For whom the bell tolls

Chapter Nineteen

D’Arcy

I was able to make a relatively smooth transition to another St. Louis Agency, DMB&B (D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles). Interestingly enough, my new job had me managing the advertising account of SBC Communications, the parent company of Southwestern Bell which had recently merged with Pacific Bell. The Telecommunications business continues to evolve from the historic breakup of AT&T in 1984. Somehow, SBC managed to get approval to merge two baby bells.Manifest destiny or survival or just expert financial and political maneuvering, I really can’t say. The irony is that one merger caused my job loss and another resulted in my hiring (for a time).

I joined DMB&B, St. Louis in the middle of 1996. DMB&B St. Louis is perhaps most famous for the original Budweiser “Frogs” commercial. Bud-weis-errrrr. As one of three supervisors assigned to the SBC business I was poised to learn a new category (for me) and witness an historic time for Telecommunications industry up close. It’s a big category of business to be sure. SBC has approximately 110,000 employees and with its acquisition of Pacific Telesis (The parent of Pacific Bell) it reported combined 1996 revenues of $23.5 Billion. SBC moved their offices and most of their key marketing decision-makers to San Antonio, Texas. As an account with a lot of clout and with over $100 Million to spend on consumer media they were highly sought client prospect. D’Arcy calculated that they could continue to manage the account from St. Louis. This mis-calculation and the client’s desire to pare down their agency roster eventually led to D’Arcy losing the business, effective at the end of 1998. Here’s how the St. Louis Business Journal reported that account loss:

“SBC Communications, one of D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles’ largest clients, pulled its work from the St. Louis advertising firm after more than 30 years. The SBC business represents about a quarter of D’Arcy’s revenue, which was an

estimated $31.5 million last year, sources said. SBC notified D’Arcy of the decision Monday. The telecommunications giant will send advertising developed here to agencies SBC works for in Austin, Texas and San Francisco. In a nutshell: I was a key man on two of St. Louis’s top advertising accounts - Both moved their business elsewhere after mergers. Both centralized their marketing function outside

St. Louis. (Some strategic career move I made coming to St. Louis, huh?)

note: This blog is part of a larger book that can be downloaded FREE, chapter by chapter, at www.morganstudioeast.com
note:For Whom the Bell Tolls is a Hemmingway novel but the title comes from writing of John Donne in the 1600s. "No man is an Island, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

The Boatmen's Guy

Chapter Eighteen

The Boatmen’s Guy

I’m no business scholar, but I can tell you one thing, American Business is changing. Consolidation is a reality in almost every industry from fast food to aerospace. The big guys are getting bigger. It’s really about survival. And it’s bound to affect everyone who works for a living in this country. In 1996, I moved from Miami to St. Louis to manage the Boatmen’s Bank business for TBWA Chiat/Day. That opportunity was a great one for me. I was Account Director at one of the nation’s premier creative agencies. The advertising for Boatmen’s featured TV spots staring Thom Sharp as “The Boatmen’s Guy.” Using his folksy midwestern brand of humor to pitch everything from Home Loans to branch Grand Openings he helped make the bank seem approachable and friendly. If you lived in Missouri between 1990-1996 you probably encountered “The Boatmen’s Guy” on TV from time to time. I was the last guy to manage that account.

Here’s why:

On August 30-31 in 1996 The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal contained stories about NationsBank’s intention of acquiring Boatmen’s in a mega bank merger that would make NationsBank the 4th largest bank in the U.S. In spite of grass roots efforts lead by a KMOX Radio and The Everyday section of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch to “Save The Boatmen’s Guy” it became quite clear that NationsBank had no room in their advertising templates for Thom Sharp’s character or TBWA Chiat/Day’s brand of advertising. The New York Times on October 2, 1996 featured Hugh McColl Jr., the chairman of NationsBank in its Business Day section. Here’s part of what they reported: “Our goal has been to build a very strong national company,” Mr. McColl said, “and that’s been our goal for 25 years.” First, the bank built a strong presence in the Southeast, and when theregional interstate banking laws allowed it to expand nationwide - due in part by personal lobbying by Mr. McColl - it set its sights higher. Indeed, Mr. McColl was tempted by a merger offer with Bank-America Corporation a year ago, although that potential blockbuster of a deal foundered on the question of who would run what would have been the nation’s first coast-to-coast banking institution” The banking landscape continues to change to this day. Bank America and NationsBank eventually found a way to get hitched. My position became moot. Boatmen’s Bank was a vanishing entity. I became the new business guy. Another stint as agency rainmaker. It was great fun but precarious, as usual. No new business precipitation, no future. (It’s a brutal deal but that’s the way it usually works.) New Business takes time and TBWA Chiat/Day, it seemed didn’t have any more of it to spare on St. Louis. They decided to cut their loses and closed the St. Louis office. The announcement of the close became official in November of 1997. The office was a drain on the system that included offices in New York and Venice, California (where the real action is). TBWA Chiat/Day St. Louis was crippled by the Boatmen’s account loss. Here’s how the St. Louis Business Journal reported it in its November 17-23 issue: “TBWA Chiat/Day, the advertising agency best recognized for developing the ‘Boatmen’s Guy’ campaign, will close its St. Louis office Dec. 31. The agency, employing 36 locally, is shutting its doors to concentrate on the New York and Los Angeles markets and on larger clients, including Nissan and Taco Bell.” A year later NationsBank and Bank of America’s bank merger was well under way. And no-one at the Bank is sweating bullets over the fate of an advertising agency. Believe me.

This blog is part of a larger book that can be downloaded FREE, chapter by chapter, at www.morganstudioeast.com 

Work the program and be your own boss.

Six men wait in a conference room. Each has been escorted in and advised that Mike would join them in about five minutes leaving time for any others who might be running just a little late. The online job posting for “Inspector $65,000” is why we’re here.  The office is sparse with functional office furnishings. I arrived more than 45 minutes prior to the appointment but I didn’t go in and sign the sheet until #3.

“So is everyone ready?” I felt compelled to break the awkward silence in the room. Only one answer. It came from the young guy closest to the door and last to be seated. (He is #6). “Yes, let’s get started,” with a mildly gung-ho attitude that brings a smile or two.  The ice was broken but only for a moment. The room returns to a calm. As if on cue,  Mike entered the room. He was confident. He has a Florida tan offset by the bright yellow company polo shirt with black American Building Contractors embroidery. He was also wearing a lanyard with photo and Home Depot logo. He was instantly engaging and wastes no time delivering his message. “I’m sorry about this format but we’ve found that talking to a group like this is best way to answer questions. You’ve responded to an ad that says ‘Inspector’ but in reality this is a sales position. ABC has a unique relationship with The Home Depot to perform inspections and contract roof repairs due to hail damage.” Mike goes on to explain that ABC is growing. There are opportunities to earn pretty good money. It is an easy sell because once the connection with a homeowner is made and hail damaged is determined the repair is 100% paid by insurance. You will note there is a number on your applications and that is the order in which you signed in so I will meet with each of you one-on-one in that order.

“So, we’d work as independent 1099 subcontractors?” says the guy next to me who shared with the group that his family was actually in the roofing business. “Yes, but we’re going to do everything we can for you to be successful,” offers Mike. “What about expenses? You said something about a stipend,” asked the guy across the table from me. (He is #4 on sign in sheet.) He has construction experience and like me is not sure he wants to be climbing up on rooftops as a guy in his 50s. “Oh yeah, we want you to have something to work with to pay for gas and expenses so we offer $300 a month… Once you get rolling though we pay $100 per contact on those who agree to inspection by appraiser and $200 every time you get a start work contract and another nice commission when the work is done, say $2,500 on a $10,000 job.” 

Just then, Mike is called out of the room. He apologizes and offers the group one of his managers to answer questions while he takes a call. The manager accepts the chore and answers a few more general questions about earning potential and how the system works. “If you have a good work ethic and work the program you can certainly make $65,000. Some make a lot more.”

“So you have to go door-to-door?” (#5 presses.) “Well it stands to reason that you would want to work a neighborhood that has been hit, especially when one of their neighbors has ABC signs up and yellow tape  is up and guys (with their shirts on) are installing a clean new roof," offers the manager. “I don’t want to go door-to-door” says #5 “This is not for me.” He leaves the room, clearly not persuaded.

Mike is neatly assembling manila folders as he conducts his one-on-one interviews. My name is on one of them (#3). “It’s really up to you.” This isn't an interview as much as it is recruiting I am thinking that evening. By now, Mike is probably on a plane heading back to Deerfield Beach. I have his card. (It's Black with gold foil letters.) Maybe #6 will take the challenge. I told my wife about this meeting. She said with a sort of funny face, “Roofing sales, are you nuts? Why don’t you find something you are passionate about?”

                 

But enough about me...

Morgan is a marketing communications professional with a mission: “Make Good Brands Better and New Brands Known.” Morgan earned his MBA from The University of Miami Graduate School of Business. He also completed his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Miami - a double major (graphic design and creative writing). In 2010 Morgan founded Morgan Studio/East with the goal of helping companies with planning and execution of marketing communications.

Wes served as Director of Marketing and Communications for a top contractor based in Southeast Kansas with 800 employees and offices in KC, Wichita, Tulsa, Dallas, and Northwest Arkansas (Crossland Construction Company 2010-2011).

Previously he was Global Communications Director for a publicly traded manufacturer of welding and cutting equipment (Thermadyne) and wrote and implemented systematic marketing communications programs for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. He headed up marketing communications for two large successful privately-held firms in St. Louis (HBE and Clayco) from 1998-2005. He’s also advised countless other businesses – large and small about strategic marketing and branding.

Wes has been involved in marketing efforts of a broad range of consumer and business-to-business products and services. He spent the early part of his career in advertising where he contributed to new product development, consumer, professional and trade communications for a variety brands including Heineken, Matchbox Toys, Pepsi-Cola, SkyBox Trading Cards, GameTek Computer Game Software, Campbell Soup Foodservice, and Rich-SeaPak Frozen Foods.

Wes is an active member of the St. Louis chapter and is past-president of the the American Marketing Association (two terms) and is also a member of the Advertising Club of St. Louis, the Public Relations Society of America and The Business Marketing Association.

Specialties

Communications planning, message development, positioning, brand review/audits, public relations, reputation management, crisis communications, investor/stakeholder communications, employee communications, training, sales support, interactive communication, customer/consumer research, product development.

But enough about me...How did you like my last movie?

Sundance Rides Again

So, I find myself heading downtown to the Gateway Terminal at 2:00 a.m. on a Tuesday July 17th to pick up my brother, Sundance. He purchased a bus ticket from Chicago to St. Louis. He gave me fair warning of his plans to visit but never a clear indication of his timeframe. I know it will be fun to see him but I also know enough about him to know that having him around is an all consuming thing. He is a Hurricane Katrina survivor from New Orleans. He has visited Thailand and Asia. He is a teaching professional who makes his base of operations for his tennis business in City Park. He’s been a community leader, organizer and activist for the Mid City neighborhood organization. His wife is a twin and since Katrina (2005) she has made the Chicago suburb of Highland Park her home. He is interested in politics, economics, the dramatic arts and popular culture. All of this is fuel for his tendency to take center stage in an ongoing performance one might expect of an all night talk radio program host (never allowing “dead air” and only occasionally permitting callers to ask a question or offer an observation). Sundance will expound on the offered topic or maneuver back to one of his personal favorites so as not to lose control of the show of which he is the star.

He is convinced that he is an easy house guest who will not be any real imposition. He is used to living in modest surroundings with not too many amenities. Our guest room is sparse but clean. We are “empty nesters” with more space than we need. Still an extra person in our house means modified routines and little accommodations that are not apparent to our guest. He is louder and larger than life in many ways. July and August are the months he likes to go on hiatus from his New Orleans routine of teaching tennis, studying acting at a local community college and interfacing with a variety of characters who have managed to keep moving ahead in spite of the hurricane catastrophe that resulted in a smaller city core.

“Don’t feel like you have to entertain me,” he says a few days into the visit. He’s completely content with a schedule that starts around 11:00 a.m. I am a morning person. So is my wife Lynn. In the week he was with us, I scheduled morning meetings (a job interview, a consulting group meeting, a trip to the bank, a few chores etc.). Lynn is running a deli and coffee shop during the week and that leaves me to occupy Sundance. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday activities included (in no particular order): a trip to the St. Louis Art Museum, hitting a giant bucket of golf balls at the Golfport Recreational Center, Going to AMC Creve Coeur Theater premier of the new Batman movie Dark Knight Rises, hanging out at the Galleria Shopping Mall (with stops at Pandora Jewelry Shop, Build-A-Bear Workshop and St. Louis Bread Company).

A highlight of the first three days was securing Sundance’s return ticket. He is going back to Chicago. (He is not in a hurry to get back to New Orleans.) “Highland Park has everything I might need within walking distance, it just isn’t a place where I can function. I have all the doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs in New Orleans,” he explains. “Nevertheless, I’m not ready to go back.” There are many layers and storylines in and around the world of Sundance. Time shifting from first love Suzie Sanders to TMI (too much information) about relationships in the more recent past. Georgetown, San Francisco, France, the Navy, acting class vignettes, tennis, restaurants and sculpture parks. The talk show continues. At times, it is exhausting to follow. The truth is stranger than fiction. But it isn’t all about Sundance – sometimes it’s about Sundance’s take on the news or sports or global warming. If you want to change the subject you have to barge in with an opening line. He will take it from there and run with it…Who is your favorite president? “Living or all time? Well I think Thomas Jefferson for all time but Bill Clinton if you are talking about modern day…Did you know…”     

Impromptu entertaining on a low budget continues through the weekend but I now know his departure plan begins with a train ticket out of Kirkwood, MO at 12:30 (early afternoon) on Monday. Our activities are of the cheap thrills variety and include a visit to Drace Park, a mini haven for dog walkers with a small playground, gardens, a couple of renovated Civil War era vintage structures and visitor friendly park benches. At Drace Park we happen to connect with our father on his 94^th birthday. The cell phone call from Tampa (placed by our sister from Cleveland who is visiting Dad in Florida). The call is full of distortion and marginally audible. It is hard to hear but pleasant small talk never the less. Dad sounds happy with the celebration at Greg’s house. My sister, Mary Wasmer (with her signature laugh) with a couple of her daughters visiting from Naples, FL and Greg’s family keep the party going on this July 21, the 94^th anniversary of Dad’s birth.

A week went by with chunks of time consumed with conversation sandwiched between retail, movie and eating occasions. We lingered at Five Guys Burgers & Fries, Denny’s, First Watch, St. Louis Bread Company (two separate locations) and watched video of the St. Louis Cardinals capturing the World Series Championship (#11 for the MLB franchise in 2011 – 11 in 11), Atlas Shrugged (the movie) and Andy Griffith with Patricia Neal in Face in the Crowd, a classic B&W film from 1957. Sundance joined Mary Hanson and I on a golf cart docent tour at the Laumeier Sculpture Park. He even tried hard to listen as we pointed out various features of that St. Louis institution (founded in 1976 on the estate of Henry and Matilda Laumeier).  

Before you know it, Sundance and I are enjoying the short wait inside the Kirkwood Train Depot. He boards the Amtrak car with his luggage. The train pulls away. It’s midday but it feels like he is riding into the sunset. I wish him Godspeed!           

SAVE THE DATE - AMA Programs

The American Marketing Association of St. Louis wants to deliver great programming and seeks to promote marketing by connecting, informing, and advancing. What that really means is that we want to be better marketers, learn, network and grow as professionals. Our fiscal year began July 1 and we kicked off the year with our annual golf outing at Creve Coeur Golf Course. We hope you will mark your calendar and plan on joining us at these upcoming events.

The Voice of the Customer - August 16, 2012  Lon Zimmerman's presentation highlights how corporations and other organizations are finding value in hearing the voice of the customer. Included will be examples of ways hearing the voice of the customer has helped improve operations, sharpen marketing activities, and increase customer satisfaction and retention. Also discussed will be various research methodologies being employed.

Kraftig Launch – September 20, 2012 Executives of the William K. Busch Brewing Company want you to know two things: They have no association with Anheuser-Busch InBev, even though their company's namesake and chairman is a great-grandson of A-B founder Adolphus Busch. And they are not setting out to make craft beers. William K. "Billy" Busch and his management team hammered home those points during the unveiling of their brewery's flagship brands, Kräftig Lager and Kräftig Light in November of 2011. Busch wants his brewery, like A-B, to be a major player in the beer market. Kräftig Lager and Kräftig Light (pronounced CREF-tig, it is German for "powerful").

Lessons from the Unconscious for Healthcare – October 18, 2012  Phil Smith, Executive Creative Director of Prairie Dog/TCG with discuss how a growing body of evidence points to the unconscious as a dominant influencer of consumer behavior. Yet most marketing, particularly in healthcare, relies on traditional (conscious) qualitative research. Based on insights from recent leaders in this marketing movement, How Customers Think, Buyology, and The Culture Code, we expose gaps in current practices and illustrate opportunities with work from national brands. Join us as we expose the comical flaws in conventional focus group research and reconsider the truths in modern marketing.

Save the dates and register on line at www.ama-stl.org. August, September and October programs are the third Thurday of each month and scheduled for luncheon format Maggiano’s restaurant on the Boulevard across from the Galleria.  

Dwyer-Malloy showdown results in re-peat champion.

Another Great Golf Outing 

Dwyer-Malloy showdown results in re-peat champion.

Marco Tocco to be caretaker of traveling trophy!

Thanks to all those brave souls who turned out for our golf outing in spite of temperatures in three digits. 30 people showed up at Creve Coeur Golf Course including returning champion Brian Dwyer. Brian successfully defended and technically is winner again after an intense battle not unlike a neck-in-neck at the Masters or the U.S. Open. Mike Malloy challenged the champion, but fell one shot short. All this being said, the committee awarded the traveling trophy to Marco Tocco who participated on a team of alumni from Adamson Advertising Agency (with Dan McGrath, Mark Bretz and Scott Dieckgraefe). 

The bans on fireworks and city ordinances prohibited the return of recent tradition of colored smoke-bombs but there were several stealth water balloon surprises and a few laughs. Creve Coeur Golf Course took care of every detail including lunch in the newly renovated meeting/function room. AMA logos flew on flags placed in all holes and tee-box signage provided by Novachrome honored sponsors: Creatives on Call, Geile Leon Marketing Communications, Sandbox Creative, iDream Solutions and Morgan Studio/East.