The following article appeared as part of a sponsored supplement in Strategy DirectResponse:
Blitz is the German word for ‘fast as lightning’. And that’s precisely what the direct marketers at Blitz Direct and Promotion try to help their clients do — quickly respond to their customers’ dynamic and ever-changing needs with targeted, relevant and timely response marketing initiatives.
One of the largest direct marketing agencies in Canada, Blitz employs 100 people in three offices in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City, serving such clients as Scotiabank and Bell Mobility. ‘Our mission is to help our clients build their business through marketing intelligence’ says Goodwin Gibson, vice-president and general manager of the Blitz Toronto office.
The company is also unique in that it includes both direct marketing and promotional marketing under one roof. While the two disciplines are similar in some ways, they are very different in others. ‘Promotion has an energy and urgency that has a positive effect on our direct marketing product, while the sheer discipline of direct is a good influence on promotions in terms of asking the right strategic questions.’
Blitz positions itself as an end-to-end solution provider beginning with the up front strategic data analysis required for the development of actionable communications strategies, to the creative and physical execution of programs, and finally to the response management and reporting of key learnings to their clients.
‘Blitz’s fundamental strategic focus is to provide insight into the customer’, says Gibson. ‘And more and more
of the consumer insight we generate comes from the data. As direct marketers, the more we know about a specific customer or customer segment the more we can do for that customer. No matter what communications discipline we work in, we always start from the premise; who are we talking to?’
In addition, with the emerging credibility and power of database marketing, Gibson says the game for many advertisers in mature categories has become less a battle for market share, but rather a battle for ‘the most of the best’ customers. ‘As an industry, we’ve become a lot more effective at measuring the value and impact of long term customer relationships and their impact on our clients’ profitability. Part of the trick is being able to measure your success in both the short and the long term. You need to have the short term wins and report them on a program by program basis, as well as track the aggregate effect on the clients’ customer base.’
Gibson says their in-house data management group, Blitz Data, has been refocused to play a much larger role
in the company’s future as the central repository of its
strategic thinking or ‘thought leadership’ driving all their direct response activities, whether through direct mail, direct response TV or interactive media such as the internet. ‘The driving force will increasingly be the data that co-exists behind the various marketing disciplines’ he says.
Blitz Data currently uses a team of statisticians from the University of Toronto lead by David Beaton, their Database Planner to develop and apply analytical and reporting tools such as predictive modelling, net present value models, customer balance sheets, etc. ‘These statistics experts enrich our knowledge with highly refined information about the customer, uncovering all kinds of marketing opportunities for our clients.’
The pre-eminent question for clients entering into database marketing is, ‘what to do with their database?’ ‘A lot of database marketing initiatives have been launched only to fizzle out because that question was not answered properly in terms of developing an actionable communications strategy.’
To ensure that customer knowledge and insight result in action, Blitz endeavors to create collaborative ‘learning systems’ with its clients, designed to create a continuous flow of information about their customers that can be used to drive communications and build their business. Gibson says the learning system incorporates a four phase approach: ‘Data Discovery, Opportunity Spotting, Communications Planning and Execution’, which is repeated continuously to generate a stream of marketing intelligence.
Blitz is also heartened by the fact that so many clients are now truly interested in learning about their customer data; ‘Many of our clients are data-rich but haven’t fully analyzed or understood the data, which in many cases can be the most exciting tool available to drive future communications campaigns.’ There’s been a real shift in the mindset of clients to be open to concepts such as predictive modelling, and more importantly, a willingness to invest in these important tools. You need to make an investment in the measurement tools to be able to continually justify the expenditure on your own customer base. Our clients need to be able to go up the line within their own organizations and convincingly demonstrate the value of their efforts.
Gibson would still like to see more importance placed on back end programs through more thorough analysis, tracking and presentation of results. ‘One of the guiding principles of direct marketing is that it is measurable, which should be brought forward to all marketing disciplines. At the end of the day, our clients must learn something and understand what worked and what didn’t.’
Blitz sees the emergence of the internet when combined with the power of database technology as a huge opportunity for creating personal dialogues with customer bases. ‘Many companies have stayed out of the database/relationship marketing game simply because the cost of ink on paper is too onerous to sustain ongoing communications. But with the Internet, we can now communicate with a significant portion of most customer bases as well as attract new customers with very little of the traditional costs.’
Gibson predicts that we will soon see a spate of internet-based database and relationship marketing programs, which in the past would have been cost prohibitive if they had to be mail-based programs. ‘We see combining internet activity with most of our programs over the next few years at a minimum as a response mechanism. Again, the back end database will be the tool which will enable us to manage all the points of contact to create additional learning.’
On the subject of integration with their partner company Cossette Advertising, Gibson says, ‘In a world of tremendous media and marketing convergence, Blitz is working more and more with Cossette in developing and driving clients’ marketing strategies. I believe that because more and more brands are becoming global in scope and are managed centrally. Many Canadian marketers are not asking their agencies, ‘what is my brand?’, but instead are asking, ‘how do I take my brand to market?’ It is this question that is driving the convergence, and as Cossette’s direct marketing partner, we have to provide strategic thought leadership as to what that market is. We have to become multi-media oriented, incorporating everything from broadcast and print to interactive while at the same time harnessing the core competencies of our partner Cossette companies’.
Gibson thinks the other larger direct agencies are accomplishing this successfully to various degrees but has yet to see a real powerhouse emerge which can actually apply an integrated package of analytical tools, strategic thought leadership, and great execution. Blitz believes there is a big hole in the marketplace for a full service, leading edge, end-to-end solution provider. ‘There’s real pressure on direct agencies to provide thought leadership to clients and create real breakthroughs. Our clients’ marketing environments change so rapidly today we need to be able to constantly re-evaluate the situation. Because our analytical toolbox is now that much fuller it enables us to respond quickly. But at the end of the day, you need a solid strategy to check yourself against.’
‘From a business planning point of view, most clients aren’t looking much beyond a quarterly basis because markets are moving and changing so fast’ Gibson maintains. ‘In the wireless telecommunications and financial services industries, for example, the landscape changes every day. Strategies have to be able to exist over the long term but be flexible enough to react to the short term changes in market conditions. Dealing with such dynamic change, you’ve got to boil it down to what’s essential – better, more cohesive, all-encompassing strategies. A tall order to say the least.’
