2013/
