All
Star Direct
& Personal
By Billy Sharma
Judy Elder
There have been many articles and many words to describe her, but ‘conventional’ is not one of them.
An influential mentor in the marketing field, Judy died from a brain aneurysm at the age of 47 in 2002, after being treated for a rare blood disorder. A few days earlier I had just finished this interview with her.
It was in the early 1980s when I worked with Judy Elder at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. She was just starting her career as a junior account executive and I was hired as an art director. When I met her back in 2002 to do this interview we ended up first fondly reminiscing together about bygone days, discussing people we once worked with, and events that shaped our lives then. Her eyes lit up as she said: “We had time to do it right and that gave us a solid foundation and understanding of the business.”
She also recollects that even though the hours were long and the work challenging, it was the people and the atmosphere that existed in the ‘80s that made it fun.
She remembered thinking it was a crime to get paid to do what she so passionately loved. “Even though we were paid a pittance then,” she retorted.
As I silently listened to Judy she beamed her 10,000-watt smile and once again I was transported back to those early years and could see the young firebrand who was always full of energy, enthusiasm and drive.
She has not lost any of that fire and passion. She even confessed to me that right after college, when she got her first job, she completed her assignment in just two hours and asked for more work only to be chided by her peers. She quickly learned to doze off with her eyes open but that didn’t last long because she couldn’t sit by and let circumstances dictate her future.
Flash-forward two decades to 2002. Judy is General Manager, Consumer Group, at Microsoft Canada Co., in the midst of the largest, hottest, and most important industry in business today: high-tech and telecommunications.
Without its web expertise or the products Microsoft produces, much as we may hate to admit it, few of us could do our jobs as effectively as we do. Nor could we communicate instantly and thus economically with each other across the street or across the globe. We now get our daily dose of information with the touch of a button.
The two divisions that Judy is responsible for are MSN.CA which gives users: MSN Hotmail – a free Web-based e-mail service with more than 8 million Canadians users; MSN Messenger – an instant messaging application with 6.3 million Canadian users; and MSN Explorer - a personalized web browser for instant messaging. She is also responsible for the Canadian retail and consumer marketing of all of Microsoft’s software, hardware tools and Xbox MSN.CA, in their recent news release, proclaimed that Judy Elder joined at a very critical time. Under her strategic leadership, MSN.CA has not only survived the dot.com “crash”, but has dramatically increased its market share and awareness.
Nobody challenges her achievements today. Judy Elder has made a career out of breaking traditional molds.
The straight-talking five foot eight inch mother of two, dove into the "man's world" of business in 1998 and is skillfully clearing a path for other women to follow.
Before joining MSN she served as Vice-President, Communications, while simultaneously holding the position of Director of Integrated Marketing Communications for IBM North America.
Prior to that, Judy spent 18 years with Oglivy and Mather Advertising. She moved up the ladder ultimately reaching the pinnacle as President of OgilvyOne, a leading Canadian direct marketing agency. She ran OgilvyOne for six years and admits that it was a magical time.
The agency acquired over 20 blue chip accounts and grew rapidly during her tenure, expanding into interactive marketing as a valuable integrated adjunct to direct marketing.
Judy also served as Chair of the Canadian Marketing Association, helping to shape the changing face of Canadian marketing. She questions: “Who can solely lay claim to the success or failure of any brand when each consumer experiences a million touch-points by the separate elements of the marketing mix, elements that include advertising, direct marketing, sponsorships, events, customer relationship management, public relations, branding, the internet and a host of other sources?”
All of the marketing components add up as layers of "impression in people’s minds" that create the true image of the product or company. Everything from their association with other companies, their environmental or ethical policies all play an important part in the true image of any company or organization. “ Can Cossette or any other agency lay exclusive claim to Bell’s branding?” she questions.
Looking back at her impressive rise one would image that it has been smooth sailing for her all along. So I just had to find out if there was ever a dark moment, a time when she wanted to give it all up.
“Oh God. Yes!” she replied.“ It was just after the birth of my first son. I had been on sabbatical for four months. I felt terribly inadequate; I didn’t want to work on the business I was assigned; I questioned my own abilities; I had lost all my self-confidence. So I confronted my boss with my fears.”
“Nonsense, he shot back.” He recognized her talent and smoothed the way back for her. Judy has always been on great terms with her seniors and peers because they recognized her true potential. Many still keep in touch with her and most have high praise for her. The list includes Brian Fetherstonhaugh, the former President of OgilvyOne whom Judy succeeded, and who is then became the general manager and COO on the IBM Corp. account at Ogilvy & Mather New York.
“In the years we've worked together, I've seen Judy inhale the telecom industry, health care, financial services, packaged goods, and now she's studying and absorbing the high-tech category. She is an unbelievably fast learner.” Brian Fetherstonhaugh so described Judy Elder in an article I recently read.
And if just being admired isn’t reason enough, try classy, because that’s the way I have always seen her.
Another common passion we share is gardening; I am of the weekend breed while she is the true avid variety. “ It’s almost spring and I can’t wait to get out,” she said. “That’s where I do my best thinking.”
Ironic as this may seem from someone who not only epitomizes but is also leading the charge in ‘today’s instant world’, Judy has learned, like a true gardener, to wait, to have the patience to stay the course and back any long-term commitment she or her company makes.
Before I left our meeting, Judy quoted from Thomas Jefferson who once said: “I am an old man, but a young gardener”.
As I said in the beginning, there have been many words to describe Judy Elder. As my contribution I would like to add the word: ‘maturity’.
Billy Sharma is President and Creative Director of Designers Inc., Toronto