Oct 01

Response August: Art Dealers, Financial Feelers and Media Healers

Response AugustWith a travel schedule like ours lately, it’s been a bear just to get the actual work done, let alone share thoughts on the two most recent issues of Response! So here I am at 11:30 on a Tuesday night, typing away about the August issue of Response, nearly a month-and-a-half after it hit the Web and most mailboxes. Nonetheless, let’s take a quick look back at the issue, including the cover feature on the intriguing team behind New Era HD and Gallery Direct, our annual look at the financial services market and more.

  • Response Advisory Board member Fern Lee of THOR Associates deserves much credit for re-linking me with Mitch Bader, CEO of Austin, Texas-based New Era HD and Gallery Direct, an online leader in providing fine art solutions to businesses and consumers. I’d met Bader several years back when he worked closely with industry teleservices legend Steve Pittendrigh at InPulse Response Group. A financial wizard, Bader teamed in 2012 with art expert Nick Nichols, who co-founded New Era back in 2000 to expand the company’s consumer facing entity, Gallery Direct. Together, the duo has used various facets of direct response marketing — especially digitally — to build that consumer art business while, at the same time, strengthening the B-to-B efforts of New Era. Now, the team is looking to add DRTV to its mix to drive traffic to its E-commerce sites. If you missed the link to the story above, here it is once again: Marketing a Masterpiece
  • The financial services space has been one of the direct, digital and data-driven marketing world’s most reliable verticals for years. And with the continued growth of the serve-yourself consumer universe found on the Internet, marketers in the banking, insurance and investment spaces are continually doubling down on their use of direct metrics to drive new customers as well as remarket to existing clients. What’s new in the space? If you didn’t click the link above, here’s another chance: Running With the Bulls
  • Just two years ago, product marketer Rob Albert and production whiz Frank Battisti formed Grand Slam Direct just outside San Diego. Though the soft-spoken and personable Battisti says his learning curve in helping to direct the new business has been steep, this month’s DRMA Spotlight shows that the duo is pushing all the right buttons. I recently was part of a group dinner that also included Albert and Battisti and when you listen to them speak about the business, as well as their hopes for the direct response industry as a whole, you understand pretty quickly where their long-term successes come from — and where their future direction may take them. For more on Grand Slam Direct, click here: Hitting a Marketing & Production Home Run
  • As the headline for this month’s direct response TV and radio media billings story reads: finally, a glimmer of hope! The short-form DRTV market expanded for the first time in more than a year in first-quarter 2014, gaining $80.1 million (9.2 percent) — earning back a huge chunk of 1Q 2013’s drastic losses. A key to the quarter’s success: the quickly expanding U.S. Hispanic marketplace, which surpassed one-quarter of all dollars spend in short-form DRTV. And marketers were happy to invest big dollars in winning products during 1Q 2014, as spending among the top 40 products for the quarter expanded more than 27 percent. To take a deeper look at 1Q 2014 short-form DRTV billings, click here: Finally, A Glimmer of Hope
  • Last but not least, the numbers keep rolling in on the power of the mobile consumer. While much has been discussed about how to reach consumers effectively with mobile marketing, the fact is that the key to mobile is its use as a consumer response tool. To that end, my Editor’s Note attempts to put some of the most recent research results about the mobile world into perspective. To read my full take, here’s the link once again: Reach + Responsiveness Will Make TV and Mobile a Dynamic Duo

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!

Aug 12

Response July: Zumba’s Success, Processors Profess, Billings Recess

Response JulyMuch to the dismay of our error-prone printers, the July issue of Response has been available online for more than two weeks now, though I know it just started hitting many of your mailboxes last week. Let’s take a look at the issue, including the cover feature on the geniuses behind fitness behemoth Zumba, our annual look at the entertainment market and more.

  • When Alberto Perlman teamed with legendary trainer Beto Perez and fellow entrepreneur Alberto Aghion in 2001 to bring Perez’s workouts from their birthplaces of Colombia and South Florida to the world, there was no way they could have known that Zumba Fitness would become the world’s largest fitness brand. But, it has — with customers in 180 countries, more than 25 million DVDs sold and more than 200,000 fitness locations worldwide offering Zumba workouts. It’s also been a story I’ve been digging to tell in the pages of Response for some time now. Finally, thanks to Brian Comstock, the company’s DR marketing guru, and Aly Robins, its PR leader, we were finally able to track down the fast-moving Perlman for this exclusive feature. If you missed the link to the story above, here it is once again: The Zumba Revolution
  • As the average consumer’s options for entertainment expand — all the way to watching (and perhaps buying from) an online video on the smartphone in the palm of your hand — the options that same expansion have given marketers have served only to add to the fragmentation of the consumer base? What to do? Well, no one has all the answers, but Pat Cauley put together a strong piece for us that touches on multi-screen engagement, content distribution and data management. If you didn’t click the link above, here’s another chance: Entertainment Epiphanies
  • Our DRMA Spotlight feature returned in July — after a brief hiatus — as payment processing leader Vantiv opted to tell its story to fellow DRMA members and Response readers. Elizabeth Rector, Vantiv’s senior vice president and general manager, spoke about the 40-year-old business, perhaps best known to our readers as the company that bought long-time direct response processing leader Litle & Co. about two years ago. For more on Vantiv and its focus on customer service and technological solutions, click here: The Vantiv Advantage
  • Hopes for a flying start in 2014 media billings results didn’t last long. Unfortunately, first-quarter 2014 direct response TV and radio media billings got off to another slow start — after a generally dismal 2013 — in the long-form DRTV market. First-quarter billings eerily mirrored results in 1Q 2013, as the long-form space lost $24.2 million (9.2 percent). This drop caused 1Q long-form billings to slip below the quarter-billion dollar mark for the first time in 10 years. Positives were limited — time slots purchased only fell by 1.1 percent, as the cable market rebounded from some of its 2013 issues — but we won’t know what direction the long-form space is truly headed until 2Q results come in. For now, to take a deeper look at 1Q 2014 long-form DRTV billings, click here: The Struggle Continues for Long-Form in 1Q 2014
  • Finally, this issue includes various takes on the role of payment processors in the direct, digital and data-driven marketing space (beyond the DRMA Spotlight on Vantiv, there was also a short feature on the space, as well as a column about fast-paced changes in processing). Therefore, it should be no surprise that my Editor’s Note touches on the truth that “if consumers know about your payment processor … something’s likely gone wrong.” To read my full take, here’s the link once again: Wherever the Order Comes From, It’s Still About Getting Paid

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!

Jul 11

Response June: Magic Minerals, Home Shoppers and Mobile Solutions

Response JuneThe June issue of Response has been available online for just more than two weeks now — but if you haven’t taken a look yet, suffice it to say, there’s plenty of content you might want to take a glance at. Let’s take a look at the issue, including the cover feature on cosmetics industry legend Jerome Alexander, our annual look at the home shopping market and more.

  • With a 40-year run as a leader in the cosmetics world, Jerome Alexander’s history speaks for itself. Whether it’s his track record of placing products in high-end retailers like Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales, or his recent two-decade run of success in home shopping both in the United States and abroad, Alexander’s seen just about every side of the product and marketing business. And now, after some time away from the U.S. retail space, Alexander has introduced his successful Magic Minerals line in some of the nation’s biggest retail outlets. But the most intriguing facet that I heard when Lindsey Carnett of Marketing Maven PR pitched the story was the reversal of a traditional DR/retail campaign — that is, Alexander gambled on the product’s success overseas and in home shopping to gain new retail acceptance in the U.S. He then began selling his product at retail prior to connecting with a group of industry vendors to create a new DRTV campaign expected to debut later this year. If you missed the link to the story above, here it is once again: Finding the ‘Magic’
  • A story that’s been on the editorial calendar each year since I joined Response in 2001, our look at the home shopping space has actually gotten a lot more interesting in recent years. Why? Most likely because the sector’s behemoths — QVC and HSN — are using some of the most creative combinations of TV, traditional online and mobile marketing in the entire world. Not only that, but even niche players like Jewelry Television are also making huge strides to become the “where you want, when you want it” type of online retailer that’s making so many waves today. Want to hear more about it? If you didn’t click the link above, here’s another chance: Mobilizing the Home Shopping Space
  • Whether it was a tragic quarter of epic proportions or Kantar Media’s measurement efforts slipped, 2013’s final quarter of direct response TV and radio media billings results proves no better for the DR radio market. Fourth-quarter billings dipped more than 62 percent from the same quarter in 2012 — with almost penny attributable to a shocking loss in the local radio space. Yes, that’s the same sector that had been carrying Kantar Media’s DR radio results for much of the year, causing concern that there might be a blip with Kantar’s local radio reporting for the quarter. Radio’s fourth-quarter troubles were also almost wholly responsible for 2013’s decrease in total billings in the space. For more on 4Q DR radio billings from Kantar and Response, click here: DR Radio Billings Lose Frequency in 4Q 2013
  • Finally, my Editor’s Note begins with a personal story about using mobile technology to help close a sale before pivoting to talk about mobile’s growing importance to marketers, retailers, regulators and — most importantly — consumers. To read my full take, here’s the link once again: Consumers Drag Marketers Into Mobile Future

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!