Richard Eyre (Penguin, 2005)
December 2005
This month's edition of DSC's Book Club features the debut novel from media
pluralist Richard Eyre. In a change from the usual marketing texts we enjoy a
classic whodunit, but one with a few business lessons along the way.
There's adrenalin rushing through the corridors of Acrobat television, and
it's even stronger in the boardroom than under the hot lights down on the live
studio floor. Eyre takes us inside the doors of a youth channel that's broken
the mould, but not the markets. Punchy programming, naked ambition, hungry for
acquisition; now under attack.
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At its head, a struggling chief with eyes justifiably darting over both
shoulders; beneath, a management team in chaos. Rival networks, rival investors,
rival press briefings, rival heirs to the throne. It's caffeine-fuelled crisis
management over one gruelling month at Acrobat that will change the future of
the business and its people for ever. The stock bounces in cycles from the
jubilation of new programme launches to the despair of a slaughtering in the
press. That naked ambition drives deceit, deviousness and defections.
Advertising millions tumble faster than the share price, and the agility of its
leader is falling short. And who's really pulling the strings? It's a game of
trust, yet who even knows all the players? In the shadows hides more than even
the pretenders to the throne suspect.
This debut novel comes from a real insider, a media pluralist whose portfolio
of non-execs straddles print, television and online, and whose history also
includes running ad agencies, radio stations and TV networks. He's stuck to home
turf and the backdrop for the cast to play out their lives is rich in the detail
of London's media life; probably rich enough for more than a few to see
themselves. Eyre jokes about "trading corporate life for a typewriter in the
shed" but he's taken his corporate characters with him on the journey.
Yet The Club is more than a whodunit. Eyre has crafted a fable for those in
an industry he knows so well. The price of success is a debris field:
reputations and marriages are shattered, health spent, lives wasted. The
messages are not even thinly veiled: "Welcome to The Club Ladies and Gentleman"
members can expect to earn more, be more famous, get tables in all the right
restaurants; so come with us, run with us on our journey to this wondrous
place."
When we meet to discuss the book in the open-air café of the Embankment Park,
just south of the city's media district, I can't help but appreciate how much
Eyre has taken his own advice.
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Joseph Jaffe challenges the status quo of marketing, bringing a confrontational freshness to the channel mix and the nature of consumer engagement. In the digital landscape brands need to build awareness and image by taking part in conversations, and this book explains both why and how. Firms need to accept a step-change in their relationships with customers, and ‘Conversations’ is a great catalyst for encouraging them to dare to think of a taking leap beyond the standard media plan or campaign idea. Marketing is changing, but not all firms will adapt.
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