Apr 23
adminDRTV, Uncategorized
While television media buying remains a key plank in the direct response marketer’s strategy, it has become more and more challenging to get a pure-play DRTV hit. The high cost of television media coupled with more competition for media slots makes it harder than ever to launch a new DRTV product.One of the problems is that there are more direct response marketers on television than ever, competing in the same product categories for the same avails. We are also seeing an erosion in the value of linear television itself. Technology influences and lifestyle changes are diluting the mass-market effects that made broadcast TV such an attractive advertising medium in the first place.
Following are some of the factors contributing to this erosion:
- A flood of new cable channels and niche programming options are undermining the mass-media marketing formula
- Overall television viewership is decreasing; television advertising is reaching a smaller audience
- Television viewers are forwarding past commercials using DVR technologies such as TiVo
- More and more viewers are multi-tasking while watching television. Our busy lifestyles and multi-media remote controls are filtering out more and more television ad content.
- DVDs, video on demand (VOD), video games and other technologies are competing for viewers’ attention/time
- Pirating of television shows on peer-to-peer networks using technologies such as BitTorrent
- Today’s consumers prefer the Internet over television for product information; they tend to be tougher, more educated buyers
Apr 13
adminDRTV, Uncategorized
For DRTV media buying professionals, there’s no relief in sight, at least from Jacobs’ perspective. The fact that media time is tight, prices are high and results are less than desirable has pushed this media buyer to switch to the kind of media plans that he used back in the early 1990s: buy more broadcast than cable, since the former is more negotiable.
“While it’s tougher to make broadcast work, we’re taking our network orders and doing market purges and buying those markets that index over 100,” says Jacobs. “We’re trying to pick the markets using some kind of logic, instead of just throwing darts against the board.”
Rob Medved, president at Cannella Response Television Inc. in Burlington, Wis., credits an increasingly fragmented channel lineup and notable news events with creating a “very inconsistent viewing audience,” this year. He says short-form DRTV media on larger networks has been very difficult to obtain, which is not very different from last year.
“Healthy scatter and hybrid DRTV media buying do not allow for much remnant inventory,” says Medved. “At the same time, the rise in the price of gas and a slowing of the housing market run have also curbed the response pocketbook.”
Mar 14
adminDRTV, Uncategorized
It’s the media buyers Holy Grail: being able to read your target customers minds. Although that exact ability may yet elude our grasp, current research is bringing us remarkably close to that precognitive reality.
“In the past, we’ve used things like focus groups,” says Akshay Rao, General Mills professor of marketing at Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. “Now, I can actually look inside your brain as you look at an advertising piece that has yellow, green, and blue versus a black and white piece, and tell whether the yellow, green and blue piece is generating more neural activity.”
To accomplish this, Rao uses a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanner to peer into consumers brains. Basically a giant doughnut-shaped magnet, an fMRI scanner enables researchers to see how much oxygen different parts of the brain are using while the test subject lies on a narrow table with his or her head in the “hole” of the donut. The most active areas display the most oxygen flow and “light up” on the scanner.
Advocates of neuromarketing research say that its results are more objective and accurate than results gained using customary research methods such as surveys and focus groups. “With traditional marketing research techniques, people do not always express their true feelings, so information is often not reflective of what the consumer is actually thinking,” says Peter Koeppel, president of Koeppel Direct, a firm that provides multi-channel direct-response services.
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“Neuromarketing allows media buying experts to understand the impact of their ad on the consumer’s brain,” he says. “By reviewing and analyzing this information, the marketer can change the marketing campaign to improve consumer response, which translates into a better return on investment.”
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That improved understanding of how campaigns affect consumers is the first step toward creating more intimate relationships, says Rao, who is also the director of the Carlson School’s Institute for Research in Marketing. “When I do consulting work for companies, I tell them to develop consumer intimacy,” he says. “With neuromarketing, we have a physiological means of assessing whether those intimate relationships have been established.”
Mar 08
adminDRTV, Uncategorized
Nationally recognized direct response media buying firm, Koeppel Direct, introduces their breakthrough Multi-Channel Direct Response approach to media buying.
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Koeppel Direct, a leader in direct response media buying for the past decade, is launching a new service: Multi-Channel Direct Response media buying. The announcement will take place at the upcoming Electronic Retailers Association meeting. This new service combines direct response media buying for television, online media, print and radio. This industry-transforming announcement of Koeppel Direct’s new media buying approach will enable direct marketers to maximize profits from their direct response advertising.
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As part of their Multi-Channel Direct Response media buying services, Koeppel Direct has formed Koeppel Interactive, a specialty division providing online buying for direct marketers. The combination of direct response TV, online, print and radio media buying services allows Koeppel Direct to maximize campaign performance for direct marketers.
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“Our Multi-Channel Direct Response media buying approach brings together a full range of media options and allows us to find the channels that perform best for each campaign,” touts Peter Koeppel. “This helps optimize clients’ media campaigns and maximize their return on investment.”
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Koeppel Direct is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with satellite offices in Detroit, Austin, Iowa and Chicago. The Electronic Retailers Association meeting will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 9th – 12th.
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Peter Koeppel is Founder and President of Koeppel Direct, a leader in direct response media buying, marketing, campaign management and creative strategies. With over 25 years of marketing and advertising experience, Peter has helped Fortune 500 companies, small businesses and entrepreneurs develop marketing campaigns to increase profits. Peter is a Wharton MBA and has improved the media buying strategies and advertising for clients such as H.J. Heinz, DIRECTV, Hair Club, Ben Hogan Golf, and Little Giant Ladder.
Mar 02
adminDRTV, Uncategorized
Don’t run a TV ad one day where you call your company the “low-price leader,” and then do a radio ad where you call your company the “solution for the discerning customer.” Those are two completely different brands and images, and you’ll only end up confusing your prospects. Realize that no brand is born overnight. It takes lots of repeated messages to get the brand into people’s minds. So be consistent with your advertising messages. Additionally, advertise on a continuous basis. That’s the only way people will become familiar with you, thus increasing your name and brand recognition.
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Use Public Relations to Get Your Name Out There
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Along with media buying and advertising, you need to do some public relations to make your name known. One great way is to write and publish articles about your business and industry. You can also be a featured guest on radio and TV programs. A good PR firm can help get you in the media’s limelight. Without a doubt, public relations is a great and easy way to increase your name recognition.
Feb 26
adminDRTV, Uncategorized
Media Buying expert Peter Koeppel has been awarded a position in the Marquis Who’s Who in America. The only way to obtain entry into the 2007 (61st) Edition is to be nominated by a prior recipient and then to be selected for inclusion.
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Peter Koeppel is Founder and President of Koeppel Direct, a leader in direct response media buying, marketing and campaign management. With a Wharton MBA and over 25 years of marketing and advertising experience, Peter has helped Fortune 500 companies, small businesses and entrepreneurs develop marketing campaigns to increase profits.
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Koeppel Direct recently sponsored the National Young Inventors Competition in Washington, DC., in conjunction with the Electronic Retailers Association and the Future Business Leaders of America.
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“I’m honored that I was selected for inclusion in such a prestigious publication,” commented Koeppel.
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Since 1899, when A.N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who’s Who in America, Marquis Who’s Who has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor — including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion, and entertainment. The Marquis Who’s Who in the World publication is viewed by many as among the most prestigious. Today, Who’s Who in the World remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive firms globally. In addition, the company’s on-line database enables users to search through more than 1-million biographical entries.
Feb 23
adminDRTV, Uncategorized
MySpace.com is a website where 40 million kids hang out regularly. Membership has quadrupled since January 2005, according to Business Week. The site ranked number 15 in terms of page hits last October according to Nielsen//NetRatings. The number of unique visitors grew by 12% in October to 24.2 million. That’s why two Los Angeles entrepreneurs, Chris De Wolfe and Tom Anderson, who started MySpace, were able to sell it to Rupert Murdoch’s New Corp. for $580 million.
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Why should a media buyer care about MySpace and similar sites? These social network sites are a great place to reach the nation’s 24 million teenagers (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project). Teens are traditionally a hard to reach group, but they have tremendous spending power and can’t be ignored by drtv marketers. Teens have a combined spending of $175 billion and college students account for $200 billion in spending, according Alloy Media + Marketing.
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Any savvy media buying expert needs to understand that 87% of 12-17 year olds use the Internet, vs. only two-thirds of adults, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In addition, 65% of this group Instant message (IM) and they consume many forms of drtv media, including surfing the net, watching TV and playing video games 6 ½ hours a day, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. This makes them a hard group to reach, but MySpace provides a new opportunity to tap into this market segment.
Peter Koeppel is Founder and President of Koeppel Direct
Feb 22
adminDRTV, Uncategorized
What other media buying options do firms have besides traditional spots?Â
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Many direct response TV media buying experts are running their commercials on their Web sites and including an 800 number. This is a good way for someone with a limited budget to advertise.
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What role will the Internet play in shaping the future of DRTV?Â
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Currently, anywhere between 15 percent to 50 percent of the direct response TV purchases are coming from the Internet. Half the people watching TV are simultaneously online, and more than half of the online audience now has access to high-speed Internet connections. This has fueled the growth of DRTV sales on the Internet. It also has allowed for streaming video of TV commercials on the Web. This has helped to reinforce the direct response TV message online, which has translated into more online business for DRTV media buyers.Â
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What coming trends do you foresee in direct response TV?Â
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I expect video on demand (VOD) to become a big growth area for direct response TV marketers. This will allow consumers interested in finding out more about a particular product or service to view a longer format commercial, somewhere between a short- and infomercial DRTV spot length. Comcast and others are aggressively moving forward with VOD programs.
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Due to the fragmentation of the viewing audience, I expect to see the industry start to air commercials in new mediums such as cell phones, iPods, gaming devices, etc., to more efficiently reach various segments of the population.
Peter Koeppel is Founder and President of Koeppel Direct
Feb 20
adminDRTV, Uncategorized
Mistake #1: Delivering the wrong message. You can usually best appeal to your target market by clearly stating the benefits of the product and making sure those benefits are relevant to that target audience’s needs or “hot buttons”-both pleasurable and painful. Certain types of drtv ads, such as for weight loss, hair restoration, and skin care products, demand “Before” and “After” shots to give the product credibility, show results, and deliver a positive message about the company’s belief in its product and what it can do for the consumer.
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Mistake #2: Not running drtv ads often enough. You’ll generally need three exposures to build awareness and motivate someone to respond to an ad. By spreading your media buying over too many different types of media, your intended audience might not get those three exposures, and they won’t take the action you want them to.
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Based on your budget, focus on the highest-performing media for your type of product; this will allow your target audience to see the ad enough times to build awareness. Research services like MRI research can help you with this. They survey 26,000 consumers every year. You give them information, and they give you a goldmine of drtv research tailored to your needs, such as the television networks and shows your target audience watches with the highest frequency. Again an experienced media buyer can help you navigate through the relevant research information.
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Mistake #3: Utilizing the wrong media to reach your target prospects. Seniors, for example, still don’t use the Internet as much as younger people do. So if you have a senior product, focusing your drtv marketing efforts on the Internet might not be a good idea. Similarly, if you’re trying to reach a smaller, niche audience, TV or radio might not be the best fit, since they reach a broader, mass audience. Consider a specialty print publication like a trade journal or a local interest publication to more effectively reach potential customers. Work with and media buying expert to pinpoint the right media to research your target audience.
Peter Koeppel is Founder and President of Koeppel Direct
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