The house was packed for the call to order by Ogilvy & Mather Chairman & CEO Shelly Lazarus Monday morning as CTAM officially kicked off. She didn’t disappoint an audience that wanted to be revved up but it was tough love as Lazarus pushed hard for branding backed up by almost stern admonishments about customer service. One of my favorite lines: “Your brand is not what you say it is.” So true, something even ad agencies can take to heart. (The corollary would be “wishing doesn’t make it so.”)
Lazarus pulled out the usual bag of keynote tricks, including iconic ads like the iPod rocking silouhettes but the one that may have had the most resonance for this audience was a parody: Lily Tomlin as the operator showing off all the ways the phone company (back when there only was one) abused customers. The unforgettable tag line: “We’re the phone company. We don’t care. We don’t have to.” Ten years later she could have cut the same spot about cable — a point Lazarus drove home hard.
After years of covering all the ways cable operators have tried to overcome that image of the uncaring monopolist, I wondered how this would go over. Dave Watson, EVP-operations, Comcast, and Summit co-chair, answered that question with his query of Lazarus: We make wonderful products that people love but they’re not crazy about us. What can we do to change? Her reply: “If I were going to do one thing right now, it would be with people answering the phones.” She added that each one needs to know that every customer is the company’s future and their paycheck.
I asked Char Beales, who heads CTAM, about the message. Was it fair? The industry can’t hear it enough, she told me. That’s why she’s a marketer and I’m a reporter.
Our CTAM Summit coverage is sponsored by Maven Networks’ IP VOD Broadband Delivered Video Solution.
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