Posted by:
Drayton Bird
March 21, 2008
Issue #379
I’ve got good news and bad news …
First, the bad news. Julie McManus couldn’t be with us today. We think she’s off chasing down the Easter bunny, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Now for the good news: Drayton Bird – yes, the Direct Marketing Legend that David Ogilvy claimed "knows more about direct marketing than anyone else alive" – agreed to fill in for her.
Drayton has just returned to England from a conference/victory lap for his fans in Australia. From all accounts, the trip was a triumph.
While in Australia, he was interviewed by Malcolm Auld, the author of Direct Marketing Made Easy and Australia’s leading direct marketer.
The interview will appear in Australia’s Direct magazine, but Drayton wanted you to see it first. So let’s get to it.
– Wendy Makepeace
We’ve been hearing a lot about the death
of traditional media from digital zealots,
what is your response to this prediction?
Rather like Mark Twain’s on reading his obituary in a newspaper: “Reports of my death are exaggerated.”
I’ve been hearing about the imminent death of direct mail and other traditional media for well over a decade. The first person to tell me, at 3 am in a bar, was the English creative director of an agency in Kuala Lumpur.
Like most things said by drunks in bars it was utter rubbish. Now they say ‘Web 2.0 will change everything’. These claims are based on a totally flawed premise: that new media replace old. They generally complement each other, which is why integrating media pays.
How come people are reading more books than ever? Still watching TV, going to movies, listening to live music? Why are direct mail volumes, with a few hiccups, still climbing? And why have e-mail response levels fallen from those early, dizzy heights?”
Marketers should learn more from history. As the American philosopher George Santayana said: ‘Those who ignore the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.’ And we’re already seeing people make the same old mistakes with the Internet.
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Posted by:
Drayton Bird
February 14, 2008
Issue #354
In the 70’s, I was so broke I lived under an assumed name to avoid the tax man.
I made a living by writing anything for anyone. Speeches, articles, presentations, ads, film scripts – they paid, I wrote.
What was my secret? I was quick.
One publisher used to give me a bundle of notes one day, and I would send back two or three finished chapters – on anything he wanted - in less than a week.
So I wrote part of The Marlboro Book of Cowboys. And three chapters on the famous Bugatti automobile (though I couldn’t even drive). Part of a guidebook to London. And a section of a book called The CIA and the World Weather Conspiracy.
I learned then that for most of the planet’s history, the world has been much colder than it is now.
And I learned something else. People are really gullible. They will believe just about anything, Not just the good things – How you can make thousands writing copy within 3 months – or you pay nothing (really?) … but also the scary things. In fact, they like being scared.
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Posted by:
Drayton Bird
December 20, 2007
Issue #312
A few years ago a marketing magazine asked me to write about “ambient marketing”. This used to come under the heading of stunts.
About 100 years ago Claude Hopkins had the idea of baking the world’s largest cake and putting it in a store window to promote Cote-o-Suet. If only he’d known he was doing ambient marketing.
Another magazine asked me to write about “confusion marketing”. This used to be called weaseling, a form of adroit misrepresentation. A good example is “Nothing acts faster than Anacin” – which makes you think Anacin acts faster than anything else.
It sometimes feels to me that every day someone with an eye for a fast buck renames something as old as the hills, and hoodwinks at vast profit another big fat segment of the people who’ve never bothered to study what makes messages sell.
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Posted by:
Drayton Bird
November 8, 2007
Issue #276
Not long ago, some smart-ass on-line zealot suggested that direct mail is going to fade away and be replaced by e-mail. How likely is this?
Well, as Sam Goldwyn observed in one of his better lines, “Predictions are difficult – especially about the future”, but this does not diminish the enthusiasm with which people keep trotting them out.
Moreover, as all good marketers know, human beings tend to believe what they want to believe, so such predictions often come from people with a vested interest in their coming true.
For example, only a few weeks ago a journalist for a Dutch on-line magazine asked me how long it would take for e-mails to kill direct mail. “Don’t hold your breath,” I advised him – and here are a few reasons why, which we can all relate to.
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Posted by:
Drayton Bird
October 4, 2007
Issue #246
Few copywriters study enough.
And many who commission copy
study even less. So the
partially-sighted serve the blind.
No wonder most copy isn’t very good.
I’ve always liked this old New York joke.
A man asks for directions. “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?”
“Study,” comes the reply.
I started studying how to write copy before I even got a job in advertising. I sat in Manchester Public Library and read everything I could find. I have never stopped. If others have done the job before you, start by studying and copying the best people you can find. It’s the only way to learn.
Most copywriters study little, if at all. They think the key is ingenuity and clever ideas. They put their faith in flair and luck. They “pick it up” as they go along. That is why most copy is so bad.
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