What would we build in its place?

Now that I’ve jumped from the direct advertising agency side of the business to the eCommerce side of the business I can say without any hesitation that the word “direct marketer” as a noun is dead.

Two years ago I was attending a national DMA function. I was standing next to a gentleman who is considered a pillar in the direct field. He turned to me and said, ‘Jon, I don’t know anybody in this room.”
I nodded in agreement and replied, “That’s because you and I are direct marketers, and most of these people aren’t. They’re “marketers” who are here to learn how to use direct marketing as part of their total marketing mix.

Direct mail is dying. It’s slow, cumbersome, expensive and not “green”. I believe that the United States Postal Service (USPS) has some smart cookies working there and that they are very aware that they are in deep shit.
I’m sure that they are asking themselves,

“If there was no Post Office, what would we build in its place?”

Would we build anything in its place? Would we even miss it?
(I just thought about my NetFlix account and realized that even NetFlix is starting to stream movies to me.)

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has the same problem and they’re looking for a new president. I’m sure that they’re talking to all of the right people (they did not call me). Whoever takes the job has to ask the same question.

If there was no DMA, what would we build in its place?

If the DMA disappeared tomorrow, would we miss it?
I hope the next President of the DMA is a visionary who is given the freedom to do
what has to be done.

Jon

Moving On With A Vision

I have sold the Roska Advertising and Marketing Agencies (Roska Direct, Roska Healthcare and Roska Digital) to a partner of many years.
I leave behind a staff of some of the best advertising and marketing experts in the business and I have no doubt that the team will continue to grow the organization’s reputation for excellence.

I have always been a firm believer in hiring people that are better than me at what they do (many of my friends would say that has never been difficult for me). I then made sure to hang onto a majority control of the company so those brilliant hires could not throw me out on the sidewalk. I was successful, so successful in fact that I put myself out of a job and now it’s time to move on.

I’m starting a new company called “Roska Ideas”. Its focus will be eCommerce, with a centralized platform and multiple retail websites. I'm in the process of locating new offices and doing all the many things setting up a new business requires.

I'm looking forward to sharing the next adventure with you.

It's amazing what can happen in your life if you have a vision and stay focused. When things get tough, some people will cut and run. Others realize that it's the time to refocus on their vision, make the necessary adjustments and move forward. One thing I can promise you is that tough times will eventually turn into good times and vice versa. It's your vision that will get you through the bad and into the good.

Here's an interesting story on how to hang in there.

When I was 18 I loaded everything I owned into a beat-up old car and drove to the turnpike entrance in Scranton, PA. I had $35 in my pocket. I got out of the car in front of the turnpike booth and flipped a quarter; heads New York, tails Philadelphia. I had never been to either city and did not know anybody in either one.

Tails it was.

I drove into Philly and not knowing any better, parked my car in an underground parking lot and got a tiny room with a cot at the YMCA. After 3 days I ran out of money and talked the parking lot owner into letting me sleep in my car.

A couple of more days went by looking for work and not eating. On Sunday I found a newspaper in the trash and there was a help wanted ad for a company looking for door to door salesmen. What caught my eye in the ad was “Interviews Monday morning, coffee and doughnuts.”

COFFEE AND DOUGHNUTS!!

The next morning I was sitting on the front step of the company when the manager arrived. He had two boxes of doughnuts under his arm. He unlocked the door and I followed him into the reception area where he set the doughnuts down and said, “Make yourself comfortable, I’m going to go make some coffee and then I’ll be right back.”
When he returned, one of the boxes of doughnuts was empty.

I got the job.
Jon

A Teaching Advertising Agency

I have been asked on several occasions what I consider to be my greatest achievement. You can read my Bio which is connected to this blog and see a long list of awards and honors. But you will not find my greatest achievement there.
My greatest achievement is the college graduates that I hired and trained over the years.

If there is a single statement that defines our agency, I hope it would be that Roska is a Teaching Advertising Agency. An agency that provides marketing and advertising education and training to future leaders in our field.

It all started many years ago when I realized that whenever one of my managers needed to hire somebody, they would say to me, "I need somebody with experience." So we would search for somebody with experience and usually find out that experience does not always equate to excellence. We would end up having to train the individual anyway and the first part of the training was to correct all of the bad training they had from their previous experiences.

In the past when we hired young, recent graduates, we did what most agencies do; we threw them into the water and if they could swim, they made it. Like most advertising agencies, we wrecked a lot of good young people like that. The young hires were overwhelmed and judged harshly, many burned out early and left for other careers.

College makes the cup, life fills it.
The aha! moment came when I realized that hiring a college grad with a degree in marketing/advertising, a 4.0 GPA, captain of the cheerleaders and student body president didn't mean squat if we did not have a proper training program in place.
I'm not talking about a training program to learn how to do marketing and advertising. They learn that just from working with the experts on the agency staff. I'm talking about a training program that teaches the lessons they will need to know for the rest of their life.

How to manage their time
How to multi-task
How to delegate
How to dress
How to resolve disputes
How to present
How to lead
How to follow
How to teach others

These are life lessons that when learned properly lead to excellence. And every trainee receives intensive training in these points during their first year at Roska.

If you have been reading previous posts, you have seen seveal references and stories about some of my training experiences. I'll leave you with this one.

One of the things that must be dealt with early when we hire a new graduate, is how to dress. Young people right out of college dress well for their interview, but usually lapse back into college attire within their first 30 days. I remember a young lady, very smart, very attractive who wore very short skirts. I took her aside and pointed out that I wanted our clients to admire her for her intelligence and great marketing; not for her great ass.

She replied, with a look of total innocence, "This skirt passed the 'hands over the head' test."

Jon

A Knot Between Every Word

I received a phone call tonight that Steve Barcus has passed on.

Steve was a creative director at Roska for many years. Those of you who knew him will never forget him. For those of you who did not know him, I’ll share a small bit of who Steve Barcus was.

A creative genius, a husband and father, a true friend to many.

Steve loved nature and he loved to fish. I have stood with him on a Nantucket beach casting all night into the surf to catch a big Striper. And during that night I heard great fishing stories of when he and his friend stacked the Stripers like cordwood, 20, 30 40 pounders. Based on those stories, I now understand how the Stripers were put on the endangered species list for many years. It was because Steve was personally responsible for almost wiping them out.
I have fished for Bone Fish in the Bahamas with Steve and for giant Bass in the mountains of Mexico. And every time he caught a fish, I remember the excitement and joy he exuded, like a 12 year old who has caught his first fish. He loved the sun. He was bald and would rub his head with Wesson oil and fish all day in the sun. “Steve”, I would plead, “put your hat on.” He would put his hat on and when I turned around, he would take it off again. “Steve, put your hat on.” I would say again. “I swear to God that your head is starting to smoke, it smells like bacon frying.” “Yeah”, he would say, “isn’t it wonderful!”

Steve was one of the most creative people I have ever met. He could craft the written word to touch the very core of your emotions. Words that made you laugh or cry or want to buy whatever he was writing about. Steve was the master of creating the special moment.
Steve was the kind of writer that you had to rip the copy from his hands before he would stop writing. He was never satisfied. When we were telling him it was the best copy we had ever read, he would change a word and make it better.
Steve once told me that great copy was like a string of expensive pearls. When a jeweler makes an expensive pearl necklace, he puts a knot between every pearl. “That”, he said, “is how copy must be written; with a knot between every word.”

Steve, you were a special person, you lived your life to the full, and put a knot between every moment.

Jon

The DMA Meeting Love Fest

The DMA business meeting was held on Sunday in San Diego.

They moved the meeting to a much larger room because everybody wanted to attend to see what a proxy vote shoot-out between Gerry Pike and the Board looks like.

I don't know how many proxy votes Gerry picked up with his campaign, but it must have been a lot. When I got there the word was that Gerry and the board had gone late into the night to come to a settlement.

By the time we showed up, it was a love fest. With the board announcing that Gerry had been reinstated for a second term and Gerry telling us what a great bunch of people were on the board. In addition to Gerry being back on the board, he gets to nominate three more board members.

I'll add to the love fest by saying that there are a lot of smart cookies on the DMA board and I hope they figure it out. If not, I think a lot of members will vote with their feet in 2010.

I went to the Electronic Retail Association (ERA) party Monday night and had a good time. It reminded me of the dot.com explosion back in the late 90's. Lots of good contacts, lots of booze. Lots of people wearing all black. Back in those days you could walk into a party and by the time you got to the bar, you had been offered at least $20 million by three different venture capital groups.

No matter how dumb your idea was.

Jon

DMA Conference-DMEF Awards Dinner

Direct is alive and kicking!

I attended the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF) Awards Dinner last night. Close to 300 marketers from all over the country gathered to honor Beth Smith, http://sbdirect.net/ with the Edward Mayer Award. Beth is a super lady who over her career has taught so many people direct advertising that she probably has had a direct affect on the country's GNP.

For the past three years the DMEF has asked me to do the auction part of the evening. That's because I'm a shameless ham who has absolutely no problem asking people for money in public. Some day, I will probably have a very successful career as a homeless person.
I must admit that with the economy the way it is, I did not have great expectations to raise a lot of money, in fact, I had decided to go easy on the crowd and not shake them down for their last penny like I usually do.
Well let me tell you something, when it comes to a good cause like the DMEF, direct marketers step up, no matter how bad the economy is!
In about 30 minutes, I think we raised over $150,000.00, I haven't heard the official count yet, it might be more.
I must admit that putting me on "before" dinner was served was a brilliant strategy and I apologize to everyone for threatening to not feed anybody until they gave me all their money.
Hey, it was for a very good cause.

Today is the DMA board meeting and they have moved it to a much larger room so that we can all come to see what a proxy fight is all about! (see my previous post). Everybody is talking about it and excited about the changes that could take place.

I'll fill you in on what happens.

Jon

DMA - Time for some changes

There's a big controversy brewing at The Direct Marketing Association (DMA). One of their board members by the name of Gerry Pike has nailed his proverbial theses to the door of the DMA in the form of a website titled http://abetterdma.org/ . Mr. Pike is asking all voting DMA members to give him their proxy vote so he can implement the changes he feels are needed to change (save?) the DMA.

The DMA has lashed back with an email to it's members http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/dispannouncements?article=1328 that if you didn't know better, would portray Gerry Pike as a trouble maker who is bitter over the board not nominating him for a second term.

I'm qualified to make a few comments

As a 25 year member of the DMA and an expert in direct marketing, I think that I'm qualified to make a few comments on the situation.

First let's start with Gerry Pike. I've known him professionally for several years. I've had drinks and dinner with him and other professionals in the field on several occasions and he never came across as a wacko. He's a professional who is not afraid to speak-up. I can see how he might rub other DMA board members the wrong way.

On the other side is the DMA board. http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/disppressrelease?article=1225 There are approximately 40 people on the DMA board, all top professionals and they only meet three times a year as a full board, so things move slow. John Greco is the President of the DMA. There have been some very big lay-offs at the DMA and their ability to service members has suffered. On top of that, Mr. Greco makes over $800,000.00.

Three or four years ago I was having a chat with John Greco and told him that the term "Direct Marketing" was antiquated and misunderstood. When you tell someone you're a Direct Marketer, the usual reply is, "So you do direct mail?" I said, "that was why I changed our agency name to Roska Direct Advertising instead of direct marketing." To most people, Direct Advertising covers all forms of media, including interactive. The name change has really worked. Not only our clients perceptions, but our own perceptions of what we do.

John Greco asked me if I was suggesting that the DMA change its name to The Direct Advertising Association? I said yes and added that if they didn't, some other associations were going to eat their lunch.

Most people don't call themselves direct marketers anymore

Direct Marketing is not dead. But it has gone through a transformation. Most people don't call themselves direct marketers anymore. Today people identify themselves as marketers, and they "use" direct marketing as a tactic.

To the majority of brand and product managers I have worked with over the years "direct marketing" usually means "direct mail" or "junk mail". Our industry has done a terrible job of educating or expanding knowledge in the direct field. The DMA claims that over 50% of total advertising spend is direct, yet we do not have a proper college level textbook and the majority of colleges and universities do not teach direct/interactive courses.

Whereas "Direct Advertising" is perceived as multi-channel, including interactive. We could go as far as to rename it The Direct and Interactive Advertising Association (DIAA). Changing the name to Direct Advertising will meet today's marketers perceptions.

More importantly, changing the name is an important first step in a commitment to change the DMA into an organization that is in tune with where things are going and not focusing on trying to save the past.

And John, take a pay cut. Temporary.

Jon