Congratulations or kicks in the teeth? What do you think these bozos deserve?

My friend Michael Rhodes tells me the leading US internet retailers sent 12% more marketing emails in 2009 than they did the year before, at an average of 132 emails to each subscriber, according to a new analysis by Smith-Harmon.

Now, ask yourself. Is that good? What should you conclude?

Should you say, “Wow, these guys are really getting to grips with the internet?” Or, “Stupid bastards. Who wants to hear from a bloody shop nearly 3 times a week? Doesn’t life have more to offer?”

I know what I think.

It’s just like the way TV spots in the US drive you mad with endless, dreary, boring repetition. Quantity will never beat quality. As my old boss said (better than anyone else, as usual) “You cannot bore people into buying”.

He also said that nobody should ever write advertising copy until they have spent two years doing direct response. I did it the other way round; I was an advertising creative director before I really got to grips with direct marketing.

When I did I learned one thing these buggers don’t know: that people’s attention and reponse to messages decreases VERY fast with repetition. Rosser Reeves, only begetter of the USP, wrote about this in “Reality in Advertising”. But most of these advertising bozos don’t read books. They practice with other people’s money.

When will they ever learn?

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

4 Comments

  1. northcliffe11

    Stick with Maritza

    Reply
  2. draytonbird

    Nice one, John

    Reply
  3. andycrichton

    So now we can add email blindness to ad blindness. Getting harder to make a case that the internet is enlightening us.

    Reply
  4. O'Hara

    Curiously Repetition does work.

    Provided you handle it sensibly, and as with good comedy, timing is crucial.

    I have recently analysed some data which involved repeated sends of a piece of advertising.

    We changed the Subject of the message slightly (for Oldies, Read 'Johnston Box', to yield a 'newness'.

    Response from previous non-responders was the same.

    Why Drayton believes that repetition does not work is a mystery (pace “common Sense Direct Marketing).

    At THBW, we showed that it does work, given correct targetting, timing and a simple/cheap 'newness' change.

    Direct Marketing remains considerable art with some science thrown-in to enhance the recipe.

    I suspect that what Drayton is really complaining about, justifiably, is the frequency/impact models which interrupt his favourite shows on TV.

    Kind Regards

    Shannon O'Hara

    Reply

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