We can all remember the days when direct marketing was the wunderkind, the stalking horse that made the above-the-line boys quake in their handmade Lobb's.
Suddenly, clients would totally spoil a good lunch with talk about sales uplift and return on investment. No matter how much the adman tried to steer the conversation around to "real" topics like unprompted recall, the glazed hypnotised look of the client would return to results.
Well, I'm not saying that direct marketing has strayed too far from that, and I'm not saying that it still doesn't give the above-the-line boys sleepless nights -- otherwise why on earth should they all have developed a DM offer as some kind of life insurance?
What I am about to say though, will annoy a lot of direct marketing practitioners.
I think that direct marketing is in danger of losing its roots, forgetting where it came from, putting on a few too many airs and graces. I think it's about time that it rediscovered itself.
I beg all direct marketers reading this piece to stop their discipline from becoming another adland and to "do the right thing" by their clients.
What do I mean by doing the right thing?
Well, it's simple.
Be honest and be proud. Be honest in your relationships with the client.
Don't sell crap that you know won't work.
Don't be so far up your own exit strategy that you are selling the client the exciting creative that you feel sure will win an award but you also secretly feel sure won't work as well as the less glitzy idea that will actually make money.
And above all, don't go all "planny" on clients.
Now, I am saying this as a planner and researcher. I have worked above the line, on the line, and for the past 10 years below the line. So, I have met every shape and size of planner the Lord has created. And yes, planning can be a bullshit-free zone! But it's rare.
A lot of above-the-line escapees are now finding a home south of the border and with them will come the Adfab dialectic of brand-building through advertising.
There is a lot of this being sold right now, to both direct agencies and to clients. The agencies think they need to recruit it and the clients are buying it from their agencies because they've already recruited it and now they've got to sell it.
Now, I'm not saying it's impossible to build a brand through direct marketing, but what I am saying is that this must be done with real honesty.
For example, some brands don't have a cat in hell's chance of building their brand in this way, and it also needs to be done without shelving direct marketing's primary objective, to sell. It's what its there for.
So, if your direct agency suddenly fields a suit that espouses something like an ad campaign in an envelope, be careful -- they might not be doing the right thing.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .