Archive for April, 2008
Musings of a former Ad Man…
In the 60’s, a company could run an ad on the Ed Sullivan Show when the Beatles appeared and reach most of America.
TV was still a novelty in many ways and hypnotized its audience.
Broadcasting was all about reach, frequency, impressions but rarely were the ad agencies measured on results.
The paradigm has shifted. It is now about Narrowcasting , ROI and Sales! The power has also shifted from the manufacturers’ brands to the retailers and the CONSUMERS!
The most recent SuperBowl was the most watched ever, but still paled in comparison to the final episode of M*A*S*H! And even running commercials wasn’t enough because they were also rated by how well they integrated with other media channels like the web.
Remember “It’s all about the economy stupid.”
I believe that is should now be “It’s all about the sales stupid.”
Also, remember… data rules! I will address that later.
Here is the path that I’ve taken, my new vision and why I launched Shoppers Marketing:
In the early 70’s at the 2 prominent Boston ad agencies, Hill Holliday & Humphrey Browning, I managed big national ad accounts like Converse Sneakers and Lionel Trains that used network TV to deliver their messages. We smoked cigarettes in our offices, drank at lunch and my job was to keep the client happy and out of the way of the creatives. I got bored with that quickly; however, it was my first exposure to research…more about that later.
In the late 70’s, I jumped ship to the dark side and became a salesman in Radio. For 9 years, I led sales, ran a national radio rep firm and was General Manager of a radio station. Ratings research was very important for sales – almost too much so…more about that later.
I got the ad bug again and joined Houston Advertising followed by Arnold Advertising, but was disenchanted again because it was still about “the ads” and not about “the solutions.” Call me crazy, but I longed to put together programs that were measurable and actually worked for my clients.
I briefly went back to radio with Infinity Broadcasting where I started considering my clients my partners.
I left there to become the first National Accounts Manager for The New England Patriots, for the rookie owner Bob Kraft, where I sold big money sponsorship on emotion rather than logic.
Which brings me to the past 15 years, where I’ve focused on new and innovative non-traditional media channels to reach consumers.
I left the Patriots to join Target Marketing & Promotions – where I married VW Jetta with Trek mountain bikes to create the JettaTrek, Apple Computers to BayBank, and most importantly, Crystal Light with Health Rider exercise machines where I saw first hand the power of promotions in the actual retail environment! The programs we ran resulted in incremental sales and were always minimally self-liquidating.
We subsequently merged with Alloy Marketing & Promotions (AMP), a major national Sales Promotion company specializing in cutting-edge brand promotion where I was the repeated “AMP CHAMP” the top sales achiever in the company. The report card was again sales. One of my most successful programs that I created was when I married XM Satellite radio to Simons Malls across the country to acquire new customers.
I left AMP in 2005 and became a founding partner at Pyramid Radio, offering in-store audio shopper marketing with paid advertising at Staples, CVS, and TJMaxx reaching over 56 million shoppers per week. We attracted and got results for big national manufacturers like HP, J&J, Elizabeth Arden, Coca Cola, Clorox, etc. A great channel, but not the complete solution.
This is why I launched Shoppers Marketing in January, 2008. Shoppers Marketing is more than just a concept. Consider it a New Age Agency. My Shoppers Marketing is also different than Shopper Marketing, which is currently defined as “all marketing that happens within the retail space.” My Shoppers Marketing is a more complete Multi-Channel Strategy (like the recent Deloitte Consulting definition); inside and outside the stores and where data and research are the starting points of any of my programs…….and tactics include, but are not limited to the web, in-store, direct mail, permission email marketing, mobile, viral, sweepstakes, loyalty, etc.
I will be focusing on 3 sectors: Pharma for Health and Beauty starting at CVS, Luxe and Youth.
And this is where the new story starts…with Relevant Data…..to achieve gestalt…and to be an accelerator of sales!
(RD News Clippings & Quotes)
- Five Steps to Successful Collaboration
- At Megastores, Hagglers Find No Price Set in Stone
- Shopper Marketing Will Define How Categories Are Managed
- Be great in act, as you have been in thought” -William Shakespeare
ShoppersMarketing | Retail Sales Accelerator 