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marketingnews 06.01.08
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DAVID WACHS
CELLIT MOBILE MARKETING, PRESIDENT
The mobile marketing sector may be tricky and uncertain, but David
Wachs is neck-deep in it every day. As president of Cellit Mobile
Marketing LLC in Chicago, he has worked with clients like Procter &
Gamble, Dell and Sotheby’s, helping them reach customers on their
cell phones in targeted marketing campaigns. And with experience in
management consulting, equity analysis and even fish-gutting, this
former chef knows what it takes to cook up a mobile campaign.
Q: In your lifetime, what was the first marketing campaign you can recall being exposed to?
A: The launch of the Apple Macintosh. While most
people remember the famous “1984” ad, I remember
best the ad featuring the baby crawling up to the Mac
and using it to draw. It’s true; Apple made the computer
accessible and the world is changed because of it. What’s
interesting is that those “babies” are now 24 years old!
They’ve grown up with the computer and haven’t been
exposed to a world without instant access to information. [And now] these babies are my target audience.
Q: What made you decide to pursue marketing
as a profession?
A: The huge untapped potential for leveraging mobile
in marketing solutions drove me into marketing in 2005.
I quit my job in banking and moved into the marketing sector. It just seemed like the mobile phone would
not only revolutionize how we communicate but how
we connect with consumers. The lines between marketing and technology were quickly blurring, and seeing as I
had an engineering background, it seemed like a perfect
opportunity to use my skills in new and unique ways.
marketing questionnaire//bp
Q: What qualities make a marketer great?
A: Respect for the consumer. Thinking the consumer
will pay for ad-laden content or will respond to a bombardment of spam is just plain ridiculous. It’s our job, as
marketers, to deliver compelling promotions that excite
and engage the consumer in ways never done before.
Q: What qualities undermine an otherwise talented
marketing executive?
A: Resistance to change. It’s amazing that in an indus-
try where change is the norm rather than the exception,
so many execs are resistant to it or try to force the “new
square peg” in the “old round hole.” A perfect example
of the latter is Internet marketing 1.0: banner ads and
video clips. Now, it’s getting much more interesting with
viral campaigns and multi-model campaigns involving
Web, television and mobile. We’re just starting to see
what’s possible in these new media, and as execs find
social media, viral marketing and consumer generated
content to be the norm versus stuff to just tinker with,
we’ll see more and more greatness.
Q: Pick your poison: Hard and fast ROI, or experiment
and see what sticks?
A: Given the choice, I’d have to go with experiment and
see what sticks. Hard and fast ROI is only available with
the tried and true, meaning campaigns that have been
done over and over before. There is no innovation in
hard and fast ROI, and certainly no market leadership.
Its amazing how demanding of hard and fast ROI
our clients are when it comes to mobile, because it
is so trackable, versus their traditional promotions
where they are more than willing to blow the bank. I
recently sat in a meeting with a marketing exec who
hammered us for two hours with questions on trackability, ROI, how they’ll need a year to set up a test,
etc. After the meeting, while we were stepping in
the elevator, he mentioned a cute, little promotion
they had where they sent samples of their products
to every doctor in America in a special metal case. I
asked him the ROI for that promotion, and he had no
idea whatsoever, nor did he seem to care. I then told
him that we could run a mobile promotion for an
entire year at one-tenth the cost of the one-time campaign he just explained.
Q: What inspires good marketing ideas?
carrier has its own infrastructure, handset types and
compliance procedures we must navigate. The devil
really is in the details, and so much comes down to
execution. While this applies to our company, I think
it also applies to me personally. Treating people how
you’d like to be treated—the golden rule—matters a lot
more than I ever thought possible.
Q: What do you point to as your greatest single marketing accomplishment?
A: We came up with a campaign idea for a
Broadway show leveraging its music assets to create
karaoke ringtones. Basically, you call up a number, sing along with the music and then it sends you
back your recording as a ringtone. We all love the
idea (we’re patenting it) and really look forward to
seeing some clients use it in upcoming promotions.
It seems to be a no-brainer for brands with jingles.
Plus, being a “techie nerd” at heart, I’m excited to
get my first patent under my belt.
Q: What do you point to as your greatest single accomplishment outside of marketing?
A: Before starting my professional career, I spent a short
amount of time learning to cook in Paris, followed by
some time working in the kitchen of a famous French
chef. Compared to my undergraduate education of
engineering and business, this was entirely out of left
field! And, I must say, compared to standing on your
feet, gutting fish for 12 hours a day, running a marketing
agency is a walk in the park!
A: Conversations with the consumer. Ads in bathroom
stalls, ads on little LCDs as you step on an escalator, “mall radio,” banner ads: It’s all one-way. Our best
campaigns are inspired by creating dialogues with
consumers.
A: Thinking up the “next great thing” in marketing,
once we get this whole mobile business figured out.
Q: If—as the saying goes—you are your own brand,
then what is the tagline for a brand campaign for you?
Q: What profession, other than marketing, would you
most like to pursue?
A: “It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it.” Mobile
technology is still a very fragmented landscape. Each
A: I’d love to teach. Maybe a course in marketing or entre-
Q: Ten years from now I’d like to be _______________.
preneurial management at the undergraduate level. m