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Cover Story : Direct Marketer of the Year: David Norton

Playing the odds and being in the win column by knowing, valuing gamblers

October 2010 By Heather Fletcher
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A Mentor’s Opinion

Some chief marketing officers might be intimidated by having a chief executive officer who knows plenty about marketing. But Harrah’s CMO David Norton counts CEO Gary Loveman as a mentor.

“Gary Loveman is a brilliant guy,” Norton says. “[He’s] overall a good person, as well, but very knowledgeable and passionate about marketing, broadly, and direct marketing, specifically. So, certainly, he’s been very involved in what we’ve done over time and is pushing us to get better and better in direct marketing; more and more customized. He wants that next-generation segmentation. So he’s definitely somebody over the years that I’ve talked to about these things and I rely upon. And, also, he helps to make sure that we get the resources and talent we need to drive things forward.”

The feeling seems to be mutual. Loveman characterizes Norton as insightful and productive.
“The great thing about David is that his job, on the one hand, is to build things that everybody can use,” Loveman says. “So if you’re the marketing leader in Bossier City, La., you depend on what David and his team build to make you successful. And David does that very well.

“But also, when you start having trouble in your market, the first guy who shows up to help you is David Norton,” Loveman says. “And so he has tremendous collegiality and partnership with the people that are using these tools everyday. And I think he has a very keen sense of collective responsibility, which is crucial in a world that’s organized the way ours is.

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Anyone wagering that David Norton would use the word "I" to describe any of his feelings about earning the title of Target Marketing magazine's 2010 Direct Marketer of the Year just lost a bet.

It's as if the senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Las Vegas-based Harrah's Entertainment repeatedly chanted mantras such as "It's we, not I" and "There's no 'I' in team" before taking the lead marketing position three years ago at the now 52-casino, $10 billion international gaming empire.

But no. Those who've known Norton throughout the dozen years he's been with Harrah's say he's genuinely humble—despite being a major reason Harrah's is known as a marketing superstar. Norton says this selfless, team-oriented attitude is one he looks for in others, as well. Otherwise, the marketing overhauls he advocates—including centralizing marketing analysis in April 2009, saving Harrah's $15 million to $20 million in its first year; and becoming an almost pure-play direct marketing entity during the recession—might not yield the company as much profit.

"It's a filter I have when I interview people," Norton says. "It's just that ego factor. We want smart, aggressive people who are proud and can challenge. But if there's too much of an egomaniac factor, it's just not going to work; both within my team and given they probably have to work with the properties. So we've got a couple of those at a time and it usually ends up in just a disaster, because they're very smart and they have some short-term success. [But] long-term, it just doesn't work."

A fan of analytics, Norton's advice to up-and-coming marketers does reveal his passion and why direct marketing's been so much a part of his life for 20 years: "I think the key is to be comfortable in analytics. So [people] may get caught up a little bit in creative, and that's important. But really understanding what's working and what's not at a program—at a customer segment level—and having a degree of comfort in analytics, I think is a key foundation ... for a successful direct marketer."

 

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