David Payne, the outgoing joint chairman and chief executive of
Tequila Payne Stracey, has been playing the part of an agency bigwig for
quite a while now. His guiding hand has turned what was a sizeable
direct marketing agency into a much more significant direct promotions
giant, owned by, and with valuable access to, the Omnicom network.
But now that his earn-out with Omnicom is complete, Payne has decided to
hand over the reins and take the road less travelled. In his own words,
’by working as a consultant to TBWA, initially on its Nissan Europe
account, I’ll be able to get away from all the managerial hassles which
distract you from the nuts and bolts of this business. I never saw
myself as a corporate executive.’ He’ll also be chairing the Institute
of Direct Marketing, which he likens to a young company about to go
through a rapid growth phase. In addition, there are several other
direct marketing companies in which Payne has a stake and which he’ll
continue to influence.
With a farm in the New Forest and plenty of dosh from Omnicom, Payne
surely must be in a good position to take early retirement. But this, he
says, was not an option because ’I like this business; I’m fascinated by
the way it’s evolving; and I suppose I also feel a sense of duty to give
something back’.
Asked about non-work interests, he struggles a bit before mentioning the
farm and sailing. By contrast, when discussing his new Nissan
consultancy role, he remarks that ’cars are one of my first passions’.
And he talks animatedly about the potential for the IDM’s courses to
become a shorthand for excellence in direct marketing.
Payne can seem a bit teacherly, but mostly he comes across as the calm,
straightforward, nice guy type. If he has made enemies on the way up,
neither he nor they are saying. Industry colleagues describe Payne as
’very sound’ and ’a likeable guy’ and other such epithets. In fact the
only time Payne starts to sound a bit wild and crazy is when he compares
himself to his partner, Andrew Stracey, whom he describes as ’a very,
very cautious, cup-half-empty type’.
Like many in the agency world, Payne began his marketing career on the
client side, working first at Heinz, where he oversaw the Bovril brand,
and then at United Biscuits. But he crossed the great divide by moving
to Ogilvy & Mather. He was in the sexy ad agency world but his
recollection of the job is more mundane: ’I was the boring client guy
who came in to do the analysis,’ he only half-jokes. A move from there
to French Gold Abbott allowed Payne to ’get an understanding of
creativity’ from David Abbott, whom he still regards as ’the eminence of
advertising, in the sense that he is probably the most complete
advertising man I’ve ever met. He could do every job.’
The sale of FGA to Kenyon & Eckhart (later to merge with Bozell)
provided Payne with a golden opportunity. His new employer sent him to
its New York office where he worked on direct marketing accounts and
quickly realised how much more evolved this discipline was in the US. ’I
could appreciate why the Americans viewed the world in a different way
from ourselves. You saw the sheer scale of everything.’
He returned to the UK in 1980 to begin a four-year stint at Grey
Advertising, which he left to become managing director of Young &
Rubicam-owned Wunderman.
The key issue for direct marketing at that point, he says, was
’translating its rather odd terminology into conventional marketing
language’.
Another milestone was when Payne convinced both the AA and
Weightwatchers to use direct marketing alongside, rather than in
between, their advertising campaigns. He has remained committed to the
belief that integrated marketing is the best solution, and he has little
time for ’all those silly comments about how direct marketing was going
to take over from above-the-line. That was never going to happen.’
As for Payne Stracey, which he started in 1988 after quitting Wunderman
with Stracey, Payne says the agency was initially known for ’a sort of
strategic, business-based approach to life’. It was only later, when
Mike Cavers came along (he joined in 1996 as creative director following
the merger with TBWA Direct) that ’our creative product significantly
stepped up’.
This merger also proved timely in generating what Payne calls ’good
second-generation’ management for his agency - something which he admits
he and Stracey had failed to achieve during the agency’s independent
life.
The final building block in Payne’s growth strategy was last year’s
merger with the sales promotion agency, Tequila. This move was ’based on
an argument that said the direct marketing, sales promotion and
sponsorship businesses are all now coming together, and that size is
important’. Anticipating the number three slot, the new combine is now
actually second in its market.
But Payne is walking away from this power trip. ’That’s not why you do
it,’ he asserts. ’If I’d wanted that I could have stayed at Wunderman.’
As a self-declared business builder rather than business manager, Payne
remembers how much fun he had during the first five years of Payne
Stracey.
’We didn’t make a lot of money but it didn’t seem to matter. You get an
immense kick from winning, from building something.’
THE PAYNE FILE
1969
HJ Heinz, marketing assistant
1973
French Gold Abbott, account director
1976
Kenyon & Eckhart New York, account executive
1980
Grey Advertising, management supervisor
1984
Wunderman Cato Johnson, managing director
1988
Payne Stracey, co-founder
1996
Merged Payne Stracey with TBWA Direct
1998
Merged new entity with Tequila Option One
1999
IDM, chairman, and consultant to TBWA Europe
