Targeting emotions.

Tradition dictates that direct marketing should concentrate on rational appeals if it is to pull in responses. However, at its best consumers respond better to emotional rather than logical marketing, Rachel Miller says

Ask your colleagues to name a few great television commercials and there will be no shortage of suggestions, not to mention considerable consensus. But ask them to nominate some of the most creative pieces of direct marketing and it's a different story.

"Unlike advertising, there is no overall agreement on what constitutes great work," Steve Harrison, the creative director at HPT Brand Response, says.

"People who lecture on advertising for D&AD would all agree on what is good and bad. People who lecture for the Direct Marketing Association, however, would reach no such consensus."

Direct marketing is assessed in a different way, Rory Sutherland, OgilvyOne's executive creative director, argues. "No-one judges all advertising by the standards of the ads in the local papers," he says. "They judge against the best of television advertising. But the very best work in direct marketing isn't seen by very many people -- it may only be sent to a few hundred. And the letterbox doesn't discriminate -- the great stuff comes through in a heap with all the rubbish. But that does mean that good direct marketing can have a greater impact."

But is the direct marketing industry actually delivering good creative work? "I'd say about 95 per cent of the output of both the direct marketing and advertising industries is pretty superficial and unpersuasive," Harrison says.

"There are a dozen or so below-the-line agencies who have pitched their tents on the creative high ground. Beyond that, the vast majority of people are still being given two days to crack briefs that have three promises in every proposition, one of which is always `peace of mind'.