Multichannel & Integrated

A Wonderful, Unexpected Accolade

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Internationally acclaimed marketer Alan Rosenspan just released his monthly newsletter and I was surprised, delighted, and speechless (a rare feat for me) to read the following:

The Milwaukee Master

In my opinion, the best direct marketing agency isn’t in New York or Chicago.

 It’s Johnson Direct up in Milwaukee. From starting as “the little agency that could” they’ve grown to attract several huge national clients, and have done an excellent job with each.

 I was fortunate enough to hear their CEO Grant Johnson speak at a recent conference, and I wanted to share some of his comments with you, which you may find as valuable as I did.

* Marketing now has “C”-level attention (CEO, CFO, CMO).
It’s not an expense, but rather an activity that now is measured as an investment, with its own Profit & Loss column.

 That means your work is more important and more visible than ever.

 * Research has shown that it takes an average of 6-7 different messages to influence a prospect or even generate a lead.

 Multi-channel marketing is now essential, and if you’re just doing direct mail, or just e-mail, or just telemarketing…you’re not doing what’s best.

* Grant also showed quite a few extremely creative ads, some of which I didn’t understand. He quoted Lester Wunderman, industry legend, who said “Stop being clever! Tell me something I want to know.” 

      This is great advice for any media and any communication.

I have been a friend of Grant’s for several years, and I admire him and his work. He also has a free newsletter, with terrific information and case-histories. You can subscribe at www.johnsondirect.com

Grant A. Johnson 

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750 

The Choice Is Yours!

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I must admit that I love all the experimentation that goes on with emerging media, not only in the United States, but everywhere else in the world.  Business Week featured a story about Blogging in Japan and how AdButterfly treats advertisers and bloggers as equals, allowing marketers to pick blogs and bloggers choosing what gets posted.

The future of measurable marketing will be even brighter if we continue to test like this.

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750 

Advertising Results Should Matter

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Most readers of this Blog will agree that measurable marketing is growing and that measurement is critical in the client-ad agency relationship. But it’s hard to get advertising and marketing firms to change their ways. This was brought to my attention by a recent Adweek article on the lack of incentives for performance based marketing.

The web, microsites, email, direct mail, SEO, banners/links/placements, mobile, word-of-mouth, social media, even traditional media and PR can be measured, albeit not perfectly. Marketing today is and should be about accountability and relevancy to the customer/prospect. The problem, I think, is that most traditional shops still try and sell their killer creative and treat the web and other emerging channels separately and want to cling to the past. They fail to understand that marketing is changing.

Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts was interviewed in Business Week and he still sells and believes in the killer creative that does not work nearly as effectively as in the past. While I admire his conviction, the article goes on to talk about the shift in marketing to those who understand and practice measurable marketing. Both articles are worth the read.

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750