Trish Kavanagh spent just under three years as a copywriter at Publicis SMW before joining Lowe RMP Direct this past February. Both agencies are based in Toronto.
Direct mail. Tell someone you write the stuff and expect the kind of response usually reserved for garbage collectors and off-Broadway understudies. I know. I just made the leap to the dark side four months ago from the general advertising side. And while I’ve gladly checked my ego at the door, thank you, I have yet to figure out what all the fuss is about.
I guess I don’t quite get why the ad industry is hell-bent on perpetuating the stereotype of direct marketing as the poor, ugly, shoeless stepsister.
We’re all trying to sell stuff. Some of us just choose to speak to people individually instead of yelling off a bridge.
I suppose that’s why I was puzzled when I was asked to write an article about the difficulties of making the transition from general advertising to direct marketing. Fact is, I haven’t felt any pain… yet.
It would have been easy if I had had some grand epiphany over coffee one morning about the wonders of direct. Or at least that my experience in general was so horrific that I vowed never to return. Truth is, I was simply presented with a good opportunity and I took it. Unlike most copywriters I know, I didn’t rule out direct when I got into this business. I have this insane notion that you can do good work no matter where you are, or how much you’re paid.
I won’t lie. I still feel a pang once in a while that maybe I’ve thrown away a career in general advertising. That I’ll never win a Marketing Award or the accolades of my peers. But I see the work produced here at Lowe RMP Direct and I’m proud to say I’m associated with it. In direct!
Are things changing? Is the creative bar rising? Are the lines between general and direct becoming decidedly less defined?
It’s going to take a while. Particularly since most people I talk to on the general side would rather set fire to their hair than work in direct. I guess I can’t blame them, really. Why write Pizza Pizza flyers when you can write big, flashy TV commercials? In my opinion, it’s not merely the perception of direct marketing that could stand for some improvement. My blue box is lined with some of the best direct mail out there. But that’s not to say the discipline of direct marketing should be doomed to a life of schoolyard beatings either.
What I’ve learned is that direct marketing isn’t just starbursts and multi-folds. That it doesn’t have to be a No. 10 envelope with a stamp on it to get a response. Personally, I was floored by the revelation that direct marketing can be smart and conceptual. And stunned that it’s taken so long for people to figure that out.
Case in point. A good friend of mine recently asked me who had worked on the Blue Cross outdoor campaign: our parent company or Lowe RMP Direct?
When I told him we were responsible, I half expected a shredding. But instead, he was full of compliments, and quite surprised that a ‘direct’ agency had come up with a concept that was so ‘general’. His wiry beard was all in knots when I mentioned the radio and newspaper components of this genuinely direct response campaign. ‘In direct?’ he barked. Just the response we were looking for.
Sure, it’s humbling to work south of Bloor. Or below the line, so to speak. I haven’t been to an industry party or received good graft in months. But just as I had to write pharmaceutical detail aids and crappy dealer ads when I was in general, I now have to write the odd buck slip and brochure here in direct. You take the good with the bad, no matter where your office is.
Maybe some day we won’t have direct response sections of industry magazines, or separate awards shows for the most exciting junk mail. And maybe some day the Marketing Awards will have something more than an agency Christmas card in the direct response category. I hope that soon, more direct marketing agencies realize the potential to create conceptual campaigns on par with our popular general advertising big sister. I know I’d rather give it a try than accept the status quo.
Trish Kavanagh can be reached by phone at (416) 260-4772 or by e-mail at trish@strategicdirect.net
