The Toppled Bollard: radical direct marketing in practice

Often the Toppled Bollard letters were experimental – in fact you could say the whole approach was experimental.  Just as we ventured into fun at the expense of John Prescott and President Bush the Younger, so we tried other ideas too. Not all of them worked – and that is something you have to accept [...]

During the period of writing the Bollard stories we picked on a few hapless souls in the public eye, and had a little fun at their expense.   An obvious target was George W Bush – and indeed I came to use him again in part of the BadAd series (the stories that have taken over [...]

The most extraordinary thing… Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Toppled Bollard stories is how they are remembered.  Just in the last two days I have had one potential customer on the phone who said that she received Hamilton House promotional materials until about four years ago when she changed jobs.  “I always liked [...]

Not every story during the Toppled Bollard period was surreal.  Occasionally I meandered into a rant – but invariably a rant with a purpose.   This one, about Christmas, focussed on the fact that in order to sell you have to be different, and writing to people to tell them what they already know is not [...]

During the time of writing the Bollard stories I often tried various other bits and pieces, always looking for a new approach that would stop the work getting stale. I never found it, and so kept on coming back to the Bollard – until ultimately I said to myself, “no more – until I find [...]

Background comments This is one of the more popular of the Bollard stories from the period 2002-4.  If you read it and wonder what on earth is going on, then the chances are you have not seen any Bollard stories before – and I should explain. But the time this single page A4 flyer in [...]

Over the years of his Presidency, George W Bush was a great source of inspiration for the writers of the Toppled Bollard stories, and many people who phoned us to discuss direct mail mentioned these articles in particular. The whole point (in case you have just arrived on this blog and wonder what on earth [...]

Why tea with the neighbours can result in the arrival of an armoured personnel vehicle. Last week I moved into a new house in the area.   The neighbours proved to be kind and friendly, and by my third evening I found myself sitting sharing an evening drink with my next door neighbour, a charming retired [...]

The extraordinary tale of the woolly mammoth and the hair dryer turned out to be one of the most extraordinarily successful sales letters I have ever written.  People would phone the company up and refer to it a year later.  What’s more it brought in sales. Why was it so successful? I have to admit [...]

During the writing of the Toppled Bollard stories which appeared as direct mail shots I began to invent some characters who started to appear regularly within the pieces – most noticeably Billy “The Dog” McGraw, the landlord of the Toppled Bollard.   Over time he became not only a publican, but also an Elvis impersonator, and [...]