Rick Segal: "Differentiating between tools and talent"
Published on 12/02/1996 under Interviews
For those of us hoping to ease into retirement before new media and computerspeak make this business totally unintelligible to anyone but geekish techno-wizards, I have encouraging news: One of our leading high tech practitioners felt that way, too, not so long ago.
I had the opportunity to visit recently with Rick Segal, managing director of Cincinnati-based Hensley Segal Rentschler, one of the hottest and most decorated business-to-business agencies these past several years. And while Segal liberally embellishes his conversation with terms like narrowcasting and niche marketing and LAN gateways, if you strip away the glossy veneer, you'll discover that HSR was just like hundreds, if not thousands of small agencies in this country, struggling for survival a mere five years ago.
Founded in 1981, HSR rocked along for ten years, moving a few steps forward, slipping a few back until 1991, when the three principals decided to make an all-out commitment to master the daunting world of electronic and computer-based media.
At that time, the agency had 7 employees and annual billings of $2.5 million. Five years later, they have 40 employees and billings of $23 million, and they are continuing to expand rapidly.
"In 1991, I didn't have a single frequent flyer point," Segal said. "Now they call me by name in the Crown Room." Ten of HSR's current 22 clients are located outside its home state of Ohio, and Segal has become a popular speaker on the lecture circuit..
What Hensley Segal Rentschler has done is recognize a basic marketing opportunity and move quickly to capitalize on it. "We observed that large, sophisticated companies with strict disciplines and standards in virtually every area of marketing and communications were throwing those standards aside in a mad dash to get on-lineand interactive," Segal said. "We decided what was missing was someone who could combine traditional marcom skills with computer technology know-how."
Even today, Segal says his main competition is young computer "technologists" who understand hardware and software, but have never been required to market anything. "There's way too much computer technology noise in business, today," Segal says. "If you can make sense out of it, you really stand out."
HSR has worked hard to get on top of this computer-based information explosion. Segal estimates the firm has invested more than $35,000 per employee on computer hardware, software and training. "We've tried to create a culture where people are hungry for knowledge," he said.
It's a relentless quest. In his frequent talks to advertising and marketing groups, Segal refers to the Rule of 6: what used to take 6 weeks now takes 6 days; what used to take 6 days now is needed in 6 hours; what used to be done in 6 hours is expected in 6 minutes.
You get the idea. Segal says a "web year" is now about 90 days. That is, we're seeing a year's worth of innovation and new discovery every quarter. But before you get bummed out again, let me get back to the HSR niche: blending traditional marketing skills with an understanding of computer-based technology.
Many young people in advertising today are mistaking computer wizardry with clear thinking. They offer special effects in place of the Big Idea (see last month's interview with advertising legend George Lois). They complain they can't create breakthrough ads because their computer isn't powerful enough, or they don't have the right software. Balderdash!
When Rick Segal first saw a desktop publishing system, he said to himself, "we're out of business." But the more he and his partners thought about it, the more they realized that someone has to help clients focus and package the key messages. And that requires special skills and skills that don't come from using computers.
Many managers today mistakenly think that providing employees with computers and up-to-date software automatically enables them to develop the same creative products as other persons with similar equipment.
That's like giving someone a brush, oil paints and canvas and, following proper instruction, expecting them to whip out another Mona Lisa. Some will come closer to this than others, but the difference is talent, not tools.
If clients seek the proper blend of talent and technology, Segal thinks our industry's best years are yet to come. "I really feel the golden age of business-to-business marketing communications is just beginning," he says.
"Small companies can now afford to present their messages to worldwide audiences just like big companies," he points out. "When a potential customer is finished browsing, he can ask to be connected to a live service person or he can fill out an electronic order form and submit it for processing."
And even though it has been described as a gigantic, electronic "Yellow Pages" type resource, the Internet is becoming much more than that. It is now poised to become the "meter" for measuring the effectiveness of all integrated marketing communications activities. Beyond recording web site hits, you can also determine the source of these connections, as well as track changing attitudes about your products, services and promotional appeals.
"The Internet is driven by human appetite for information and connection to other humans," Segal says. "We now have more data transmissions over phone lines than voice transmissions, more e-mail than first class mail and more people getting information from new media than traditional media like radio and television."
On one hand, it's a frightening, new frontier that many of us feel totally unprepared to explore. But it helps to remember that one of our industry's leading new media pioneers felt that way, too, only a few short years ago.
If you have mastered the skill of separating key messages from non-essential ones; if you have the ability to spot the truly creative idea from the psuedo-ideas; and, more importantly, if you're willing to roll up your sleeves and master the fundamentals of computer-based communications, then the best is yet to come.
Because it takes a lot more than tools and the mastery of tools to win this challenging new game. It takes talent, too.