Direct insights

The IDM North held their annual conference yesterday at the Digital World Centre in Salford Quays. Why do we go to these events? To be inspired, to catch up with old colleagues, to meet prospective clients or perhaps just to be entertained.

Two presentations were very entertaining. Richard Madden from TequilaLondon was introduced as a planner who had previously taught at a Jesuit seminary. Richard spoke for 40 minutes on the need to tell the truth in advertising.

It was riviting and extremely entertaining. By regularly poking fun at himself, and the profession we’re in, he demonstrated how the most effective advertising revealed some inner truth about the product and our need for it. One of the case studies he cited was the Abbey ‘signature’ campaign to encourage take up amongst teenagers of its new card savings account. Hinged around the teenagers signature it positioned banking as one of several rites of passage during the teenage years. It was tremendously successful and outperformed the incentivised control.

Nick Bowyer, Marketing Director of M&S Money took us through the introduction of the chip & pin technology for the Money credit card. Instead of just positioning chip & pin as a ‘security’ issue (a benefit to the card provider and not the card holder) they positioned the card as THE card for all the cardholders purchases. There was a lot of joined up thinking that linked all the communications above and below the line, instore and online. Nick spoke frankly and entertainingly without any ‘marketing bollocks’.