Yes, liking, tweeting, Googling and stumbling get all the press these days. Yet Direct Response TV (DRTV) keeps on growing and growing and remains the #1 medium for many direct response marketers. While not appropriate for every product or service, DRTV has emerged as the workhorse, powering exponential growth and building brands in the process.DRTV BackgroundYou may have images of Ginsu knives, pocket fishermen and kitchen gadgets stuck in your mind as representative of DRTV. That was the case decades ago. Today, DRTV is mainstream, used by such major brands and category leaders as Western Union, Rowenta, TiVo, Humana, Goldline, ICON Fitness and Orkin to name a few, and spending was up to $4.5 billion in 2010 (dmnews.com). Despite the economy, the stalwarts of direct response continue to buy media with no end in sight, simply because it works. Here are 5 reasons why DRTV is so powerful, and why you owe it to yourself to investigate it.#1: Storytelling and DemonstrationBy definition, no medium has the ability to tell a story and demonstrate a product like TV. The combination of rich video, especially on HD TV's along with audio and music, enables advertisers to convey emotion and excitement, whether it be 1- or 2-minute short-forms or half-hour infomercials. The ability to load up the short-forms with quick demonstrations, product benefits and testimonials is a proven formula that works across numerous product and service categories.#2: Motivating Consumers to RespondCrafting a compelling call-to-action (CTA) is an art that has been perfected by practitioners in our industry. When consumers hear "but wait there's more," they know an irresistible deal is about to follow. In the same way that fast-food companies "upsize," DRTV marketers often offer a second product for free – all consumers pay is separate shipping and processing. Consumers presented with "I gotta have it" CTAs are one of the cornerstones of DRTV success.#3: TrackabilityDRTV media placements are now relatively easy to track. We've identified three major ways in which consumers respond to TV ads, and have developed technology and processes to combine results into one meaningful number, one that is used to determine the profitability of each media placement. By being able to combine phone orders (via unique 800#), web orders (via iFactz-enabled URLs) and "DRTV driven search" orders that come through search engines, today's DRTV advertiser has a true snapshot of the performance of TV media and can make intelligent decisions about where to buy more, or less airtime.#4: ROI FocusUnlike other media where determining actual ROI is impossible or at best murky, DRTV offers advertisers precise ways of measuring sales, revenues and profits. In this day and age of focus on the bottom line, the DRTV industry is well-positioned because it's entire basis for being is ROI.#5: Media ValueThe primary reason why the numbers work and make positive ROI possible is that DRTV time is purchased at 50% to 70% off rate card, with a couple of requirements, none of which are onerous. Purchasing DRTV media is a win-win for advertisers and the networks. Networks always have unsold air time, which they sell into our industry. Advertisers that could never make full-price TV time work have a viable option.But Wait, There's MoreWe have a saying around here at Acquirgy and it's "DRTV lifts all boats." By that we mean that whenever DRTV campaigns run, other offline and online tactics benefit. Search impressions, clicks and sales rise, often in parallel with the amount of TV dollars spent. "As Seen On TV" banners tie into campaigns. And YouTube and other video-sharing sites extend the life of infomercials. But that's not all!Quite possibly the greatest benefit of DRTV is how it impacts retail. Typically, for every one product sold direct-to-consumer, expect to see 5 to 10 sales take place at retail. For those marketers that have a national retail or dealer footprint, DRTV becomes even more powerful. One of the things we pride ourselves on is our DRTV Lab, a process that evaluates products and services to determine how viable they are. We remove all the emotion associated with a new product or service and focus on the competition, margin, value to consumers, size of market and dozens of other factors. What emerges is either a "thumbs down" or a blueprint detailing what it will take to achieve success.ConclusionAs I said at the outset, DRTV is not for every product or service. But if you suspect that this medium might work for what you have, it's worth learning about the industry -- our Customer Acquisition IntelCenter is loaded with papers, briefs, cases and proven tactics, all free and without registration.Grab a PDF of this article at: http://A74.acquirgy.netIrv 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 .Read all Irv's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Customer Acquisition Intel.Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggers.comFollow our Twitter updates @MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggers.com management or associated bloggers. MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries.
