And so to the DMA Summer Lunch – yes, that’s right folks, never under-estimate the power of flattery. After my homage to our industry’s finest trade body the phone didn’t stop ringing with offers of tickets to this year’s extravaganza.
The first person I saw was the indefatigable Lloyd James – to be fair with that lime green shirt and plaid suit you couldn’t miss him, and even David “Mr Data” Reed was dressed positively normal in comparison. Anyway, did you know that Lloyd owns one of the most haunted houses in the UK, a former boys’ home (or something like that anyway)? Apparently he is often woken up in the night by a pair of ghoulies…I’m not too sure if it was the white wine talking but he’s invited me over to have a look at them as they are a sight for sore eyes, he claims.
Lloyd and his band of merry men and women were certainly enjoying themselves yesterday, yes Sam you, although he did get his knuckles rapped by the lovely Rosemary Smith for being too noisy during the, ahem, entertainment. Thing is, who could blame him? After 10 minutes listening to guest speaker Andrew Neil’s “the end is nigh” diatribe even the most optimistic person in the world would have been checking out the rates at Dignitas.
I shared a table with four nice people from DLG, yes, it was the whole company. Anyway they were telling me that things aren’t quite the same now that Richard “the James Bond of direct marketing” Webster has left the company. Apparently by the time he departed, he was doing virtually every job at the company – even making the tea and doing the washing up. Still, it was probably quite good training if he can’t find another job in data.
PRs to the stars Eulogy were out in force, too, even Adrian Brady made an appearance for about 5 minutes, then had to dash out and make a few hundred phone calls. Thing is, they had earned a rest after manning the Twitter feed during Panorama’s so-called junk mail expose. What a great job they did too, nothing to do, of course, with the fact that they work for both Royal Mail and the DMA you understand. They just love this industry…
And so do I of course. In fact I love this industry a bit too much at times, so after the after-lunch drinks I had to go to The Shelf Awards, hosted by Gary ‘the hair’ Sharpen. It was a pretty good turn out too, with plenty of creative directors turning up to check out the, ahem, talent. And talent there was in droves. I would have hired most of those young women on the spot, if I’d had the money. Thing is, I am a very strong believer in investing in talent, especially when it looks that good!
Anyway, must dash, I feel compelled to check out Lloyd’s ghoulies…
David Reed was dressed positively normal in comparison?? Getoutahere…