Interview - Amanda Phillips

David Murphy talks to the Chair of the IPA Direct Marketing Futures Group about mobiles and consent

If Amanda Phillips was busy last week, shes even busier now. When we caught up with her yesterday morning, believing we were about to talk to Proximity Londons Client Services Director, we found instead we were interviewing the MD, following the departure of chief executive Chris Thomas to head up BBDO in Asia.
Its her third top role. She was previously Chief Operating officer of Joshua, and in 2000, as Managing Director, she launched McCann Relationship Marketing, before joining Proximity in January 2004 as Business Development Director.
But it was in her guise as Chair of the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) Direct Marketing Futures Group that we were keen to talk to Phillips. The Group has been around for two years, but until she took up the Chair in September, it was known as the Direct Marketing Group. So why the change of name?
"The group is a representative group within the IPA that looks at and champions direct marketing issues that are pertinent to the agency industry" says Phillips. "I added the Futures element to give it more of a focus on the future of direct marketing.  We have set up a new agenda to look to redefine the definition of direct marketing, to expand its horizons, because what is happening is that the direct approach is being used in traditional DM media, but also, more and more, in digital and broadcast media. The challenge is to embrace it and for clients to see direct in a new light, to see it defined not by the medium, but by the role it plays."
Clearly, what Phillips says is true. Shortcodes are beginning to appear on billboards, press and TV ads and will no doubt become commonplace over the next couple of years. So where does mobile fit into the overall DM landscape?
"Well, its another way of reaching the consumer" says Phillips. "Within the group, we see it as a tool to do just that. If you have an integrated campaign where you are looking to shift consumer behaviour, you may use mobile to get to certain people at certain times of the day.
"The IPA has a Digital Group as well, and mobile sits between the two groups. I think thats good, because we are keen at the IPA not to pigeonhole things, and we recognise that with mobile, we need to look at it from many different angles. So the Digital Group looks at it from the technology standpoint, while we look at what it can actually deliver."
When Phillips was appointed Chair of the DM Futures group, the release announcing her appointment talked about "how to engage intelligently with the consumer and to explore the issue of consent in all personal media." Clearly, personal media does not get much more personal than a mobile phone, so how important is this issue of consent? Is it just a question of staying on the right side of the law, or is there more to it than that?
"At  the IPA, we feel that consent is a very important thing" says Phillips. "Its simply no good talking to customers who do not want to engage with you. In order for a marketing campaign to be effective, the people on the receiving end of it have to be open to the messages, and permission-based marketing allows that to happen. It requires you to think about how you connect with customers in a way that respects them and is engaging, because if you do that, consumers will want to engage with you. I think those who live in fear of opt-outs are those who are not going about things in the right way anyway."
Wise words, from a woman whose impressive track record shows that she knows what she's talking about.

Proximity London

IPA

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