1. the
martin
agency

2. Welcome to our beautifully
imperfect company.
Thus reads the training manual provided
to new Martin Agency employees.
Authored by Mike Hughes, President
and formerly the Chief Creative Officer,
it speaks to the core differentiator of
the Martin Agency, the quiet humility
of a group that has nothing to prove,
unencumbered by the weight of hubris.
Agency Overview
Situated in sunny Richmond, Virginia, the
Martin Agency’s main office staffs about
550 employees. A smaller office in New
York City provides ancillary services.
The agency’s billings, roughly $600
million, up from $100 million 25 years
ago, come from a roster of blue-chip
clients including NASCAR, GEICO,
The American Cancer Society,
UPS, Walmart, PING, and more.
Big wins in the last six months include
Benjamin Moore & Co., Oreo, Timberland,
and Colonial Williamsburg. According
to Chairman John B. Adams, the agency
has a batting average of 60 to 80
percent of the accounts they pitch.
“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
Martin’s Philosophy
“Do work you love with people you love.”
Expressed in that line is both a creative
and business philosophy that is at
the core of the company’s culture.
With that tagline and Mike Hughes’ legacy,
we expect the campaigns that we review
from The Martin Agency to leverage on
positive emotions: advertising campaigns
that meet this criteria will be funny,
happy, romantic, or heartwarming. To
leverage on negative emotions, like fear,
scarcity, or self-doubt, may be effective
advertising, but it’s not right for Martin.
Joe Alexander, Chief Creative Officer
since 1992, offered the following advice
on creating Martin-quality work:
“Don’t be cynical. Find the joy in doing
the work. Build the joy into the work.
This is Mike’s legacy and what he taught
all of us. We are not a factory where
people punch a clock. We are a messy,
imperfect, living, breathing studio
full of inventors and tinkerers. But we
should never put the end result over
the means. The people, the laughs,
the ups and downs of the process, are
what sustain you. And what will last.”

3. Campaign Review
GEICO
GEICO is a unique account for an agency
to work on. Because the insurance indus-
try is a parity industry with a large amount
of clutter, creating stunning advertising
capable of capturing and holding the
attention of the public for weeks as a
campaign runs is a tall task for anyone.
That’s likely the reason behind
GEICO’s decision to run multiple,
overlapping campaigns, including:
• The GEICO Gecko
• Maxwell the Pig
• The GEICO Cavemen
• Rhetorical Questions
• Short Stories and Tall Tales
• An Easier Way to Save
• Get Happy, Get GEICO
Here, I’ll review the Get Happy work.
SIMPLY Analysis
Strategic - The creative simply
states the selling proposition of GEICO
insurance: it could save you 15% or more
on car insurance. It then elevates this
statement with creative work that shows
how happy this will make the purchaser.
Altogether, a clear and understandable
expression of GEICO’s differentiator.
Intrusive - Earlier legs were more
intrusive, e.g. Gallagher in a farmer’s
market. It’s hard to ignore a cultural icon
doing the thing he’s most well-known for.
Later executions, e.g. Paul Revere with a
cell phone, really fail to grab and hold the
attention of the viewing audience.
Memorable - Compared to most of
the other advertising in the world, the
GEICO work is clearly memorable, but
compared to the other campaigns created
for GEICO, particularly the Cavemen
or the Rhetorical Questions campaign,
this particular campaign falls short.
Persuasive - There’s little here to
convince me that buying GEICO’s insur-
ance will make me happier than a compet-
itor’s, but it does build brand recognition.
Lasting - The death of a GEICO
campaign is often without much fanfare.
The company simple retires actors and
ideas after the campaign has run for a few
months. It’s this judicious management of
campaign burnout and the selection of
big ideas with legs that secures GEICO’s
position as some of the most memorable
and well-liked advertising on television.
Yours - I’m not certain that GEICO owns
happiness: that is and always will be a
Coca-Cola brand equity. It will take more
than this to wrest it from their hands.

4. Campaign Review
BFG Awesomecross
The challenge with tires is that all the
general public knows is that they need
them. Brand loyalty is low because most
buyers want something cheap that won’t
burst on the road. Upselling this customer
to a performance tire isn’t always easy.
The definition of an integrated campaign,
the team brought influencers from around
the Internet onto the track for a test drive.
The track and car were equipped with
sensors that tracked the car’s movement
and the participant’s excitement level.
Influencers went back to their blogs and
publishers to write their experiences, and
BFGoodrich used footage from the event
to fill a YouTube channel, create a series of
commercials, and prepare a case study.
SIMPLY Analysis
Strategic - Aiming to create an influ-
encer-to-advocate model exceuted via
social media, the strategy of bringing in
prominent bloggers to actually experience
the event is a great strategic move.
Intrusive - Influencers are used
for their ability to break through the
clutter. If I read a blog, I’ll read its
featured review of the BFGoodrich
tires, too. Solidly innovative idea to
measure the output of the machine and
provide a quantifiable link between the
tires and the emotions of the driver.
It brings the advertisement to life.
Memorable - The campaign is an
amazing convergence of data, digital,
design, social all in a live event. As
memorable as it was for the people who
drove the cars, there’s a gap between
experiencing this and seeing a video of
it. I’m not confident the creative work
sets the bar where it needs to.
Persuasive - I now believe that if I have
a sports car, I need a set of performance
tires from BFGoodrich. The phrase used
by one driver, “these tires bite the road,”
captures the essential reason for buying.
Lasting - Most likely a one-off cam-
paign for a single product. No clear direc-
tion for this campaign to go in the future.
Yours - BFGoodrich’s entire brand
equity is about fun behind the wheel,
and this campaign illustrates how
much fun drivers have when they’re
using BFGoodrich tires. Clearly adds
to BFGoodrich’s key brand equity.

5. Campaign Review
ManpowerGroup
The “Humanly Possible” campaign for
ManpowerGroup, a staffing and HR
firm, shows the value of hiring people
who don’t fit into boxes. The campaign’s
taglines include “Steel and steam did not
build the industrial age,” and “Rockets and
algorithms did not launch the space age.”
The campaign was launched to transform
the image of ManpowerGroup from a
company that provided low-skill labor, i.e.
“manpower,” to a company that provides
high-skill talent, i.e. “man power.”
SIMPLY Analysis
Strategic - The campaign positions
the brand as purveyor of high-talent
individuals, rockstars who can elevate
a company to a new level, separating it
from other HR firms by juxtaposition.
Intrusive - It’s worth noting that B2B
publications are lower clutter than other
media. The strong message conveyed
in the ad carries enough weight to be
intrusive on its own. Simple colors and
clean execution. Fits the bill of what the
target market is likely to find compelling.
Memorable - The tagline and accom-
panying visual leave just enough to the
imagination to make them worth the read.
This makes them worth remembering.
Persuasive - Because the opinion
expressed is an unarguable, central truth
of the human experience, the message
is believable. What sets this ad apart is
that it positions ManpowerGroup as the
HR company that cares about people.
Lasting - The campaign idea
has broad shoulders and long legs.
Endless executions abound that
can show the ManpowerGroup’s
commitment to the Human Age.
Yours - ManpowerGroup has owned the
most important element in hiring talented
professionals, the human element, simply
by defining it.

6. Campaign Review
Walmart Steak-Over
The premise of the Steak-Over isn’t
anything new. In a classic taste-test
challenge, Walmart went to leading
steakhouses across the deep south,
replaced their steaks with Walmart
steaks, and recorded the results.
SIMPLY Analysis
Strategic - Walmart has an issue with
public perception of their meat section.
Many customers refuse to buy their meat
at Walmart. The campaign clearly meets
the strategic objective of the brief.
Intrusive - Launched just prior to
Memorial Day Weekend 2012, the
campaign speaks to something that’s
on many minds across America: what
they’ll serve at the BBQ this year.
Because it taps into what people are
curious about, they’ll pay attention.
Memorable - The point of a
Walmart campaign is to increase sales
after customers are already at the store.
The commercial aims to change the
thoughts that consumers have in the
meat aisle, thoughts like “I won’t even
look at the meat here,” into a potential
purchase. It will be hard to forget this
commercial after you’re primed by the
Walmart meat section to remember it.
Persuasive - The taste test challenge
is a time-tested persuasive technique. This
particular campaign hits home for me be-
cause I’ve had Walmart meat, and I have
little faith in it. Maybe it’s an issue with
how it’s handled or how long it sits out
on the store shelves. Walmart’s campaign
fails to answer these questions for me.
It most likely delivers in persuasiveness
for a less-skeptical audience, either an
audience that hasn’t had negative experi-
ences with Walmart steaks or an audience
that doesn’t know what good steak is.
Lasting - If the campaign represents
a real change in the quality of Walmart
meat, this could have lasting reprocus-
sions on the business that Walmart’s meat
section does. Steaks are a gateway drug to
the rest of the meat section. If we can con-
vince people to try a Walmart steak and
then deliver on the quality promise, there
will be a definite uptick in steak sales.
Yours - Since the campaign is specifical-
ly about Walmart’s steaks, and is answer-
ing an objective specifically to Walmart’s
meat section, there’s little to be said here.

7. Campaign Review
Hanes ComfortBlend
This Hanes campaign advertises a
tagless line of Hanes products, called
ComfortBlend. Product packaging
encourages you to “feel the softness.”
The proposition delivered in the
advertising is that you don’t need to
wear kittens to have a soft shirt.
SIMPLY Analysis
Strategic - Psst, Martin Agency,
your strategy is showing. The brief said
“ComfortBlend is the softest shirt on the
market.” What’s the softest thing on the
planet? Kittens. Let’s make a shirt out of
kittens. Nobody stopped them, so this
commercial was produced. Poor form.
Intrusive - The simple fact is that Hanes
relies on the Michael Jordan factor to be
intrusive. He’s the only reason that people
watch their commercials. The creative
needs to introduce him earlier in the
spot or else lose out on the MJ effect.
Memorable - I’ll have forgotten it ten
minutes after I finish this campaign review.
How can an ad be memorable if it doesn’t
leave an impression on its viewers?
Persuasive - I’m not sure softness is
the unique selling proposition that Hanes
should leverage. I don’t purchase clothes
with softness in mind, and this commercial
does not give me a compelling reason to
add softness to a list of factors I consider.
Lasting - The commercial fits with
Hanes’ existing ComfortBlend campaigns
illustrating their softness. There’s no
question as to whether we see many
more humorous Hanes commercials,
but will we see any good ones?
Yours - Does Hanes own comfort?
It had better after thirty years of
advertising. Throughout the brand’s
history, comfort has been at the
core of Hanes’ positionings, and this
campaign continues to position Hanes
squarely at its key brand equity.

8. You know, Randy, folks who buy
GEICO insurance sure are happy.
How happy are they, Jimmy?
Happier than a ventriloquist
playing Marco Polo.
Get Happy. Get Geico. 15
Minutes Could Save You...

9. You know, Randy, folks who buy
GEICO insurance sure are happy.
How happy are they, Jimmy?
Happier than a bearded lady
after a circus performance.
Get Happy. Get Geico. 15
Minutes Could Save You...

10. The Martin Agency has
delivered, time and again,
cutting-edge, award-
winning campaigns,
but that’s not enough
for its creative team.
“We always fail more than we succeed.
Everyone who sets really high goals
does. Our recent work has been more
stylish, but it hasn’t always come from a
bold enough premise.” -- Mike Hughes
Being an agency that is brutally honest
with itself, some of the campaigns are
too harshly judged. The GEICO work is
fun and irreverent. The Walmart work
resonates with people. ManpowerGroup’s
work is successful at defining to HR
managers what really matters in hiring.
With other campaigns, like the Hanes
work, Mr. Hughes is accurate when he
says the agency fails often. The spot I
reviewed has fallen a long way from “Wait
till we get our Hanes on you” and “Look
who we’ve got our Hanes on now.”
“Can we do better? Oh yeah. We
can’t ever be good enough.” -- Joe
Alexander, Chief Creative Officer
The work really delivers best when it
conforms to the creative philosophy
of putting something human into it.
Martin’s an agency that can deliver cliché
results for groundbreaking clients or
groundbreaking work for cliché clients,
and what you get may be hit or miss.
I’d consider hiring Martin on the kind of
campaign that needs an integrated or
interactive solution. When the agency
is challenged to deliver something of
this nature, they tend to excel. Their
integrated campaign work is awfully good.
They do great work transforming
stodgy old companies into chic, hip
brands, too. Walmart has one of the
lowest levels of public goodwill of any
company on the planet, yet the agency
has found a way to humanize them. So
too have they done great B2B work for
ManpowerGroup and Morgan Stanley.
The work is, like the
company, beautiful
and imperfect.