Jim Gilbert has been creating direct marketing programs that drive superior ROI for almost 30 years. Fluent in consumer or B-to-B, creative, operations, and analytics, he marries the strategic and tactical sides of direct and social media marketing in a seamless fashion that gets results. He's CEO of a multidiscipline direct marketing agency, Gilbert Direct Marketing, Inc., which focuses on direct mail, catalogs, DRTV, telemarketing, print, alternative direct marketing media and social media marketing.
Jim has been involved in start-ups, expansions and turnarounds, and is an expert in helping multichannel marketers get to the "next level." He's a former adjunct professor, teaching direct marketing at Miami International University, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Direct Marketing Association. Jim loves to talk direct marketing, and has done many lectures on direct and social media marketing.
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I’m going to take some heat for this next statement: I’m not a big football fan. I grew up playing and watching hockey, and never really “got” football.
But usually I love the Super Bowl. Actually, I should say that I usually love the Super Bowl's commercials. They’re clever, funny and make my annual trip to my friend's Super Bowl party much better.
But I’m not really sure what happened this year. Ninety percent of the commercials were just plain stupid, other than Brett Favre's spot for Hyundai, Volkswagen's punch buggy ad and the Letterman/Oprah/Leno commercial for CBS’ "Late Show." And I loved the sheer perfection of Google's spot. It told a story and made you feel it.
Oh, and seeing Betty White and Abe Vigoda playing football was funny, but I have no idea the following morning what was being sold in the ad. All in all, this year's trend seemed to be men in underwear and condescending beer spots.
If You Build it (Brand it), Will They Come?
I’ve also never been a big branding guy. I've always believed that branding is something you do while you're stimulating orders and leads via direct marketing. To me, making someone laugh while watching a commercial doesn’t exactly cause new customer acquisition. You do that with offers, calls to action, superior guarantees and, of course, products that measure up to and exceed expectations.
Direct marketing is immediate, purposeful, in your face and compels you to take action. It’s not about creating a funny TV spot and the eventual purchase of a product based on message recall. Direct marketing is about measurability.
And while I admit that general branding agencies are getting better at using direct marketing principles, it’s not enough. Just slapping a URL on a TV commercial doesn’t make it direct marketing.
Take Names and Kick Butt … A Prescription for Commercial Agencies
Here are four ways that I would've rewritten the scripts of all the commercials I saw (and a select few actually did this):
In short, don’t just create ads for a later response (you hope) and/or message retention and brand recall. If you build it, they won’t necessarily come … or even remember. Create commercials that build brand engagement and stimulate action.
Jim Gilbert is president of Gilbert Direct Marketing Inc., a full-service catalog, direct marketing and social media agency. His LinkedIn profile can be viewed at www.linkedin.com/in/jimwgilbert. You can email him at jimdirect@aol.com, follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/gilbertdirect or read his blog at gilbertdirectmarketing.wordpress.com/.
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