DRTV Strategy from the BEHIND THE SCENES eBook - Part 2 of 10

"DRTV is the driver of all of our multichannel campaigns. Experience developing over 300 campaigns has proven that persuasive messaging in the DRTV commercial benefits all otherchannels and enhances their results. DRTV continues to be the most effective way to generate large volumes of new customers. This is supported by a recent Deloitte study: 86% of Americans say that TV advertising still has the most impact on their buying decisions. I see it every day in my work. Case closed!"Steven Morvay, President

What are the three most important strategic elements for successful DRTV?

Without question they are the offer, testimonials and demonstrations. The offer is what consumers respond to in terms of making a decision to buy. Testimonials, along with a guarantee, give the consumer the confidence to buy. And demonstrations, or "demos" as we call them, dramatically show how the product solves everyday problems and makes them want to buy.

The Offer

The offer, or "the deal," must be so compelling, so appealing and so value-packed that the consumer's reaction is "I gotta get that." That's why you see offers like adding a second item for free, 2 or more easy payments and the core product with a number of freebies. As I wrote in a recent Presidential Perceptions piece in our Customer Acquisition Intel Center, "Great creative and a bad offer won't work. Not-so-great creative with a powerful offer will work every time." We spend a lot of time crafting numerous offers and testing them. Doing so dramatically enhances the success of the program.

Testimonials

One of many reasons to include testimonials from real customers is their genuine reaction to the product or service. They talk about it in their own words, which lends credibility to the story. People believe other people like themselves, which is clearly critical in the success of a DRTV effort. We also reinforce testimonials with a guarantee. When crafted properly, testimonials and guarantees remove one of the obstacles to buying. Harry Greene talks more about the "genuineness" of testimonials in the DRTV Production Strategy section of Behind The Scenes.

Demonstrations

The most successful DRTV products are those that demonstrate the end result that answers the primary question we consumers always ask: "what's in it for me, or how will it help me?" Consumers want to save money or make more money, look thinner, do tasks easier and faster, etc.

Great product demos showing the product in action make it easier for the consumer to understand the value of the product. What we found that dozens and dozens of quick demos works very well, showing a dramatic number of uses for the product. Each one only needs to be a couple of seconds. Imagine one 20-second demo that shows just one or two uses vs. ten 2-second demos, especially for products that are multifunctional.

Weaving together the offer, testimonials and demos is something that we've tinkered with, literally for decades. You can see all of our winning DRTV commercials in our Winner's Circle, at: http://D2K.acquirgy.net.

When you talk with Fortune companies who have hired us to evaluate products for potential DRTV, what criteria do you use?

We actually audit every aspect of a product or service to determine if it makes sense to use DRTV as a marketing tactic. DRTV Lab™ as we call it, is an intense deep dive that takes into account numerous factors, some of which are market potential, margin, multi-channel opportunity, retail/dealer distribution, DRTV metrics and more. All told, there are over 50 criteria we use.

The DRTV Lab output is a blueprint for success, giving you the ability to understand what it will take to use DRTV to sell product or services in a ROI-positive scenario. On the flip side, it prevents the waste of hundreds of thousands of dollars on DRTV campaigns that probably will not prove profitable.

How do you come up with infomercial openings that grab consumers' attention?

After we determine what the most important selling points are based on our up-front research, we look for attention-getting ways to bring home that point in just a few seconds. While there's no "method" by which we come up with these ideas, I think it has to do with the collective experience we have.

For example, when we want to show how light-weight a product is, the first thing that comes to mind is "floating in air," which is exactly the tactic we used in one of our infomercials. We sometimes hear people say things in focus groups that resonate with us. At this point, after all we've done, it's almost innate.

What tools do you use to track and analyze responses to DRTV commercials?

Our primary tool is iFactz™ -- software we developed in 2002 and in continuous use since then. Tens of millions of transaction have been processed through this system. To our knowledge, iFactz is the only system that accurately tracks web inquiries and orders from specific off-line media placements.

What's the history behind iFactz?

iFactz was born out of necessity; when we noticed that more and more consumers were coming to our client's web site, it was clear that we needed to find a way to track back to the source. To make a long story short, we figured out how to set up a URL tracking system that required just one URL and could easily be scalable for each TV network. It has worked so well that many companies want to license it, but we reserve this technology solely for our clients.

How do you design iFactz URLs in order to maintain brand equity?

The iFactz URL – called a Unique iFactz Address or UIA – uses a prefix instead of a suffix (which most people ignore). We also make the URL distinctive and action oriented. Some of our URLs look like:

· 10.uBidTV.com

· 163.TVrhino.com

· 23.GetJelSleep.com

· 22.FreeMotionTV.com

The number before the letters is the iFactz prefix. Each one is tied to a different cable network, messaging unit, creative execution, etc. By combining this branded URL with proprietary algorithms and database information, the iFactz system has a 96% accuracy level.

How do you track "DRTV driven search" – consumers who see the commercial and go to Google or Bing and type in the product name, company name or word they heard in the commercial?

Since there's no bulletproof way to track DRTV to search, we use an approach that is very effective. We benchmark the search campaign prior to the TV launch. We then closely monitor impressions, clicks and actions after the TV launch. We've gotten very good at understanding just how direct response TV affects search engine marketing (which is a Green Paper we've written, here: http://D3X.acquirgy.net).

You can download the entire eBook at any time at: http://BS123.acquirgy.net

Irv Brechner has written over 100 published direct marketing articles and 13 books on a variety of topics. He's been a pioneer in online customer acquisition since 1996 and offline for his 35-year career. He has developed Acquirgy.com's "Customer Acquisition Intel Center" (acquirgy.com/intel ) he evangelizes best-of-breed tactics to help companies acquire customers in the digital age. He can be reached at: irv@acquirgy.com .

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