Thought Leadership Series: Paul Vogelzang interviewed Cary Hatch, president and CEO of MDB Communications, for a Capitol Communicator TV interview on "disruptive advertising," sponsored by CDIA (www.cdiabu.com). The Capitol Communicator TV Thought Leadership Series podcast is up in iTunes now. The video is above and a transcript of the interview follows:
Paul Vogelzang: Welcome to Capital Communicator TV. I’m Paul Vogelzang, host, and today I’m joined by Cary Hatch, who is the president and CEO of MDB Communications, strategic communications firm, doing work in the really fascinating area of disruptive advertising. So we’re going to talk about that today with Cary. Cary, tell us a little bit about what MDB does, and focus in on this idea of disruptive advertising, because I think that’s a great name.
Cary Hatch: And it makes a lot of sense for right now. MDB Communications is a full-service advertising, marketing communications company. We’ve been around for 28 years, but what that’s done for us is given us a breadth of experience and an opportunity to kind of grow during an exciting time, with the advent of the Internet some 10-15 years ago, and really getting into a number of media opportunities to provide disruptive advertising to make it more effective for our clients.
Paul Vogelzang: So what does it mean to give a client some advice about disruptive advertising? Because I imagine that’s a conversation that you have based on some advertising that hasn’t really worked, and maybe the company is not where they want to be in terms of the market; they need to do something unique, and you roll out this idea of disruptive advertising. How do you get that conversation started? Where do you go first?
Cary Hatch: First of all, we address the idea of courage. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to embrace advertising that’s not “me too” advertising. At a time when the economy is going through ups and downs, chief marketing officers want to know that they’re investing their advertising dollars in a way that can make difference, whether it’s increasing sales and revenue, whether it’s changing perceptions and attitudes, driving attendance at events, whether they’re national or international. Those are the kinds of challenges they’re facing. So doing the same old same old isn’t really cutting it. But having that conversation up front about courage, coming up with big, bold ideas that can be delivered through meaningful, contemporary and relevant media, is terribly important right now.
Paul Vogelzang: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, using disruptive advertising changes the mood. I mean, it changes some behavior. That’s what you’re after here, right? I mean, you want to have people do something different.
Cary Hatch: Well, half the battle is getting them to take notice-- disruptive-- getting their attention-- then providing a message that’s meaningful and that’s convincing, and then getting them to change their behavior, whether that’s buying more of a product or, even in some cases for some of our clients, it’s changing attitudes about large national and international issues. One client of ours is the Foundation for Biomedical Research, and we helped them promote the idea that animal research is a way to find cures for some of the world’s most disastrous diseases, including things like leprosy, polio. All those things can be attributed to animal research. So it’s terribly important to, in their case, get that message out in a way that’s meaningful and makes sense for them.
Paul Vogelzang: Yeah. Well, that’s great to hear. What are some other examples?
Cary Hatch: In some cases, for one of our regional clients, the DC Lottery, we’ve actually worked in tandem with them to identify an inner city, urban talent who is an up-and-comer, and we’re using this gentleman-- wisdom speaks-- as a fabulous, fabulous element of a fully integrated campaign through social media, and then traditional media too-- radio, TV, print. We’re in the nightclubs. We’re distributing all kinds of CDs, customized songs and jingles that are relevant to a new game that we’re rolling out for them. So things that are really different at a time when they need to be different.
Paul Vogelzang: I didn’t know that was you guys. That’s memorable. I know that spot. I know those couple of spots. Those are great. I imagine that’s working well for you. Do you have some examples of some disruptive advertising that maybe hasn’t worked so well? What are the risks involved too?
Cary Hatch: There are a lot of risks. One of the reasons that we work very closely with our clients is to evaluate. Risk management, risk assessment is one of the things that we have to put into that up-front discussion, so mitigating risk is very important, and also bringing along the board of directors, get them on board early so you can manage expectations. In some cases, it’ll mean testing before you do a full national or international rollout to try to truly assess the impact before you make a huge investment, and just to also validate those spots, that campaign, before you’ve got too much out there.
Paul Vogelzang: So you’re doing some testing up front.
Cary Hatch: We are.
Paul Vogelzang: And how about some measurement on the-- you mentioned sales earlier. That of course is the gold standard in terms of measurement. What kind of other things are you using to measure this disruption?
Cary Hatch: One of the things we’ve invested in over the last several years, as many agencies have, is the idea of dashboards-- providing clients up front with the understanding that we understand how important their dollar is. So therefore for every medium, every strategy, every execution, we will actually evaluate, whether it’s online or in-market, how we are changing behaviors, so that any point in time-- and we work with an analytics company as well-- they can go online to look at the dashboard to see what’s performing. In many cases, particularly in online, you can either stop or start a campaign, or reassess and reallocate those dollars in a way that could help grow their sales.
Paul Vogelzang: Well, DC is such a national focus right now. I imagine you’re busy. I imagine your firm is very busy. Are you starting to see some of the agencies and nonprofits come into this space, actually using disruptive advertising to change some behavior in terms of an issue?
Cary Hatch: I’m happy to say yes. I think it’s in part not just because we have great agencies in the region, mine being one of them, but the idea that you can’t go dark forever, even though the economy is questionable, and you can’t be a “me too” brand. Why would anybody pay attention? If you’re like every other message, if you’re like every other product, what can you expect on the backend? You have to step out in a way that’s thoughtful but punctuated.
Paul Vogelzang: Well, Cary’s a great guest, and she has brought along a book today. We always love the CEOs who bring along some show and tell for us. Tell us what you’ve got there.
Cary Hatch: You know, I consider pretty much of an advertising evangelist and a consummate student of the industry. I found this book called Zag, and it’s the idea of zagging when other people are zigging, or vice versa, and taking advantage of opportunities. Those of us who took advantage of the Internet and get into social media some years ago have certainly benefited from that, and looking for trends and where those holes are that you can run through to grow as a company and benefit your clients.
Paul Vogelzang: So helping clients kind of understand these gaps that occur and kind of where to position yourself.
Cary Hatch: Exactly.
Paul Vogelzang: Great. Well Cary, where can we find out more about you and MDB?
Cary Hatch: You can follow me on Twitter. So Twitter-slash-CaryHatch. You can also go to MDBComm.com, and generally you can call me directly. My direct dial is (202) 728-0132.
Paul Vogelzang: Fantastic, a phone number.
Cary Hatch: Why not?
Paul Vogelzang: Great. Cary, it’s been a pleasure. Thanks very much for coming on Capital Communicator TV.
Cary Hatch: Thank you.