The Creative Forum Just another WordPress weblog

It strikes me that one of the best things a forum like this can do is to promote the aspects of creativity that direct marketing is best at – the conversational, the tactile and tangible, the offer-led, the personalised, the charming. Where we’ve sometimes fallen down in the past is to act like advertising’s poor cousin – and over-value work that has advertising values. That’s why, for instance, Campaign Direct has tended to award poster campaigns with a response medium on the bottom rather than ‘real’ direct marketing.

The good news is, the world’s coming with us. Social marketing is a conversation medium, not an advertising one. Same with email, face-to-face, etc. Let’s be proud of having won the argument, and stop being envious of people who drive Porsches.

Reuben

Your views on DM and creativity in a recession – add them here please.

… apparently the Royal Mail are introducing a new lower tariff for sustainable direct mail — ie recyclable, targeted etc.

About time too.

Reuben

I’m sure we’ve all seen the latest T-mobile flashmob TV ad – and this post is not about that ad per se. Rather it’s about the debate that seems to have sprung up around it.

Because the professionals seem to hate the ad, but the public just love it.

Look at the advertising blogs and you’ll see the same criticism again and again – “unoriginal”, “seen it all before”, “old hat”, “rip off”, etc.

(more…)

Is there less work or is it just moving around? Are the nature of projects changing? What’s your experience of direct marketing and creative in a recession?

What’s in a website?

I’ve always been bemused by the desire of marketers to ‘drive people to their website’. There are very few businesses that express the desire to ‘drive people to their head office’. And very few charities just put a collection box on their reception desk and wait for the baying hordes to fill it with fivers.

That’s because, in the non-digital world, we’re obsessed with getting in front of people, rather than making them come to us. Retailers compete for the sites with the most footfall. Direct marketers take the argument to people’s newspapers, telephones, doormats and inboxes. Face-to-face fundraisers literally won’t let you walk down the street.

And that’s the direction that digital is finally heading in, with proper investment in being where people are – on YouTube, on email, on search engines, on social networking sites. It’s all measurable too (just like hits to your website).

I love a good website. But I like to know what it’s for first. Please remember to share this with a friend.

Reuben Turner, the Good Agency

Happy new year, everybody!

Reuben

Ctrl-F Account Handling says: ‘my job is to forward emails from the client on to the relevant people’.

Ctrl_F Account Handling adds no value.

And when the client has the relevant person’s contact details, it makes the Account Handler redundant (sometimes literally).

Can you afford to be Ctrl_F’ing right now?

Reuben Turner, the Good Agency

The new Times outdoor campaign strikes me as everything that’s wrong with mainstream advertising. Overblown, impersonal and, worst of all, irrelevant. We are facing financial meltdown – and they are running (very expensive) ads featuring fat kids and Jordan with her horse. I bet it cost millions — and it could cost them a lot more yet.

Reuben Turner, creative director, the Good Agency