Dave Damman has disproved Thomas Wolfe’s adage that you can never go home again. Damman recently returned to Fallon Minneapolis as a group creative director. He worked for Fallon from 1999-’05, having a hand in notable work for Lee Jeans, Timberland, Holiday Inn Express, United Airlines, BMW, Citibank, Sony and International Trucks. The Lee Jeans fare included the classic Buddy Lee campaign.
In ’05, Damman moved to WestWayne, Atlanta, where he was co-executive creative director with fellow Fallon alum Bobby Pearce. There he gained D&AD competition recognition for Bell South’s “Kung Fu Clowns,” a TV spot which also helped earn Rocky Morton a Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award nomination for the best commercial director of ’05.
Later Damman and Pearce partnered to launch their own Atlanta shop, Damman Pearce. A tough economy resulted in that agency shuttering, with Pearce going over to BBDO Atlanta and Damman now reuniting with former colleagues at Fallon.
Prior to joining Fallon the first time around, Damman began his career as an art director, working for several agencies, including Saatchi & Saatchi in New York, Tracy Locke in Dallas and Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis. Along the way he tried three times to get into Fallon, his dream agency–and finally the third time proved to be the charm.
Damman isn’t the only notable creative to recently come back to Fallon. Earlier this year, Chris Wiggins returned to the agency as a creative director. Wiggins too scored some memorable accomplishments at Fallon. In ’98 he came aboard Fallon Interactive and was part of the team responsible for the groundbreaking BMW Films.
Now Damman gets the chance to again collaborate with Wiggins and other Fallon staffers, as well as new talent that’s come into the shop. Damman feels he is rejoining Fallon at an opportune time.
SHOOT: What attracted you back to Fallon? What opportunities did you see for yourself at the agency?
Damman: Fallon has always been a destination agency for me, dating back to when I didn’t even know what I wanted to do for a career. When I was studying in the graduate communication design program at Pratt [Institute], I never considered being an art director and much less at an advertising agency. But I looked at the awards annuals, the One Show book, and my favorite work was most often from Fallon.
When I eventually decided to get into the advertising agency business, Fallon was the place I wanted to work. It took me awhile to get there the first time but it was worth the wait.
And in many respects, my early admiration for Fallon and my desire to be part of the agency never left me–even after I ended my first tenure here. It’s hard to describe. It goes beyond words. I felt a strong magnetic pull to the Fallon culture and what the agency stood for and the personalities who created it.
And now that I see how the agency is picking up momentum and starting to get back to where it once was, the attraction is there for me again.
[Executive creative director] Al Kelly is putting together a tremendous team of smart, nice people. Having Chris Wiggins back here again is a major plus both creatively and on the interactive front.
The blend here is ideal–people who were part of the older Fallon, have had success here and know what it takes; and new talent that has great spark and drive.
It’s very much like a football team–a mix of veteran stars and talented people who are early on in their careers. You have the seasoned locker room leadership to mentor the infusion of new talent. To my way of thinking, this is the best mix for success. And to extend the analogy further, team work is critical.
I’m not coming back here to put out fires. Rather I’m being asked to contribute to the momentum that’s being built here.
You look at the recent work and see that the agency is returning to its innovative, creative roots. The new Holiday Inn Express work is the best that Fallon has done for the account–and that’s saying a lot because there’s a history of terrific work there.
The new Travelers “Umbrella” campaign is also so strong, as evidenced by the “Delivery” spot [directed by MJZ’s Rupert Sanders] which recently earned a primetime Emmy Award nomination, which is an honor in and of itself.
Fallon’s new space is also a definite asset. You want to be in a space you feel comfortable in because you’re going to spend a lot of time there. The new digs are just great and conducive to collaborating.
SHOOT: What lessons did you learn from having your own advertising agency? And which of those lessons do you now bring back to Fallon?
Damman: Every client is sacred. I have a newly discovered appreciation for client-agency relationships in a way that has nothing to do with the creative department.
A struggling economy had a lot to do with our struggles [at Damman Pearce] and you learn a lot from that. Trying to start something from nothing is a difficult task.
For those who have done it and sustained it, I have the deepest appreciation. I now more fully realize what Pat Fallon was able to do. here.
When you have an advertising agency, there are two expenses. You write checks for the talent and to pay for the space the talent works in. Fallon has ideal situations on both those scores.
At Damman Pearce, Bobby and I billed ourselves as creative content providers. And that’s systemic to what Fallon is about. So we were definitely on a parallel track.
Whether it’s traditional or nontraditional media, it’s entertainment. Bill Bernbach said that advertising is persuasion and persuasion is an art. And you have to be true to that art no matter what platform you’re using. That’s the bottom line.
SHOOT: Still you come back to Fallon at a time when new forms of content are gaining prominence. What’s your take on the different creative opportunities that have emerged?
Damman: I’m not much for all the language thrown about regarding this–“media agnostic,” terms like that. As far as I’m concerned, you can throw away those terms. They sound good but what do they really mean? What purpose do they serve? They divert your attention away from the core essential.
Fallon’s president Chris Foster showed us a very simple business plan. It all revolved around what they call “the big idea.”
This may seem simple and it’s been said before but it’s all too true. For our clients and our brands, it’s all about a big idea. You need the idea before you can even consider the media platform or platforms.
SHOOT: Why did you choose advertising as a career? What led you into this profession?
Damman: I hadn’t considered it at first when I was studying graphic design at Pratt.
But then I took this course in advertising design. I had gotten my undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and suddenly I saw this career path, advertising design, which encompassed what I had come to love–psychology, design, art, collaboration and the opportunity to create.
That’s how I first began to seriously think of a career as an art director. And soon I knew deep down that advertising was the right career path for me to embark on.
