This made sense 31 years ago. What about now?

A trip down Nostalgia Avenue. In 1982 advertising agencies didn’t believe in taking their own medicine. They still don’t. We did – and it worked.

I’m only showing you this because my old partner Glenmore Trenear-Harvey sent it to me. And because it still looks pretty good (if hardly original).

We ran ads like this all the time. If you click on it you can read the copy. I think Glenmore came up with the check-list. I think I wrote the copy. I know it worked.

trydirectmarketing

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.

2 Comments

  1. Ian

    There’s something I really love about direct marketing. When done properly, your profits exceed your costs. What are the reasons why so many people – especially nowadays where the media choices are so wide – ignore a field of practice that gives you certainty your marketing is working? And why do people persist with marketing and advertising choices where nobody has a clue if it worked or not? Hidden beneath the surface must be something that continues to work – it’s my guess that if they stopped what they were doing altogether, they would make more money as most of the spend simply loses money.

    1. Drayton

      I honestly think there are two reasons 1. They don’t like to consider the possibilityy that they might be found out. 2. Sheer ignorance.

      Here are the findings from a fairly recent report based on a study of thousands of firms:

      90% of marketers are not trained in Marketing Performance & Marketing ROI
      67% don’t believe marketing ROI requires a financial outcome
      64% use Brand Awareness as their top marketing ROI KPI
      58% place “Likes”, “Tweets”, “Clicks” and/or “CTR” in their Top 5 marketing ROI KPIs
      31% believe measuring audience reached is marketing ROI
      “Every Tom, Dick & Harry is a Marketer” lacking scientific and financial knowledge.
      –  Fournaise Marketing Group Global Marketing Effectiveness Program Report, 2014

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