The DRTV Industry Is at a Crossroads. But the Right Turn Is Going to Be a Bumpy Ride - Susan Rowe

As I peruse the DRTV industry chat rooms I actually have seen quite a few comments about the death of DRTV We have always had pessimists in our midst but these comments are not just from them The entire spectrum of DRTV marketers is expressing true concern about an industry that many of us are very passionate aboutConcerns abound regarding the decline of call volume most predominant amongst our 1824 demographics Even our 55 demographic is not picking up the phone with the same frequency as ten years ago especially if you factor in higher levels of income and education Increased DVR penetration has made the practice of fastforwarding through commercials more than just a prime time behavior putting tremendous pressure on DRTVamp8217s ability to perform This and other issues are impacting our industryBut before we start to look for another career letamp8217s dissect each of these issues to see if there is an upsideLack of call volume is not a new subject Iamp8217ve brought this up in a couple of previous articles amp8211 primarily as television viewers now have other options rather than picking up the phone A recent study by the HomeWord Center reports that 77 of respondents say they actually use their computers laptops or tablets while watching TV this is 16 compared with 2012 My takeaway amp8211 the consumer is now going online to your website rather than calling This phenomenon which has escalated dramatically over the last 5 years causes great angst in our industry How are we to attribute web volume against DRTV spots in order to optimize and how exactly are we to carve out DRTVamp8217s contribution to a clientamp8217s bottom lineRectifying the first issue is easy Employing CoreDirectamp8217s URL tracking methodology allows you to attribute web activity back to an individual spot Then you can determine the efficacy of that spot and optimize with not only call volume but web leads as well Relying solely on call volume is a losing battle amp8211 especially with the consumersamp8217 embrace of the tablet and smartphoneThe second issue is stickier amp8211 how to correctly attribute online performance back to offline media You can use regression analysis to tease apart marketing activity and determine the ROI from each but DRTV carries two unique characteristics that hinder the ability to plug the schedule into a regression model One we do not buy on ratings or thousands we buy on results Regression models tend to use audience as a key input Second we tend to run schedules continuously and evenly while regression models rely on the inconsistency of advertising in order to gauge impact on sales So I would advise anyone to tread carefully in the regression modeling spaceSome of our younger demographics especially A1834 now represent 28 of the Internet video audience and 52 of the mobile video audience NSI Q3 2012 amp8220Cord neversamp8221 and amp8220cord cuttersamp8221 who consume their video online through Netflix and Hulu Plus are not being reached by our traditional DRTV methods Our younger audience is leaving traditional TV As an industry we need to continue to push online video sellers for a DRTV rate cardThe 55 market with high levels of income and education is far more familiar with technology than we often give them credit for When you take the top socioeconomic Prizm Clusters against this particular age segment and generate a crosstab through MRI MediaMark Research Inc the results show that their online facility includes such sophisticated online activities as tracking investments making personal or business travel plans making a purchase for business or personal use and watching online video Given their facility with online one can easily see how they turn to their tablets or laptops to check out a DRTV commercialDVR ownership and fast forwarding through commercials according to TiVo data in 2008 was negligible in dayparts other than primetime Our DRTV dayparts were unaffected Here is what TiVo is reporting for JanMarch of 20102012Onethird of our commercials are now being timeshifted That means we could experience a decrease in response as TiVo and other DVRs allow for fastforwarding through the creative A positive outcome of this trend is that now people can pause the commercial check out the product or service online purchase or do the requested action and then return without missing a single second of their programs One hopes that encourages or actually increases responseOur business has always been about embracing change We have always made sure we understood where our audiences were migrating and looked for unique ways to get a consumer to respond to our messages While there are significant challenges today the DRTV of tomorrow will embrace the online space Creating action amp8211 getting a consumer to respond amp8211 is the future of our industry whether itamp8217s from a unique 800 number on a cable networkamp8217s commercial or a preroll on an online videoPrior to embarking out on her own Susan Rowe held the position of Senior Partner Managing Director within the Digital and Performance Marketing media practice for Ogilvy Neo in New York and Chicago Feb 07 July 08 Her charge was to oversee Performance Marketing for a number of high profile clients including Allstate Investools TD Ameritrade Select Comfort and Six Flags She was also responsible for leading NeoVideo the video unit that works with new forms of video on TV and online She was selected to be part of a Google TV39s first panel primarily for her work in development of ground breaking research with Google TV on the effect of attentiveness on response Susan can be reached at srowe2202yahoocomRead all Susan39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Susan Rowe on ResponseDriven MediaCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow 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 MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentariesImage courtesy of Master isolated imagesFreeDigitalPhotosnetClick here to read genConnectamp8217s interview with Jack Myers on dual mentorship in crossgenerational workplaces

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