• by Christine Bittar , April 18, 2006

Imagine creatives, media planners, account personnel, and other agency staffers working on a campaign surrounded by empty pizza boxes and crumpled papers on the floor. At Organic in San Francisco, this setting isn't a conference room but an environment constructed to mimic the surroundings of "Roberto," a fictitious target consumer for DaimlerChrysler's Dodge Caliber.

The campaign for the Caliber, set to launch by early fall, will target a frustrated copywriter in his mid-30s. He has Maxim Online bookmarked on his PC and a half-empty bottle of Gatorade on his desk. It doesn't seem too hard to conjure a mental picture of "Roberto," but Colleen DeCourcy, Organic's executive creative director, says that "persona" rooms can be eye-opening, and allow the agency to target the right consumers while also creating a dialog between agency employees.

DeCourcy describes a discussion among staffers about where Roberto might buy his pizza. There had been a Dominos box in his room, she says, until it was decided after 20 minutes of discussion that he would bring his lunch back from a local mom-and-pop pizzeria.