IGNITING IDEAS
MICHAEL CULLEN PROFILES AWARD-WINNING DIRECT AGENCY, IGNITION

When David O’Sullivan set up Ignition 14 years ago he had never worked in an agency before, nor had he been gainfully employed as a copywriter. Now he writes copy for some of Ireland’s top brands. Though small in size, Ignition was recognised as a major industry force last May as it was named agency of the year at the An Post direct marketing awards.

Competing on a par with agencies several times their size, Ignition won five gold awards for SuperValu, best first time use for the press launch of the Parnell Heritage Pub, best print and production for the agency’s own Plan B Positive campaign, best data strategy and – surprise, surprise – best copywriting. In addition, the gong haul included four silvers and four bronze.

A self-deprecatory gent, who shoots from the hip, O’Sullivan admits his most embarrassing experience was his first job. He delivered an uninterrupted telesales pitch, to which the reply was: “That’d be really great for Sony… but we’re Panasonic!” His sense of humour shows with the agency cartoon send-ups and a YouTube self-parody starring Tom Cruise.

But direct marketing demands a serious side too. O’Sullivan and Ignition co-founder Jennifer Williams push the agency byline (or rather selling line), which is “integrated ideas people”.

Direct mail and data strategy are two important disciplines in which the agency specialises. Yet when O’Sullivan did his first direct mail piece he wasn’t even aware what he had done.

As a student, he wrote to record companies telling them about a magazine he had launched and why they ought to advertise with him. While O’Sullivan may have been ignorant of the type of strategy he employed, his closing PS in the letter was unambiguous in its directness: “Please find enclosed a stick of Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum… to help you chew it over!”

The idea has stuck with him ever since. Ignition’s Plan B Positive house campaign, which earned the agency two golds and a silver at last year’s An Post awards, was developed to motivate recession-weary marketers. To get their attention with a positive message which showed creativity and impact, which, could be theirs if they were to sign up as a client.

The challenge was to combine the notion of Plan B, an accepted alternative strategy plan, with the blood type B Positive +, a play on words which gave meaning to Ignition as ideas donors who could provide marketers with ‘an ideas transfusion’. A personalised piece of direct mail was posted out to 150 company directors, managers and brand executives.

The mailer contained a personalised blood type B Positive+ transfusion bag. Using medical terminology, the copy highlighted the agency’s integrated offering across various marketing channels, providing ideas which “quicken the pulse” and “get right to the heart of what a brand needs to communicate and increase its circulation” in competitive markets.

The copy coincided with personalised variable data, particularly in the last paragraph which made reference to the product type, brand name, job title and office location of the recipient to show the power of using direct mail. O’Sullivan says as brands struggle to quantify the contribution of social media to their bottom line, the “terribly untrendy database” continues to provide a measurable return on investment for direct mail; marketing’s stealth weapon.

The level at which marketers value databases can be a measure of the relative success of their marketing campaigns, be they above or below the line executions. Creative elements are sometimes decided upon without any analysis or insights being sought from within the data, its function being relegated to a means of distribution by post, mobile or e-mail.

O’Sullivan believes it is a flawed strategy because it ignores one key truth: that data is, of itself, a creative element, from developing multi-dimensional profile of customers, through to the translation of the information into a direct and credible communication with an engaged audience. It is not junk mail, or junk anything, but it’s the way brands can talk to consumers.

It is about using a channel specifically tailored to the customer, which addresses their needs, personally. Data should be at the creative centre of a DM campaign and, if properly developed, maintained and analysed, it can be “a treasure trove” of potent ideas which bring brands closer to customers as individuals for a more long term, profitable relationship. The creative enhancement of data lies in the endless possibilities for personalisation.

If we think of design as a static visual creative element, the combination of data, copy and personalisation are the elements that change for each individual, delivering the brand’s overall message, but tweaked with a host of different customer specific information.

It can range from gender, family name or job title to financial data, like weekly spend, price discounts, to local office, call back telephone, age bracket, favourite holiday destination, colour, football team, or wine; all based on the information held in particular data fields.

So what does this active creative say about a brand? It’s real impact is how it conveys a brand’s unspoken expertise, the knowledge it has about the consumer when high level personalisation dovetails with copy and the manner in which an offer or promotion is delivered in a conversation with each consumer, that makes them want to buy.

If marketing’s end game is to communicate with the consumer through a direct channel that makes them feel positive towards a brand, one must accept that creative communication is a skill and technology a capability – marketers need to learn to marry the two. “Currently data is seen to be more the realm of IT,” O’Sullivan says, “which, let’s face it, was never a stronghold of creativity. Conversely, marketers are too cool to be seen pouring over spread sheets, as it’s not ‘creative’. It’s a missed opportunity for brands looking for the next big thing to help them; because actually it’s here already. Data is a big thing.”

In the US, while great faith is placed in big data, the obsession with quantity rather than quality and the rejection of data’s creative uses still prevails. A survey by Columbia Business School on the use of big data to drive marketing decisions reported that 45 per cent of marketers were totally ignoring the use of data to personalise marketing communications.

O’Sullivan sees that as a crucial error. Marketers need to reinvent what has already been created in bigger and bolder terms. It suggests a desire to make marketing tools sexy and glamorous, a fate database marketing has been spared. Even though its studious image stubbornly persists and some clients glaze over at the very mention of it, for a successful direct marketing campaign, data is the daddy. For savvy brands, the fields are full of gold.

Databases are a jungle for sure, O’Sullivan adds. An uncleansed database full of duplicates, unformatted fields, gender errors and misspelled names will not make people feel like valued customers. Once posted, a highly-personalised, drop-dead gorgeous mailer can just as soon be DOA, dead on arrival. A post mortem is too late, as Dr Livingstone would vouch.

Jennifer Williams says the number of campaigns they did with SuperValu last year meant they mailed to over two million people. Each SuperValu campaign was in the hundreds of thousands. But compare that to the Parnell Heritage Pub campaign which targeted less than 100 people. It just goes to show, it depends on who you intend to influence strategically.

“As an integrated agency, irrespective of what medium we use, it’ll always be about the idea for us,” Williams adds. “We need to wrestle the idea of big data away from pure analytics and get creative people knee deep in it. Winning agency of the year meant the creativity of smaller, independent, local agencies, like Ignition, were being properly recognised.”

When asked what some people think about him that isn’t true, O’Sullivan replies: “That I’m English. Gerr-up owra da!” The Anglo accent may have something to do with the fact that he studied modern history at St Anhelm’s College in Birkenhead, near Liverpool. But that’s the least of his worries. He now hopes Ignition can win a heap of gongs at the Smarts in May.

IGNITION’S KEY PLAYERS As well as winning agency of the year at the An Post direct marketing awards last May, Ignition took home five golds, four silvers and four bronze awards. They were also finalists with SuperValu in the Marketing Institute’s AIM awards in the DM category. Pictured are Linda Ryan, Yveanne Walshe, David O’Sullivan, Jennifer Williams and Steve Mulreany.