Creative Ideas. Identical twins? Or doppelgangers?

Interesting. In this week's Campaign, Simon Impney, Founder of Open Soho writes of 'an identical twin' appearing in 'The Work' on 14th November. I quote from Simon's letter 'The beautifully formed ad for World Vision features an identical idea to one which we delivered for a client nearly a year ago to the day. In our ad for Smartcells, we feature a baby in its mother's womb informing us there's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take stem cells from the cord that connects me to my mummy.

The World Vision film features a baby in its mother's womb questioning whether or not it will be born into a life of poverty. Ironically, both were born within The Unit production company.' I'm not sure whether my reply to Simon's letter will itself be published, but as the creator of the 'baby' DRTV ad for World Vision, now currently airing, here's my reply. 'Simon Impney (letter 28th November) is correct in pointing out the similarities between the Smartcells and World Vision work. Both feature babies in the womb who have a voice which denotes a certain prescience.

There the similarity ends. The technique is not new. It also featured in Massive Attack's 'Teardrop' in which the baby has a musical sensibility and mouths lyrics. What is different about the Word Vision work, inspired not by Smartcells, but by the moving womb shots of the developing fetus in Robert Winston's BBC series 'A Child Of Our Time' , is that it dramatises the fact that just because children are born into poverty doesn't mean they have to live their lives that way. And is based on the premise that the country of your birth doesn't have to determine the course of your life. Meteorite gestated the idea and gave birth to it. The Unit expertly rendered it.' Work that resembles others' work is the stock-in-trade of film-makers, from The Coen Brothers to Tarantino and there's no reason advertising creatives shouldn't draw inspiration from the cultural ether. All I'd add to Simon is that similarities do not an identical twin make. In the case of World Vision's 'Baby', conception occurred at a different time and between different parents.

Related to this very debate, this week's Campaign also features an excellent piece by Craig Walmsley on intellectual rights. To quote Walmsley (ironically) quoting Picasso "Good artists borrow. Great artists steal". And to quote Walmsley not quoting anyone else, but borrowing a theory instead as if to illustrate his theme (very post-modern), 'In truth, creative industries can thrive on the re-conceiving and re-purposing of previous work. There are just seven basic plots that any story can have - so you are only going to come up with a variation on a theme'. If Simon Impney wants a neatly articulated response to his letter, I'd direct him to Walmsley's (borrowed) words on page 10 of the same issue of Campaign. As a footnote, The World Vision baby ad also features in this week's 'Private View' in which both Brian Fraser, ECD of McCanns and Paul Hammersley of The Red Brick Road,' faintly praise the ad's 'well-intentioned' approach.

They will both be pleased to know that 'with the credit crunch and the recession at the front of everyone's mind' (to borrow from Fraser) the ad is indeed 'working even harder than before' and that 'that 'this stuff' (to borrow from Hammersley) is pulling better than 'good old-fashioned DRTV'. And, with a committed give of £18 a month over (on average)10 years, that's an even more difficult task than the already difficult one of 'getting people to put their hands in their pockets and give to charities' (to borrow from Fraser again). By the way, Brian and Paul, I'll be happy to share the results with you - one thing I can honestly say isn't borrowed.

Good-buzzin' cool-talkin' ever-givin' copy

Talking about the copywriter's art. 'Lip-smackin' thirst-quenchin' ace-tastin' motivatin' good-buzzin' cool-talkin' high-walkin' fast-livin' ever-givin' cool-fizzin' Pepsi.'

It was 35 years ago. I can recite the lyrics as easily as I can Sergeant Pepper or Space Oddity. Which must be an advertising record. A long-copy strap-line that's entirely memorable. It was really a rap track deployed in the service of advertising before rap was even a glimmer in P. Diddy's eye and before P. Diddy was even a twinkle in the eye himself.

So it had that rare thing - it was both of and ahead of its time. Which means the copy delivers on the Pepsi promise and vice versa - it's good-buzzin', cool-talkin', ever-givin' copy. Anyone under thirty of the purely digital persuasion who views advertising as ephemeral had better view Pepsi in 1973. Think about it. Today the end-line would just be lipsmackin.com.

How will the Direct Marketing community outlive the recession?

With the world's economies convulsing, read Dr. Thomas Homer Dixon's 'The upside of down'. There are some very interesting implications for Direct.

Look at the way millennial events have unfolded - 9/11, melting ice caps, the banking crisis - all suddenly coming to light in a way we could never have predicted or prepared for. Even the sanest, most rational person would conclude that nothing is certain any more.

Dixon talks about 'a deep existential fear of the unknown and uncontrolled...the possibility that no one knows enough to protect us is terrifying'. He calls it 'unbounded uncertainty'. In past recessions (I've been through two), we've calculated risk and managed according to probability.

But this time, it's not just the rules of the game that are changing. It's the game itself. The unthinkable has happened in the commercial dynamic. There have been runs on banks, tax-payer bail-outs, nationalisation of free-market financial institutions, full-scale meltdown of the investment big boys. Wall Street and The City have developed a siege mentality. And the fulcrum of global economic power is shifting East. Nothing is as we thought it would be.

The biggest spenders on direct are crumbling into the dust . Sectors previously thought unshakeable - automotive, FS, Retail - are undergoing radical realignment, Car giants such as Ford, GM and Chrysler are begging for federal subsidies, established FS brands' stock is sinking before our eyes and retailers are panicking into January sales pre-Christmas. The cash-cows have turned into mad-cows, stricken by economic BSE. So faced with this new paradigm, how does the Direct community survive? How do we manage uncertainty?

In the past - and through previous recessions - we've pitched our tent on the solid ground of accountability. But if we can't calculate probability any more, our promises to deliver the numbers through the most accountable channels could ring hollow. So how do direct agencies safeguard their greatest selling point? The simple answer is to be vigilant about the threat and relentlessly demonstrate accountability in everything we do, through every campaign case study.

Collectively, we as an industry have to get better at selling our wares on the basis of results. And that means slicing and dicing the metrics in every conceivable way. Awareness tracking studies, psychographics, ROI, Cost per Contact, Cost per Response, Cost per Conversion, Cost per Sale, Lifetime Value, Net Present Value et cetera et cetera. Intelligence on our customers, how they behave and interact with brands, products and services has never been at such a premium.

It's absolute gold-dust. Then we have to demonstrate that the precious analytics enable us to refine our campaigns to positive effect. To make this meaningful, we have to segment and target the long tail that forms the mass. Then and only then will we be able to establish direct and unequivocal links to sales and profitability.

Get granular, get right back to the metrics, the stuff we do best. You may say that's all blindingly obvious, that analytics and segmentation are meat and drink to the industry.

But, hand on heart, can you honestly say that while the good times rolled, you followed best practice? Now's the time to get back to basics and make the robust case for DM. Because, if cynicism, doubt and caution are the sworn enemy of direct, the Barbarians, my friends, are already at the gates.

Carry on, Sergeant

From St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians to 'Strictly Come Dancing' and the bombshell that John Sergeant has walked off the show as revealed in a Sun 'exclusive' today. Last weekend, this respected political commentator-turned-national treasure sailed through another round of 'Strictly Come Dancing' and onto the front page of the tabloids.

The judges cried foul as the nation voted silky Saga poster girl Cherie Lunghi out of the competition. Craig, Arlene, Len and Bruno watched with mounting incredulity as Sergeant won the dance-off with all the finesse of a Maris Piper potato. Fresh on the heels of Ross and Brandgate, the scandal saw the media community's dirty laundry set on another furious spin cycle. More public votes have been cast for Sergeant than for candidates in the last General Election.

So what does this tell us about the audience's appetite that they were minded to respond in these numbers and with this intent? That no matter how much the judges want them to swoon at the technical brilliance of an immaculately performed dance routine, the great unwashed would much rather watch John Sergeant's Paso Doble any day - even if the handling of his professional partner resembled an overworked postman dragging a heavily-laden mail bag to the sorting office. It's called entertainment value. It's called understanding your audience.

It's what we do as Direct Marketers. And, as times get tougher, it's what everybody craves. Let direct marketers take note of the overwhelming response Sergeant's performance elicited and how the high-mindedness of the judges who mistake this for a dance contest, not a prime-time light entertainment vehicle, have deprived the nation of what they want. Entertainment. Pure and simple.

Sergeant connected with the audience because most viewers are like him - a lot of the time people are crap, unfit for purpose, a little muddled in their execution, ungainly, but nevertheless persevering through the rounds and routines of life. They identify and empathise with the blundering, self-apologetic everyman. This is the new celebrity in our culture - we hunger for authenticity, connection and entertainment. The more austere the times, the more voracious that appetite becomes. No amount of technical brilliance can substitute that. And John Sergeant's response rates prove it.

The world's first Direct Response Letter

Question: Where do you begin a blog about direct? Answer: at the beginning of direct. The earliest recorded example of the direct response letter. St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians was written around AD4 and it offers up an object masterclass in the art of copy to all direct marketers.

St. Paul knew his audience, knew how to elicit a response, set out to raise funds from those most able to give and needed to summon up all the powers of expression, argument and persuasion to do so. And, In his letter to the Corinthians, he nailed it. It was a highly effective piece of communication - because he worked it not on bludgeoning sales patois or an overt CTA, but on persuasion, affirmation and psychological insight.

The context was this. After years of drought and floods, the people of Jerusalem were starving. Grain was scarce and there were riots on the streets. Hundreds of people were dying. In contrast, the City of Corinth was flourishing - the people sophisticated, cultured, high-brow, a high-earning, high aspiring Metropolitan elite.

The Kensington and Chelsea of The Holy Lands. It was therefore to the Corinthians that Paul targeted his fundraising appeal. And, in writing his letter, he adopts nine winning techniques. Direct copywriters take note. 1. Immediately engage the audience. St. Paul begins his letter with a story, citing the Philippi - a tribe of Barbarians, the least respectable in the eyes of his target market - and how in times of crisis they gave generously.

"Voluntarily, they gave according to and beyond their means", says the good Saint Paul. It's like Liverpool fans citing Milwall as exemplars of good crowd behaviour. Interestingly, Paul doesn't start his letter with a statement of need, but with a statement of the desired response. By not mentioning the disaster up front, he is robbing the people of Corinth of excuses not to do anything. Instead, motivate people by describing the what can happen when people give.

St. Paul's leading statement of the response appeals to their innate sense of goodness and generosity. It may seem odd that St. Paul avoided mentioning the thousands dying on the streets, but he clearly saw it as more productive to describe the value of the response. 2. Add compelling reinforcement. He then outlines a strategy - not to do with money, but to do with relationships. In this instance he is not asking the Corinthians to identify with those in need (the fact was that the high-minded Corinthians would have looked down on the inhabitants of Jerusalem anyway) but with the Lord.

Money, he says, is a dangerous and dynamic force - so it needs to be given to the Lord. Any organisation has to be seen as a good steward of its customers' money and St. Paul was no different. The credentials of the Christian church are impeccable even if those of the denizens of Jerusalem sometimes left a little to be desired. 3. Prompt affirmation, don't provoke guilt. Paul affirms the donor - 'as you would excel in everything so we want you to excel in this generous undertaking'. He recognises that people are motivated more by affirmation than by guilt.

A great planner's insight. 4. Appeal to loyalty. He then tests the loyalty of the Corinthians - their discipleship when he writes 'I say this not by command, but I'm testing the genuineness of your love against that of the Barbarian Philippi'. In doing so, he knows that, if the Philippi are the benchmark, there's hope for us all. 5. Stimulate the selfish gene. He then not only seeks their sense of justice and fair balance, but asks them to empathise with the plight of others by projecting them into that situation - 'that some day when you are in need, others will give'. So, by giving to ease the food crisis, the Corinthians will be engaged in an act of justice and self-regarding salvation, levelling the playing field. Like Cancer Relief, it's a case of 'there but for the grace of God go I'. 6. Be clear about the response device.

St Paul then does what any direct response copywriter would be sacked for not doing. He creates a response mechanism - he sends a guy called Titus from Jerusalem to Corinth to collect the money. 7. Offer proof. St Paul validates the appeal with the reassurance that the money will go where he says it will - direct to the people of Jerusalem. 'We're doing this so that God will be glorified - we'll ensure in the sight of God that this money is delivered to Jerusalem". 8. Bring the audience along with you. He avoids any proselytising or high-mindedness and invokes his audience's sense of integrity by saying 'I shouldn't have to write to you about this - you already know the need for giving'.

9. Add the ultimate signatory. And finally, he re-asserts the faithfulness of God - 'I am confident God will provide everything you need'. It's a flourish to the sign-off, the ultimate signatory and a name that denotes unimpeachable integrity. So what's all this about? Well, I don't want to get too holy about this, but we in direct marketing are responsible for how money is raised, not just how much.

Not just whether it's given, but why it's given. Jettison the Christian message from St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians and you're still left with a very powerful case for copy that's got truth and integrity at its heart - it's not just about going through the motions of 'the sell'. It's layered, subtle stuff. And this, my first blog, is a call for more of the same. Not just in fundraising, but everywhere.

As the last year has shown, short-termism is a bankrupt philosophy. That's why Barack will take the oaths of office in January. To quote Stephen Mansfield in 'The Faith of Obama', the people who teach us how to make our high-flying rhetoric into grounded reality will be most remembered'. That's why writers in our industry have a responsibility. To be true to our audiences, not just the products and services we represent.