If the name Marty Orzio sounds familiar, there’s a good reason why. Orzio—who joined BBDO Chicago as chief creative officer in February—has been a major player in New York advertising for more than 15 years, creating a slew of award-winning spots for clients like Forbes, Sprite, Citibank and, most notably, Mercedes-Benz.
Yet it’s the less glamorous, behind-the-scenes work he did for the cholesterol medication Lipitor that makes him the most proud. "We created a real team of people that admired and respected each other’s talents," says Orzio, who headed up the Lipitor account at Merkley Newman Harty|Partners (MNH), New York, where he served as an executive creative director. "As soon as we had a strategy, we briefed everybody. There was somebody from direct mail, somebody from interactive, somebody from general consumer. It wasn’t like the guys working on the TV [campaign] were going to come up with the idea and then pass it off to the other disciplines. Everybody worked together, and everybody on that team still keeps in touch with one another."
Orzio has already brought that inclusive managerial style to his new roost. "We have a real nice relationship with [fellow Omnicom subsidiary] Corbett [Worldwide Healthcare Communications, Chicago]," shares Orzio, who in his new role oversees 11 creative teams at BBDO. "When I was here for only a week, and there was a little crisis with a [pharmaceutical] client, I said, ‘You know what? Let’s just throw their creatives and our creatives in a room together, tell them the problem and let them work it out.’"
And work it out they did. "If you’ve hired the right people, they can work together that way," Orzio says. "There are some people who are not really good at collaborating. I think that a lot of agencies have an elitist attitude running through the creative department. The [creatives] won’t talk to account people, and they certainly aren’t going to talk to the pharmaceutical guys or the direct mail guys because they think they’re a bunch of hacks. You can’t have integration in agencies like that."
Direct Attitude
The decidedly non-elitist Orzio shares a special affinity with those "hacks." His first advertising job was in the direct mail department of Wunderman Worldwide, New York. "I did my job, and when it hit five o’clock, I worked on my portfolio," recalls Orzio, who had previously taught high school English. "I worked on it at lunch sometimes too, and I interviewed around."
Orzio eventually moved to Lowe & Partners/SMS (now Lowe), New York, and stayed there for 12 years, working his way up from copywriter to executive VP/creative group head, and devising spots for a range of high-profile clients. At Lowe, Orzio and fellow creatives Andy Hirsch and Randy Saitta breathed new life into Mercedes-Benz with hip, visually appealing commercials like "Falling in Love Again," which was directed by Gerard de Thame through bicoastal HSI and Gerard de Thame Films, London, and earned a Gold Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in 1997. "As a copywriter, it didn’t get any better than Mercedes," Orzio remembers. "We won virtually every award, got a lot of recognition and sold a lot of cars."
In ’99, after the Mercedes account shifted to MNH, the trio moved there as well. There, they continued to create notable spots such as "Modern Ark" (helmed by de Thame in ’01), which featured a Mercedes being loaded onto an updated version of Noah’s Ark, along with such time capsule staples as a Miles Davis album and an Apple computer.
Orzio also struck out on his own. "We sort of divided and conquered with certain accounts and came together on Mercedes," he shares. "In dividing and conquering, I headed up the Lipitor pitch and won that, and managed some of the work that’s still running."
Orzio’s Lipitor spots are a cut above typically dry pharmaceutical fare. For instance, the clever "Diva"—helmed by Jason Harrington out of now defunct Propaganda Films (he’s now with bicoastal/international Believe Media)—depicts an elegant actress walking across a red carpet as her vital statistics are displayed onscreen, only to trip and fall when her surprisingly high cholesterol count is revealed. "I think it was probably—and still is—the best stuff in the category because of its approach," Orzio opines. "It entertains as well as gives a single-minded idea, so it feels more like a general consumer ad."
As much as Orzio enjoyed working at MNH, BBDO Chicago president/CEO Tonise Paul was able to convince him to relocate. "It was very important that I find a place that shared the kind of values I want to instill in a department," says the creative, who succeeds Phil Gant in the position. (Gant is now executive creative director at BBDO Detroit.) "I found those values in [Tonise]."
The values, as Orzio describes them, can be summed up simply. "It’s the belief that if you do right by people, work will come as opposed to the other way around," he relates. "It’s creating the environment that people need to best express themselves and allowing them to flourish. I think underlying it all is a respect for everybody’s potential."
Still very much in the orientation phase of his new position, Orzio is in no hurry to hire new staff members. "It seems really premature to start off and the next day hire somebody from Wieden or Goodby, and overpay them," he observes. "That is sort of the modus operandi of the business, but I don’t want to do it that way. I don’t think it’s right. I think [creative teams] should feel like ‘this guy went about it the right way, I believe in what he’s doing, and I believe he wants to treat people right.’ It’s long-term thinking as opposed to short-term thinking."
Orzio says he looks forward to working with BBDO’s clients, the largest of which is Wrigley’s Gum. "Orbit and Juicyfruit were doing good work prior to my arrival," he notes, "[but] we will be testing some new spots, and they’re really good as well. The thing is to get [all of the Wrigley account] as good as that, and as distinctive. There are a lot of different gums, and to get each one to have its own personality will be a challenge."
