Blogit with Billett: Recent Comments

Comment on The agency preferred to resign the account in preference to do the right deal for the client

software development uk — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:26:50 GMT

That was inspiring,

Really interesting,

Keep up the good work

Comment on Cadbury gets it plain - & dairy milk - wrong; again & again

Software companies — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:55:01 GMT

Hey, that was interesting,

Is cadburys still not more succesful than nestle and others?

Thanks for writing, most people don't bother.

Comment on The agency preferred to resign the account in preference to do the right deal for the client

software developers — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:20:15 GMT

Nice post,

Thanks for sharing this is some great information,

Keep up the good work

Comment on Beating the average - a suicide note

Jenny Biggam — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:52:06 GMT

I am following your media madness blogs with (almost) avid enthusiasm! When we set up our agency - the7stars - 3 years ago, it was in response to so much of the madness that you are now writing about. The good news is that, 3 years on, we can report back that it is possible to run a profitable media company without ever resorting to kickbacks, or over-charging clients for media space. Transparency surely should be more important than ever in the current climate - but if anything, I sense that the kickback culture has become significantly worse in the last few years. Lets hope a few smart Marketing Directors stumble upon your posts!
Keep blogging
Jenny

Comment on Will somebody do something please? Media Madness is taking hold

jeremy blake — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:17:01 GMT

Hi John,

Great to have you back and blogging I get tremendous insight and enjoy how you write very much. I look forward to more, wishing you a happy and successful 09, Jeremy

Comment on Will somebody do something please? Media Madness is taking hold

John Billett — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:54:38 GMT

Hi PM and thanks for the observation. I shall be revealing the identity of the new media owners over the next few weeks so please keep connecting with Media Madness on Blogit with Billett and all will be revealed. And just to keep you in suspense but give you something back Google is not one of these 5 new big media owners

Comment on Will somebody do something please? Media Madness is taking hold

pm — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:30:01 GMT

you need to elaborate on the 5 key media owners who weren't around 10 years ago...google and who else, are they a media owner ? it is not necessarily the case that they are

Comment on #22 of 25 Things we know about what we don't know about Marketing Effectiveness

John Billett — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:32:00 GMT

Preeti. Thanks for reading and commenting on my most recent "25 Things.." I would be delighted to help but would ask first for your understanding. It's taken me 40+ years of operating experience to get to where we are and as I have paying clients using my services I can't be in the social service of "giving knowledge away". If second, you could identify your specific area of interest and tell me who you are I shall be delighted to offer help and guide you as best as I am able to the zones of greatest knowledge. I look forward to hearing further from you. Regards John

Comment on #22 of 25 Things we know about what we don't know about Marketing Effectiveness

Preeti — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:21:23 GMT

Hey John,

I would like to know more about the effectiveness of the direct marketing campaign and some examples would do no harm either.

Can you help.

Cheers

Preeti

Comment on #19 of 25 Things we know about what we don't know about Marketing Effectiveness

John Dawson — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:23:21 GMT

Hi John,

There is a danger that we confuse effective with efficient. Effective in absolute terms doesn’t mean that funds were well allocated which is a mistake many people seem to be making. Econometric models can be highly misleading if they only look for average effects as opposed to marginal ones for individual channels. By analysing the marginal returns from activities, we can then state with greater confidence as to whether a channel really requires a greater or lesser proportion of the overall funding for a campaign.

The statement you make "Econometric models always start with the first and largest effect. So if we plan TV that way it's inevitable that TV will be proven to work best." doesn't have to follow if modelling is done carefully and without bias. How often either of these two goals is achieved is another matter entirely and very much depends on how and why modeling is done. Is it being done by a specialist independent analyst and is it a post-hoc back patting exercise or will the analysis feed into future planning.

Obviously there's another factor at play here - traditional media agencies depend on having large TV buying operations and that causes bias in their thinking. How often they use econometrics models to prime their thinking is open to question. Not enough might be a reflection of my experience.

This is a fantastic series of posts.

All the best,

John