MC&Co: a day in the life of direct response media

Hello again,

In the last few days I have been mostly doing research for a client who is currently involved in new product development. As their brand (by their own admission) is not as well known as they would like it to be, nor does it attract a very wide audience, I have been investigating the business models for similar companies in order to show us what avenues we could go down. After the initial facts and history of the company and a brief outline of their audience using TGI, I need to find out how they have evolved their brand with new products over time and which of these new enterprises were successes or failures. This threw up an interesting question in the brainstorming meeting last week, how can you define a success? Is it simply how much profit a certain product or service produces or is it more complicated? From the research that I have done in the last few days, I have seen certain unprofitable enterprises that are consistently subsidised by the company’s central funds. This is probably because these enterprises attract a larger audience, retain current customers within the brand, or increase brand awareness (partly what our client is trying to do). So, if a firm is large enough and has the overall funds, as well as the man-power to support a new scheme that is making a loss, should success really be defined by the profit created? Or, are the by-products of such a venture more valuable in the long term and worth the monetary deficiencies?

Let me know if you have any comments!
Rebecca@MCand.co.uk

Until next time

Becks
x

The Directors proposed that we should all get a flu jab, performed by a qualified doctor in-house.....Simple!... you would have thought. First reaction from the staff.... 'what!!'(I personally think it's just a ploy for nobody to have an excuse to take a sickie during the busiest media planning months of the year... but don't tell anyone I said that!) So I sent the email with a little glint in my eye very curious about the anticipated response....I was expecting to get a barrage of negative emails laced with accusations of the directors trying to invade their personal health by forcing an unecessary injection on them.... but to my great surprsie I received a great response from the whole team saying.......'YES PLEASE'.So the doctor will arrive next week, needles in hand, ready to dish out the first MC&C flu vaccination.
Are you protected against the dangers of the winter weather....???

I love this job
Lots of things make it enjoyable, the people, the challenges, the new stuff, the learning. Especially the learning.
And sometimes you don’t realise you have learned something until someone asks you about it
And I’ve just realised one of the things we probably have learned about is convergence.
It’s the Martini media thing, anything, any time any place.

And what has prompted the realisation is a question from one of the trade journals: is it really happening, and if so how?

And the answer is yes. But its like teenage sex: it progresses more slowly and is less widespread than everyone thinks.
But I guess because we have a number of media owners as clients we probably have a closer view of it than many. We certainly have a view as to whether anyone is making money from it
Now, several interesting things about convergence
The first is that convergence means that old fashioned media (like print) become more like new media (like web) and vice a versa.
Obvious
But what is less obvious is that we are all really used to new media winning: Google and 3 will inherit the earth.
And I think that may not strictly be true
It might be about more subtle things than that

Take 2 of our clients.
One is a hip trendy media owner, well known brand, reputation for innovation, early adoption, stirring it up. Younger, ABC1 audience, been on the web for years, been experimenting with mobile and broadband services for the last 4 years or so.

The other is the antithesis. Old fashioned print brand, conservative, older audience. Only really come to the web in the last 4 years, only come to mobile in the last 6 months.
Both trying to extend their original business model into other media, to take advantage of the convergence thing

You would have thought that hip trendy one would win hands down
Turns out, its not so.
Turns out the old fuddy duddy one does just as well in the migration thing. And it seems to be about how they each present themselves to consumers

The hip media owner uses an old fashioned mass communication model. One very high reach message, addressing all potential audiences for any new product and service. Very high reach, but low take up from each message

The old fashioned media owner has a data background. Instead of a mass broadcast message they draw on their past experience in direct communications. They use hundreds of thousands of personally tailored messages (and not just personally addressed: individually tailored content, relevant to time, place and individuals need)
Again, each of these messages produces a very low take up. But because they are tailored it’s a higher % response than to the high reach message of the other media owner. And because there are so many of them the actual total response, and crucially of valuable transactional response, is higher.

So, convergence happening: yes
Should we look to form long term partnerships with media brands that will dominate across several channels: yes
But it might not be the obvious ones that will win

Hello everyone. My name is Lou and I'm a senior tv planner buyer here at MC&C. I'm another fairly new recruit to the team and in a couple of weeks will be celebrating lasting 3 months as a member of the team - hopefully my standard probation period will be extended to full time!

I work with Nicky and Piotr and my main priority day to day is to ensure that the shortform DRTV campaigns run as smoothly and effectively as they possibly can. This includes updating call schedules on a regular basis so that the call centres handling the calls are briefed and advised well in advance of the times of the ads due to go out and expected response as well as trouble-shooting where needed to liaising with the stations to ensure that the campaigns are delivered on target - certainly not as easy as that sounds!

What I really enjoy about being a planner and a buyer is that I can follow campaigns through from start to finish and get involved in the analysis of resutls which is more often than not a satisfying and pleasing experience!

I've had a rather busy week this week as I've been doing some planning for November campaigns as well as meeting with some clients. Now that it's Friday afternoon and the weekend is in sight i'm busy trying not to think about putting on my new boots that i've just bought and hitting the pub to celebrate my friends birthday, so that i can get everything ticked off my list so that I can start afresh next week.

Well, that was my first blog and after putting it off all week i've finally done it and it was easy peasy and actually really good fun! Have a lovely weekend all you blog readers!
Lou

Hello,

Becks here, the youngest member of the MC&C team! I have worked here with these lovely people, a couple of times over the past year for work experience last summer and just before Christmas. Now I am working as a media assistant (my new title, upgraded from 'guinea pig' or 'pre-university experiment'). I mostly work with Tim on new business that seems to be popping up all over the place at the moment. Apart from working with specific clients, I am usually around the office to help anyone with research, TGI or NMR runs, getting delivery details for inserts and anything else that they would like me to do.

Unfortunately, I am only here until March, when I will be disappearing to India, Nepal, Singapore, New Zealand (to Hang glide!) and Fiji on my gap-year travels. I am currently applying to university to read Geography, the inside knowledge that I have gained through being around so many graduates has been extremely helpful!

Having just left school, and my home back in Bristol, the world of work and responsibility came as a bit of a shock! But everyone in the team has been so supportive im starting to get used to it! Although there are only 20 people in the office it is such a lively and friendly place, everyone gets on well and works as an (ever expanding) team. We think it may have something to do with the female:male ratio of 6:3 at the last count!

Until next time,

Becks
x

So I suppose the first thing to do is introduce myself. My names Stephen, and I'm the new graduate who started with MC&C on Monday. I'm working alongside Catherine on the Press team, and starting to get to grips with the industry and my daily tasks.

I've come to MC&C with little knowledge and even less experience in the industry having studied Politics and Economics at Durham University. I graduated in 2004, and since then have been living it up in Vancouver, Canada. I returned from Vancouver after a year there only 3 weeks ago, and have had to hit the ground running. New job already, and soon to be a new place to live in from November all things being well. West Hampstead is the target destination. It may not have the views and lifestyle of Vancouver, but it does have a few decent bars and kebab shop as I discovered last night. What more could you want?

So far life at MC&C has been great. Catherine is showing me the ropes, and I've already been to a few client meetings and introductory training sessions. I'm slowly getting familiar with the technical jargon, and have started to do a bit of work for our clients - mostly booking press, and checking up on the affiliate networks. Tomorrow is welcoming drinks, so I'm looking forward to meeting everyone properly, and by the sounds of it, having the mickey taken out of the 'Boy Beard' I'm sporting at the moment. I thought it was fetching, but apparently not!

Well, I'm off home to have a shave. Until next time.....

Stephen

So last night involved media training. The course is attended by about 150 graduates, Piotr (another grad at MC&C), Bex (working here pre-uni) and I. As we arrived early, we waited outside for fear of looking too keen! I'm sure the feeling is the same for most grads; the thought of having to go a lecture is most unwelcome! Pleasantly surprised, our lecture on Communication strategy was in fact...very good! The lecturer, or rather speaker, had himself attended this course when he was just starting out in the world of media. As he began to talk, it was clear that he was putting his theories into practice. We, the grads, were his audience and he was seeing things through our eyes and communicating to us at our level. All very impressive. The speaker discussed the significance of Communication strategy in the world of media. According to our speaker, Communication involved:-
i) The idea (the concept behind a brand)
ii) The message (what should be communicated about the brand)
iii) The brand itself (what the product actually is and does)
This was demonstrated to us through examples of brands that he himself had worked on and the level of success that his communication strategy had achieved.
All the while, the presentation was formatted on rather unusual slides. The slides, the speaker chose were snapshots of today's popular culture and were always implicitly related to the topic he was talking about. For instance, behind the title slide of "examples of bad communication" was a snapshot of Bill Clinton's infamous denial of the Lewinsky affair. I really did feel that this was a very effective way of communicating his ideas to an audience of twenty somethings. The highlight of the evening was when a scene from the film "Big" was played to us. Once again, the speaker's visual aids nailed his message on the head. I'm sure you know the film, but the scene depicted to us was of Ben (Tom Hanks), a child in an adult's body, sat in a boardroom meeting at a toy store. As one of the executives reels off figure after figure, in an attempt to persuade his team that the toy building which turned into a robot, really is a good idea, Ben speaks up. Ben doesn't understand why on earth a child would find a building which turned into a robot fun. Obviously, Ben's prospective is that of a child (a toy store's target audience) whilst the executive's garble was devoid of any audience empathy. The point is simple. Always understand you audience.

After this impressive hour, we were asked to fill out a questionnaire. This would assess our coolness. "Do you like going out a lot" and "do you like social events" were just some of the questions asked. Now this is the only part of the evening which disgruntled me. The results of my questionnaire totalled a low score, labelling me as fairly uncool. Oh well!

Anyhow better go and raise my coolness credits! Chat soon. Sumitra

Hi it’s Sumitra again.
Wednesday morning: So far, this week has been manic. Monday involved sorting through the weekend press and checking the positioning of our client's ads. Tuesday involved a client meeting - very interesting as this is where our briefs are built up. So with this in mind, today the planning begins. Lots to do so better go. Will blog tomorrow with news of the media training course I will be attending tonight, along with any gossip from the post-course drinks!

Hi Blog

It's me, Phillippa, but you can call me Phil.
I'm PA to Mr Mike Colling and Office Manager. A typical Monday morning in the life of an Office Manager. I got in reasonably early this morning (well, on time anyway! to the dismay of Spencer who I met on the door step and told me that I was likely to get a nose bleed by coming into the office that early!!)
We have 2 new starters today which means 2 new computers to set up and 2 new phones to patch into the network. Luckily all went very smoothly and with the help of the lovely Virtual IT they are both cruising around the MC&C network already!!
I have a big client party to organise for tomorrow evening in the office which includes buying Champagne and moving office furniture so I better go and organise before all the guests have nothing to eat or drink tomorrow.
Have a great day!
Mrs Kanye West
xxx

Hello, my name is Sumitra. I have only recently joined Mike Colling and Company (MCandCo) as a planner/buyer, having recently graduated from Uni this summer. So this is both my first "real job" and my first time working in Direct Response Media.

Before I joined I had no idea of what I would be doing 9till5. I mean it took me a while to realise that the clue was in the title - as in I would be dealing with media that prompted a direct response. But to be truthful beyond that I was stumped! And also I was just reeling from the shock that I was no longer a student; I would never again sit down for lunchtime with "Neighbours". Anyway, back to the matter in hand, what was it like starting work at Mike Colling and Co and what was I expected to do? On my first day, I was pleasantly surprised, people were nice and normal - my only impression of the work place thus far being of David Brent and Co. Having made the schoolboy error of wearing beautiful but painful shoes, I finally arrived at work. And I think once I had plastered my feet up with the first aid kit, it was pretty much all go.

Liz, the senior planner/buyer at MCandCo, is teaching me everything about the Press department and to her credit, a month on, I really think I've learnt lots. So far, I have learnt about the research involved in planning press activity for clients, putting such planning to practice and the consequent analysis of a campaign's success. For me, the planning part is the best; as you get to do loads of research on what sort of press use is going to the most beneficial for clients, then work out the costs and stuff. Once the go ahead has been given from the client, the buying follows - this involves booking ad space in a variety of magazines and newspapers. Further to this, I have begun to look at the results of all the above tasks in order to assess the success of press activity. This involves "vouchering"; a highly technical process which involves going through all the papers and ensuring that all the ads we have booked are there and are in good positions - all the while getting inky fingers which then get everywhere! Whilst this is an important task, it is in all truth, the less exciting aspect of my daily routine. However the beauty of it is that it doesn't take too long! But vouchering does not account for all the analysis that goes into press activity! The much more interesting part involves actually looking at a breakdown of the results i.e. how many people responded to a particular advert. And apart from this, everything else I do continually challenges me and, beyond all my expectations, actually excites me. This is the kind of thing that has kept me busy over the past month.

My workload has been a lot greater than I had expected, I had worried that I was just going to make the tea and do the post for the first few months! I feel that in some way, I was thrown in the deep end and made to work straight away but this was undoubtedly the best way to learn. Still I'm sure that my work must seem like Mickey Mouse Work to those in the company who have been here longer! Nevertheless, I’m really enjoying my job here. I know I’ve got loads and loads more to learn about, but whilst a thought like that would have previously scared me senseless - as it did the week before my finals – I’m really looking forward to the road ahead at MCandCo. Anyhow, better go, Sunday afternoon and about to go for dim sum with my brother, sister-in-law and my niece!! Very excited, as she is 6 weeks old today! Chat soon!
Sumitra X