“It’s one of the best times ever to be in advertising but why is the work so poor?” – Hegarty

I don’t know of any other industry in the world that would say the way to succeed is to make a worse product.”

My favourite restaurant in London is Shampers in Kingly Street. I’ve been going there since 1977.  I recommended it to a client recently and he wrote yesterday saying how much he and his wife enjoyed it..

Unfortunately every time I go there I am forced to ask myself where I went wrong.

That’s because about 20 yards down the street is an impressive building that is the office of Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty, the advertising agency. It has a sign with a sheep hanging outside for some reason. I rather like the sheep.

Anyhow, it must be a lucky sheep. Hegarty is now Sir John Hegarty,  has an organic and biodynamic vineyard in France, and is one of the great and good. I am still writing copy and buying my own wine  at an age when I should be lying in the sun somewhere, doing nothing very much.

I don’t know him, but his agency is pretty good, and I certainly agree with his opinions, as expressed to AdNews in Australia, where he he is speaking at a conference.

He thinks the industry’s “product” is in long-term decline.

“I don’t know of any other industry in the world that would say the way to succeed is to make a worse product. And we seem to be in that situation in advertising.

People say to me ‘you’ve been in the industry a very long time so what’s the biggest challenge?’

I think marketers today are losing contact with people despite the fact they have many more ways of communicating with them. Globalisation is one of the problems. We’ve gone for the lowest common denominator.

So many just use a bit of computer graphics of some kind or another because nobody objects to dancing buildings. It sounds wonderful and wacky but it’s not a great idea.

Marketers are at fault. Advertising agencies are at fault.

He also warned about the dangers of data and analytics – he was not against the trend but said the industry needed to be reminded that there is still a role for judgment.

Clients are desperate for salesmanship to be a science. They would love it to be. They would love to be able to say this equals that and this will be the return on investment so let’s do it. But they can’t. In the end it’s a judgment call you still have to make.”

Nicely put. Especially the bit about graphics as a substitute for an idea.

Today I am flying off to the US to speak at a conference in Delray Beach. I hope the sun is shining. I hope I don’t get found out.

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.

3 Comments

  1. Dave

    “Unfortunately every time I go there I am forced to ask myself where I went wrong.”

    I have the answer to that question. But it’s not one you’ll like…

    You undercharge.

    1. Drayton

      I know, Dave. I am bloody useless at pricing. But over the years I have formed the view that it is better to reach a lot of people than a few. At my age influence interests me more than money.

      1. Thank you for your insights Mr Bird.

        The dreaded pricing question came up in a conversation the other day. My friend, a clever chap who runs his own business, was asking for advice on the very subject.

        His idea was to sell many “widgets” to many customers. Now the thing with his “widget” is this…

        It comes with a level of support and guidance his customers expect.

        If they don’t get this his reputation may suffer. After discussions we decided the best course of action was to have a few different “widgets”. All with different service levels. Entry level, intermediate and advanced.

        He can then manage their expectations in advance. So for example if the top level widget is £1 million. It’s going to be far easier to manage if we have 1 person at this level. It becomes much more difficult to manage 10000 people who pay £100.

        I know I would rather have 1 person pay me £1 million. This person can then have my total undivided attention.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *