Why our DRTV agency is Bullish on Radio...
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 existing marketing, it doesn’t create value or demand. With a great offline direct response campaign you not only get a profitable revenue channel, you also gain the benefit of building a brand. For a DR marketer building a brand really means driving sales across multiple distribution channels. So for DRTV marketers who are getting squeezed by TV spot rates, radio can be a great solution.
Yes. Radio can work for direct response...but it often takes commitment and some faith from the marketer. Recently a colleague of mine who heads up media for a health & fitness related service mentioned that they had been running radio for over a year. From the initial results radio looked to be an unfortunate disaster. However, after doing a deeper analysis (which included some “matched-market” evaluations) they found that 60% of the all the leads generated by radio signed up via the web and were not tracked by their 800 number. So when radio was able to generate two phone leads it also generated three web leads that had previously gone untracked.
This meant the advertiser could make a significant raise to his allowable cost per sale from radio as tracked by his 800 numbers. Instead of paying $100 per order for a radio sale, he’s now willing to pay $250 because he knows his radio spots impacts results across multiple revenue channels. Here’s a DRTV business that will be increasing its radio budget in 2011!
Over the last year the agency where I work has begun to turn to radio for our clients. At Integrated Media Solutions we focus on clients who offer “high-consideration and high value” services and products. Radio has been a natural fit for our clients. Certainly radio, especially talk radio, can caters to the thoughtful consumers our agency is often in search of.
Radio now contends with a strong and growing list of competitors for the local advertising dollar (i.e. Google, Groupon, etc.). Yet despite the competitive pressures consumers continue to listen to radio...in fact radio continues to grow its total audience. With growing inventory opportunities including Internet Radio, Satellite and even HD it would seem the time is right for a the industry to embrace direct response advertising.
I am hopeful that the Radio industry embraces direct response in 2011. Perhaps stations, agencies and clients can work together to find new ways improve ROI. Perhaps direct response can help lead radio stations back to double digit revenue growth.
What do you think? Do you plan to expand your DR radio operations in 2011? I’d welcome your comments.
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 existing marketing, it doesn’t create value or demand. With a great offline direct response campaign you not only get a profitable revenue channel, you also gain the benefit of building a brand. For a DR marketer building a brand really means driving sales across multiple distribution channels. So for DRTV marketers who are getting squeezed by TV spot rates, radio can be a great solution.
Yes. Radio can work for direct response...but it often takes commitment and some faith from the marketer. Recently a colleague of mine who heads up media for a health & fitness related service mentioned that they had been running radio for over a year. From the initial results radio looked to be an unfortunate disaster. However, after doing a deeper analysis (which included some “matched-market” evaluations) they found that 60% of the all the leads generated by radio signed up via the web and were not tracked by their 800 number. So when radio was able to generate two phone leads it also generated three web leads that had previously gone untracked.
This meant the advertiser could make a significant raise to his allowable cost per sale from radio as tracked by his 800 numbers. Instead of paying $100 per order for a radio sale, he’s now willing to pay $250 because he knows his radio spots impacts results across multiple revenue channels. Here’s a DRTV business that will be increasing its radio budget in 2011!
Over the last year the agency where I work has begun to turn to radio for our clients. At Integrated Media Solutions we focus on clients who offer “high-consideration and high value” services and products. Radio has been a natural fit for our clients. Certainly radio, especially talk radio, can caters to the thoughtful consumers our agency is often in search of.
Radio now contends with a strong and growing list of competitors for the local advertising dollar (i.e. Google, Groupon, etc.). Yet despite the competitive pressures consumers continue to listen to radio...in fact radio continues to grow its total audience. With growing inventory opportunities including Internet Radio, Satellite and even HD it would seem the time is right for a the industry to embrace direct response advertising.
I am hopeful that the Radio industry embraces direct response in 2011. Perhaps stations, agencies and clients can work together to find new ways improve ROI. Perhaps direct response can help lead radio stations back to double digit revenue growth.
What do you think? Do you plan to expand your DR radio operations in 2011? I’d welcome your comments.
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