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The Malcolm Auld Blog

Monthly Archives: June 2015

Energy Australia’s circumlocutious corporate conniptions create confusing customer communications…

29 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Branding, Content Marketing, Copywriting, Customer Service, Direct Marketing, small data, Social Media

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

BIG data, branding, content marketing, copywriting, customer service, Energy Australia, small data, social media

Further to my recent theme about customer service, here’s another large brand struggling with its small data when communicating with its customers.

Energy is a hot topic in Australia at the moment – whether it’s the arguments over wind turbine health issues, leasing the poles and wires to private industry, or the rising costs due to climate change issues, it’s hard to avoid.

Amid the media noise, I received a letter from a General Manager, Sales and Marketing at Energy Australia. I wonder if she even knew about it, because I’m sure someone with such a senior role would have never written it?

I suspect it was curated by someone from the content marketing area of the business – or maybe it was one of those lawyer/copywriters who run marketing communications in most large companies?

Energy Oz075

The purpose of the letter was to advise I would be paying new rates for domestic electricity from 1st July. Upon inspecting the rates in the letter, I discovered there are 5 separate charges for electricity:

  1. Daily Supply Charge
  2. Peak Usage
  3. Off Peak usage (if applicable)
  4. Shoulder usage (if applicable)
  5. Dedicated Circuit

In simple terms charges 1, 3 and 4 are increasing while charges 2 and 5 are decreasing. I have no idea how this effects my overall electricity cost – is it going up or down? Certainly the letter didn’t clarify anything.

Firstly the letter addressed me as “Dear Malcolm Ian“. Why would you address someone by their first and middle names? Looks like their small data has stuffed up. Though one suspects they would have approved data proofs beforehand?

Here’s the first sentence: “We’re writing to let you know your electricity prices will change from 1 July 2015.” I’m sorry, but who is the collective “we” who is writing? The letter is signed by Michelle Monaghan, not by a team. Shouldn’t it have said: “I’m writing to let you know…”

The first paragraph also stated “Your discount percentage and benefits haven’t changed“. Again I have no idea what this means, why not explain them?

The first subhead says: “What does this change mean for me?” Quite frankly, I don’t care two kilowatts what it means for Michelle who wrote the letter. I assume she meant to say “What does this change mean for you?”

Sadly the 34 word sentence/paragraph beneath the subhead, didn’t mention a thing about what it means. It states most other retailers will be reviewing their prices – what has that to do with me? Then it says the review is driven by price changes from local distribution companies, wholesale energy and government green schemes, as well as changing retail prices.

What sort of price changes from which local distribution companies? What wholesale and government green schemes? Are these wholesalers and government greenies in cahoots? Are they causing the increase or the decrease in the prices? And isn’t Energy Australia the retailer? So what are their changing retail costs?

This reeks of obfuscation, deceit and plain “stuff you customer“. Surely a big utility like Energy Australia has a spine? Why can’t they explain the truth rather than hide behind weasel words?

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But they do have a sense of humour. The final subhead said “We’re here to help.” I cracked up when I read that. The next sentence said “we know price changes can be difficult, so we’re here to help as much as we can.”

Here’s a tip for you content curators at Energy Oz – start by writing the truth in plain English in your letters, then it wouldn’t be so difficult for the customer. You’d be amazed at how your customers really appreciate the truth instead of circumlocutious corporate conniptions.

But what I find even more fascinating is why utilities, telcos and banks all try to force you to get your bills by email instead of the regular mail. Yet when it comes to officially covering their corporate butts, they always mail you a letter – never an email. Go figure?

I’m off to write a letter to Energy Oz, just in case their BIG DATA tracking software misses this mention of their customer service. And to find out if my changing energy charges are going to cost me more or less, because despite their letter, I still haven’t a clue…

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Those two marketers walk into a bar and laugh at how smart phones create dumb people…

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Digital, Digital marketing, Social Media

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

smart phones, social media, Two marketers

Are you going somewhere interesting to stare at a screen this weekend?

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avafonefreegoodweegend…

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Good manners will always trump marketing content…

24 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in BIG DATA, Content Marketing, Customer Service, Digital, Digital marketing, Direct Marketing, small data

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

BIG data, content marketing, customer service, digital marketing, marketing, small data, WWF

A couple years ago, the owner of a small industrial supplies company attended a marketing planning course I ran. As part of their situation analysis, they interviewed clients to learn what their clients thought of them.

A number of clients raved about this company’s customer service. Most companies would be happy about this result, but not this one. You see, their problem was they didn’t provide any – customer service that is. They were confused by what their customers were telling them.

customer

Upon further investigation, they discovered the reason. They work in regional Queensland and the fax is still a popular technology. Yes folks, the fax has a long tail. Apparently they receive many of their orders by fax.

In case you have forgotten the fax, when you send one, you don’t really know if it gets through to the intended person. Given this fact, the receptionist at this particular company, took it upon herself to call anyone who placed an order by fax and thank them for their order. She did this because she thought it was the polite thing to do – that is, to confirm the fax was received.

thank you

Consequently the customers, who have never experienced a ‘thank you’ for sending an order before, were highly appreciative and very positive about the company’s ‘amazing customer service‘.

I suggested to the owner that he get the receptionist to always call anyone who places an order, thank them and establish an expectation date for delivery – making sure it was later than the company’s ability to deliver. Then ensure they deliver the goods before the expected date.

This establishes an even better impression in the customer’s mind about the company’s customer service – they always deliver their orders early. And it also ensures the company never needs to discount their products, so it builds brand value and profits.

disappointment-expectation-reality

On another note, I’ve worked with WWF on and off for decades – even dressed as the panda bear to raise funds in my save-the-world youth. They were having problems with retention of donors who’d been acquired after being accosted in the street. These donors were on a monthly direct charge to their credit card. Unfortunately after 6 to 7 months, they started churning rapidly.

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Our solution was simple. Six months after their first donation, we sent a personalised ‘thank you‘ postcard to remind them of how their donations were helping save turtle populations. The ‘thank you‘ was printed using a bubble font in the trail of the turtle’s wake. Very creative and very effective. It stopped the churn and improved the revenue and lifetime value of the donor.

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Bronwyn_F

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People find it difficult to throw away something with a graphical representation of their name – and many of these postcards spent their lives on refrigerators or the walls of office cubicles. These tactile messages are also a far more powerful ‘thank you‘ than an email.

In the modern vernacular you could classify good manners as small data delivered as part of marketing automation. Manners certainly make a big impact on your brand and your bottom line.

I’ve always said “your dollars are in your data” but more often than not, you’ll find there’s more to be made from your small data and some simple manners, than any other tactic – no matter how much content you create.

smile-243583

Thank you for reading:)

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Why don’t big brands like Woolies & Telstra understand customers?

22 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Advertising, BIG DATA, Branding, Content Marketing, Customer Service, Digital, Digital marketing, Marketing, small data, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

BIG data, Coles, content marketing, digital marketing, marketing, Woolies

Further to my last post about Woolies problems, there’s a growing belief in the marketing industry that BIG DATA is distracting marketers from the main game. Just like social media and content marketing have been driven by trend blindness, so too the BIG DATA fashion. Most marketers haven’t a clue about their small data to even contemplate making BIG DATA work for them.

Woolies was so enamored with their BIG DATA, they bought the data analytics company managing it. I have to admit, as an old Seinfeld fan, I cannot get the BIG SALAD out of my mind whenever I hear people use the term BIG DATA.

rakingbigsalad

raking over the BIG DATA in the BIG SALAD…

Given their lack of financial and marketing success, Woolies is obviously yet to reap their BIG DATA benefits. I recently heard an interesting insight from one of their data executives. Apparently they are analysing people’s credit card purchases.

They discovered if you are a male who buys weight loss products for six months, you’re very likely to then purchase “adult services” once you’re looking fit and trim. This brilliant insight will obviously help the adult sex industry. Let’s see, maybe they could advertise their services on low-fat yoghurt labels, or possibly put a neck tag on bunches of kale?

Gotta luv BIG DATA – it’s sooo relevant to the average business.

big-data-cartoon.gif

But let’s not blame the current BIG DATA fashion for the “why don’t they get it?” marketing moments. While speaking at a tourism marketing conference in New Zealand a few years ago, I met Jeanette Kelly. She had spent years working in the hospitality industry. Jeanette presented a wonderful piece of research conducted by the University of Waikato.

What it revealed is a problem all too familiar in the marketing industry – a complete lack of understanding of customers by people responsible for marketing to them.

Scott-Adams-cartoon-21

The accommodation and marketing managers of various hotels, motels, guest houses and the like, were asked what they thought were the most important factors influencing accommodation choices. Here’s what they considered the most important:

  1. Staffing and accommodation service
  2. Room rate
  3. Location
  4. Facilities
  5. Marketing and Sales programmes
  6. Seasonal tourism
  7. Competition from other properties
  8. Supply and demand
  9. Events taking place in the area
  10. The general state of the national economy
  11. The state of the property

The customers were then asked the same question. Guess what the customers listed as the most important factors influencing their accommodation choices?

  1. Cleanliness of the room
  2. Quality of the bath towels and wash cloths
  3. Quality of staff service
  4. Friendliness of staff service
  5. Comfort of mattress and pillow
  6. Quietness of room
  7. Well maintained furnishings
  8. On-premise car parking
  9. Overall facilities
  10. Level of security

As you can see – the marketers hadn’t a clue. In case you’re wondering, ‘room prices’ came 17th on the list of priorities for customers – amazing how small data can help your business.

Telstra is another brand that is out of touch because they ignore their small data. Here’s an earlier example.

More recently though, they have reached new heights – or is that lows? I have an iPhone on a plan, as I was unable to get my Samsung Galaxy to work – here’s why. Twice in the last month I’ve received an email with the subject line: “Malcolm, we have an offer exclusive for you“. I assume they meant to write: “Malcolm, we have an offer exclusively for you” OR “Malcolm, we have an exclusive offer for you“. This grammatical problem typically occurs when you use content marketers instead of copywriters to write your messages.

The offer is for a Samsung Galaxy. Personally I’d like one – as Apple is now the new IBM – do it our way or else. Here’s the email – an ad not a personal message:

telstra 1

Selfies make you feel more in the know – WTF?

telstra 2

I thought I already had a great plan?

telstra 3

Any sane human involved in the mobile phone industry knows the terrible psychological damage caused by trying to switch phone brands, if you use Outlook email on your desktop and want to sync your data. Even worse if you use it via Google Apps. Grown men, champion triathletes, even UFC title holders wither to blubbering wrecks, trying to get a simple transition of their data from Apple to Samsung or vice versa. It can invoke violence on innocent handsets.

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I lost all my contacts because I couldn’t sync my phone…

And Telstra know this problem – particularly relating to me – because it’s recorded in their small data on my account file. It must be after the Great Samsung/iPhone Disaster mentioned earlier. So I assume given my ‘exclusive’ offer, they have looked at my account.

It is not unusual to see a total chasm between marketers and their customers. The recent Woolies debacle is typical.

perception

Quite often what customers want and what marketers think they want, are two different things. It’s why you see so much irrelevant content in content marketing. And it’s everywhere. Here’s a recent example of a headline from a Data-Driven Marketing association:

Content might still be king but distribution is queen and she is in charge!

Yes it’s true folks. That ridiculous headline was published online – note the complete lack of reference to customers in the statement. But please don’t despair. The marketing pendulum will swing back to common sense soon, you just need to be patient.

pendulum

Very, very, very patient…

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Woolies CEO resigns, but sales are the least of their problems…

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Advertising, BIG DATA, Branding, Customer Service, Digital, Digital marketing, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Telemarketing

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

advertising, B2B Marketing, branding, Coles, customer service, marketing, online marketing, social media, Woolies

Is it any wonder the Woolies head checkout operator is resigning? It was announced in the press today the CEO is falling on his sword after a deterioration in sales.

But the sales are the symptom, not the problem. You may have seen this article about a major data breach.

Apparently a human caused a computer to send an email to more than 1,000 customers – because computers don’t just send emails like this of their own accord. The problem from this simple error, is the email included an excel spread sheet with the names and email address of thousands of customers and a downloadable link to 7,941 vouchers, worth a total of $1,308,505.

If you read the article you’ll see how some customers had purchased their vouchers, but when they went to use them at the check-out, they had been cancelled by Woolworths, leaving the poor customers publicly humiliated and a tad upset.

Here’s what one customer said: “They took my money from my credit card and told me I was using stolen cards. I could not take the trolley of groceries home as I did not have enough money to pay. I tried to call Woolworths but no one picked up the phone. I have had a very very horrible day.”

To say this data breach is a disaster is an understatement. And it demonstrates how managing your small data – let alone your BIG DATA – can be very costly if you get it wrong.

It also reflects another problem of modern business. The attitude of big brands: it’s one of complete disrespect and disdain for customers. They refuse to provide humans to serve customers when those said customers require help. You’d think these brands would know a customer – those people who pay the salaries of the executives, like the CEO. Why don’t these companies get it?

customers

I was in Woolies, or was it Coles last week? I struggle to remember because they are identical in design, have the same soulless atmosphere and a complete lack of service.

I was trying to find a particular product, but couldn’t find any particular staff to help me. Like an explorer in uncharted territory, I searched aisle after aisle for someone who was obviously an employee, who could provide directions. I did find a bloke stacking bread, but he said he said he wasn’t an employee, he just put the bread on shelves. Obviously some sort of volunteer, slave, intern or work experience lad?

I tried the checkout but the queues were too clogged to attract attention. Eventually I found someone who suggested I try three quarters of the way down aisle 19 – supported by a “good luck mate” comment.

Play swap the logo

woolies 1

Woolies or Coles – they both look the same?

coles

Spot the customer service staff…

Just like real estate agents, you could swap the logos between the Woolies and Coles stores and you wouldn’t notice a difference.

The data disaster was followed closely by the Woolies Website Wreck

You can read about it here. Unlike the majority of humans, marketers get excited about marketing – which is understandable but rarely fruitful. The language gives it away. Woolies spent money telling the public how excited they were about a new website. Life must be dull in grocery land if that’s what floats your boat.

woolies FB

The problem for Woolies was the lack of response to the feedback provided by customers – despite encouraging it.

woolies FB 2

The best they could manage was to reply with a social media post:

Woolies FB 3

Worse still was the comment to the media:

“Woolworths online serves thousands of customers every day. We have been making changes to our site and gradually rolling them out across the country… these changes also mean customers pay exactly the same price in store as they do online.”

This demonstrates a complete disconnect with their customers. The problem Woolies caused, had nothing to do with cost of goods. It had everything to do with the cost of convenience – the website wasn’t working, so any convenience gained from shopping online was lost. Bugger the price of beans.

You know you’re scraping the bottom of the customer service barrel when you rely on social media for customer relations. But it’s not surprising that senior executives have been duped to rely on social media – they offer nothing else.

So many companies force you to DIY problem solve, by searching and hunting on appallingly designed websites (where ‘contact us’ is almost hidden from view). The only way you can solve a problem is submit an email form and hope you hear back in a few days.

customer service

You can never find a telephone number to contact companies at any time of day. These companies want you to do business with them 7 days a week, either in retail stores or via websites, but they don’t want to provide customer service. Or if they do provide telephone support, you have to talk to a computer, press buttons, go around in circuitous loops and eventually get put on hold for ages listening to advertisements.

So those who can be bothered start trolling on social media and marketers mistakenly believe that’s where they need to be focusing. I’ve owned a supermarket – not the size of Woolies or Coles – but the principles for serving your customers do not involve remote random social media posts.

'Your call is important to us...but not important encough for us to hire additional staff to talk to you.'

Maybe Woolies and Coles should just merge and become Coolies? It’s a rude and disparaging term for cheap labour. But given both stores are too cheap to provide labour to serve customers, neither give you a discount for self-serve checkout and all their ads brag about how cheap they are, it seems quite appropriate.

Gotta go – need to do the week’s grocery shopping. Online or in-store? I think I’ll support small business…

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Those two marketers walk into a bar and smile knowingly at Chevy posters…

12 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Advertising, Branding, Marketing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

advertising, General Motors, marketing, outdoor advertising

Chevy’s retro posters demonstrate how quickly the car industry changed…

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Avagoodweegend…

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Google keeps doing it, so why don’t you – only fools ignore facts…

10 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Advertising, B2B Marketing, Branding, Content Marketing, Customer Service, Digital, Digital marketing, Direct Marketing, Email marketing, Marketing, Sales, Thought Leadership

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

digital marketing, direct mail, email marketing, Google, omni-channel

Marketers are a strange breed. We love to defy evidence and facts in the pursuit of fashion. The Institute For Marketing Science calls it “Trend Blindness”.

Take for instance one of the most successful and longest performing media channels in the world, aside from face-to-face selling. It’s been around for 150 years and was the pioneer of virtual shopping.

It’s called direct mail. It is an extremely successful channel, not to mention one very much loved by consumers. Yet when the internet was invented, something happened to the brains of marketers and many stopped using mail.

I own an email SaaS business which grew as a result. But just because a new channel has some cheaper options, it doesn’t mean you stop using a channel that works. What lunacy drives that sort of thinking?

Even the science proves the strength of mail over other less engaging channels. Customers love how it engages them – to use the current vernacular.

The people at Google are not stupid. That’s why Google is one of the world’s biggest fans of direct mail. Here’s something I received last week. Here and here are other Google examples.

Google069

Clear plastic envelope…

Google070

Letter inviting me to “Geek out with Google”

The RSVP is a unique URL, no doubt linked to my contact details. Simple stuff really.

They even used one of the oldest direct mail tricks – an involvement device. A couple of sheets of temporary tattoos were inserted in the envelope, for use at the event, or otherwise if that’s your fancy.

Google072

Involvement device – sheets of tattoos

So again the question has to be asked: “If Google does it why don’t you?”

After all, every brand on the planet used direct mail until only a decade ago – and the smart ones still do – fully integrated with other personal media. Or should that be “fully omni-channelled” with other personal media?

I’m off to check my letterbox…

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You only get one Alan Bond (again)…

07 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Advertising, Marketing, Media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Alan Bond, Kerry Packer

Given Alan Bond’s passing, I remembered this post…

In the late 80’s there was a complete change of ownership of all the television networks and some radio networks in Australia. It was an unprecedented occurrence. Suddenly the major broadcast media channels were owned by the nuveau riche (or white shoe brigade) depending upon your view.

Kerry Packer sold his network to Alan Bond for a cool $1 Billion and famously said “you only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime… and I’ve had mine”

KP

I was reminded of this while watching the first episode of Magazine Wars on the ABC on Sunday. It opened a draw in the filing cabinet of my memory. It was about a meeting that was held just after the new media barons took control.

If my grey matter serves me correctly, the meeting was run by the AANA – in a theatre in Sydney. It was off-the-record and closed to the media – no journalists allowed. The only attendees were the heads of advertising agencies and their media buying companies. We agency types were nervous about all the change of ownership and how it would affect advertising rates. After all, the new owners had paid record amounts for their media companies and would want to get their money back. This meant advertising rates could rise.

networks

Each of the new media owners, or their representatives, were there too. Christopher Skase, Warren Jones (representing Alan Bond) Glen Wheatley and other such luminaries gave presentations about their new media babies. The channel 9 presentation was the highlight, as it was done live via satellite from around the globe. Unfortunately the Bond team was called to the stage at a slightly different time than scheduled, so co-ordination with the satellite got stuffed around. But they did cross live to international correspondents. Even Ben Lexcen or maybe it was John Bertrand made an appearance from a boat-building shed in WA. And there was a blimp involved in Europe or the US. All very impressive high-tech stuff at the time.

But the highlight of the show was Kerry Packer. He arrived via the rear of the theatre after all the others had delivered their presentations. You were aware of his presence striding down the aisle, even before you saw him. He stepped up to the stage and asked the host (I think his name was Max) for a cigarette – this was before his heart attack. He then said “so what can I do for you?”

Kerry Packer

The host explained that the new proprietors had just given their presentations along with assurances that advertising rates would not increase. And given that KP was no longer a media owner, what were his thoughts on the new media situation?

KP lent forward from his seat towards the proprietors sitting in the front row of the theatre and exhaled some cigarette smoke. He said something like “with due respect to my business colleagues here, my family has been running television stations since day one. We know how big the population is and how much growth there is available in the market. I suspect I know how much interest you are paying on the money you’ve borrowed to buy these media businesses and I can tell you there aren’t the multiples in this market to cover the cost of your borrowings through your advertising revenue. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ll be buying a network back from you in the next 18 months.”

Alan Bond

There was some uncomfortable shuffling in seats and the host threw some soft questions at KP before the meeting wound up.

I can still remember talking with one of my Ogilvy colleagues as we departed up the aisle “he knows something doesn’t he?” we naively exclaimed.

And KP certainly did. He famously bought back his beloved channel 9 using the shares Alan Bond had given him in Bond Corporation as part of the orginal sale. The shares of course were worthless. KP sold channel 9 for $1 Billion and then bought it back for a song. Bond ended up in jail and all the new owners of all the other networks soon sold again, just as KP predicted.

It will be curious to see what happens to the current crop of stations that are owned by venture capitalists, when the venture capital dries up?? There’s a bloke who now owns some casinos who might want to take a gamble??

JP

I’m off down town, see if I can find me an Alan Bond…

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Those two marketers walk into a bar and laugh at BIG DATA…

05 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in BIG DATA, Branding, Digital, Digital marketing, Marketing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ADMA, BIG data, data scientist, database, digital marketing, online marketing

Apparently all the published commentary about BIG DATA quadruples every six months. Which is weird because most companies can’t control their small data let alone the big stuff.

And as a wise person once said – “there are two types of people in the world“:

  • Those who believe in BIG DATA and
  • Those who couldn’t care a flying kilobyte about it

AAEAAQAAAAAAAAB3AAAAJDczODMyMzY2LTFlNTktNDBiNy05NmY1LWZmNjMxMTIxNDk4ZQ

nobody-cares

my_big_data_is_bigger_than_yours_mousepad

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joke

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Big-Data-BBC-Cartoon

images 2

avagoodweegend…

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David Ogilvy’s Direct Marketing predictions still resonate in a digital world…

03 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Advertising, Branding, Content Marketing, Copywriting, Digital marketing, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Sales, Thought Leadership

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

advertising, branding, copywriting, David Ogilvy, digital marketing, direct marketing, Ogilvy

I was lucky enough to run Ogilvy & Mather Direct during the first great decade of growth for DM – the 1980’s. And I was also lucky enough to spend some one-on-one time with my boss David Ogilvy on a few occasions, in a few different countries.

david-ogilvy-ReasonWhy_es__1

He was passionate about Direct Marketing – it was his first love and his secret weapon. He regards DM as the reason his advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather was such a success. In his final few years running the Ogilvy agency, based in Paris, he left the advertising agency and worked from the DM agency office. He was frustrated with the wasted focus on creativity and lack of accountability in the advertising agency.

In those days the DM people lived in a different world to the advertising agency troops. We were far more involved with our client’s business, not just their advertising. We had our hands in their databases, sales lead management, offer development, call centres, marketing collateral, customer surveys, competitions and more.

As a result we were often asked to do their brand advertising and sales promotions, as well as their DM. Mind you we regarded every message as a brand message. Most of us had already worked in brand advertising, but preferred the tougher challenge of DM.

And we believed passionately about our cause. Yet we were often misunderstood by our advertising agency partners, so to help them get to know what drove us, we’d show them this video from David Ogilvy. Rather than get them enthused about DM, it just made them dislike us even more. With hindsight I see why:)

Interestingly his words still resonate today – his wave of the future had a long tail, so to speak. The internet is a pure DM channel and the skills now in demand today are those of direct marketers. Who would have thought databases and data scientists would be sexy?

ogilvy-bird-ad-2

Early 1980’s O & M Direct UK house ad – the wave of the future…

The video is only 7 minutes long but worth all 420 seconds. Get yourself a java and watch it here. Share it with anyone you know who works in digital marketing. If only more young marketers did what David did and invested in their own education at a young age, the internet would be way more successful as a marketing channel.

David’s prediction about the future of advertising also came true. The industry is now littered with traditional brand advertising agency personnel looking for work. Their skill set is in decline in the digital world and they are struggling to remain in the industry. Ironically if they had listened to their DM partners they would have had more opportunities.

spruce-image-3

A quote from 50 years ago that still rings true today…

I read DO’s books every couple of years. I always learn something, or am reminded of the advertising fundamentals so many of us ignore, as we pursue the latest bright new shiny object.

I’m off to read “The Unpublished David Ogilvy” again – always a laugh, not to mention a good education, particularly about corporate culture.

And in case you’re wondering, Ogilvy & Mather Direct was rebranded to OgilvyOne. I’ll let you judge whether you think DO would have approved…

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