A Shouting Man

Tom Bazeley — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:14:00 GMT

It’s 7.30am. A busy Friday morning at King’s Cross station in London. It’s been a long week, I’m tired and have a day of meetings and deadlines ahead of me. 6 o’clock and a pint of Cruzcampo seem like a long way off. Climbing up the steps, I emerge from the Victorian bowels of the London Underground system and into the crisp April morning and…"SPORT! MATE, SPORT!" A man in red uniform is shouting into my face. "SPORT!" As my senses slot back into their rightful place, I realize he’s telling me about a free magazine he’s giving away. It’s called Sport no less.

I’ve read it before and it’s not bad. It’s a freebie that nicely fills the gaps between tube stations and has definitely benefited by association with the spirit of hungover Friday mornings. But now I’ve got someone shouting in my face about it. Is that? Yes, I do believe I can smell his breath.

There are parallels between this shouting man and advertising during financially lean times.

The shouting man was briefed to tell as many people as possible about his magazine and possibly measured on the amount of copies he could get rid of. In a bid to carry out his task as effectively as possible, he decided to yell and thrust copies into the path of his prospects.

Agencies are briefed to create advertising that tells as many people as possible about a product, service or company. In 2009, there is more pressure to perform than in recent years. And too often client and agency will arrive at the conclusion that a short cut to effectiveness is to shout louder and thrust the product into the paths of their prospects. Digital, with the lure of a measurable click and the tantalizing proximity to a point of sale, is particularly susceptible to this.

I don’t know this for a fact, but I imagine that most people (just like me this morning) prefer to be spoken to, not shouted at. Most people will respond to being spoken to with courtesy. Most people will cower when you shout and breathe morning-breath on them. For really ‘hard-working’ ads, talk don’t shout.

1998

Tom Bazeley — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:53:00 GMT

Last week, Dave Bedwood, one of the founders of Lean Mean Fighting Machine, walked into the office grinning and waving his university dissertation. He stopped half way through the office. “I’ve found it!” A small crowd of three people gathered. In his hands was a 10,000 word essay entitled “How Is The Internet Changing Advertising?”

Click on this link and read the first page: http://www.leanmeanfightingmachine.co.uk/blog/2009/03/daves-dissertation/

Apart from reminding us how left-handed art directors struggled before spellcheck went mainstream, it is remarkable by virtue of the fact it was written in 1998 by a student who had never been on the internet. Not once. Yet the questions posed in this abstract aren’t a million miles away from those asked in any number of industry articles, conferences and blogs in 2009.

Let’s face it, the digital marketing fraternity loves nothing more than a jolly good discussion about the whys and wherefores of the digital haves and have-nots. In a poetic twist that will escape only the two of you, this discussion is usually conducted across the very platforms in question. Hurrah!

Well, here’s my challenge to you. Less chat, more action. Digital might well be the most exciting way to sell things to people that there has ever been, and yes, there is a lot to talk about. But all the chatter will be buried in vainglory unless we act on it, and put it into practice.

I know. I’m waging this micro-war courtesy of a blog on Revolution’s new site. It doesn’t sit brilliantly with me either. Now I will stop tapping, and get on with something else instead.

View from an agency

A Shouting Man

1998