Though he might be more famous as an icy television personality these days thanks to his annual appearance on BBC One's The Apprentice as a stereotypical curmudgeon doling out advice to an increasingly infuriating batch of guileless narcissists posing as 'entrepreneurs,' Lord Alan Sugar is actually quite a smart cookie. His experiences in everything from technology to football have all been covered at length over the last few decades, but it's his expertise in advertising that led to his appearance at the Centaur Festival of Marketing at Tobacco Dock in London yesterday (November 11). Opening the two-day festival with an interview by Centaur Marketing content director Ruth Mortimer, Lord Sugar waxed lyrical on everything from social media and digital pioneers to brands, entrepreneurialism, and even Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho. Here we'll be covering a few choice highlights.
Festival of Marketing Day One
Lord Alan Sugar opened the Centaur Festival of Marketing at Tobacco Dock in London yesterday with an interview by Centaur content director Ruth Mortimer
Lord Sugar on Social Media
“I don’t pay Twitter but I market my companies on Twitter. It’s down to the amount of followers you have and whether it means something. In my case it works, if I say a book is good people go and buy it but maybe that’s because I have over 4 million followers. More importantly social media gives me a right of reply against the mafia in the media. I’ve managed to shut the Daily Mail down after years of abuse. Now I ask my followers if they agree with what a journalist has written and give them their email address and it shuts them down.”
Courtesy of Centaur Festival of Marketing
Lord Sugar on The Internet of Things
“The Internet of Things all hinges upon gadgetry. I build a lot of apartments, houses, offices. When I launched my first IBM compatible computer, IBM weren’t happy about it so they bought a few and said they didn’t have a fan so they were rubbish. But they didn’t need a fan. So we stuck a fan in the box and said if you want a fan, here’s a bloody fan. And the FT put it on their front page. People today are making demands of construction that involve remote controlled air cons, thermostats, windows, TV, operated from your mobile so that when you walk through the door it’s all on. But it’s all rubbish. It doesn’t work. It conks out and goes wrong. But if that’s what people want, give it to them. That’s what you’ve got to do. Stick as many features in because they are marketing things that people want to go for.”
Lord Sugar on Brands
“My admiration still goes to Apple. They’ve not been sucked into creating stupid ads. If you look at the campaign for the iPhone 6 it’s like what we used to do 40 years ago. It talks about the product features and where you can get it. And when Steve Jobs had the famous moment where he flicked the screen on the stage (to announce the new iPad), that was entrepreneurial genius. You need the product first of all (to create the marketing). I look at the John Lewis ad and I think to myself, ‘why?’. It’s become an annual event, like Downton Abbey. I didn’t cry watching it, the only person who should be crying is the person who paid for it - £1m to make it allegedly than £7m of media spend so I’ve heard. And what’s the message? That John Lewis are nice people? Brands have all these messages. British Airways says the customer is king. Marks & Spencer loves you. At Amstrad we wanted your money. There’s no question about it. John Lewis wants your money.”
Lord Sugar on Digital
In the marketing world there are so many. Google obviously. It’s an amazing phenomenon. Amazon innocently started out selling books, now they’ll sell you a Rolls Royce, anything. It’s creating problems for the retail industry in terms of putting people out of business. People find it very easy to shop on Amazon and aren’t bothered to go into stores. It’s changed the face of things. If you’d said this to me 40 years ago I wouldn’t have believed you. Google is constantly changing the rules, ducking, diving, stopping entrepreneurs from getting up the pecking order (online), writing algorithms to prevent this happening, for them to control the world. As for the upcoming digital trends of 2016? No clue. Nothing at all will surprise me. Is there room for another Twitter or Facebook? I don’t know. I’ve made the mistake of not sticking to the future technology we launched in our Amstrad products e.g the Amstrad Pen Pad we launched in the 80s. It was too advanced for the consumer then but now Apple sells trillions of iPads.”
Courtesy of Centaur Festival of Marketing
Lord Sugar on Marketing
“Yes, I have said that I have written many books on marketing – chequebooks - through giving money to TV companies for advertising. What I’ve observed in 40 years is how advertising and marketing has changed. Some of the stuff I see fascinates me, where people spend their money and where companies are induced to spend their money. I’m the top marketing person in my company and I’ve got all the skills. I’m not loved by many ad agencies as we want to make our own ads and not pay some creative genius who comes up with ideas. I’ve always controlled marketing in my companies – I don’t entrust it to anyone else. I saw Aston Villa advertised in Marketing Week magazine for a marketing manager. I think they need more than that. I’m old fashioned. My method of marketing and advertising is very simple. What is the product, what does it do, how much is it and where can you buy it. Straightforward. Now websites have these panels on the side and I’m told people refer to the amounts of hits they receive. There is a great market for a hit lie detector. Do the companies paying for these so called panels on the side of websites know if it is bringing them any business? That’s the problem I can see at the moment. How many times do you go to a website and something pops up and it associates the ad with what you’ve just done. It’s clever but does the advertiser get anything out of it? I had back surgery recently and I was searching online about the side effects of anaesthesia, things like haemorrhoids, and a picture of Piers Morgan popped up.”
The Festival of Marketing has an impressive line-up of household names, hard to reach CMOs and leading marketers
Of course, whilst Lord Sugar opened the festival (and what an opening it proved to be), there is still plenty more to come from Tobacco Dock today on over 12 stages. The festival has an impressive line-up of household names, hard to reach CMOs and leading marketers. Plus, at the heart of the Festival this year are The Masters of Marketing Awards; the new awards programme championing the most creative, innovative and exceptional work and putting it centre stage. Be sure to check out the official Festival of Marketing website for more information.
