Dr Mumbo

Agency says it with rhino dung

Taboo is an agency that has a policy of being non traditional. Dr Mumbo knows this because their press release says so.  

taboo-press-releaseLast week he had three different contacts from the Melbourne agency, which he must confess he’d never previously come across

First an email arrived.  It must have been important because it was written in an unusual brown font and every word was underlined. Sadly that particular stylistic choice (click on the image to see it marginally more clearly) made it virtually unreadable, but it felt important nonetheless.

Important enough to open up the attached press kit, which contained profiles of two of the senior staff.

First up, MD Andrew Mackinnon:

“Separating Andrew from Taboo, and Taboo from Andrew is difficult. Their symbiotic relationship is what makes Taboo so special as both a business and as a workplace.

“Andrew isn’t a standard case study; he’s a different kind of mind. The unusual cog and wheel contraption that runs his brain is more difficult to understand than a Sodoku Rubik’s-cube.

“But it’s this bizarre functionality (and it is highly functional) that helps him deliver such a fresh approach to communications, he explains that ‘we utilise non-traditional media to gather information, network with consumers and opinion leaders, and think strategically to develop new marketing platforms.'”

 Then strategy director Richard Hack:

“Richard Hack is a man of many talents.

He grows an awesome beard, rocks sweet check-blazers, and explains complex marketing executions in a way that a mentally deficient sloth can quickly comprehend.

Rich’s business ideologies are backed by some serious industry knowledge and understanding. His exceptional list of academic achievements is a marvel in itself – Master of Business Administration, Bachelor of Business Marketing, Lord Mayor’s Award for the Creative Industry 2007, The Mentre Commercialisation Innovation Award 2007, and most recently, winner of Melbourne University Entrepreneurs Challenge 2008.

Consider this brief rundown of academic achievements, then add to it his extensive list of business achievements (including a Guinness World Record for largest underpants) and you’re left with a quite unique and brilliant individual whose vision and foresight has helped to craft Taboo’s current business ethos.

rhino-dungThen the phone rang. It was a very nice person from the agency. She’d seen that Mumbrella had been writing about social media, and she was checking we’d seen the press release they’d sent, as social media was one of their things.

Really? Were there some examples she could give of the sort of campaigns they’d worked on?

There was something of a pause; then she went away to ask someone.

Perhaps it might be better to wait until a package arrived in the mail, she eventually suggested.

The package arrived the next day. It was a jar purporting to contain Rhino Dung Facial Cream, with usage instructions written in comedy pidgin English.

While it’s fair to say the proceeedings raised Dr Mumbo’s awareness of the agency, based on the evidence to date, he’s not sure he’ll be recommending it to his friends just yet.

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