Tag Archives: DR radio media billings

Dec 23

Response December: Boingo, Radio, and Creating a Better Conversation

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Response December 2015I’m closing up shop for the holidays here at Response today — and one of the last things on my to-do list is this blog post recapping our recently delivered December issue. It’s a pretty power-packed edition of the magazine, with our cover feature on Boingo Wireless, stories on the consumer electronics space, the advancement of over-the-top (OTT) TV, a second annual look at the 2016 media calendar, and a Web exclusive feature on DR radio. So, without further ado, let’s jump into the issue!

  • In a fortuitous bit of personnel change, long-time Response PR contact Lauren de la Fuente (formerly of Pearl Street Marketing) joined L.A.-based Boingo, a global leader in enhancing wireless access for consumers, during the summer. After chatting through the early fall, it became clear that a cover feature on the business’ B-to-C and B-to-B marketing efforts would make a lot of sense for our readers. I visited the company’s new digs near Brentwood in late October for an in-person interview with CMO Dawn Callahan and VP of consumer marketing Scott Ewalt — as personable and thoughtful a duo as I’ve come across in recent times. Boingo’s marketing story is much deeper than I imagined from my touches with their services as a consumer — if you travel half as much as I do, you’ve experienced Boingo’s wireless services at an airport. If you missed the link above, and want to read more about the business, click here: A Spring in Their Steps
  • For the second year in a row, we’ve teamed up with Irvington, N.Y., media agency Lockard & Wechsler Direct to take a look at the 2016 media calendar. Chock full of the biggest TV events for marketers of all types to consider, the timeline also includes analysis from Eddie Wilders, LWD’s senior vice president of research and analytics. Eddie’s done2016 stellar work for Response over the years, contributing in the past to our E-newsletters and website. His expertise works well with this timeline piece. If you missed the link above but want to check it out, click here: ‘You Are Looking Live …’
  • A piece that got held from the print edition for space, our Web exclusive on DR radio talks about a media outlet that’s been discounted by marketers in recent years but that’s enjoying a major comeback due to its reach and technological expansion. Leaders in the space — and impartial analysts — are all saying the same thing: radio’s audience is bigger than ever and its segmentation allows marketers to drill down to reach certain demographics even more clearly than TV. If you missed the link above, click here: Radio Rising
  • Our monthly direct response TV and radio media billings recap backs up the positive vibes in our radio feature, as DR radio’s 2015 second-quarter results were the outlet’s best in eight years. National spot radio, long an afterthought, saw its total billings expand 10-fold compared to 2Q 2014, helping the radio market jump more than 29 percent overall. Additionally, success in the household and drug-and-toiletry categories drove the expansion. For a full look at 2Q 2015 DR radio media billings, click here: DR Radio Billings Register Best 2Q Since 2007
  • Finally, in my Editor’s Note, folks who know my snarky, sarcastic side might be shocked at my end-of-the-year plea for a better informed and more collegial conversation around Response‘s content and, well, everything else online. Yes, unfortunately, “Don’t Read the Comments” has moved from an amusing aside to a hardened rule around these parts. Can we hope for better? Can we create a better conversation? As a voracious consumer of news and social media, I certainly hope so. If you missed the link above, here’s my take — and a call to action — on the topic: ‘Don’t Read the Comments’: A Commentary

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response! Happy Holidays and all the best in 2016!

Jul 07

Response June: Viviscal and Visions of a Growing Market

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Response June 2015The June issue of Response actually started coming together at a poolside bar in Miami Beach in January. For more of that anecdote — and on the issue as a whole, which went live online a couple of weeks back — keep on reading below.

  • Yes, a poolside bar in Miami Beach. That’s where I was introduced to Mark Holland, North American CEO for Lifes2good, the Ireland-based marketer of hair-growth supplement Viviscal. During an industry event, I was called over to the bar after wrapping another meeting, where Holland was meeting with one of his vendors. A quick introduction turned into a conversation about new campaign success metrics that Response was digging into more deeply — something of great interest to Holland, as you’ll read in the story. From there, after some further conversation, we’d slated Holland to sit on a panel at Response Expo and decided that Viviscal’s story — a long-term retail success that was now being promoted with long-form DRTV — would be an outstanding fit for our pharma/nutraceutical issue. If you missed the link above, here it is again: A Vivid Plan for Growth
  • Trends in the long-form and short-form DRTV space, as well as hot new categories like digital goods and online-to-offline marketers, form the basis for our second quarterly Response Advisors Forum of 2015. In the story, five of our esteemed Advisory Board members kick around the struggling long-form space, growth opportunities in new marketing spaces, and the outlook for direct response marketing in the coming months. If you didn’t already click the link above — here it is: Change Agents.
  • Our monthly direct response TV and radio media billings recap takes one last look at 2014 DR radio results. Though the astronomical rise in 4Q 2014 likely can be attributed to an unreported error in fourth-quarter 2013 results from Kantar Media, there’s no doubt that the DR radio market enjoyed its strongest year in some time — seven years, as a matter of fact. Can the radio space continue to ride the wave in 2015? We’ll find out — but for a more in-depth look at 4Q 2014 DR radio media billings, click here: Turn It Up! DR Radio Wraps Best Year Since 2007
  • As noted in recent issues — and again in the note above on our Advisors Forum story this month — more and more online marketers are finding extensive success by taking their marketing efforts offline. My June Editor’s Note column touches on this idea and more. The pool of marketers utilizing direct, digital and data-driven marketing methods across all media is growing — and that’s great news for the agencies and vendors serving the space. Here’s that link once again: Entry Points Into Direct and Digital Marketing Continue to Expand

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!

Apr 13

Response March: Vistaprint’s Vision, Housewares Galore and a New Spotlight

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Forgive me for my tardiness, but the March issue of ResponseResponse Digital March went live less than a week before my wedding and 2-week honeymoon to Fiji — so, honestly, getting this post up took a pretty deep back seat to all of that. When I returned to work a little more than a week ago, it was right into the teeth of planning for next week’s Response Expo. However, late this afternoon, I had a chance to dig into the issue for my regular look at some of the back story behind some key pieces in the issue.

  • This month’s cover feature on Vistaprint, the now well-known online business services provider, came to us via our link with media agency Havas Edge. For years, the presenting sponsor of Response Expo‘s keynote address, Edge and its leader, Steve Netzley (a member of Response‘s Advisory Board), are not only key partners for us but also one of the leading media agencies in the direct, digital and data-driven world. Netzley connected me directly with Peter Tardif, Vistaprint’s director of North American channels and markets, in fall 2014. His company’s story of utilizing offline media to drive response to Vistaprint’s website is one that’s becoming more and more familiar to readers of Response. Next week, Expo attendees interested in hearing more about Tardif’s work at Vistaprint will have the opportunity to see him as part of a panel discussion on Wednesday, April 22 at 3 p.m. If you missed the link above, here it is again: Getting Down to Business
  • As usual, our March issue was timed out to take part in bonus distribution opportunities at the International Home+Housewares Show in Chicago — as well as our very own DRMA reception during the event. With housewares continuing to be a crucial category for marketers and service providers in our world, we took our annual look at what’s hot and happening in the space — from both a product and a method standpoint. Not surprisingly, digital continues to expand its influence among housewares marketers big and small. If you didn’t click the link above, here’s another chance to read the story: Moving Housewares
  • The March issue also marks the return of our DRMA Spotlight section after a few months off, as DRMA member Swipe Payment Solutions joined us for a Spotlight Update Q&A. Now chief operations officer for the payment processing company, Curtis Kleinman is well-known in the direct response space for his tireless networking efforts. If you missed the link above and want to catch up with what’s new at Swipe, click here: DRMA Spotlight: Processing the Right Answers for Clients
  • Our monthly direct response TV and radio media billings update focuses on third-quarter 2014 DR radio results, which were shockingly good. With a 50-percent jump over 2013’s 3Q numbers — pushed mainly by the network radio outlet and the “Drug and Toiletry” category — these third-quarter results were the best in the DR radio market since the middle of the past decade. For a deeper dive into 3Q 2014 DR radio media billings, click here: 3Q 2014 DR Radio Media Billings Spike 50.3 Percent
  • As noted in last month’s blog post, February marked the debut of for our new exclusive research page provided via a partnership with DRMetrix. I’m of such a strong opinion on the power of this new research that I decided to cover it once again in my Editor’s Note column this month. For years, research in direct response television has been hampered by a number of blind spots and a lack of technology. DRMetrix truly takes some major strides in shining a light on some of those long-term dark spaces. In case you missed the link to the piece, here it is once again: Introducing the ‘Metrix’ System: New Research for All Marketers Using DR

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!