DCMN, the growth marketing specialist best known for its creative TV spots like last year’s Clash of Kings testimonial with football superstar Bastian Schweinsteiger, is getting a supercharge of creative power with the hiring of Michael Dunlap as Creative Director, starting this month. Dunlap is part of a bigger strategic shift for DCMN’s creative leadership, which also included creating new positions for Executive Director Creation and Production (Katrin Kolossa) and Head of Production (Vanessa Zimmermann).
Dunlap, who is half-German half-American, comes equipped with 15 years of experience at agencies like BBDO Proximity, fischerAppelt, Scholz & Friends and Heimat, not to mention a laundry list of awards from the advertising industry including multiple medals from ADC, Eurobest, ame and Montreux, and finalist placements at Clio and Cannes. He’s ready to take on the challenge of working with DCMN’s clients, who are exclusively digital brands.
"This position is particularly exciting for me because in the past I’ve worked with very well-established companies that have very precise ideas about how they want to present themselves,” Dunlap says. “DCMN works with young digital companies, in addition to more established brands. Such young companies make quick decisions. We usually develop a communication strategy together with them, which involves more of a conceptual ping pong. For these young customers, it is not a question of just developing a campaign idea. They are out to create a completely new brand world.”
The DCMN Creation and Production team has developed drastically over the last six years since its humble beginnings as a small, production-only team for performance campaigns. As DCMN itself has expanded – registering over 100% growth in both revenue and employees year after year – the creative team has more than doubled in size, allowing them to take on more ambitious campaigns.
At DCMN, Dunlap, together with Kolossa and Zimmermann, will primarily focus on the creation as well as in-house production. Founded in 2010, DCMN is well-known in Germany and across Europe for its expertise in media buying (both offline and online) and as an innovative pioneer in creation.
“In the beginning of DCMN, we took care of primarily startups – now we’ve expanded to a broader understanding of digital brands, big and small,” says Katrin Kolossa, Executive Director of Creation and Production. “The more our clients grew, the more our approach has also adapted. We started to build a creative team with a lot of international talents, and to expand our product portfolio – for example, developing the brandformance strategy, specifically for digital brands, that combines the storytelling elements of a branding campaign with the revenue-driving power of performance.
“The combination of technique and creativity is unique at DCMN. We are very happy to have an experienced creative director with the hiring of Michael Dunlap, who understands our holistic approach and is able to creatively implement and further extend our strategy."
DCMN cut through the noise in 2016 with its high-profile creation for Clash of Kings featuring German star footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger, shot live on location in Manchester with renowned director Markus Walter. More noteworthy campaigns in 2016 were TV spots for Shoop, DeinSchrank and TeamShirts. DCMN also expanded into radio with creations for Foodspring and Mr Green.
