Tuesday, March 8, 2022

#148 Pandemic War Stories

#148 Blog Post – Friday, 7 March 2022

Posted by Denny Hatch

A Niche Agency Owner Shares War
Stories of Life in the Pandemic Years

I love it when a reader of this cranky blog writes in with a comment/critique. It's gratifying when positive and educational when negative. These are the only indicators that the damn post was actually read by somebody.

Dr. James McAnally—dentist-turned-entrepreneur agency founder—has been reading my stuff since 30 July 2015. As long-time readers know, the nuts-'n'-bolts, rules, results and war stories of the marketing and advertising business fascinate me.

So, I was thrilled to receive an insider's reflections of what changed with his agency and clients during the COVID-19 years. This is not boring prose. Dr. James is a funny, loquacious dead serious guy with an on-screen pointer and voice-over description giving the nitty-gritty and low-down on his business and his clients during the Pandemic.

The effect: it's as if he were live and in person in the room and I was an audience of one

I'd be curious to hear your stories on how you dealt/are dealing with the Pandemic.

Contents of this post:

1. Initial back-and-forth.

2. Link to Dr. James McAnally's ad-lib presentation.

3. Dr. McAnally's bio from Linkedin.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Dr. James McAnally

To:dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Wed, Mar 2 at 7:34 PM

Denny!

You are always giving me stuff, so trying to repay the debt a bit via my video below.

Be well!

James

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Dear Dr. James,

GREAT COMMENT!!!!

This was a FIRST! In 60 years of covering direct marketing/direct mail, I never received a voice mail comment and an invaluable first-person stream of consciousness window into how things work. Fascinating!

Asking a favor. May I turn this into a blog? I’ll run it by you before I run it.

Thanks again.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Dr. James McAnally

To: Denny Hatch

Thu, Mar 3 at 1:11 PM

Denny!

Seriously?!? The first time in 60 years for that…a sad commentary on human behavior especially in an era where information exchange is so easy and instantaneous – if the channels are open of course.

Use away the materials. Happy that there is some value for you!

Best,

James

P.S. Your 60-year wait for this reminds me of my disappointment upon entry into dental school when I realized that my fellow students were not particularly culturally enlightened…

I had believed I would be surrounded by at least a few intellectuals because it was “professional education.” Surely a few would be interested in culture, art, music, etc. Right? WRONG! One of our professors (who remains a good friend), who was/is interested in matters beyond just teeth/orthodontics, had, during his first lecture, played for the class about 30 seconds of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. His theme was that the development of art, science, (dentistry and his specialty orthodontia), music, and well civilization is always on an arc on which growth and development is not linear but comes in starts, stop, and fits over time… Wars and famines routinely interrupting this progress…

As it was Socratic method instruction, asking “Who composed this? What’s the name of the piece?” I was the only student who knew the answer. Thus, the scales fell from my eyes!!

But perhaps what is even more naïve and laughable about this, looking back now is that this was in OKLAHOMA. In 1989, it was still early in the Reagan/Bush/Bush destruction of education and before the true hard shift to the right had occurred. I can only imagine my professor now asking such mundane cultural questions to the philistines!

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Link to Dr. James's Private Musings

https://share.vidyard.com/watch/7zRHhD7SgkM9fAvxsWFbUo

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

About Dr. James R. McAnally

Dr. James McAnally is the founder of Big Case Marketing; a specialty dental-advertising agency sending full-arch dental implant patients to member practices every month.

*Proven direct-to-consumer advertising sends a minimum of 3 full arch cases to practices every month.

*Big Case sales process training maximizes return on advertising investments.

*Hiring support to find quality sales staff ensures a strong selling team with each member client.

*Credentialing, education, compliance and billing support to leverage Medicare Original Part B oral surgery benefits to create a market advantage over local competitors.

The agency is the biggest non-corporate advertiser in the Google Ad system (formerly "AdWords"). It has guided or managed campaigns in more than 80 global markets with the longest contiguous history of implant-focused advertising. More than 1000 dentists globally have trusted the group of sales training or advertising. The member network of advertisers is the #1 national competitor to ClearChoice implant centers.

Dr. McAnally’s involvement in clinical dentistry spans 32 years: 17 years at chairside, and more than 15 years working with implant and reconstructive practices. He continues to hold an active clinical license and his weekly writings are read in more than 35 countries.

Dr. James McAnally is the founder of Big Case Marketing; a specialty dental-advertising agency sending full-arch dental implant patients to member practices every month.

*Proven direct-to-consumer advertising sends a minimum of 3 full arch cases to practices every month.

*Big Case sales process training maximizes return on advertising investments.

*Hiring support to find quality sales staff ensures a strong selling team with each member client.

*Credentialing, education, compliance and billing support to leverage Medicare Original Part B oral surgery benefits to create a market advantage over local competitors.

The agency is the biggest non-corporate advertiser in the Google Ad system (formerly "AdWords"). It has guided or managed campaigns in more than 80 global markets with the longest contiguous history of implant-focused advertising. More than 1000 dentists globally have trusted the group of sales training or advertising. The member network of advertisers is the #1 national competitor to ClearChoice implant centers.

Dr. McAnally’s involvement in clinical dentistry spans 32 years: 17 years at chairside, and more than 15 years working with implant and reconstructive practices. He continues to hold an active clinical license and his weekly writings are read in more than 35 countries.

###

Word count:1104

The Most Fun You Can Have

In the English Language

Bawdy Jokes & Patter Songs

At age 15, Denny Hatch—as a lowly apprentice—wrote his first news release for a Connecticut summer theater. To his astonishment it ran verbatim in The Middletown Press. He was instantly hooked on writing. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army (1958-60), Denny had nine jobs in his first 12 years in business. He was fired from five of them and went on to save two businesses and start three others. One of his businesses—WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service founded in 1984—revolutionized the science of how to measure the success of competitors’ direct mail. In the past 55 years he has been a book club director, magazine publisher, advertising copywriter/designer, editor, journalist and marketing consultant. He is the author of four published novels and seven books on business and marketing.

CONTACT
dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Note to Readers:
May I send you an alert when each new blog is posted? If so, kindly give me the okay by sending your First Name, Last Name and email to dennyhatch@yahoo.com. I guarantee your personal information will not be shared with anyone at any time for any reason. The blog is a free service. No cost. No risk. No obligation. Cancel any time. I look forward to being in touch!

IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE POSTING A COMMENT… EMAIL ME! I'LL HELP!
Google owns Blogspot.com and this Comment Section. If you do not have a Google account — or if you find it too damn complicated — contact me directly and I will happily post your comment with a note that this is per your permission. Thank you and do keep in touch. dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Invitation to Marketers and Direct Marketers:
Guest Blog Posts Are Welcome.
If you have a marketing story to tell, case history, concept to propose or a memoir, give a shout. I’ll get right back to you. I am: dennyhatch@yahoo.com
215-644-9526 (rings on my desk).

You Are Invited to Join the Discussion.

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

#147 Lawyer's Resume

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2022/03/147-lawyers-resume.html

#147 Blog Post - Wednesday, 2 March 2022

Posted by Denny Hatch

A Marketer Parses a Losing
Lawyer's Mediocre Résumé

Alina Habba, J.D.

Lehigh University, Widener University School of Law
Managing Partner, Habba Madaio & Associates LLP
Bedminster, NJ 07921 - Population 8,067

• It’s dark. It’s cold. It’s unreadable.

• She is not welcoming. Her scowl presages a fight.

• "Don't mess with me," she seems to be saying.

• In court appearances she's famous for pissing off judges.

• In that sense, her resume is honest.

• “Never set your copy in white type on a black background and never set it over a gray or colored tint. The old school of art directors believed these devices forced people to read the copy; we now know that they make reading physically impossible. —David Ogilvy

• “Avoid gray walls of type.” —David Ogilvy

• “Neatness rejects involvement.” —Lew Smith

• “After two or three inches of copy, insert your first mini-headline [crosshead], and thereafter pepper them throughout. They keep the reader marching forward—David Ogilvy

• Short words! Short sentences! Short Paragraphs!" —Andrew J. Byrne

• Taped to every desk lamp Scott Huch inherited for 30 years was this clipping from the Virginian-Pilot:

Clipping Above in Readable Text

“Tests have shown that a sentence of eight words is very easy to read; of 11 words, easy; of 14 words, fairly easy; of 17 words, standard; of 21 words, fairly difficult; of 25 words, difficult; of 29 or more words, very difficult; so, this sentence with 54 words, counting numbers, is ranked impossible.”

• Analysis of the readability of Alina Habba’s résumé:
   —Total number of words                          480
   —Total number of paragraphs                      5
   —Total number of sentences                        9
   —Average number of words per sentence    40
            Ergo: Readability impossible.

• Since the document is unreadable. The only way to read it is to:

— Go to Alina Habba's website.

— Paste the text into Word.

— Change the gray type to black.

The Axios Alert That Triggered This Blog Post

Scoop: Trump's Friends Worry Legal

Pick for N.Y. Case Lacks Experience

Close associates and advisers to Donald Trump tell Axios they're concerned by his decision to use a relative inexperienced New Jersey attorney, Alina Habba, in his high-stakes legal fight against New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Why It Matters: A former president typically has access to the country's most prestigious experts, including lawyers. Trump has turned to the former general counsel for a parking garage company, who works from a small law office near his Bedminster, N.J. country club.

What They're Saying:"He has some lawyers that are very sophisticated with years of experience litigating, and he has now fallen prey to inexperienced lawyers who are just telling him what he wants to hear," said one source close to the former president.

—Jonathan Swan, Axios 01/21/22

Trump: Lawsuit Libertine

Trump and his businesses have been involved in at least 3,500 legal actions in state and federal courts over the last 30 years, a Wednesday USA Today report found.

In more than half of the lawsuits — about 1,900 — Trump or his companies are the plaintiff, while in about 1,450 cases they are the defendant. The rest are bankruptcy or other cases.

— Jesse Byrnes, THE HILL , 06/01/16

The Trump Organization's public brawls with the legal profession are legendary. A small sampling of headlines:

• Trump's Long History of Getting Sued by His Own Lawyers...

— Max J. Rosenthal, MOTHER JONES 08/18/20

• Trump Can Sue Regularly Because "He Didn't Pay Most of His Lawyers..."

—Jason Lemon, Newsweek, 09/23/19

• Trump Stiffs Rudy for All His Amazing Legal Services...

— Liz Dye, ABOVE THE LAW, 01/14/21

• Top Conservative Lawyers Steer Clear of Trump's Latest Legal Fight...

— Katelyn Polantz, CNN.com 10/13/21

Alina Habba’s résumé is as inept as
her court appearances for the Trumps:

• A law clerk repeatedly had to tell Trump’s lawyer to stop interrupting the judge while she ranted about political bias and right- wing conspiracy theories
—Sonam Sheth, Yahoo News, 02/08/22

• Judge Knocks Trump Lawyer for Claiming He’s a ‘Protected Class” —Jason Lemon, Newsweek, 02/17/22

• After Star Turn in State Court Trump Lawyer Alina Habba Lobs Inanities at Federal Judge.
—Liz Dye, ABOVE THE LAW 02/18/22

• Trump and Two of His Adult Children Must Testify in New York. —Dan Mangan, CNBC, 02//17/22

Takeaway to Consider

• If a designer submits a thing like this, fire the designer.

###

Word count: 721

The Most Fun You Can Have

In the English Language

Bawdy Jokes & Patter Songs

You Are Invited to Join the Discussion.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

#146 Tiny Oops

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2022/02/146-tiny-oops_23.html

#146 Blog Post – Wednesday, 23 February 2022

Posted by Denny Hatch

Tiny Oops Causes a Catastrophe.
It Pays to Sweat the Small Stuff.

Who will buy over 10,000 mugs, tea sets
and decorative plates with the misprint?

— Stephanie Petit , People, 02-01-2022

Okay, I’ll confess. For years Peggy and I have been subscribers to Majesty magazine. We are fascinated by the comings and goings of the Royal Family. We’ve toured Buckingham Palace, slavishly watched their weddings and funerals on TV. Atop our own tele is a mini statue of Her Majesty in a pink coat whose hand waves when heated by sunlight.

“Who will buy over 10,000 mugs, tea sets and decorative plates with the misprint?” asked Stephane Petit in People. I would in a heartbeat! I spent much of an hour on the Internet trying to buy just one of these pieces to celebrate Her Majesty’s 70^th Jubbly. Alas, only the whole kit and kaboodle was available for $44,000. Tough to store in a two-bedroom apartment.

Lemme say, I have always had terrible eyesight (20/400) and am a lousy proofreader. It’s humiliating when a reader calls my attention to one. Pity the poor employee who let this gleaming howler see light of day!

While I’m on the Subject of Staff Gaffes,

Stacy Abrams Foes Will Have a Field Day!

Another employee I pity is the campaign worker who allowed the media to glom onto the above photo of a barefaced Stacy Abrams—able to spew COVID-19—surrounded by a gaggle of very young kids all wearing masks.

Toward the end of his life, ex-President Lyndon Johnson was brought news of a “minor break-in” at Washington’s posh Watergate complex. “This has a long fuse,” Johnson said.

My bet: same thing with this bizarre portrait of Stacy Abrams.

A Direct Marketing Catastrophe.

Bob Hacker—at Work and at Leisure

This is a true story told to me by the brilliant, curmudgeonly Seattle Guru, Bob Hacker. Back in the 1990s, he was called by a high-powered, highly regarded ophthalmology partnership that needed help IMMEDIATELY. Bob and his newest young copywriter hopped in the car and were in the doctors’ offices in minutes.

They were greeted by two of the doctors who handed Bob and his associate a superb direct mail marketing effort. It was created, produced and mailed by a well-known local agency. It was gorgeous! Elegant! It followed all the rules and contained all the right elements—offer, letter, headlines, easy-to-read copy, contact information and exuberant testimonials from delighted patients. The doctors were so sure it would bring in legions of new patients that they opted to eschew the hugely expensive small test go for an immediate mass mailing roll-out that had a CPM they could live with.

The results? No results. Not a single response. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

Bob told the doctors to leave him and his associate alone so they could read and evaluate the mailing.

Fifteen minutes later Bob's young copywriter summoned the doctors back into the room.

“Here’s what I propose,” Bob said. “This is a sound, thoroughly professional effort. It requires a few small changes. I will revamp this mailing, pay for the changes, printing, list rental, postage and mailing costs. I will charge you…. [he named an exorbitant fee]. Here’s my guarantee: This mailing will bring in [he named huge number of responses]. If the mailing does not live up to—my promises, my fee and the cost of the mailing will be free. I will pay all costs and you owe me nothing.”

The doctors agreed to the deal.

Back in the car, the copywriter was gobsmacked. “Bob, how could you make a promise like that?” he asked in disbelief.

Before putting the car in gear, Hacker handed his young assistant the mailing and pointed to a single sentence in the letter:

What’s more when we cut into your eye it

doesn’t hurt nearly as much as you think it will.

The Worst Typo in Newspaper History

When you see a photograph of America’s 28th President, Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), the terms stud muffin or hottie do not come immediately to mind. He had an angular face and wore rimless eyeglasses that made him look like a stern schoolmaster. Yet he thrived on female companionship and golf. During his presidency, he played more golf than Barrack Obama and Donald Trump combined. When Ellen Axson Wilson—his adored wife of 29 years and mother of his three daughters—contracted Bright’s disease and died suddenly on August 6, 1914, President Wilson was devastated and went into a deep depression.

In March 1915 Wilson’s first cousin Helen Woodrow Bones—who had become the official White House Hostess—introduced the bereaved president to Edith Bolling Galt, the glamorous, elegant widow of Norman Galt, proprietor of Galt & Bro., Washington’s premier jeweler.

Wilson was instantly besotted and became a changed and happy man. The gossip-crazed Washington society reveled in any and all accounts of their comings-and-goings. They were seen together all over Washington. In two months, they were engaged to be married.

The Lost "tain"

It was in 1915 The Washington Post committed the greatest gaffe in Newspaper history. Newspapers had already been somewhat cruel and crude about the relationship. One joke which ran in a Washington paper asked, “What did Mrs. Galt do when the President asked her to marry him?" The answer: "She fell out of bed.” After a date night at the theater, President Wilson opened up the morning edition of The Washington Post and found an appalling typographical error that set tongues wagging and led to the Post frantically trying to reclaim newspapers from newsstands before they were sold and read. A report in the Post mentioned the President’s attendance at the theater and noted, “Rather than paying attention to the play, the President spent the evening entering Mrs. Galt."

The Post, meaning to write that the President "spent the evening entertaining Mrs. Galt” desperately apologized to both Edith and the President, but it certainly didn’t help with the nasty rumors about the budding relationship.—Anthony Bergen, Presidential Historian

President Wilson married Mrs. Galt at her Washington home on December 18, 1915, amid a small gathering of 40 family and friends.

From My Father's Biography of Edith Galt Wilson

The White House Pierce-Arrow was waiting in the roped-off street. The bride and groom got away so quickly that the distant crowd had no time to raise a cheer. They drove to Alexandria where the President's private car, named Mayflower, was waiting attached to a train bound for Hot Springs, Virginia. The press and the public were for once circumvented as they waited hopefully at Washington's Union Station.

There has been only one break in the security that all parties maintained. Mr. Starling of the Secret Service said many years later that as he reported for duty in the private car the following morning he was astounded to see the President of the United States, all dressed up in a cutaway and high silk hat, dancing a buck-and-wing while he sang at the top of his voice:

"Oh, you beautiful doll,
You great big, beautiful doll!
—Alden Hatch, 1961
Edith Bolling Wilson, First Lady Extraordinary

Takeaways to Consider

• “A careless shepherd makes excellent dinner for a wolf.”

—Earl Derr Biggers, (1884-1933)

Author of the Charlie Chan Detective Series

• Before you commit anything to print or email, run a spelling and grammar check.

• In business and in life, always sweat the small stuff. It’s easier than later dealing with a painful bite out of your ass.

• Before clicking "SEND" on an important email, send it to yourself to make sure it arrives with no goofs or errors.

###

Word Count: 1271

The Most Fun You Can Have

In the English Language

Bawdy Jokes & Patter Songs

You Are Invited to Join the Discussion.

marketingstrategy

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

#148 Pandemic War Stories

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

#147 Lawyer's Resume

Takeaway to Consider

• If a designer submits a thing like this, fire the designer.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

#146 Tiny Oops

#148 Pandemic War Stories

Alexa Top Sites