The Official Blog of Gavin Ballas

A friend of mine, who was a longtime executive at one of the major broadcast networks, once told me that at the network, the one thing they never did was sit around and ask themselves, "Does any of this @!#% work?" Digital advertising has taught marketers to expect more from their ad spend. Namely, there is an expectation that advertising should be directly related to some performance metrics. I've run into many people who believe the online world created this model for advertising. However, purchasing media based on its performance is not entirely new. What has happened, however, is that digital media has made pay-per-performance a bigger part of everyone's budget. Tying Advertising to Performance Is Not New Performance-based media has been available in nearly all offline channels for quite some time. And while it is by no means the normal method of buying offline media, it is a growing trend, given the glut of new cable channels, radio stations, etc. Integr...

Great communicators from Shakespeare to Steve Jobs don't generally tell us anything new but rather they discover meaningful ways to remind us of truths we already know. Among the things that made Steve Jobs brilliant was his ability to integrate technology with the human experience. Our world will be a better place if Steve Jobs inspires future technologists that art, style, and emotion can drive successful consumer technologies. From a marketing perspective his legacy serves as a reminder that marketers cannot simply sell technical features and benefits but rather we can and must convey an emotional benefit to our consumers. Marketers who deliver simplicity and consistency in their relationship with customers honor the legacy of Steve Jobs.

I recently came across an interesting social media strategy from a direct response TV advertiser (DRTV). It was for a self-storage company that is tracking Twitter posts to identify potentially qualified consumers. By tracking tweets like "So excited to get out of Dallas!" they are able to identify the city within the text of the tweet and then match that up with the identified city on the user's profile. Accordingly, they can determine the length of any move. The goal is to find consumers moving over 500 miles since these are the most valuable consumers to this company. If they identify a tweeter as being qualified, they can tweet back a discount on their moving services. For this marketer, these social media interactions are being monetized; but I wonder if there isn't a greater opportunity utilizing an integrated approach that leverages all other media to greater response and ultimately greater ROI from all media. While there are many DRTV marketers who stil...

You may not realize it but we are fast approaching an important anniversary for those of us who make our living in the advertising trade. On Aug. 18, 1922 listeners to New York City's WEAF were treated to the very first radio commercial (it was more of an infomercial, really; a 15-minute presentation for a real estate development in Queens). The decision by the station's owner, AT&T, to sell air time set the stage for entire electronic media industry. Eighty-nine years later radio now faces a seemingly uncertain future given the increasing "threats" from the digital world. Perhaps this anniversary gives good reason to consider the future for the original electronic medium and give some thought to how 21st century marketers might take advantage of this nearly century old business. Consider Pandora's recent IPO and U.S. launch of Spotify. Do these developments represent the end of radio as we know it? Yes, but radio is not dead. These digital services, alo...

Back when I was a brand new radio sales rep, I remember a sales manager telling me that if a prospect even mentioned the letters “PI” (or per inquiry)   hang up the phone and move on! “If you want to ride the freight you have to pay the rate,” was his mantra.   In the 15 years since I received that sage advice the advertising world has changed.   Time and time again the online world has proven that companies who deliver performance for advertisers can richly rewarded.   Performance-based media buying (PI, CPA or any of the other monikers) has become a legitimate part of the marketing equation. In my current position as VP of Business Development for a leading direct response media agency I am finding performance based media to be an important part of the picture of our clients.   While it is quite common in the online world, broadcasters have been less inclined to sign up for these kinds of deals.   And I understand the reasons why broadcasters might look a...

If you haven’t noticed over the last 18 months or so TV (advertising) is back.  Both the Broadcast and Cable Networks have had record upfronts.  Despite declining Broadcast Network ratings and increasing competition for your living room screens from the “cable-cutting” devices (like Apple TV, Google TV, PS3, Xbox’s, etc.) advertisers have returned in record numbers to TV. While this is great news for my TV-selling friends it has required many of us in the direct response space to reevaluate our media planning.  In TV, when the broadcast and cable networks have reason to believe there is strong demand from brand marketers, direct response inventory shrinks and spot prices go up. Certainly many marketers pushed out of DRTV will look to the Internet to drive growth.  And given the availability of performance-based online media, increasing your online budget is probably a good strategy.  However, most online advertising, like search, simply extracts value from e...