» CHAMILIA SELECTS BARRIE D'ROZARIO MURPHY AS AGENCY OF RECORD

February 22, 2011

Minneapolis, MN (February 22, 2011) - Minneapolis-based Barrie D'Rozario Murphy (BD'M) today announced that it has been selected by personalized jewelry accessory company Chamilia, LLC as agency of record for development of its brand campaign.

Minneapolis-based Chamilia is a fast-growing jewelry accessory brand with global distribution concentrated in North America, Europe and Australia.

Chamilia selected BD'M following a competitive review process. The agency's assignment will include brand strategy consulting, offline and online advertising, as well as media planning and buying. "We chose BD'M because they understood the passion our customers have for the fashion designs we create that allow consumers to express their personal style," said Claudio Garcia, chief sales and marketing officer. "BD'M wowed us with ideas that we believe will help us achieve our growth goals."

"Everyone at the agency who worked on this pitch was taken by the artistry, culture and people at Chamilia," said David Murphy, co-president and director of brand innovation at BD'M. "We look forward to a very collaborative partnership."

» BARRIE D'ROZARIO MURPHY WINS DELL PUBLIC BIZ.
Consumer, business-to-business contests continue

Andrew McMains

JANUARY 26, 2011

Barrie D'Rozario Murphy has won lead creative duties on the global advertising that Dell directs at public institutions, Dell has confirmed. The client previously estimated account revenue at $3-5 million.

The hire comes several weeks after two other contenders—Dentsu America in New York and the incumbent, WPP Group's Young & Rubicam in San Francisco—were cut, according to sources. Sources identified the fourth contender as Interpublic Group’s Campbell-Ewald in Warren, Mich.

Dell becomes one of the largest clients at Barrie D'Rozario Murphy, a four-year-old independent shop in Minneapolis, which also works for United Airlines, Best Buy (new initiatives) and Bissell.

Yet to be resolved are parallel contests for creative duties on ads directed at consumers and those targeting small- and medium-size businesses. Total revenue across all three creative assignments—consumer, small/medium businesses, public institutions—is estimated at $30 million.

Final presentations for the consumer and small/medium biz accounts are slated for early next month at Dell's headquarters in Round Rock, Texas. Sources identified the consumer finalists as independent Venables Bell & Partners in San Francisco, WPP Group's Taxi in New York, independent Mother in New York and the incumbent, WPP's Wunderman in New York.

The finalists for small/medium businesses are Interpublic Group's Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos in Boston, Omnicom Group's Martin/Williams in Minneapolis, Havas' Arnold in Boston and incumbent Wunderman in New York, according to sources.

Select Resources International in Santa Monica, Calif., is managing the review process.

» HOW MILLENNIALS CAN CHANGE MADISON AV.
Twenty-somethings can rock the advertising world. Ad agency bosses should get a clue.

David Murphy

August 22, 2010

Listen in on most brand planning meetings and one word comes up over and over -- Millennials. Sometimes called GenY or EchoBoomers, this is the generation born between 1982 and 2000. Millennials are no longer on the playground; they're running companies (Mark Zuckerberg), entertaining (Rihanna) and winning Olympic Gold (Shaun White). To marketers, Millennials represent a 76 million-strong, brand-conscious demographic.

Recently, however, I've started viewing this generation through a new lens. Beyond being a coveted media target, the very characteristics that define this generation make them extremely well-equipped to redesign the modern advertising agency.

Why? Because Millennials are widely viewed as a generation of collaborative, tech-savvy, multicultural, problem-solvers -- the very skills necessary to address the questions marketers voice about their advertising agencies.

To illustrate the opportunity, let's examine some of the defining traits of Millennials, as outlined by Lynn Lancaster and David Stillman in their recent book, "The M-Factor," and examine how a career in advertising meshes with these values.

Millennials are inherently collaborative: This is a generation that believes "we is greater than me." They've been working in teams since kindergarten as classrooms emphasized group participation. Soccer became the suburbs' biggest after-school sport because it prizes team flow. Advertising is a great profession for people who thrive on collaboration. The agencies that are succeeding are those that have banished silos, where media, creative and strategy form one big mosh pit of ideas.

Millennials are the first multicultural generation: This generation has grown up in a time in which the United States experienced dramatic growth in immigration and racial integration. Multiculturalism is simply a fact of life for this group, reinforced early on by "Sesame Street," and later in the classroom, as well as in film and music. Let's face a hard truth: The advertising industry needs to do a better job when it comes to diversity. This is not simply a politically correct goal -- it is an economic imperative. We're in the business of helping clients connect with main street America. Agencies succeeded at this over the decades largely because we mirrored the face of America. This may no longer be true. Millennials can help improve our ability to connect with multicultural America.

Millennials want to be innovators and problem-solvers: Marketers hire us because the lines on the graph are heading the wrong way. At the core, advertising professionals solve problems by inspiring clients to embrace new solutions. More and more, these solutions involve online, mobile and social media. Millennials have been training for this job since birth.

Millennials want to feel they are contributing: Boomers and Xers often label Millennials a needy group requiring constant feedback. To be sure, this is a generation that received trophies for simply participating, not to mention endless reinforcement from their "helicopter parents." Advertising is an excellent career for people who thrive on instant feedback. Whether you're writing the TV spot, mapping the online user experience or crunching the numbers for the media plan, your work is out there for all to immediately applaud or critique.

Millennials want a job in which they can be heard: On the night before a pitch, a great idea knows no title. If you are a so-called "junior" and feel you have the answer, despite the fact that your title has half the syllables as that of your boss, shout it out and be prepared to defend your point of view. Come ready to play.

Millennials want to make a difference in the world: Like it or not, we live in a consumer culture bombarded by media in all its forms. Young professionals can get intimately involved in creating marketing ideas that make a difference. Witness Pepsi's strategy to crowd-source world-changing ideas, Target's support of the arts, Best Buy's @15 teen program, or Ford's support of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Millennials want to express who they are through work: An agency is like high school for grown-ups. You can earn social currency through your individual sense of style, taste in music, tattoos or social causes. We really don't care if you are gay, straight, indie, emo, conservative or downright crazy, just as long as you come through when it counts.

To capitalize on this opportunity, the advertising industry must begin making a clear case why this profession should attract this generation's best and brightest. After all, this is a career that stands at the nexus of business, media, entertainment, technology, pop culture and any and all new trends.

Most importantly, senior leaders of advertising agencies should stop dwelling on what they had to do back in the day to get ahead and instead unleash the creativity of the twenty-somethings buried in their agencies.

» BISSELL PROJECT TO BARRIE D'ROZARIO MURPHY
C-K in Milwaukee remains client's lead agency

David Gianatasio

June 29, 2010

Carpet and home-care company Bissell has tapped independent Barrie D'Rozario Murphy in Minneapolis for a new product launch following a review.

The scope of the work, which breaks in 2011, includes advertising, design, digital and collateral, as well as strategic planning.

Bissell evp, chief customer officer Jim Krzeminski lauded the agency's creativity and strategic insight as the reasons for its hire.

The budget for the work and nature of the product being launched are undisclosed. All told, Bissell spent more than $40 million on ads in each of the past two years, and almost $20 million so far in 2010, per Nielsen.

Independent Cramer-Krasselt in Milwaukee is the client's lead agency.

The agency said the win was important because it represents a new segment for BDM. Also, the assignment helps the shop maintain momentum following its addition of new business from Del Webb and United Healthcare Group.

Other clients include United Airlines, Best Buy and Applied Materials.

» CULTURE CLUB

David Gee

January, 2010

Do you want to start an agency?" said Fallon vet Stuart D'Rozario to his former and current colleague, Bob Barrie, over cocktails late one afternoon several years ago. The reply, "Can I tell you in the morning?" As you might imagine since you are reading this story, the answer did indeed come back in the affirmative and thus began a new agency called Barrie D'Rozario. Astute readers, however, will no doubt note there is a Murphy missing from the BDM triumvirate.

"We agreed that we needed a third partner on the strategy side," continues D'Rozario, "and I told Bob I had once met this cool ad guy, David Murphy, several years earlier and that he might be a fit. At that time, Murphy was president of the combined offices of Young Rubicam and Wunderman in Southern California. I looked him up and found he had moved on and was running the 300-person Saatchi & Saatchi LA office. So we both said to ourselves, 'Good luck with that.' called David anyway and said, 'Do you remember me? We met five years ago. How would you like to leave your job, and run away and join the circus?' One thing led to another, and four or five months after the phone call it all came together."

On April 1, 2007, Barrie D’Rozario did, indeed, become Barrie D'Rozario Murphy.

"The draw and the lure is having the opportunity to partner with other people who have a similar vision of what the culture should be like," says Murphy answering his own question—and mine. "The world doesn't need another ad agency, but when you have people who understand the role of culture, the right culture, the right people will be attracted to that and the right clients will value that. We have the same passion, the same interests and it's very collaborative."

"That said, we are very different people with different perspectives," interjects Barrie. "I'm the guy who has spent my entire career in Minneapolis; five years at a couple of retail shops and then 24 at Fallon. Stuart, on the other hand, has worked in Seattle, Hong Kong, Boston and Bombay, and David was born in Pakistan and has worked all over the world as well."

Having given up successful jobs in other places, the three now work together in a clean, crisp, open space on the second floor of the Wyman Building, to create and collaborate and run an "agency with no walls." And, as per their own verbiage, they do just that:

No walls between BDM and the clients …

"We think of it as one team," says Murphy. "We don't think of it as us and them. Clients say to us all the time, 'don't give me the org chart, just give me a handful of people that are going to make us successful.'"

No walls between BDM and other partners working for clients …

"We're obviously independent, and that has its blessings," says Barrie. "We can collaborate with virtually anyone in the world without undue influence to use a certain company or person simply because they're 'in the network.' The model has become that clients don't have just one agency anyway, they tend to work with a lot of agencies. Whether we are the lead brand agency, like we are with United, or a supplemental support agency, like we are with Best Buy, we play well and collaborate with others. A lot of agencies are real competitive and constantly jostle for position, but we found our work is better and the mood is better if we approach it as 'we're all in this together.'"

No walls between people of different disciplines in the agency…

"My pet peeve has long been the creative department," says D'Rozario, a former creative director at Fallon. "Everyone thinks it's 'hallowed ground,' this special place. The one thing we will never have at BDM is a creative dept. It's all just smushed together."

Of course, there are only a couple of dozen people "smushed together" at BDM, as opposed to the several hundred people at places where the three principals have worked previously. What about the head count? The infrastructure? The heads of the big agencies in New York, Chicago and L.A. will obviously always say size matters. Does it still in the ad agency world? I asked David Murphy.

"When I was running the Y&R shop in LA, I developed this game that I used with people in response to the question, 'What's the agency going to do about this or that?' I'd say there's no such thing as 'the agency.' Because for Callaway Golf, one of our clients, there were seven people. That was the agency to the client. For Sony it was 22 people. So it really comes down to small teams. There are never 200 or 300 people working on one client's business. The team we have working for BDM on United's account is no different than the number of people who would be working on it at a bigger agency. One thing that is different, however, is that bureaucracy and compartmental silos do not encumber our team. We have the same brain power, the same resources, but they are more directly applied to the client and their jobs."

So you can make the argument size doesn’t matter, but awards always do. And the BDM crew scored a big one this past fall when they came out on top in the small agency category for the American Association of Advertising Agencies O'Toole Award for Creative Excellence. And they took out a full-page ad in the New York Times (see sidebar) to tell the world about it.

"We got phone calls and emails for days, including from people who aren't even in advertising!" says Barrie excitedly. "They were sitting in a coffee shop and calling saying how much they loved this ad because it spoke for the little guy."

"We had a lot of fun with it, but it was actually kind of a risk," adds Murphy. "The industry is starved to have a point of view and it was really kind of cheeky."

"I actually wrote the ad sitting at the kitchen table," says D'Rozario. "It has helped bring us some business, and we enjoyed it, but then you move on. The biggest thing about awards is that clients are hiring us to make them more successful and it gives them confidence that we are successful ourselves."

And as the ad says, the agency's principals do want BDM to grow. However, they are quick to add—in unison—they want responsible, healthy, organic growth so the agency doesn't get too big, too fast, and implode on itself as they have seen others do. And that involves not only paying attention to revenue and head count and clients, but also the culture.

"One thing I have learned here at BDM is it really is all about the culture," Murphy closes. "Everyone has the same processes, the same flow charts, etc, but it's the culture that makes things happen."

» SMALL IS BEST

Neal St. Anthony

November 9, 2009

Barrie D'Rozario Murphy (BD'M) claimed 32 medals, more hardware than any other agency, at the recent annual awards ceremony of the Advertising Federation of Minnesota. The recognition follows being named "Best Small Agency of the Year" by the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

The 3-year-old agency, founded by veterans of Fallon, was recognized for work on behalf of United Airlines, Best Buy, Applied Materials, Chambers Hotel and others.

BD'M's "It's Time to Fly" commercials for United Airlines earned national awards this fall from the Association of Independent Commercial Producers and the Museum of Modern Art. BD'M's "Art Video" for the Chambers Hotel won a Gold Lion in June at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France.

Fallon won this year's top honor at the Minnesota ceremony, or "Best of Show" winner for its client, the Ladders, an online executive recruitment website.

» BARRIE D'ROZARIO MURPHY DOMINATES TWIN CITIES AWARDS SHOW

October 26, 2009

Minneapolis, MN (October 26, 2009) - Minneapolis-based Barrie D'Rozario Murphy (BD'M) dominated the local advertising award show—The Show—last Friday night by winning 32 medals, far more than any other agency. Bestowed annually by the Advertising Federation of Minnesota, BD'M's recent honors follow on the heels of September's national 'Best Small Agency of the Year' recognition awarded by the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

Winning in practically every category, work on behalf of clients United Airlines, Best Buy, Applied Materials, Chambers Hotel and the Sunset Marquis Hotel swept the event by earning: 12 gold; 8 silver; and 12 bronze medals.

"We're flattered to have done so well at The Show, especially since this in such a terrific advertising town, with so many great agencies, and so much excellent work," said Stuart D’Rozario, co-president and creative director.

The local award show rounds-out a stellar year for the agency that won three prestigious CLIOs for the United Airlines' "It's Time to Fly" campaign. Additionally, two commercials from the campaign were recognized with top honors by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where the work is now within the museum's permanent firm collection.

BD'M's "Art Video" for the Chambers Hotel won a Gold Lion in June at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France. The attention-getting video was also honored by the AICP and MoMA and now resides in the museum’s permanent collection.

The Show was hosted at the Epic Nightclub on Friday, October 23 to honor the best work in a broad range of categories. Nationally recognized creative directors from leading firms outside the Twin Cities market served as judges.

» THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ADVERTISING AGENCIES HONORS BARRIE D'ROZARIO MURPHY AS "BEST SMALL AGENCY"

September 22, 2009

Two-year-old Minneapolis agency recognized for creative range and excellence

MINNEAPOLIS – September 22, 2009 – Minneapolis-based Barrie D'Rozario Murphy (BD'M) was named 2009 "Best Small Agency" by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) Monday in New York. With the honor, BD'M received the O'Toole Creative Award, a top industry award for overall creative excellence and consistently high standards.

The O'Toole Award honors work across a range of clients and media. The small agency award recognizes agencies under 100 people. BBDO New York and Bartle Bogle Hegarty won Best Large and Best Mid-size Agency, respectively.

"We are thrilled to be chosen as the best small agency in the country, and even more pleased that it is for a lot of work done for our big and wonderful blue chip clients: United Airlines, Best Buy & Applied Materials." said BD'M Executive Creative Director Stuart D'Rozario. "This has been a stellar year for the agency." In addition to D'Rozario, the agency is led by principals Bob Barrie and David Murphy.

Awards mounted for BD'M this year with three prestigious CLIOs for the 2008 United Airlines' "It's Time to Fly" campaign and an Annie Award from the International Animated Film Society for Best Animated Television Commercial of 2008. Additionally, three commercials from the agency were recognized with top honors by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where the work is now within the museum's permanent film collection. A film for the Chambers Hotel in Minneapolis won a Gold Lion in June at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France and now also resides in MoMA's permanent collection. The BD'M Gold Lion was one of only two awarded for film to U.S. agencies.

» LITTLE AD AGENCY ADVERTISES ITSELF

Lewis Lazare

September 28, 2009

Barrie D'Rozario Murphy/ Minneapolis did something extraordinary last Wednesday. The small ad agency that counts among its key clients Chicago-based United Airlines, took out a full-page ad in the New York Times touting the 2009 O'Toole Award that BDM just received as the best small agency in America. The American Association of Advertising Agencies hands out the O'Tooles annually to honor the nation's finest small, medium and large agencies.

The BDM ad was unusual because it is an example of something we rarely see in the ad world nowadays, namely ad agencies advertising themselves. "It's what we tell our clients to do, so we figured that we should, too," explained Stuart D'Rozario, the founding partner at BDM who wrote the copy-heavy ad seen in the N.Y. Times. The ad cost the small shop a solid five-figure sum to run, but it did what it was intended to do - attract attention. "We've gotten many e-mails," D'Rozario said.

We asked D'Rozario why he thinks ad agencies don't heed their own advice to clients and advertise themselves more often. He claimed not to know for sure, but suggested agencies simply might be otherwise focused. D'Rozario was too diplomatic to mention it, perhaps, but we suspect one reason is that most agencies are now far more concerned with their bottom lines than they are in aggressively branding themselves as outstanding shops where clients should take their business.

Though BDM is only 2 1/2 ears old, we weren't surprised by the agency's O'Toole honor. The work the shop has done for United Airlines is the kind of breathtaking and breakthrough work seldom seen anymore. Reason enough for a small but smart ad agency to win awards and run big ads about itself.

» BARRIE D'ROZARIO MURPHY MOCKS BIGGER AGENCIES IN AD
SAYS IT'S IN SPIRIT OF FUN, CELEBRATION — AND JEALOUSY

Rupal Parekh

September 24, 2009

Barrie D'Rozario Murphy was elated to pick up a 2009 4A's O'Toole Award for the Best Small Agency earlier this week at a ceremony on the first night of Advertising Week in New York. But while the bubbly flowed, the Minneapolis-based shop took a moment to douse a lil' lighthearted fuel on the fiery David vs. Goliath agency debate. Barrie D'Rozario took out a full-page ad in the New York Times yesterday that congratulates its fellow O'Toole winners, and issues them a warning, too: "Congratulations BBDO and Bartle Bogle Hegarty. We're coming after you."

The tongue-in-cheek ad, penned by agency co-founder Stuart D'Rozario, goes on to jab its larger competitors. "Honestly, we'd rather be a medium or large agency," it says. "They get to charge three times what we do for the same work ... and best of all, their agency heads get to just show up at pitches, make fancy presentations and then disappear."

Ouch.

But before all the folks over at BBDO and BBH get their feathers all ruffled, (the ever-so-aptly named) co-founder David Murphy, who incidentally was a big agency exec over at Saatchi & Saatchi not so long ago, wants everyone to know that the ad was "all in good fun." It's just about his shop being "the new kid that comes along and pokes at the established leaders," Mr. Murphy said.

"We're simply jealous," he said. "As Bob [Barrie], Stuart and I tell people, we can't wait til we're big and fat too!"

» BARRIE D'ROZARIO MURPHY WINS GOLD LION FOR FILM AT CANNES

June 30, 2009

A 30-minute "Art Video" created by agency Barrie D'Rozario Murphy (BD'M) for the Chambers Hotel in Minneapolis won a Gold Lion award for film last weekend at the 56th Annual International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France. The Gold Lion is considered one of the advertising industry's most coveted honors.

One of only two U.S. agencies to win in the festival's film category, Minneapolis-based BD'M was recognized for an attention-getting video created to draw customers to the Chambers' bar – and to complement the hotel's collection of original contemporary art. Viewers are led to believe they are privy to live surveillance shots around the hotel. It includes shots of actual guestroom interiors interspersed with a variety of staged scenes – a nun praying to a man in a chicken costume, an alien in the hallway to a blow-up doll on a bed. Guests who failed to get the joke shared their concerns about the scenes they were seeing with hotel management.

"Non-traditional marketing is crucial these days," said Stuart D'Rozario, BD'M co-president and executive creative director. "So, it's particularly nice to be recognized with Gold in the film category."

The Chambers' hotel video also took top honors recently in a competition sponsored jointly by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

"Chambers has always celebrated the work of great artists," said Ralph Burnett, owner of the Chambers. "Now it's nice to have our own work celebrated by Cannes and the Museum of Modern Art."

The Chambers' video tours the United States in an event sponsored by AICP and MoMA. The video will be archived in MoMA's permanent film collection.

» AMERICA'S COMMERCIALS AT THE OLYMPICS

Stuart Elliott

August 25, 2008

AFTER two weeks of watching Olympic commercials on "the networks of NBC Universal," as the employees of General Electric so grandly put it, it is time — at long last — to present imaginary medals in a post-Games advertising review.

Most of the thousands of spots that ran on networks like CNBC, NBC, MSNBC and USA expressed sentiments familiar to viewers of so-called big events on television. Patriotism is good. Striving for athletic achievement is noble. The world would be a better place if we all drank the same beverages, drove the same cars, shopped at the same stores and bought things with the same credit cards.

And too many commercials relied on predictable images to evoke China for Western consumers: dragons, pandas, ninjas, the Great Wall and homages to (or parodies of) "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Still, there were spots that stood out because they expressed familiar thoughts in a new fashion or they actually offered, as the Monty Python folks would say, something completely different.

Make-believe gold medals go to commercials that were actually worth watching. Some dreadful commercials are receiving lead medals, for base (and debased) performance. Some spots that fell short or rang false are getting tin medals.

UNITED AIRLINES - Some of the best Olympic commercials were for the struggling United Airlines unit of UAL. Exceptional animation made them lovely to watch, and lush versions of "Rhapsody in Blue" made them a pleasure to listen to. A spot featuring an orchestra of sea creatures was superb. Gold.

» BARRIE D'ROZARIO MURPHY GOES FOR GOLD WITH UNITED'S OLYMPIC CAMPAIGN

Bob Geiger

August 22, 2008

Despite turbulent times for the airline industry, Chicago-based United Airlines fielded five – count 'em, five – intricately produced TV ads that portray the "relaxing and rewarding" international travel experience during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

That campaign, the first fielded by Minneapolis ad agency Barrie D'Rozario Murphy (BDM), debuted Aug. 8 during the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Games, continue United’s "It's time to fly" ad campaign that targets business and international travelers.

Neither Barrie D'Rozario Murphy executives nor its spokeswoman, Jeanne Carpenter, would reveal United's ad budget for the Olympic Games. But the placement cost of the ads by the cash-strapped airline, which trade journal Advertising Age this week reported intends to stop serving free meals on many international flights, easily compares with presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain.

Democrat Obama spent $5 million to advertise during the Olympic Games, only to be outspent by Republican presidential candidate John McCain, whose campaign spent $6 million.

United's opening ceremony spot, a 60-second work called "Sea Orchestra," depicts a host of sea creatures serenading a United jet as it flies. A unique version of George Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue," reminiscent of the days of legacy airlines, serves as the musical score.

Other spots in the campaign and their focused are "Heart," portraying United's role in reuniting a husband and wife; "Two Worlds," a portrayal of the effect of international travel on passengers; "Moondust," a artistic take on flying United's new international first and business class cabins; and "Butterfly," a 30-second spot promoting international and business class travel.

"To have this body of advertising break during the Olympics is very gratifying," said Stuart D'Rozario, co-president and executive creative director at BDM. "It seems to have caught the attention of broad body of people, people who wouldn't usually be engaging in it.”

That makes sense because of the blanket coverage that NBC game the Olympic Games during prime-time broadcast and cable networks. Other Olympic Games programming was available on Spanish-language network Telemundo; CNBC after the financial markets closed; early morning programming on MSNBC; and overnight on USA Network.

The campaign's ads, particularly "Sea Orchestra," are "as intricate as they come," said D'Rozario. That intricacy is reflected by the world-wide pool of creative talent tapped for the campaign, which took six months to create, he said.

They include a brief voice-over by actor Robert Redford, custom "Rhapsody in Blue" scores played by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Symphony, and a piano duet featuring jazz legend Herbie Hancock and Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang.

In a statement accompanying the campaign’s launch, Dennis Cary, United's senior vice president of marketing, said, "Unveiling new ads during the Summer Olympics provides us with a high-profile, worldwide stage to effective showcase the comforts of our new first and business class service." Perks of that service include what United claims is the first "lie-flat" bed to comfort first and business class passengers during lengthy overseas flights.

While the Olympics provided a world stage for BDM's United campaign, the marketing effort will continue after the last medals are given out, with print and online ads complementing the airline's broadcast campaign.

Although impressive, BDM’s campaign for United – the agency's first campaign for the airline – came 16 months after United shifted its ad account from Fallon Worldwide to BDM, which was founded by late 2006 by ex-Fallon executives Bob Barrie and D'Rozario.

Shortly after opening, the agency hired David Murphy, the former president of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising's Los Angeles office, as co-president and executive director of brand innovation.

Besides United, BDM clients include Best Buy's home appliance division; Applied Materials, a California-based manufacturer of semiconductors and solar panels; the Sunset Marquis Hotel and Villas in Hollywood, Calif.; and the Chambers Hotel in Minneapolis.

The campaign continues the advertising theme that initially was introduced during the 2004 Academy Awards show. The Beijing Games mark the 28th year that United has been the official airline sponsor of the U.S. Olympic team.

» CAMPAIGN FROM UNITED A WORK OF EXCELLENCE

Lewis Lazare

August 8, 2008

Frankly, we were totally transfixed as we watched five new United Airlines commercials that will be unveiled beginning today to coincide with the start of the historic Beijing Olympics. Over the past eight years, we have written about a few commercials that were indeed great. But nothing comes close to matching the exquisite beauty of this new advertising from United Airlines (a U.S. Olympic team sponsor) and its ad agency Barrie D'Rozario Murphy/Minneapolis.

Gloriously subtle, yet unmistakably grand and stunningly artistic, this United work effortlessly does everything the finest advertising should do -- including the most elemental things such as actually selling a product and burnishing a brand. It must be noted, unfortunately, that this uncommonly special work -- committed to and largely paid for last year -- comes as United is struggling mightily to stay aloft during an extraordinarily turbulent period in aviation history. It is impossible to predict just how United will fare, but at least the airline has magnificent new advertising to help "lift up the brand," as United's marketing honcho Dennis Cary so aptly puts it.

All but one of these five new "Time To Fly" executions are designed to spark travelers' interest in United's new international business class product with lie-flat seats, now being rolled out across the airline's wide-body fleet -- a process expected to continue into 2010. Each commercial is executed in a different, lush style of illustration. Each features its own nuanced orchestration of United's signature piece of music, Gershwin's joyful "Rhapsody in Blue."

It's hard to choose a favorite among the five spots. But if forced to, we'd go with "Sea Orchestra," the first ad viewers will see. In it we watch a massed gathering of exotic sea creatures on a reef in the middle of the ocean perform "Rhapsody." The music builds to a wonderfully full symphonic finale as we watch a passenger in a plane overhead gazing on the reef below and voiceover talent Robert Redford (yes that Redford) tell us flying across the ocean will never be the same again. The level of detail in "Sea Orchestra's" animation must be seen to be believed.

"Two Worlds" impresses in a quite different way as it melds two markedly different styles of animation to make the point about the presumed pleasures of United's new premium product. The spot starts with images of an executive looking rather downtrodden as he walks along a crowded city street drawn in black and white. Suddenly, a United ticket folder sails out of the man's hand and through a window in a door, which he opens to retrieve the ticket. The man suddenly enters a colorfully festive world that captures something of the uplift provided by United's new premium international service. When the man alights once more on the city sidewalk, the drab cityscape starts morphing from black and white to color.

One of the new spots just misses the supremely high mark set by the other four. It is the brand spot called "Heart," which has Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang and jazz icon Herbie Hancock joining forces to deliver underscoring that is their softly romantic take on "Rhapsody." Here we see a female business exec saying goodbye to her husband and quietly depositing her symbolic "heart" in his pocket before a business trip that at one point has her interacting with a bird in a way that didn't quite work for us.

But that is a mere quibble. This distinctive United advertising is sure to dazzle for decades to come. It makes viewers feel good about both a brand and a particular product without resorting to any of the pedestrian show-and-tell tactics we find in so many ho-hum television ads. All who hope to create ads that endure should look long and hard at this work and learn from it. And bravo to United Airlines and Barrie D'Rozario Murphy for this gift of unforgettable advertising.

» WHAT THE AUTO INDUSTRY CAN LEARN FROM APPLE

David Murphy

July 15, 2008

Like hundreds of thousands of people across the country, I stood in line this weekend at the Apple Store in Newport Beach to buy the new iPhone 3G for my daughter after three unsuccessful attempts at nearby AT&T stores.

Witnessing this exuberant demand for a new product made me wonder if this feat could be repeated in other categories, such as the auto business. What would an automaker have to do to seduce consumers to stand in line to buy a hot new car? Here are some lessons from the iPhone:

Functionality: Auto execs pondering how replicate the iPhone's commercial and cultural success would be wise to note that the iPhone is not simply a marketing phenomenon. The iPhone is a breakthrough product. It revolutionized the mobile phone business through design, features and functionality.

One way for auto companies to create breakthrough products may be to begin thinking like a consumer electronics brand. Technology brands are the new car. Throughout the last century the automobile stood for freedom, mobility and joy. Cars represented modern life at its best. Today that role is served by each new smart phone, gaming system, wafer-thin laptop or lifelike home theater that joyfully proclaims that today is better than yesterday. An automaker should commit to creating a truly modern car, a car that democratizes the latest technologies; a car that liberates us from tired compromises by proving that design and performance go hand-in-hand with safety and environmental responsibility; a car that is an extension of the personal technologies we use to make our lives smarter, more organized and more entertaining. Create a car that joyfully proclaims that today is better than yesterday.

Design, design, design: The iPhone looks like nothing else. It took no cues from category norms. It wasn't an exercise in incrementalism, as if often the case with domestic auto design.

Cult of celebrity: Auto companies tend to believe "celebrity" is attained by having A-list actors and rappers drive the car. In Apple's case, its celebrity is organic. Steve Jobs is a celebrity. Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head of design, is a celebrity. It is time to elevate the automotive designers to be the face of the company instead of the suits. Let's see these designers on the cover of Fortune, People and Vanity Fair. After all, at their core these companies are industrial design firms.

To fast track this cult of design celebrity car companies should enlist a hot industrial designer (Yves Behar) or an accomplished architect (Frank Gehry) to create the next "must have" design of the year. And I don't mean creating a "Cartier" edition, which usually means a special trim package. Fully empower this outside designer.

Limited supply: Here’s a very simple rule: a company shouldn’t produce more product than it can sell. Sounds simple, but seldom happens in the car business. Limiting supply negates the need for brand-sucking discounting and creates a perception of rarity that strengthens the marketer's pricing power. Apple is genius at this.

New distribution model: Sales associates at Apple stores are extremely well trained and are living ambassadors of the brand. Consumers may not get this same experience from car salespeople. So here's where the auto companies need to swallow a brave pill. Don't sell this hot new car through dealerships. Signal change by changing how the car can be bought. Establish centrally located viewing galleries – in shopping malls, in airports, in downtown business districts – staffed by the same well-trained ladies and gentlemen hired for car shows. Sell the cars there or online. And, knowing that state franchise laws don't allow cars to be sold without dealers, give dealers a reasonable commission on all sales that take place in their designated sales area. Dealers must be properly compensated because they play a crucial role in providing ongoing service. (Fixing a car is a tad more complex than fixing an iPhone.)

Advance buzz: When Apple launched the original iPhone it created a huge amount of buzz and curiosity by doing the opposite of what auto companies tend to do: Apple said absolutely nothing. Auto companies tend to debut the concept car three years in advance at an auto show, create microsites for sneak-peeks, and give the buff books early test drives in return for good coverage. And what happens in return? The buzz peaks well ahead of the product's retail launch. The new mantra must be to reveal less and intrigue more.
 (Dealers did this quite well back in the days when they'd cover up new models until launch day to keep curious faces pressed against store windows.)

Apple did all of this and more. Breakthrough product. Inspiring design. Smart pricing. Clever marketing. Seems so simple. And therein lies the beauty of Apple's success.

» BEST BUY HOME LIFE TO BDM

Aaron Baar

September 20, 2007

CHICAGO Best Buy has tapped independent Barrie D'Rozario Murphy as lead agency to handle its Home Life business after a review, according to the company.

The Minneapolis retailer's Home Life business focuses on appliances. Best Buy's lead agency, Omnicom's BBDO in New York, which won the company's $170-200 million account in June, couldn't take on the business due to a conflict with retailer Lowe's.

"This is another step in our ongoing effort to have meaningful dialogue with consumers," said Ruby Anik, Best Buy's svp, marketing, in a statement. "BDM brings innovative creative thinking that will enhance our ability to make real connections, particularly with female consumers."

The Minneapolis boutique, which was formed by former Fallon creatives Bob Barrie and Stuart D'Rozario, and former Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles president David Murphy, will handle all communications surrounding the Home Life business. While the shop will not work directly with BBDO on the account, advertising— expected in 2008—will reflect the tone and style of the lead agency's brand work.

Billings and contenders were not disclosed, though co-president and ecd D'Rozario said the company "identified this as a very important area of their business and is investing accordingly."

» TIME TO FLY: BARRIE D'ROZARIO MURPHY GETS OFF THE GROUND WITH UNITED AIRLINES WIN

Dixon Galvez-Searle

July 12, 2007

This April, United Airlines surprised industry watchers when it pulled its account from long-time agency Fallon (Minneapolis) and awarded the business to start-up Barrie D'Rozario Murphy (BDM), also based in the Twin Cities. The reasoning behind the move? BDM co-founders Stuart D'Rozario and Bob Barrie, who created signature United work at Fallon before forming their own shop. SCREEN caught up with D'Rozario to talk about the big win and what the future holds for BDM.

SCREEN: BDM is still relatively new. Why did you and your partners decided to start your own agency?

Stuart D'Rozario: It's something we all wanted to do and [have] thought about doing for years. It just seemed like the right time to do it – for us and for where the industry is going. Clients right now seem to be very [open] to working with smaller, newer shops.

We first kicked off in September of last year – Bob Barrie and myself. Our third partner, David Murphy, joined early this year. [Our challenge] was twofold – one part was setting up the infrastructure for the company and the other part was getting all the right talent in place.

How does your experience with BDM, which is a smaller agency, compare to your experience at Fallon?

We were actually very happy at Fallon. We didn't leave because of anything lacking – it was more of an opportunity. I think [that] in this business there comes a time, for certain people, when you just feel you have to do something on your own and that's the decision we made.

It's more liberating right now and it's great for clients because as an independent company you can work with and partner with whoever you need to. Part of our agency is our 'no walls' philosophy. It's about working differently within the company and with clients and partner agencies.

This is a really fast-changing and exciting time in the business, with the changing media landscape and all [of] the creative entities [that] are part of the advertising creation process. Being independent, we can partner with whoever we want to on specific projects. We still have people on staff, as always, but it's more liberating now.

What is the relationship between yourself, Bob Barrie and David Murphy? How do you complement one another?

Bob and I have been partners for a while now. I'm from a copy background and he's from an art background. David Murphy is from the business side. It's a complementary set [of skills] from that point – there's two creative people and one strategy person.

But we don't really think of things that way. Part of the 'no walls' idea is not dividing things into disciplines. There will be a time when we need a copywriter to be writing quite a bit of copy, but as we tackle problems and solve them, the three of us approach it as three people trying to solve a problem with the client, with partners and with other people in the company.

Can you tell me more about the United Airlines account win? How did the conversation start and how did you gear up to take on such a big client?

They approached us and started the discussion. [United] made a decision with Fallon independent of [our account win] and they were considering the next move.

We had already been working on a couple of other smaller clients before that, so certain fixtures of the infrastructure were already starting to fall into place and certain staffing was starting to come together. But with United, being familiar with it and having worked on it before, we knew exactly what kind of people we needed to build the team.

It was actually very manageable. We still had to move fast and pull together the right team of people in a short period of time, but it was surprisingly manageable and doable. We're fortunate that a lot of very talented people were interested in joining us and working with United.

You were involved with the creation of the "It's Time to Fly" campaign for United. What are some of the most important elements of that campaign and how do you envision it continuing at BDM?

That campaign has animation and illustration as the foundation and it's about really making an emotional connection with frequent business travelers. It's important that a brand like United can be elevated by communications at every touch point. So whether it's a ticket jacket or a TV commercial or a poster at the airport, they need a look, feel and tone of voice to do justice to a great brand.

What are some other defining characteristics of BDM, aside from being the agency that won United as a start-up?

We work with one other client – the Sunset Marquis Hotel in L.A. – but agencies are defined by the company they keep. It's a privilege to be associated with United right now. As we get other accounts, I think a big part of it is making sure that we form the right partnerships with the right brands and the right people on the client side. That, I think, will continue to define the agency.

» UNITED AIRLINES AWARDS CREATIVE ACCOUNT TO START-UP AGENCY

Stuart Elliott

April 5, 2007

United Airlines today dismissed Fallon Worldwide in Minneapolis, which created campaigns for the airline since 1996, and awarded its creative account to a start-up agency in Minneapolis, Barrie D'Rozario Murphy. Two of the three principals of the start-up worked on the United account at Fallon before leaving in November.

United, part of the UAL Corporation, spent $54.8 million on American advertising last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks ad spending, and $78.4 million in 2005.

The two principals of Barrie D'Rozario Murphy who worked at Fallon are Bob Barrie and Stuart D'Rozario; they helped produce the current United campaign, "It's time to fly." Fallon was named the sole creative agency for United in 2001 after sharing the assignment for five years with Y&R Advertising in New York, part of the WPP Group.

The dismissal eliminates Fallon from the United agency roster. Fallon had shared the United media planning and buying account with another WPP agency, Mediaedge: cia, until last month, when United consolidated the assignment at Mediaedge: cia.

» UNITED AD SHOCKER: Exclusive Shifts account away from Fallon/Minneapolis to follow those who created successful 'Time to Fly' campaign during airline's darkest days

Lewis Lazare

April 4, 2007

United Airlines will stun the ad world today when it shifts its advertising account from Fallon/Minneapolis - its home for a decade - to a startup boutique agency, Barrie D'Rozario Murphy/Minneapolis.

United now will become the new shop's flagship account. Per United Senior Vice President of Marketing Dennis Cary, the shift to BDM was designed to ensure the airline's forceful and wonderfully sophisticated "It's Time to Fly" ad campaign is sustained at the high level it has been at since being launched three years ago United also recently announced it is consolidating all of its media buying with Starcom MediaVest in Chicago.

Cary is convinced the airline made the right move to go with BDM for its creative. Two of the principals in the new agency, Stuart D'Rozario and Bob Barrie, were instrumental in the original creation of the United campaign when they were top creatives at Fallon. Both Barrie and D'Rozario left Fallon some six months ago. David Murphy, former president of Saatchi & Saatchi/Los Angeles, recently announced he would join Barrie and D'Rozario.

From its inception, the "It's Time to Fly" campaign, with its exquisite illustration-focused executions, has soared high above other airline advertising, and has given United a distinctive brand image that, according to Cary, the carrier intends to stick with for the foreseeable future. "It really is a timeless campaign, and one we are committed to," Cary said.

The unusual campaign Barrie and D'Rozario brought to fruition was conceived at a time when United was in dire straights. But even so, the bold, memorable advertising, with its effective emotional hook, was intended to remind business travelers that United, despite its financial hardships, was still the carrier of choice for the frequent business traveler. The campaign's uniqueness and creativity have earned it numerous awards. Two television spots, in fact, are now part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.

In the first rounds of television spots, D'Rozario and Barrie reached out to an eclectic group of top-notch illustrators. Each of the television spots was scored with a richly detailed orchestration of United's signature theme song, Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

Julie Koewler, United's managing director, marketing communications, said the first major wave of new "It's Time to Fly" work from BDM probably will arrive in the fall, as United begins the two-year process of significantly upgrading its premium-class service on international flights. Other advertising to come will focus on United's tie-in as the official airline sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on all NBC telecasts.

Of course, the move of the United Airlines account to BDM means the departure of an especially high-profile, award-winning account from Fallon, which won the business 10 years ago when the carrier, to the surprise of many, dumped Leo Burnett/Chicago. Burnett had coined the familiar phrase "Fly the Friendly Skies," a term many believed no longer was the right one for the times when the account left the agency.

» UNITED AIRLINES SHIFTS TO STARTUP

Aaron Baar

April 4, 2007

CHICAGO United Airlines has shifted creative duties on its estimated $100 million account to startup agency Barrie D'Rozario Murphy, the shop has confirmed.

The account had previously been at Publicis Groupe's Fallon in Minneapolis, where two of BDM's principals had worked on the business.

BDM founders Bob Barrie and Stuart D'Rozario created the carrier's animated "It's time to fly" campaign while at Fallon. BDM launched less than a month ago in Minneapolis.

"We are delighted to have the opportunity to continue stewarding United's 'It's time to fly' campaign," said D'Rozario, who is co-president and executive creative director at BDM, in a statement. "It's exciting to represent such a great brand and continue creating ads that depict in an unforgettable way United's unique understanding of the frequent business traveler."

United's "It's time to fly" effort was distinguished by its use of animation to tell stories. One spot, which was nominated for an Emmy in 2004, showed a man heading to a job interview in a distant city. While on his way there, he discovered he was wearing two different colored shoes. Despite the faux pas, the man landed the job. All the spots continued to use United's long-running theme music, Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

Fallon will work on the account for the next 90 days. An agency representative said no layoffs were expected as a result of the loss, which will end a 10-year relationship.

United last month consolidated its global media planning and buying account at Publicis Groupe's Starcom USA after a review. The business had been split between Fallon, which handled U.S. planning and print buying, and WPP Group's Mediaedge:cia in New York, which handled broadcast buying.

Sources said global ad spending in 2007 could exceed $100 million. The company spent $55 million on domestic advertising last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

» SAATCHI, FALLON EXECS IN STARTUP

Gregory Solman and Aaron Baar

March 20, 2007

LOS ANGELES David Murphy has stepped down as president of Saatchi & Saatchi in Torrance, Calif., to join two Fallon execs in a startup called Barrie D'Rozario Murphy.

The boutique agency will be based in Minneapolis, but its client list is currently undisclosed. Bob Barrie and Stuart D'Rozario are Murphy's partners in the new venture.

D'Rozario and Barrie were creative partners at Fallon, working most recently on United's animated "It's time to fly," campaign.

The new agency, which is being set up as a full-service marketing company, will ultimately look to foster collaboration across all disciplines. "We will draw inspiration not from the conventions of advertising, but from the worlds of design, new media, architecture, pop culture and technology," Barrie said in a statement. "True innovation springs from the collision of these different perspectives."

Saatchi's current leadership team in Torrance will assume Murphy's duties.

Key players in the office include ecd Harvey Marco, strategic communications director John Lisko, director of planning Mark Turner and Chuck Maguy, director of the idea management group.

Murphy joined the agency in December 2005, a month after he left WPP Group's Y&R in Irvine, Calif., and oversaw one of the busiest periods of activity in the history of Saatchi's main client, Toyota Motor Sales, also in Torrance.

Toyota launched or relaunched five vehicles in the last 15 months, including the largest car launch since 2001 (for the redesigned Camry) and the largest push in the history of the company for the new Tundra truck. But Murphy, known as an aggressive new business leader at Y&R, brought in no significant new business to Saatchi's portfolio.