All
Star Direct
& Personal
By Billy Sharma
Paul Allamby
He has always put people before profit.
Usually a great portion of my article is devoted to the accomplishments of the individuals that I interview.
But this time, I want to write about the caliber of the person that I have had the pleasure of meeting rather then what he has accomplished.
Don’t get me wrong, Paul Allamby has a very illustrious career and has done a lot professionally. When I met him he was Founder and Partner at Yew+Bamboo Inc. and a Senior Consultant at 36 Grundy Inc. Before that he was President at Padulo Integrated; President of Euro RSCG 4D; SVP Sales & Marketing at Toronto Blue Jays; held various positions at the VP level at Rogers AT&T Wireless (& Cantel); was a Senior consultant at BT Cellnet/02 and prior to that he was once again President and Partner at Padulo Integrated in 1995.
But it is what tested his mettle as a person while he was working for Rogers that really explains the kind of person I have came to know.
To go back to the beginning, Paul comes from a very humble family.
He reminisced, “I’m a renegade Cockney from East London. My first job was as a milkman’s helper in Poplar, East London. When I was about 8 years old, my job was to pick up the empty milk bottles.”
They were so poor his mother Pat, a single parent, picked up coal that had fallen off coal delivery trucks, and sold it door-to-door. She was an actress and an accomplished dancer who substituted for the big stars when it came to difficult dancing maneuvers, just like stuntmen who take over in perilous situations. But above all, she was a great mother who taught her children never to give up. She was a true optimist.
As a child Paul was quite small, so growing up in a tough neighbourhood he was often picked on and bullied a lot by bigger kids.
The one person who always came to his rescue was his older sister, Dawn. She was barely four feet at that time but she was tough as nails. Every time Paul got beaten up, she would go after the kid who bullied him.
“She was my rock!” exclaimed Paul.
Paul found solace in his grandfather’s big library, which was stacked with a variety of books that he could immerse himself in, especially the classics, Greek mythology, and Victorian writers such as Kingsley, Dickens and Thackeray,
“I started out aspiring to be a Silversmith but changed my mind when I found out it involved a seven year apprenticeship.
By the time I got to Toronto, I had totally switched ambition gears and was lucky enough to get into the English program at York. I had no thoughts of being a marketing guy back then – I just loved literature and language.”
He soon settled here in Toronto and as you can tell from that résumé, he was very successful.
One day however, while working for Rogers he got a call from his mother in England. His older sister, Dawn, who worked in a hospital as a nurse, had been diagnosed with kidney failure. She needed a new kidney fast to survive. The family had looked at all possibilities among themselves but couldn’t find a good match before they called Paul.
Without hesitation, Paul volunteered to donate his kidney. He approached his boss, Jeff Locke, and requested a leave of absence for an extended period of time, explaining his situation. Surprisingly, when Ted Rogers - who had a reputation for being a hardnosed businessman - found out, he asked Paul to immediately get in touch with his private physician to check everything out.
Paul flew to England for the kidney transplant, which did not go off ‘swimmingly’ as Paul stated. It took a long time to recover and the people back at Rogers, including Ted, Ted’s physician and his boss Jeff, showed deep concern and checked in with Paul throughout the ordeal. He finally got better and claims that he feels healthier today for having donated an organ. He wishes more people would do the same to prevent the agony and suffering that people who desperately need organ transplants go through.
“We are the only species that can purposefully choose to give organs to each other. My gift allowed me to give something back to my sister, who did so much for me. I am in better shape then ever; I work-out now, have lost 30 lbs. and I feel great.”
If there is one thing that Paul feels strongly about, it’s the fact that all of Canada’s major health organizations are in desperate need of organ donors. He wishes more people would sign their donor cards when renewing their driving licenses.
Back in Toronto Paul would often get calls from his sister saying, “Hi Paul, this is your left kidney. I want to talk to your right kidney.”
He had made the ultimate donation— a gift of life. Paul is a great example of ‘playing it forward’ always giving back for the great opportunity he claims to have received from industry giants like David Taylor, Roger Logan, Jeff Locke at Rogers, Kent Thexton at British Telecom, Steve Smith the brilliant VP of ticketing at Blue Jays and Rick Padulo.
Another, great example as he explained in his own words was, “attending my first DMA conference, It was a watershed moment for me – it provided a realization that Direct Marketing was a really BIG deal.”
In his early days he was fortunate to work with Alan Brodeur at DMAT. Once again he volunteered but this time as a gofer. He would pick up people at the airport who came to speak at conferences and ferry them around. “It gave me the chance to meet some really amazing people – and it definitely accelerated my understanding of DM.”
Although recognized by DMAT as the ‘Past President's Choice Award Winner’ in 2006 for his tireless contribution to the direct marketing industry, Paul humbly claims, “I’ve never seen myself as a DM specialist – I’ve just always felt that one-to-one marketing is the very best personal selling opportunity.
“Over the time that I’ve been in the business, I’ve had the chance to understand how important data is in direct marketing, especially when it’s connected to something that has real relevance for the consumer.
“Some of my proudest moments were from the success of integrated campaigns with clients like CIBC and BMG. On the client-side we had great success at Rogers and at British Telecom with top-to-bottom campaign integration and tremendous response rates as a result.
“I love being involved in strategy and understanding the consumer.
“The level of sophistication that digital has developed around one-to-one marketing has added an important dimension to marketers’ ability to develop dialogues with consumers.
“I’m fascinated with customer experience and with the opportunity to create a contact architecture that can shape and engage customers with brands.
“I had both joyous and terrifying moments. I remember once while working for the Blue Jays I got an earful from an 80-year-old woman who was mad that we’d fired Cito! My marketing VP (Peter Cosentino) explained to me that we were in the ‘Passion Goods”, not packaged goods business.
“The moment of truth for me was my first opening day; we’d sold out the ballpark and a glitch in a ticketing system created a massive line-up at the windows. I had to go out and address the crowd and work out a compromise to get people in.
“I’ve done so many different things: DM, advertising, branding – across a ton of sectors – financial services, CPG, retail, telecommunications and sports and entertainment. So I’ve had a lot of shifts but I’ve enjoyed the challenges.
“Happiness to me includes my three wonderful children and my wife, who has a perspective that is always interesting to me because she’s a writer and playwright.
I’ve always had a real interest in Theatre, Opera and Art. I’ve been a member of the TSO, the ROM as well as Opera Atelier.
“Sadness is losing a good friend. When I started my first day at EURO I got a call from David Taylor’s office. He and I were close friends - he had recommended me for the job - so I thought he was calling to wish me well on my first day. The call was actually from Bill Kerr, his partner, telling me that David had died that morning.
“I’ve had to learn to create more balance between my personal and business life. Sometimes I put my career ahead of my family and that’s something I’ve had regrets about – especially when I was at Rogers, when the pace of life really accelerated and I found myself cocooned and really inaccessible. I’d always found time for people and during that time I found it hard to be as involved in the direct marketing industry.”
Paul has held advisory and board roles for Duke Of Edinburgh Awards, Jays Care, ChildFind Ontario, the Canadian Liver Foundation and Entertainment By Demand. Today he continues to volunteer as a member of the Marketing Advisory Board for George Brown City College and of the Marketing Advisory Board for York University.
As we concluded the interview Paul said, “I love it when ‘the good guy’ finishes first. There are some great people in this industry and I love it when they come out on top.”
I couldn’t agree with him more.
Billy Sharma is President and Creative Director of Designers Inc., Toronto