Chris Norton: 1:57

This is more fun. I'm going to take it easier. Tell us about the time that you did an exhibition stand and what happened, because you gave us a few details.

Rachel Massey: 2:07

Well, yeah, you see, you want marketing mistakes and I mean there's been a lot. We've all had a lot, haven't we? Oh yeah, but this one particularly sticks out because when I think about it now, I can still feel the anxiety and I can still feel the dread of watching what unfolded. So we were at Excel in London, where I'd spent a lot of time over the years and it was quite early in my career at one particular organization and this was a big stand build. This is, I don't know, probably 100 square meters stand Big.

Will Ockenden: 2:38

And the investment is huge for those, isn't it Huge?

Rachel Massey: 2:40

for those Six figure stuff. Wow, and it's in the middle of excel four sides. What?

Chris Norton: 2:47

color is it?

Rachel Massey: 2:48

it's multi-colored multi-colored and, um, we'd done all the messaging inside the stand so we'd got uh, we'd signed all that off, we've got that down down part, great. But I hadn't really thought about the signage. I had really thought about it. It was standard signage around the edge of the stance. It was just our strapline brand. Maybe overlook that slightly. So this is day one opening the stand. It's all going grey. And the guy someone came up to me and said the guy at the stand opposite wants to chat. So I said okay. So I went over to the stand and he's got another big stand. He said I don't know how to tell you this. He said but you've missed T out of software all over your stand.

Will Ockenden: 3:35

So not just once.

Rachel Massey: 3:37

No, it was all over.

Chris Norton: 3:38

What so someone couldn't spell software when they wrote the Someone?

Rachel Massey: 3:42

I don't know who it was all over what. So someone couldn't spell software when they wrote the Someone I don't know who it was, but who's cheating. It was something that was overlooked because it wasn't. This was just. This is standard stuff that goes.

Chris Norton: 3:49

So it said software.

Rachel Massey: 3:50

So I never even thought so it said software, so this was all over this stand and Software. The second day.

Rachel Massey: 3:59

Usually if this happens and you get some sort of spelling mistake, you can send it to the printers. You have to throw money at it and you can get it sorted. But this is day one and this is in london. So chief execs coming to see the stand, there's a lot of important guests coming to this stand. This is a big showpiece, so I had to make the decision. So I thought, right, this has been. This has been around now sort of all morning. No one said anything about a guy that's looking at this stand his whole time. Do I fess up, tell them what? Tell people what I've done, or do I just think no one else has noticed it so far? I'm gonna stick with it, I'm gonna pretend I don't even know and we're just going to continue, and that's what I decided to do?

Chris Norton: 4:39

what time of day was it that you heard that there was a spelling mistake and it was software everywhere?

Rachel Massey: 4:44

it was probably about 11 am, so the show had been open like a couple of hours. How?

Chris Norton: 4:48

many. How many people do you think is in the show?

Rachel Massey: 4:51

thousands, thousands, okay, and then the whole leadership team of the whole leadership team of the company, all the team that were. I mean, there was I don't know how many stand staff 20, 30. How long was the show? Three days so. For 72 hours I just sweated and I was just. The anxiety was high because every time someone said my name I just was like what. Because I thought they were going to say have you noticed that? What level were you?

Chris Norton: 5:15

here. Did you have bosses there as well? Yeah, right, okay.

Will Ockenden: 5:24

But what you? You know I couldn't. I couldn't do anything about it, so I just thought. No one has noticed it in front of the word every time it was everywhere.

Rachel Massey: 5:28

I couldn't position myself, and we're only using this stand once and then.

Chris Norton: 5:32

That was it.

Rachel Massey: 5:32

They're going to bid after that unfortunately, that is what happens with stand bills. Yeah, you just build them and and then they take them down and fortunately, but at that point they might be a little more environmentally friendly these days, but that's what used to happen, yeah.

Chris Norton: 5:44

I think the moral of this story is that nobody reads stands. That's a very cynical view.

Rachel Massey: 5:50

Nobody bloody reads them. What I did know, because I'd written that word a lot in my time at this Software yeah, that I had done it. It's a mistake that you do when you're typing a lot. So I thought this is a mistake that people don't pick up and have not picked up on it before in other certain things. So I knew that it was a mistake, that was common and I just had to just, yeah, just go with it.

Will Ockenden: 6:14

So when the clock struck five o'clock on the last day, were you just incredibly relieved.

Rachel Massey: 6:19

Do you know what this is? No one knows. I've never, ever told anyone.

Will Ockenden: 6:22

An exclusive.

Chris Norton: 6:23

I love this, I absolutely love it. We're clipping that bit. I mean, it's the fact that you've spent the whole time.

Rachel Massey: 6:31

basically, you did the ostrich approach which is you buried your head in the sand. I buried my head and just thought I'm just gonna grin and bear it. But this wasn't. This was quite early on in this. This was a big p. I just didn't. I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. No, if anybody else had noticed, I would have been. I can't believe it, but no one did and I got away with it.

Will Ockenden: 6:51

It would have been so me and the guy in the stand across that.

Rachel Massey: 6:54

That's all that knew. Your fake surprise Really how did nobody notice?

Chris Norton: 6:59

How did nobody notice?

Rachel Massey: 7:01

I mean I've. You'll be surprised that word, particularly when you just glance at it, you don't. You just think, oh, it says software, because that's what you expected to say.

Chris Norton: 7:10

There's certain words isn't there when you see grammar books and things, where they do it and they take a letter out and you can't notice it no, they do it because a lot happens.

Rachel Massey: 7:17

Well, maybe that is. We need to do the research into that.

Will Ockenden: 7:20

Is there some retired chief exec listening to this now? Let's hope not. I think we've not to that degree. We've all done that.

Chris Norton: 7:37

And I say you must have in PR and um as an exec part of the admin of the job. Was it, um, like basically printing all the press releases out, stapling them and folding? There was we actually got trained on how to fold them into three so they fit perfectly in an envelope. Then we'd go down to the mail room and you'd get all like it was 250 of us Mail room.

Will Ockenden: 7:58

that's how it's called, isn't it?

Chris Norton: 7:59

Exactly. You'd get like 15, 20 of us at all, the same level, and we'd be like a chain and you'd be folding up press releases and putting them into envelopes. Then you'd run them through, get it the Franken. Do you remember that?

Will Ockenden: 8:11

yeah, I remember the frankie machine.

Chris Norton: 8:12

They were quite fun because they'd fly through the frankie machine anyway. So I remember being specifically like 83 press releases in of a press release that we'd written and the team had written, and on the second sorry to all clients listening right now second paragraph in I saw typo like a small typo and I was like did exactly what you did I was like. I'm going to have to go upstairs because this wasn't, this wasn't the days of being able to. It's not digital is it?

Chris Norton: 8:39

you've got to go upstairs change everything, reprint it all out, come all the way back down, and we missed the post, so we just I just went with it with a typo what was the typo? I can't remember, it was probably software.

Rachel Massey: 8:50

Because we weren't in tech, probably.

Will Ockenden: 8:53

My first ever job in PR. This isn't the other story. I told you earlier. I'm not going to tell that story. I had to mail out 5,000 companies Again traditional mail out asking for sponsorship and it said dear colleague, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And on the last batch that I was sorting out, I realized it didn't say dear colleague, it said dear college. Oh no, but again, head in the sand carried on.

Rachel Massey: 9:19

I think that might be a software one, though I think people might just see that and not actually realize that one yeah, and they get the gist, don't they?

Will Ockenden: 9:27

you get the gist, it's not as bad as maybe.

Chris Norton: 9:28

That's what I should have told my chief exec you get the gist well, everyone knows what you're trying to say, don't they?

Will Ockenden: 9:35

you get the gist it's.

Chris Norton: 9:35

Everyone knows what you're trying to say, don't they? You get the gist. It's not going to work in a branding meeting, is it?