Nov 11

Response October: Marketer of the Year, Media Feedback and Much More

Response October 2014It’s been about three weeks since Response’s October issue hit the website. While many of you have likely taken a gander at the issue, whether online or in print, let’s take a quick look at how it all came together — from the cover story on our DRMA Marketer of the Year finalists and winner to some of the other key ingredients.

  • For the sixth consecutive year, Response and the Direct Response Marketing Alliance hosted a massive networking event in Las Vegas to announce the winner of the annual Marketer of the Year award, decided in an industry-wide vote. The party, on Sept. 17 at Drai’s in Las Vegas, was the biggest and best yet — with nearly 1,000 attendees enjoying the Strip’s hottest new club of 2014. Prior to the big announcement, we debuted the annual DRMA video, which included dozens of industry leaders donning their “superhero” best during filming at Response Expo this past spring. Through all the pomp ad circumstance — and not a few cocktails — the finalists and winner of the 2014 honor were announced, with Tristar Products taking home the big award and 2013 winner Euro-Pro tying Zumba Fitness for second place in the competition’s closest voting ever. If you’d like to read more about the winner (and finalists) and the campaigns that earned them the industry’s recognition, here’s the link: The Stars Align!
  • Twice a year, we take a hard, feature-length look at the media buying and planning space. In our fall version, we hear more clearly from the buyers’ perspective (in the spring, we usually focus on the perspective of the cable and broadcast media outlets). In this month’s edition, talk of the omnichannel marketing world dominates, with media buyers and sellers going in depth on how to reach consumers in a fragmenting TV universe. While opportunities abound thanks to technology, attribution in campaigns has become more and more difficult. Where did that sale come from, anyway? However, these experts do know one thing — all of those fancy metrics you hear digital media experts kicking around these days got their start with the advent of direct response TV. If you didn’t click the link above, here’s another chance: A Brighter Outlook
  • This month’s DRMA Spotlight revisits Cannella Response Television. The media agency, with locations in Los Angeles and Burlington, Wis., continues to grow from its leadership role in the long-form DRTV space. President Tony Besasie and CEO Rob Medved sat down for a video interview with me in the company’s Wisconsin offices in August to discuss a number of topics, including growth into the short-form buying space and some surprising results from a DRTV consumer study the company worked on with California-based Script to Screen and M2 Marketing. To read the Spotlight story, click here: Keeping an Edge. To view the video interview with Besasie and Medved, click here: DRMA Spotlight Video: Cannella Response Television
  • In our monthly look at direct response TV and radio media billings, we turn the spotlight on second-quarter 2014 long-form DRTV results, which continued to struggle, losing 6.4 percent from results during the same time period in 2013. However, there were some positive signs — lower costs meant the number of half-hour time slots purchased actually rose, and the U.S. Hispanic marketplace continued to show steady growth across the board. To take a deeper look at 2Q 2014 long-form DRTV media billings, click here: Long-Form Media Billings Fall 6.4 Percent in 2Q 2014
  • Finally, my Editor’s Note column this month takes on some of the topics bandied about in the media buying and planning guide feature mentioned above. In the competitive landscape for marketing dollars today, it’s not enough for media leaders who are well schooled in the direct response space to sit on those laurels. DR media leaders have a significant strategic advantage over both traditional media agencies and digital media agencies — they’ve understood the metrics of attribution for a much longer time than both. To read the column, here’s the link once again: It’s Not Your Father’s MER

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

Response OctoberThe 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!

Mar 18

Response March: An Ameriprise Package, Knight Time at Expo and Cannella in the Spotlight

Response March 2013The March issue of Response is now available online. From an intriguing look at a direct-to-consumer insurance group working under the umbrella of one of the largest financial service firms in America to the announcement of Bob Knight as Response Expo keynoter and more, let’s take a look at some of the key pieces to the issue!

  • Much like last month, our cover feature on Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance and its vice president of marketing, Lisa Jossart, saw its genesis from a meeting request at last October’s DMA show in Las Vegas. I spent some time listening to one of Jossart’s key players, Jill Fochs, during an educational session. Fochs’ expertise on the digital side of direct — specifically in social media — was so interesting that we decided to bring her on to present a case study at Response Expo on Thursday, April 4. Jill connected me with Lisa, whose expertise in direct-to-consumer marketing — and an interesting twist on partner marketing — is, suffice it to say, expansive. Here’s the link again, if you missed it above: Doing Direct Differently
  • Once again, there are two items of note in our Field Reports (aka, news) section this month. One is my Q&A with long-time DR industry production leader Rick McIntosh about his company’s history, recent successes and hopes for the future. The other is the announcement of our Response Expo keynote speaker: coaching legend Bob Knight. As a sports fan, Knight’s history of success is as appealing as his personality is polarizing. There’s no question Expo attendees are in for an interesting evening when Knight kicks off the Expo on Tuesday, April 2. The good thing is, there’s still time to register to catch Knight and all of the rest of the special events and opportunities Response Expo has in store. Check out these stories and more DR news here: Field Reports March
  • In DRMA news, Cannella Response Television is in the Spotlight this month. We’ve been working with the Burlington, Wis. and Los Angeles-based company for years here at Response, so catching up with Tony Besasie and Rob Medved about the company’s years of leadership in the long-form media buying space wasn’t unexpected. However, hearing the duo talk so incisively about the direct response marketing space as a whole — from television to digital and more — was refreshing in a world where many get so locked into their little slice of the pie. To watch the video interview I shot in Wisconsin in mid-January, click this link: DRMA Spotlight Video on Cannella Response Television or check out the print story here: Staying Ahead of the Curve
  • Our latest analysis of the DR industry’s quarterly media billings results circles back to DR radio billings’ 3Q results. Mirroring both long-form and short-form television counterparts, DR radio results stayed essentially even with the same quarter of 2011, helping the overall outlook for 2012 remain solid. For a full look at all the categorical and outlet results, here’s the link: 3Q 2012 DR Radio Media Billings Down $233K
  • Finally, my Editor’s Note waxes a bit on stretching our your business travel legs during the past month or so before swinging into why you must make sure that Response Expo is a part of your 2013 travel schedule. You can say I’m biased when I say that the Expo will be your best business travel investment of the year — and you’d be right. But just because I have that natural bias for and belief in my own work and that of the Response team doesn’t mean I’m wrong. 🙂 If you missed the link to my the column above, here it is once again: Next Month’s Response Expo Will Be Your Best Biz Travel Investment of 2013

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!