Jun 23

Response June: A Series of Educated Gambles

Response June 2016Response‘s June issue hit the web (and mailboxes) this week. Headlined by a cover story on the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), the issue also features our second quarterly Advisors Forum feature of 2016, this time centered on the topic of attribution, a special case study on Delivery.com‘s solution to issues with credit card fraud, and a web-exclusive story on the pharmaceutical and healthcare space. Read on for background on some of the key facets of our first summer issue:

  • In a shocking turn, the headline for the cover story on the LVCVA echoes its most famous tagline: ‘What Happens in Vegas …’ The work on this story actually dates to late 2015, when I received a press release from the LVCVA’s Courtney Fitzgerald about a new digital offering from the group. By early January, we’d settled on a cover interview with Cathy Tull, the group’s senior vice president of marketing, as a cover story. But with a new TV campaign rolling out in June — and a series of mobile-focused digital offerings hitting in the interim — we agreed to push the feature until this particular issue. It was the right choice, because by the time I sat down for a phone call with Tull in early May, we had plenty to discuss. The LVCVA’s wide-ranging goals and ever-expanding online and offline marketing efforts make it a great story for anyone looking at any facet of performance-based marketing. If you missed it above, here’s the link: ‘What Happens in Vegas …’
  • Attribution may be the biggest buzzword in performance-based marketing today. Marketers, agencies, and other vendors are working constantly to find the right mix of data that will help them attribute each lead or sale back to the piece of media that prompted a consumer to act. But as consumers have gained more control over how and when they are reached — let alone how and when they respond — that attribution is harder and harder to nail down. Seven members of the Response Advisory Board responded to questions for this special roundtable on the topic of attribution — and the online version includes their full, unabridged answers. If you missed the link above but want to check out the story, click here: What’s the Attribution Solution?
  • When I met with Forter‘s Bill Zielke and Delivery.com’s Colin Sims at the eTail West event in Palm Desert, Calif., in February, I was intrigued by their story about the online retailer’s struggles with credit card fraud and Forter’s solution. Right then and there, I made an immediate decision that this story was worthy of a rare case study feature in the pages of Response. Four months later, freelancer Doug McPherson has the story for you: Fighting Fraud
  • The issue’s fourth feature — our look at the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets — is only available online. For marketers of healthcare services to health insurance to pharmaceuticals, an ever-changing regulatory environment is nothing new. How are these marketers dealing with the restrictions — and capitalizing on new opportunities in the age of Obamacare and expanded Medicare coverage? Don’t miss this web exclusive: Healthy Changes
  • Our monthly direct response TV and radio media billings return to the DR radio space for outstanding fourth-quarter 2015 results. The radio space’s best 4Q performance in five years lifted its annual total to more than $58 million — a 7.9-percent rise over 2014, which itself was a big bounce-back year. What’s behind the recent success of the radio medium? For a full look at 4Q 2015 DR radio media billings, click here: DR Radio Doubles Down on Success
  • Response is very fortunate to have many of the brightest minds in the business as regular contributors to our column well. This month’s pieces display the breadth of that expertise, if you simply click on these links: Media Zone; Production House; Net Gains; and Legal Review. At the risk of sounding a little self-assured after more than 15 years running the magazine’s editorial, I’d like to think I’m in that group of “bright minds,” which means I always want to make sure my Editor’s Note column measures up. This month, I flip the attribution debate among marketers and agencies on its head and ask our readers to view attribution from a consumer’s perspective. Might this reversal help you better understand your attribution issues from a business perspective? That’s what I’d like to know. If you missed the link above, click here to read (and respond to) my latest: Thinking Like a Consumer Could Help Your Attribution Modeling

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!

Dec 21

Response November: Winners, Travelers, and Home Shoppers

Response November 2015With travel and year-end projects taking precedence, I’ve fallen behind on my Response recaps. So, this is the first of two Response-filled blog posts during Christmas week — a look at Response‘s November issue. With our DRMA Marketer of the Year event shifting to early October, our cover story on the three finalists also shifted back one month to this issue. Additionally, we covered the travel and home shopping spaces, while adding a new feature on the business solutions market — a vertical that’s growing thanks to the combination of online and offline marketing. Let’s take a deeper look at some of the issue’s top pieces.

  • In an intriguing bit of timing, DraftKings‘ victory in the annual industry-wide vote for DRMA Marketer of the Year was announced in Las Vegas on Oct. 7 — the same week that initial stories of one of its employees winning $350,000 on competitor site FanDuel surfaced. Since then, the intrigue around the two daily fantasy sports (DFS) sites has continued to build, with legal challenges slowing the companies’ advertising, but fantasy sports players continuing to flock to the services in record numbers. DraftKings was a deserving winner in the competition, as voters responded to its overwhelming TV and online marketing efforts with a similarly overwhelming number of ballots. The trio of 2015 finalists — also including SharkNinja (formerly Euro-Pro) and TELEBrands — represents, one might say, the past, present, and future of the performance-based marketing world. If you missed the link above, and want to read more about the three finalists, click here: Crowning the New ‘Kings’
  • Travel marketers have been long-time believers in direct response — well before the transition into the omnichannel, performance-based efforts that dominate today’s landscape. For years, we’ve covered this space as it exhibited leadership in how best to combine online and offline methodologies that could be effective for marketers of all types of products and services. This feature is no different, as we’ve caught up with top-level travel marketers from the resort side (Atlantis Paradise) and from the local travel bureau perspective (Nassau Paradise Island Promotions Board and LasVegas.com). If you missed the link above, click here to read how performance-based methods are driving travelers to locations around the world: Leveraging the Power of ‘Book Now’
  • Perhaps no part of the old-school direct response universe has been forced to adjust as rapidly as the home shopping space. From the leaders — HSN and QVC — to smaller start-ups, the direct connection these networks have to their viewers and shoppers has changed immensely with the expansion of digital marketing. More impressively, their embrace of this change — celebrating innovation rather than cowering in fear — should be a model for all marketers. What’s new in the space? If you missed the link above, click here: Lights, Camera … Creativity
  • Our monthly direct response TV and radio media billings recap returns to short-form DRTV for second-quarter 2015 results, which — thanks to some measurement changes by Kantar Media — were a bit shocking. While the quarter shows a frightening 39-percent decrease from 2Q 2014 results, the bulk of that can be ascribed to a change in rate estimates for U.S. Hispanic space. So, where the other four TV media outlets showed a more palatable 9.2-percent decrease, the Hispanic space plummeted more than $330 million. For a more in-depth explanation from Kantar and a full look at 2Q 2015 short-form DRTV media billings, click here: Kantar Methodology Shift Is the Culprit in 2Q Short-Form DRTV Decrease
  • Finally, you might have noticed a recent change to the magazine’s tagline. Response is now “The Magazine for Performance-Based Marketers.” Similar changes have been made to the DRMA (“The Alliance for Performance-Based Marketers”) and Response Expo (“The Event for Performance-Based Marketers”). Why? It’s all in this month’s Editor’s Note: Join the Performance-Based Marketing Evolution

Thanks again for reading and interacting with Response!