I was so blown away by the Susan Boyle video on YouTube (haven’t seen it? Come on, it has 20 million views! Click here) that I feel like there must be a way to link the Scottish songstress’s amazing feat — think you could stand in front of a laughing, jeering crowd (not to mention Simon Cowell) and pull that off? — to the challenges DM marketers face every day. Clearly, the moral of the Susan Boyle story is, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” But it’s also about overcoming stereotypes — Boyle dressed like a dowdy, aging British housewife, prompting laughter, but she sang like a young, beautiful songbird to the background noise of jaws dropping.
Well, there are plenty of stereotypes about DM — that it’s only direct mail, and junk mail at that; that it’s not creative; that it’s “traditional” and “old-school.” Of course, DM practitioners know the truth — that the science of DM is what makes up the “hot” digital marketing of today; that DM encompasses a vast variety of one-to-one sectors; and that today’s CMO’s do not consider DM to be old-school in the least — instead, it is appreciated as a measureable, results-driven practice.
It’s all about being appreciated for what you do best — and as you’ll see in my editorial in Monday’s issue of DMNews, it’s clear that today’s DM is far from dowdy.
