Cents and Sensibility
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW what’s happening in direct response, just open your corporate wallet.
To get an update on what types of media direct marketers are looking to buy in the new year, Direct spoke with Gaye Sussman, president of ID Media, a division of the Interpublic Group.
Sussman has headed ID for almost four years, in the process structuring media programs for numerous companies, including American Express, Verizon and LendingTree.
She joined Draft as media director in 1989, focusing on incorporating general advertising media principles into Draft’s DR efforts. Before that, she’d been senior vice president, group media director at Bates. There she was responsible for consumer, business-to-business and packaged goods accounts, and supervised media for Bates’ African-American agency subsidiary Jamison & Leary.
While DMers are keen on new media opportunities, Sussman notes that more traditional media — radio and FSIs, for example — show promise thanks to the use of emerging technologies like SMS codes and better geographic targeting.
DIRECT: What are the biggest challenges today in media buying?
SUSSMAN: One is that traditional TV advertisers are using cable and satellite more and more. This [means] these channels are no longer as dependent on DR advertisers for revenue. Another challenge is keeping up with all the emerging media choices. They run the gamut from new opportunities in existing media, such as enhanced TV or video on demand, to totally new ad platforms like Ecast, which is a network of digital jukeboxes.
DIRECT: Does the multitude of options make tracking results more difficult?
SUSSMAN: There are so many more things now to evaluate [when deciding] what the best plan is for an advertiser, but new opportunities are a good thing. Accurate tracking has become a little more difficult, as has effective buy management, since it’s become a best practice to include a URL in DRTV ads. We find that a significant percentage of respondents go to the Web, and if you don’t have a unique URL for each vehicle — in addition to a unique phone number — and Web response is significant, attribution may be inaccurate. It could lead to poor media optimization decisions.
DIRECT: What are the biggest media opportunities?
SUSSMAN: New units in online and TV. Broadband video has the same properties as TV, it’s already reaching critical mass, and there’s tons of inventory available. In interactive TV, we’ve found that tagged ads lift response, and we believe they can help offset ad skipping in homes with digital video recorders (DVRs). If you’re watching an ad, an icon appears. If you click on that icon, you go to a microsite where you can find out more about the product and do any number of things. It’s a very good device to engage consumers and we’ve found they do indeed lift response. We’re so worried about people with DVRs skipping through ads, but they’re also an opportunity. If you have an ad somebody finds relevant and interesting, [they can] pause the programming and find out a little more and not miss a beat from where they were.
DIRECT: How’s the DRTV inventory situation?
SUSSMAN: Spot is a bit more open than cable, generally. It was tight [in the fall] because of the elections — they effect local more than national, obviously. But cable and even satellite TV are more of a challenge now. We’re doing more long-term deals with liberal cancellation options to help us clear at reasonable rates. But I still think DRTV can be a bargain. Rates generally are half [what’s charged for] traditional TV. And we always feel we’re getting a bargain when we secure per-inquiry deals for our clients, because results are guaranteed — you’re only paying for what you get.
DIRECT: Is there much interest in mobile marketing?
SUSSMAN: [One option is] using SMS codes on your mobile phone as a response mechanism. For instance, right now, radio [has not been] successful for several reasons. There’s been no DR rate card. Now, stations manage their inventory digitally and they’re more on top of what they have. So we have more vendors willing to sell us radio at a low CPM. But radio has low attentiveness and it’s a mobile medium. So SMS codes as a response mechanism could help. If you’re out and you hear an ad, all you have to do is punch in a little short code. They’ll e-mail something to you and you can deal with it later. It also could work with digital signs in [places like] arenas. Somebody in line to buy a hot dog sees a digital sign with an SMS code. They can punch it in and explore [the message] at their convenience.
DIRECT: Are there any fertile areas that marketers aren’t adequately tapping into?
SUSSMAN: Promotional print like FSIs, and co-op mailers like Valpak. These are priced very efficiently and they’re highly targetable. They have a high success rate for our clients. Not many of them come here asking [to use them], but we suggest FSIs and co-ops in many cases because they do so well. You can target a finite geographic area, and there are about 1,400 variables you can lay over that data — product usage, demographics, behavior, creditworthiness.
DIRECT: Are most clients mainly looking at digital media, or are there other things they’re interested in as well?
SUSSMAN: More and more clients are adding DRTV and online, since they’re among the best performing media. And DRTV also provides an important benefit because of its awareness properties, so clients are asking for that. The growth in online is largely attributable to the surge of search. Pricing has gone up a bit in search over the past two years. That’s because so many consumers are using search, we’re getting more impressions per keyword so that generates more spending against search. Opportunities are increasing through broadband and more effective Web site advertising. Some of our clients are very interested in emerging media and we feel fortunate about that, because through testing we’re learning which areas have the most potential and what they’re worth in terms of price. We’re very interested in online video, maybe a little more than our clients.
DIRECT: What’s happening with spending overall? Are budgets going up or down? Are clients shifting dollars from one area to another?
SUSSMAN: I think budgets are going up a bit. Some clients have added media types, others have additional products to support, some are just allocating a larger portion of their budget to direct response. I think clients are becoming more knowledgeable about the benefits of DR media and they’re taking advantage of that.
Further RESPONSE RATE Reading:
- · Personalization to Boost Response Rates
- · Five Deadly Sales Letter Mistakes
- · Direct Response Media Opportunities
