Backchannelmedia

Response Magazine, April 1, 2006

Tall Orders for Short Form

By Doug McPherson

The word is traditional advertisers have moved past the “sticking-a-toe-in-the water” phase of testing short-form direct response. Apparently they found the water warm and inviting, because now, they’re in up to their knees. And the DR spots they’re producing have a new look — it’s lost the hard sell in favor of the soft tell.

Gene Silverman, vice president of marketing services and campaign management at hawthorne direct inc. in Fairfield, Iowa, says there’s a “definite trend of traditional advertisers looking for creative ways to integrate aspects of DR advertising into their general campaigns.”

And they’re not only looking for creative ways, they’re finding them.

Greg D’Alba, CNN’s chief operating officer of ad sales, has told Response Magazine that the creative he sees is a hybrid with a purchasing mechanism and brand-development mechanism that includes “quality message-building and brand-building intertwined with immediate results.”

One major conglomerate with a fat ad wallet that’s been blazing short-form DR trails is Procter & Gamble (P&G). It has tapped a mixture of 60-second and 120-second spots with structure and content that varies depending on the objectives and strategies of the brand. Some focus on pre-retail market seeding, and some strive to change habits or demonstrate product superiority. P&G officials are reportedly very happy with the results.

Eric Seiberling, a P&G brand manager, has said DRTV can drive sales and enhance brand, and that the company will continue to grow its use of DRTV because it helps P&G identify where and when consumers are receptive to its messages and provides accountability for media expenditures.

P&G started by experimenting with DRTV in 2002 (with the Dryel brand) with good results, so the company grew DRTV in fabric and home care with Swiffer, Downy and Mr. Clean. Now it’s using DRTV in several business units including beauty and oral care.

Catching the Wave

The short-form wave appears to be growing. Silverman says the biggest area of growth in new business at hawthorne is Fortune 1000 companies “who are looking to blend DRTV” into their media mix.

Hawthorne has had several brand name clients over the years who’ve used short form, and the company is currently working on “several more” campaigns which will premiere in 2006.

Dan Hassan, vice president of client services for Backchannelmedia, a DRTV company in Boston, says more short-form production is on the way — so much production, in fact, that dubbing houses will need to get better prepared to handle the growth.

As proof of his prediction, Hassan refers to figures CNN released earlier this year about short-form DR media spending rising 20 percent in the first half of 2005. CNN, which only offers short-form DR time, has also reported that about a quarter of all ads shown on the network are now direct response creative and that DR is supported by all of the top advertiser categories.

In response to this trend, earlier this year, CNN launched cnndirectresponse.com, a new Web site specifically for the network’s DR clients and others interested in DR.

Voting for Pedro

Bally Totally Into Short Form. It’s not just the big name corporations that are wading into DR; politicians also have found a friend (and vote getter) in short form. Matthew Samp, owner of Creos Direct Marketing, a DR company in Bellevue, Neb., says he used short form recently for political candidates.

“That’s really something unheard of,” Samp says. “In politics you’re either trying to raise money or get votes. We wanted to push people to a survey.”

Samp says he found through the research that most people who would spend time on a 47-question survey would likely vote for his client. “The result was that we were able to take an unknown candidate and beat a well-liked incumbent,” Samp says. “The TV spots weren’t the only activity that converted votes, but it certainly helped with the 18- to 34-year-old crowd — a group that traditionally doesn’t vote much.”

Resperate used spots to boost cost-per-lead before considering infomercials. Then there’s InterCure, a medical device company in Fort Lee, N.J. that’s now testing its first short-form spots for a product called RESPeRATE — the only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared and non-drug medical device to reportedly lower high blood pressure. The campaign includes both 60- and 120-second TV spots with product demonstration and testimonials from customers and a medical expert.

Tim Maroney, vice president of marketing for InterCure, says the company has been selling products almost exclusively online and through resellers and decided to give short form a try. He adds that the company really never considered long form.

“Marketers don’t generally go to long form first because of the high production costs and air time,” Maroney says. “We wanted to try short form, get it right and make it generate a reasonable cost-per-lead and then look at long form. But, right now, I doubt we’ll move to long form. Our product isn’t an impulse buy — it’s a considered buy. People want to talk to a doctor before they buy our product.”

So far, Maroney is pleased. “It’s still early, but I can say the results are better than what we expected,” he says. Ian French, president and executive creative director of Northern Lights, the company in Toronto that produced the RESPeRATE spots, says he expects the product “to do very well” in DRTV.

And in February, Power-Save Energy Corporation, a company based in San Luis Obispo, Calif. that sells energy-saving products to homeowners, became another non-traditional DR player when it rolled out a new 120-second commercial. The ad, which touts the KVAR 1200 — a product designed to reduce homeowners’ electricity consumption and monthly electric bills by up to 25 percent — has been running on national cable outlets, including Biography, Bravo, Court TV, The Discovery Channel, Do-It-Yourself Network, History Channel, MSNBC, TNT and USA.

Driving Short Form

So why the growth? The desire for more accountability is the obvious answer. But other more legitimate reasons are emerging, as well. For example, media fragmentation and brand enhancement capabilities are often cited.

Collette Liantonio, president of Concepts TV Productions Inc. in Boonton, N.J., agrees and says accountability for ad dollars is causing traditional advertisers to embrace DR “in ever-increasing” numbers.

“More and more frequently, they’re realizing that a powerful DR spot can be a profit center and a catalyst that lifts sales in all other venues,” Liantonio adds.

Hassan adds that a fragmented media market is what’s driving that accountability, and that, in turn, boosts the need for short form. He may have a point. The average U.S. household has more than 90 TV channels — up from 27 channels 12 years ago. The big four networks are becoming the little four, and advertisers are left scrambling to find consumers.

DRTV lets advertisers measure the response and move to their most receptive audiences. And others, just like P&G, have found that short-form DR can provide branding.

Lawn Boy debuts a DRTV spot for its InsightTM mower line this spring, produced by Fairfield, Iowa’s hawthorne direct inc.

Kelly Hundt, vice president of advertising for Bally Total Fitness, the fitness giant in Chicago, says she believes DR can “absolutely reinforce brand without hitting viewers over the head.”

Bally unveiled a new DRTV short-form campaign earlier this year (see sidebar, page 40) called “Meet Your Potential,” featuring real people who have made a pledge to get fit. “I think that’s something not all marketers really know or understand yet,” Hundt says. “DR is clearly another channel for branding and selling.”

Silverman drives home the point about accountability. “Traditional advertisers are intrigued by the accountability DRTV affords,” he says. “Once they test the DRTV waters, they fall in love with the low cost-per-order and cost-per-lead, as compared to other forms of direct response, such as print and direct mail.”

Silverman believes one of the greatest advances in recent years in short form has been the ability of major advertisers to integrate their TV messages with their Web sites “to create a synergistic” promotion. “We like to tell our traditional advertising clients that DRTV pre-sells and the Web re-sells,” he says.

Driving Without Headlights

But some say there are still mountains to climb in getting more traditional advertisers to drift toward DR and short form.

Mike McGahee, president of excellentmarketingresults.com, a DR marketing firm in Florida, says bluntly that many traditional ad companies don’t want to know campaign results and that they work to keep their clients in the dark about those results.

“I once asked the head of a large, multinational ad firm directly if he wanted to know campaign results and he said, ‘Well, kind of, for us, but not for the client,’” McGahee says. “They don’t want to know because if the campaign is lousy the client will find out.”

McGahee says another traditional ad guy told him, “Stick with us, and we’ll teach you the good excuses.”

The Cost of Spot Production

“I just have to laugh,” he adds. “For me, and any honest direct response person, not monitoring results is like driving without your headlights on.”