Creative Corner: Words of Wisdom
Direct marketing lessons I learned from Al Goodloe
August 2006 By Lois K. Geller
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This May, I flew to New York to attend a memorial for my old friend and international direct marketing expert Al Goodloe, who died in February.
Al, a little guy with a gravelly voice, was one of a kind. He was one of the nicest men I ever met, but he could be a mule. For instance, he was from Virginia and his dad expected him to attend the University of Virginia, like everyone else in the family. But Al set his sights on Harvard, and that’s where he went. After he graduated, Al wanted to be in New York, and that’s where he wound up.
He found his niche in the rarefied air of international direct marketing with a special emphasis on publishing. He worked hard at it, and even was planning a new electronic newsletter at the time he fell ill.
I met Al many years ago when I was working as head of the book group at Boardroom Reports, and Al was president of the Alexander Hamilton Institute—a company that sold publications internationally. I thought it would be a good idea to promote some of our books in his mailings—at the time no one else had a clue how to do international mailings—so I called him and we hit it off right away.
Here are a few good lessons I learned over the years from Al.
1. Creative people need fresh air.
Al’s preferred time for a business meeting was lunch—anywhere in midtown Manhattan with decent food would do. So we lunched and talked about direct marketing creative. He was fascinated by the hard-hitting copy style in Boardroom’s mailings, and in the first of hundreds of lunches, he grilled me about it. When we talked about what worked and why, he became intensely focused. Perhaps best of all, the only interruption at lunch was a waiter asking if we’d like more bread.
2. Care intensely about how your program will produce results.
Al was a perfectionist’s perfectionist. He studied and queried every detail and every single element in outer envelopes, letters, brochures, buckslips, lift letters, order forms. “What do you think?” he’d ask as he showed me a letter. “Do these words work, or not? What would work better?” he’d inquire.
Sometimes when I meet with agency people, they’re busy impressing each other with what looks beautifully designed, sounds sophisticated and may be entered in an award competition. Al was driven by results.
3. Be passionate about your craft.
Al knew a good deal about many things. I have a sneaking suspicion he’d visited more than half the countries of the world—the first being Italy, which he visited with the U.S. Army in World War II. He read more books than there are in a small town library, and he was an accomplished painter. But most of all, he was passionate about all aspects of direct marketing: research, strategy, creative, lists, budgeting, response management, customer service, analysis, database—the whole megillah. If it involved direct marketing, he wanted to know about it, examine it like a scientist discovering a new species, and then talk about it.
The odd thing to me is that Al thought he was learning from me, when the reverse was true. If there was an arcane law in Germany that affected direct marketing, Al knew it backwards and forwards, and he knew a lawyer in Bonn, Berlin or Munich who could help you deal with it.
To have that amount of knowledge in your head, you need to be curious, read a good deal, and know what’s happening outside your home.
4. Don’t put success “on hold.”
Before I gave a speech at one of Al’s conferences, he would make me practice, and then he’d make a few comments, tell me what to add, what to take out. I’d tell him I was a keynoter in Chicago or Los Angeles, but he didn’t care one bit. He wouldn’t be put “on hold.” I either practiced until the speech was perfect or he’d oust me from his conference. My speeches always improved as a result.
5. Give creative your all.
Do something to shake it up, and be strange. A few years back, Al walked into his Publisher’s Multinational Direct conference with giant, 6-foot tall scissors. He was talking about cutting postage costs and the scissors gag was a big hit with the audience. Hokey? Sure. Funny? Yes! Most of all, it was a memorable, relevant and attention-getting gag that made a point.
6. Teach to crystallize your thoughts.
One year, I invited Al to teach a session in my course at New York University. He lit up the room when he told the class of direct marketers’ international opportunities. Students stayed an hour and a half late asking questions. Later he said to me, “Wow, I’d forgotten some of these things, and I’m going to talk to a client about an idea one of those kids gave me.”
So get feedback when teaching, speaking at a conference, or conducting a workshop. It’s great.
Al knew his business, learned everything new, and was passionate about it. Passion is a great attribute in our business. It drives us to learn and to get better at what we do. It’s why great copywriters edit and redraft letters as many as 20 times. It’s why great art directors strive so hard to make the words the star of the mail piece. It’s why great list brokers call the companies that have rented lists they’re considering, to see how they worked.
When we’re passionate about what we do, we get better results, we make our clients happier, we make more money, and we love getting up every day and “going to work.”
That’s the way Al Goodloe did it, and people all over the world loved him for it. I sure did. Goodbye Al.
Lois K. Geller is president of Mason & Geller Direct, a full-service direct marketing agency located in Hollywood, Fla. You can reach her at loisgeller@masongeller.com.
Al, a little guy with a gravelly voice, was one of a kind. He was one of the nicest men I ever met, but he could be a mule. For instance, he was from Virginia and his dad expected him to attend the University of Virginia, like everyone else in the family. But Al set his sights on Harvard, and that’s where he went. After he graduated, Al wanted to be in New York, and that’s where he wound up.
He found his niche in the rarefied air of international direct marketing with a special emphasis on publishing. He worked hard at it, and even was planning a new electronic newsletter at the time he fell ill.
I met Al many years ago when I was working as head of the book group at Boardroom Reports, and Al was president of the Alexander Hamilton Institute—a company that sold publications internationally. I thought it would be a good idea to promote some of our books in his mailings—at the time no one else had a clue how to do international mailings—so I called him and we hit it off right away.
Here are a few good lessons I learned over the years from Al.
1. Creative people need fresh air.
Al’s preferred time for a business meeting was lunch—anywhere in midtown Manhattan with decent food would do. So we lunched and talked about direct marketing creative. He was fascinated by the hard-hitting copy style in Boardroom’s mailings, and in the first of hundreds of lunches, he grilled me about it. When we talked about what worked and why, he became intensely focused. Perhaps best of all, the only interruption at lunch was a waiter asking if we’d like more bread.
2. Care intensely about how your program will produce results.
Al was a perfectionist’s perfectionist. He studied and queried every detail and every single element in outer envelopes, letters, brochures, buckslips, lift letters, order forms. “What do you think?” he’d ask as he showed me a letter. “Do these words work, or not? What would work better?” he’d inquire.
Sometimes when I meet with agency people, they’re busy impressing each other with what looks beautifully designed, sounds sophisticated and may be entered in an award competition. Al was driven by results.
3. Be passionate about your craft.
Al knew a good deal about many things. I have a sneaking suspicion he’d visited more than half the countries of the world—the first being Italy, which he visited with the U.S. Army in World War II. He read more books than there are in a small town library, and he was an accomplished painter. But most of all, he was passionate about all aspects of direct marketing: research, strategy, creative, lists, budgeting, response management, customer service, analysis, database—the whole megillah. If it involved direct marketing, he wanted to know about it, examine it like a scientist discovering a new species, and then talk about it.
The odd thing to me is that Al thought he was learning from me, when the reverse was true. If there was an arcane law in Germany that affected direct marketing, Al knew it backwards and forwards, and he knew a lawyer in Bonn, Berlin or Munich who could help you deal with it.
To have that amount of knowledge in your head, you need to be curious, read a good deal, and know what’s happening outside your home.
4. Don’t put success “on hold.”
Before I gave a speech at one of Al’s conferences, he would make me practice, and then he’d make a few comments, tell me what to add, what to take out. I’d tell him I was a keynoter in Chicago or Los Angeles, but he didn’t care one bit. He wouldn’t be put “on hold.” I either practiced until the speech was perfect or he’d oust me from his conference. My speeches always improved as a result.
5. Give creative your all.
Do something to shake it up, and be strange. A few years back, Al walked into his Publisher’s Multinational Direct conference with giant, 6-foot tall scissors. He was talking about cutting postage costs and the scissors gag was a big hit with the audience. Hokey? Sure. Funny? Yes! Most of all, it was a memorable, relevant and attention-getting gag that made a point.
6. Teach to crystallize your thoughts.
One year, I invited Al to teach a session in my course at New York University. He lit up the room when he told the class of direct marketers’ international opportunities. Students stayed an hour and a half late asking questions. Later he said to me, “Wow, I’d forgotten some of these things, and I’m going to talk to a client about an idea one of those kids gave me.”
So get feedback when teaching, speaking at a conference, or conducting a workshop. It’s great.
Al knew his business, learned everything new, and was passionate about it. Passion is a great attribute in our business. It drives us to learn and to get better at what we do. It’s why great copywriters edit and redraft letters as many as 20 times. It’s why great art directors strive so hard to make the words the star of the mail piece. It’s why great list brokers call the companies that have rented lists they’re considering, to see how they worked.
When we’re passionate about what we do, we get better results, we make our clients happier, we make more money, and we love getting up every day and “going to work.”
That’s the way Al Goodloe did it, and people all over the world loved him for it. I sure did. Goodbye Al.
Lois K. Geller is president of Mason & Geller Direct, a full-service direct marketing agency located in Hollywood, Fla. You can reach her at loisgeller@masongeller.com.
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