I spent the quieter moments of the weekend breezing through David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of Marketing and PR.  Before I read this book I was convinced that digital content and PR are going to be increasingly vital components of the modern marketing mix. Now that view is further reinforced.  It’s a great read, dealing not only with the transition zone between old and new marketing but also offering clear sight of what lies ahead.
Scott argues that “the old rules of marketing and PR are ineffective in the digital world” and I broadly agree. To his credit, he rightly resists the temptation to make ill-informed and poorly thought-out “advertising doesn’t work” arguments. Unlike many web commentators, he recognises that mainstream media still has an important role to play for mainstream brands, and that niche media can still work well for niche brands. So, Â if you’re a beer brand then it still makes sense to advertise on TV in football games. Or if you sell deck sealant, then Professional Deck Builder Magazine is probably still right for you.
There are a couple of areas where my experience differs from David Scott’s. One is in his view that “marketing meant advertising” and that “advertising was one way: company to consumer”. It’s true that for some companies, marketing does mean advertising, but for many companies marketing also includes direct marketing. Moreover, two-way dialogue has been the DNA of direct marketing for decades. Lester Wunderman and others pioneered the development of response-based customer dialogue over fifty years ago, albeit from within the restrictions of static print / direct mail.
Direct marketers have a suite of skills that is incredibly well suited to marketing in the Web 2.0 era. They collect behavioural data from customers and apply it to marketing decision making. They use data to understand customers, track purchase histories, segment databases and predict future customer behaviour. They build models which can predict how likely it is that consumers who purchase product A will go on to purchase products B, C and D. They use customer data to establish when customers buy products and the length of the purchase cycle enabling them to identify the best time to talk to prospects. They learn how to identify valuable customers and build reward programs to strengthen the relationship between buyer and seller. Most importantly, direct marketers focus on building relationships that turn first-time customers into long-term advocates. Direct marketing has much to offer to the data-enabled world of Web 2.0.
Nigel Sharrocks, CEO of Aegis in Europe recognised all these points when he observed that “it only takes a moment’s reflection to see that direct is a highly effective training ground for Communications 2.0.” Whilst dealing with deluges of customer data may unsettle advertising practitioners, working out what to do with data is, according to Sharrocks, “second nature to direct people” who are also “highly unlikely to assume that every campaign must begin with a TV ad”.
For many years direct marketers argued that they could make better use of a marketing £ or $ than an ad agency, in much the same way that web marketing specialists do now.  In my view the best return can be achieved by merging the best of web marketing - and particularly content marketing - with the best of direct marketing. Direct marketing can provide a robust platform upon which highly effective content marketing projects can be built. To me, direct marketing and Web 2.0 communications are two things that fit together extremely well - like yin and yang, steak and chips or bread and butter.  Perhaps it’s time we started talking about Direct Marketing 2.0.
Follow us on Twitter
Goodbye to Michael Grade (for now)
Michael Grade is the man who bought us the Big Breakfast, Chris Evans, Jonathan Ross, Peter Kay, Big Brother, Time Team, EastEnders, Clive Anderson, Dennis Potter’s Lipstick On Your Collar, Friends, some really cutting edge episodes of Cutting Edge plus many other land mark events in UK television such as Football Italia and the financial backing of Four Weddings. But as well as providing support for new editorial ventures, he was also commercially successful. He found the perfect balance between editorial and commercial imperatives and guided the Channel into its most commercially successful years. TV thrives on a virtuous circle of great programmes delivering strong audiences which attract good commercial revenue. Grade placed Channel Four firmly on that upward circle.
The fact that Michael Grade cannot now crack ITVs problems is not a reflection on his ability, but an indicator of the scale of ITV’s problems. TV is in stormy water. Just as the talkies took over from the silents and the small screen took over from the big screen, and just as video almost squashed cinema and as cinema underwent a resurgence, so television is now having to ride the heavy seas of change. In these circumstances it needs a strong and visionary navigator at the helm. Unfortunately, talk of Grade’s replacement inevitably includes the old “merry -go-round” of senior TV executives, but for me none of these will do. To survive, ITV must look forward not backwards to the glory days, it must find a new definition of what it stands for and it must find a new way of monetising content across multiple platforms. These issues require experience from beyond the cosy world of television. To survive, ITV must go outside TV and into the wider communications market for its next leader.
Perhaps Grade is drawing on his family’s theatrical heritage and following that old dictum of the boards; leave the stage with them wanting more. One possible error is that he may have left that bit slightly too late.