Not so many years ago, a crack commando unit of analogue marketing channels was sent to marketing prison by a digital coup for a crime they didn’t commit.

These channels have now escaped from the maximum security digital vault to the marketing underground.

Today, still wanted by the Technocracy, they survive as soldiers of fortune.

If you have a marketing problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire The Marketing Mix.

My six year old self was a big fan of The A Team. They could tackle anything.

My 49 year old self is equally a big fan of a whole marketing mix, not just a digital one.

You see, marketers should be channel agnostic. I really railed against the concept of being just a “digital marketer” – why restrict your professional capabilities like that?

We’ve entered an age where sales are getting harder and harder to come by as the cost of living crisis trundles along, seemingly never going away. It’s an age when digital channels are failing to drive the sales conversion they once did.

The reasons are fairly simple. Customers have shifted, again. If only they would stay still.

It warmed the cockles of my little marketer’s heart when, following a knock on my front door, I was presented with two cheerful looking chaps, in their branded aprons, complete with selling cards and good quality banter, ready to take care of my least enjoyed weekly activity: the food shopping.

Hello Fresh were there, in their branded aprons flesh. Selling door to door. How gloriously old fashioned is that?!

No fancy schmancy digital ads. No technical wizardry (except from a QR code on their laminated seller sheet). No website to contend with and your brain left to it’s own decision making devices. .

Just a good, old fashioned price led offer, and two blokes right in front of your face to help explain it.

I bought.

And for the next 4 months I get a free dessert every week and 25% off every box. It’s eminently cheaper than supermarket shopping, and a whole lot easier.

Cards on the table, I was a Hello Fresh customer a few years ago. Got bored, then stopped. Then I tried Gousto. Got bored, then stopped. Chances are this will happen again. But for the time being, they’ve got me back.

They didn’t get an easy sale. I asked them lots of questions. Mainly about the novelty of this marketing tactic, which they gracefully answered.

Door to door sales delivers customers who stay with the Hello Fresh service longer, I was told. Less transactional, more relationship based. Seems to me that personal effort matters.

I was also taken by the fact they were working as part of a bigger crew. There was about 8 of them simultaneously working all the houses on our street. This wasn’t a half hearted, under-invested attempt to try something different. They hadn’t just stuck two blokes on a train from Glasgow and left them to see what happened. This was a fully thought out, targeted campaign at the heart of their potential market.

I have no idea how many of my neighbours bought, but out of the 10 houses on my street, if they got just me that’s a 10% conversion rate and that’s pretty good work for 10 minutes chit chat on the doorstep.

So let’s get back to the A Team.

Every member of the A Team had a unique skill set and together they conquered all. It is much the same with the marketing mix.

Keep it fluid. Adjust the mix according to the needs of the task in hand. And don’t be afraid to bring in the old guard to blow your competitors’ marketing out of the water.