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May 19

Response April: Murad Meets Consumers, Hall of Famers Speak Out, and a Note About Trudeau

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Tom

The April issue of Response has been available online since shortly before Response Expo, which took place about three weeks ago. But, with the craziness surrounding the Expo and some immediate deadlines for the upcoming May issue following closely on its heels, there hasn’t been much time for me to share an inside look at the issue. However, with the May issue now out the door (and on its way to our readers soon!), I had a moment today to catch up and take a deeper look at April’s book, including the cover feature highlighting Murad, our roundtable with the 2014 DR Hall of Fame inductees, two DRMA Spotlight stories and a rather pointed Editor’s Note column.

In early 2007, I interviewed Dr. Howard Murad about his line of skin care products and how the brand had used direct response marketing to build its consumer base and recognition. Seven years later, with the brand still flourishing and a pair of its marketing executives set to speak at Response Expo, we decided it was time to see how Murad’s marketing has changed with the times. Unsurprisingly, Marina Randolph — executive vice president of direct for the Southern California-based company — and the rest of the Murad team have expanded the company’s marketing arsenal to work in today’s consumer-controlled landscape. Quite simply, it’s an omnichannel world and — as a marketer — Murad is representative not only of those in the beauty and personal care space, but all marketers who are combining direct, digital and data-driven efforts to keep pace. If you missed the link to the story above, here it is once again: Getting Better Every Day
Again tying in with Response Expo, we were able to catch up with the nine living members of the second class of the DR Hall of Fame. The group, which also included posthumous inductee Billy Mays, is truly a who’s-who of direct response history, and each of them was saluted wonderfully by more than 400 attendees at the induction ceremony in San Diego on May 1. Don’t miss these legends thoughts — if you didn’t click the link above, here’s another chance: The Pioneering Spirit!
The growing influence of retail sales — be it in store or online — is the subject of this month’s edition of the Response Advisors Forum. Not only do the members of our vaunted Advisory Board kick around the challenges and opportunities that keep growing in the omnichannel marketplace, but the online version of the story is a Web exclusive: the full, unabridged answers from each member of the Board. If you missed the link above, here it is once again: An Old Foe Becomes a Best Friend
The hits in this issue just keep coming as there are two DRMA Spotlight stories — a two-page feature on Maine-based Argo Marketing Group and a one-page Q&A with Phoenix-based Higher Power Marketing. The interview with Argo’s Jason Levesque actually took place in a cabana at the Loews South Beach Resort in Miami Beach in February. Argo’s growth during the past decade has been spectacular and Levesque has an understanding of where the market is headed. To read the story, click here: Growing Smiles on Customers’ Faces. To watch the video interview with Levesque, shot in Miami, click here: DRMA Spotlight Video — Argo Marketing Group. The genesis for the one-pager on Higher Power happened during a meeting for coffee in Scottsdale while the Response team was on a business trip in the Phoenix area. Peter Feinstein has a solid track record in the space and his thoughts about where his company and the business are going are intriguing. Take a look by clicking here: ‘Commerce With a Conscience’
Barry Jacobs: leader, mentor, friend.

As we closed in on the Expo, there was a big push for exposure in our monthly Field Reports news section. Along with some big industry news — Kevin Trudeau’s 10-year jail sentence; Twitter jumping into DR — three Q&As highlight the section. We were able to spend some time with Havas Edge‘s Jack Kirby about the consumer-centric marketing world (seeing a trend here, anyone?) and how marketers and agencies can best work together. We also had a chat with Top Dog Direct‘s Bill McAlister about the lifeblood of the business — product inventors. Finally, and most personally rewarding, I was able to sit down over a lunch with long-time media agency executive Barry Jacobs. Jacobs — a mentor and a friend — retired from full-time duty in the business (and from Mercury Media) following Response Expo. While he’s still taking on projects here and there, he’s doing so from the comforts of home after 55 years of helping shape the direct marketing world. Don’t miss these great Q&As and more — click here to take a look: Field Reports April
Mercifully, we’ve reached the last quarter of direct response TV and radio media billings results. Fourth-quarter long-form DRTV billings results mirrored the entire year for the 28:30 marketplace: 4Q results were off 5.3 percent, leaving the year down 5.7 percent. For the first time since 2004, long-form DRTV cumulative media billings failed to top $1 billion as more and more marketers seem to have raised spending in the lower-cost satellite space at the cost of the higher-priced cable market. For more on 4Q long-form DRTV billings from Response, click here: 4Q 2013 Long-Form DRTV Media Results Round Out Somber Year
Lastly, my Editor’s Note represents the difference between reporting and opinion journalism — a difference that the 24-hour news channels have sullied to the point of near invisibility. As noted above, we covered the facts of the sentencing of long-time DR industry burden Kevin Trudeau to 10 years in federal prison in the news section. But in this space (one designed specifically for opinion), I expressed the disdain of many in the business — based on many notes I received prior to this column’s publication and many more received after — for Trudeau’s continued negative influence on the good names of hundreds of marketers who have used direct response marketing in an ethical and successful way. Suffice it to say, I’m disappointed to see products using Trudeau the pitchman still on the air. And I’m not alone. To read my full take on the topic, here’s the link once again: Trudeau Story Points the Finger at ‘Self-Regulation’ … Again

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!

Jan 27

Response January: ‘Steem’ Cleaned — With a Brand New Look

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Tom

Response‘s new masthead leads the January issue.

After some holiday and printing related delays, the January issue of Response is finally available online! And, if you’ve received your print edition, you’ve likely noticed our brand new masthead logo atop the issue’s cover, as well as throughout its pages. Read on here for some back story on the cover feature highlighting Stanley Steemer (and president Justin M. Bates), as well as how Response’s new logo and look came into being:

Last summer, Publisher John Yarrington and I visited the Horizon Media offices in New York City to meet with Gene Turner — leader of the agency’s burgeoning direct division — and then-new PR leader Kaya Lobaczewski. It was, as usual, an interesting meeting and Lobaczewski understood the types of stories that our readers like: highlighting successful marketers and the role that direct, digital and data-driven marketing plays in their plans. During the following months, she zeroed in on Horizon client Stanley Steemer, the Ohio-based market leader in carpet and house cleaning services, as the target for a great DR case study. The story leads our January issue and features Justin M. Bates, the third member of his family to lead the company since its founding in 1947. Under his stewardship, Stanley Steemer faced a crisis brought on by the Great Recession. The solution: a multi-channel DR and digital campaign (shepherded by Horizon) that’s turned the company completely around. If you missed the link above, here it is once again: ‘Steeming’ the Competition
We’re happy to again feature the thoughts and opinions of our powerful and knowledgeable Response Advisory Board in 2014. In the first of four planned Advisors’ Forum features, the group was posed with a series of questions about how digital has changed the game for direct response — and vice versa. Technologies like search, E-mail, digital display, online video, mobile and social are not only changing marketers’ game plans on a daily basis, but they are also evolving just as quickly. What does our Advisory Board think about the challenges and opportunities? Find out here in the Web Exclusive version of this story, featuring more questions and answers than the abridged version that appeared in the print version: Let’s Get Digital
This month, the DRMA Spotlight is turned on Middleton, Mass., digital tech company Mojo Research & Development. Founded in 2011 by software entrepreneur Gregory Silvano, Mojo is looking to make life easier for marketers operating sales websites — on both the back and the front end. Want to make an immediate change to the offer the consumer sees on your site? Silvano says Mojo’s technology makes that change as easy (and quick) as can be from a dashboard that allows user control — rather than waiting for Web developers to make requested changes. That same dashboard serves as a measurement and tracking tool so that marketers can track the success (or struggles) of their campaigns. If you missed the link above to this month’s Spotlight, click here: Finding the Right Mojo
When working on the 3Q 2013 long-form DRTV media billings in late 2013, a major factor in the space’s overall spending decline in 2013 became crystal clear: long-form buyers have shifted more of their spend into lower-cost satellite buys and away from the impacted — and expensive — cable space. So, while overall spending was down — again — in the third quarter (this time by 5.2 percent), a rise in time slots purchased and a spike in the satellite outlet’s share of that market again point out that long-form buyers are working hard to find the best deals available in a tough market. For a full look at all the categorical and outlet results, here’s the link: Long-Form Media Billings Stumble Yet Again
Finally, my first Editor’s Note of 2014 introduces Response‘s new masthead logo and — perhaps more importantly — new tagline: Direct. Digital. Data-Driven. While this tagline should be no shock to those of you who read the magazine, it’s a powerful re-statement of the goals I’ve been talking about in this space for much of the past year. You can read more about that in the column itself. But how did we come up with it? Much of the credit for our new look goes to our long-time graphics director, Monica Kollmann, with whom I discussed our redesign concept in late summer 2013. She took many of the thoughts I share in this column and turned them into an unmistakable visual template. Though Monica shared 3-5 options with us for a new look, this was her first and favorite version — and it’s the perfect fit. We’re thrilled about this new look that complements our continued direction. For more about the “why” of our new look, here’s the link once again: A Fresh Start

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!

Oct 29

Response October: Euro-Pro Wins MOY, What’s up With Media Billings, and Cannella Returns to the DRMA Spotlight

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Tom

The October issue of Response has been available online since early last week. Hopefully, if you’re one of our readers, you’ve taken a look at it, but — if not — here’s some back story on the cover feature on the three finalists in the fifth annual DRMA Marketer of the Year competition — the winner, Euro-Pro, as well as Hampton Direct and Tristar Products — as well as a number of the other key pieces in the issue:

The October cover story, as it has for the past five years now, features this year’s winner of the DRMA Marketer of the Year (or MOY, as we call it around the office) — Euro-Pro — and the other two finalist companies, Hampton Direct and Tristar Products. As usual, the MOY competition drew intense interest from our vast bloc of industry voters. After more than 1,400 votes, Euro-Pro edged now three-time finalist Hampton Direct for the honor! From pulling together the nominees (with our Response Advisory Board) to picking the right location in Vegas (this time, Vanity Nightclub in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino) to making sure all of the key people are in attendance to holding the cover photo shoot on site at the big event, MOY is probably the Response team’s biggest single-night event. It all pays off, though, when we see more than 800 of our closest friends in attendance and register the joy on the winner’s face. To hear more from Euro-Pro, Hampton Direct and Tristar Products, if you missed the link above, here it is once again: Just the Right Blend
Our semi-annual Media Buying & Planning Guide returns in October, this time focusing on the thoughts of the agency side of the business. With a tough first two quarters of 2013 in the books, what would the buyers have to say about the state of media availability and pricing? We heard, as usual, from the network side in May (click here for a look back if you missed it). Buyers remain wary of pricing issues and say market fragmentation is worse than ever. If you missed the link to the rest of their thoughts above, here it is: Art & Science
Cannella Response Television returns to the DRMA Spotlight in this Q&A update. Company leaders Tony Besasie and Rob Medved were featured in the March issue DRMA Spotlight, and we doubled back with them to find out how 2013 has been for Cannella and the rest of the DR industry. If you missed the link above to this special update, click here: Believers in Video. If you’d like to watch the original video interview from the March issue with Besasie and Medved, click here: DRMA Spotlight Video — Cannella Response Television
While things stabilized a bit in this month’s quarterly media billings results, the long-form DRTV market’s 2Q 2013 billings results still stumbled 3.7 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. The $10.2 million decrease left the market’s numbers for the April-June time period essentially in line with recent second quarters, but a steep drop in slots purchased begs the question: did high cable pricing keep more marketers off the air, or did it help salvage total spending for a floundering market? For a full look at all the categorical and outlet results, here’s the link: 2Q 2013 Long-Form Media Billings Stumble 3.7 Percent
Finally, my Editor’s Note this month once again salutes the finalists for the Marketer of the Year Award. What is one thing they have in common? The end goal of selling product from retail shelves — an idea that was seen as preposterous when I joined Response in 2001. Today, if you’re selling a product with a direct response facet to your marketing and you don’t have a retail plan in place, you’re likely doomed to failure. What a change! Here’s the link: The DR-to-Retail Model Reaches New Heights

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!

Tom Rants.

I rant. You read.

Tag Archives: long-form DRTV

Response April: Murad Meets Consumers, Hall of Famers Speak Out, and a Note About Trudeau

Response January: ‘Steem’ Cleaned — With a Brand New Look

Response October: Euro-Pro Wins MOY, What’s up With Media Billings, and Cannella Returns to the DRMA Spotlight