It’s that magical time of year, the Holiday season once again.  Every day the retail email fairy leaves me well over 20 (some days over 40) red and green emails to spread joy and cheer throughout my inbox. I have begun to understand how time-consuming Chad White’s http://www.retailemailblog.com job must be.

The Holiday season is an excellent litmus test of how far direct messaging has come - and how much further it needs to go. In arguably the most competitive drive period of the year, retailers should be showcasing their direct messaging chops to break through the clutter, driving revenue and margin.  The epitome of direct marketing is relevance.  Yet the evidence in my inbox points to Holiday messaging firmly entrenched at the other end of the spectrum: one-size-fits-most messaging, with discounts of 20%+ thrown in to catch the eye.

Disappointed, I briefly considered checking last year’s emails to see if any retailers chose to reduce costs by re-using their Holiday 2008 creative.*

Read the rest of this entry »

At the re:direct launch at DMA09,
we invited client, agency + industry guests
to write suggestions  on a napkin.

Read the rest of this entry »

At our OgilvyOne reception on Tuesday after Shelly Lazarus’ induction into the Hall of Fame, we shared with industry leaders and press the idea behind re:direct and this opening video which is a call to arms based on some insights, ideas from research and people:

Read the rest of this entry »

Creativity can help reinvigorate direct.

OgilvyOne is a DMA 09 sponsor , so we’re using our print ad in the conference program (page 92) to be a proof of concept in how to re-inject creativity +  innovation into direct channels.

Print ad invites you to email a picture to hear a msg from D.O.

Read the rest of this entry »