Outside-the-box products in DRTV

DRTV started off as a medium for unusual, unique or plain outlandish products, ranging from perpetually sharp knives, to gym products, to multi-utility ladders. For a long time this trend continued. Slowly things changed for DRTV. New products started to launch that broke the mold. Mainstream products like pharmaceuticals, computers, and even insurance made their entry into DRTV with great success. More and more of such non-conventional products continue to enter the DRTV fray.

An excellent example is an emergency response system for senior citizens launched by LifeFone which signed Advanced Results Marketing recently to drive a national consumer direct response television campaign. Another unique feature of this DRTV campaign apart from the product itself is the fact that it targets more to the caregiver than the senior themselves, which is quite a challenge. The creative makes an emotional call to the children of senior citizens, paralleling the care a parent gives a child with the care a child wants to provide an aging parent. The 30-second spot then demonstrates how a LifeFone pendant automatically calls the LifeFone Emergency Response Center. From there, the subscriber's designated doctor, hospital and EMT as well as family and friends are notified of the emergency.

Such unique and innovative campaigns keep the DRTV medium in a continuous state of dynamic and positive change, and keeps it abreast of all other advertising media.

Making the most of a DRTV campaign

With increased communications choices today, it is essential to integrate the two marketing strategies of building brand awareness and driving response, so that the synergy created by this melding of processes can provide results as well as build brand essence. In addition to this, it is vital in the intensely competitive market today to monitor brand and Direct Response concurrently. From a higher campaign perspective, it is important to measure and evaluate brand metrics along with traditional cost per leads and orders. In many campaigns, the percentage between brand and response activity is shifted based on the campaign goals.

One way to evaluate the success of a campaign is to compare the brand’s place against the competition. Results have shown that brand awareness lift helps our ability to provide a low cost per lead. It is also infinitely useful to use specialized technology which can make a vast difference to a successful brand response campaign. In short, monitoring the response to a DRTV campaign and making optimal use of statistics and patterns can help fine tune the campaign for even better results.

Using testimonials in DRTV

It is a common practice to use testimonials in a DRTV campaign. In fact, many DRTV adverts rely mainly on demonstrations and subsequently testimonials of “real” people talking about the advantages of the product and how they benefited from it. Testimonials give an authentic spin to the product and help the target audience relate to the testifying persons and subsequently, to the product itself. Testimonials can be about various aspects of the product including, ease of use, efficacy, its improving effect on people’s lives and etc.

But recently, an NBC Dateline expose revealed how some misleading DRTV infomercials used paid actors to give “real life” testimonials. There was no large-scale product use, no documentation of term use, no statistical significance, no documentation of actual results, no creditable conclusions and so on. Although this unfair practice is not wide-spread, it is important for the DRTV industry to rally and assure the customer about the authenticity of testimonials, by and large. Recruitment of testimonials for compensation without full disclosure is not an accepted practice by the FTC or industry leaders. The DRTV industry should do everything they can to ensure that on-camera testimonials of experience and results are truthful and accurate.

Smart DRTV campaigns

How can a DRTV campaign compel viewers to take action and win in the long run? In this age of varied media like the television, the internet, radio, mobile phones, cinema, newspapers, magazines, etc, a good DRTV campaign needs to break through the clutter and grab the viewer’s attention. Not only are consumers exposed to various media simultaneously, but they are also becoming adept at consuming simultaneously. For example, people watch TV and compose a mobile SMS at the same time. They listen to the radio and read the newspaper at the same time.

The right way to keep consumers focused on a product in this world of attention dividing channels is to create DRTV messages that are astute and relevant to the consumer. These messages will catch their attention and resonate with them in order to motivate them to purchase your products now or remember the information for the time when they're ready to act. Integrating other media like the internet and direct mail, reinforcing the campaign with print media and/or radio, going retail – these are smart ways to make a DRTV campaign a successful one.

DRTV – Not hindered by new media

With the advent of new media vehicles like the internet, mobile phones, iPods, etc, many people cast a doubt over the reach of traditional media outlets like television, and in turn, advertising media like DRTV. It may be argued that so many new options of entertainment might dilute the impact that television had in the earlier days when it was almost a monopoly, even in spite of radio and print. With consumer attention getting divided in so many new directions, it logically follows that television, and along with it, DRTV might be losing more and more of its viewers.

The good news is that statistics show otherwise. Not only has television held on to its customer base, but the number of people watching television is actually increasing. A Nielsen Media research reports released in 2006 shows that the total viewing time of an average household has increased by 3 minutes as compared to 2005 and that the amount of time watched by an individual has also increased by 3 minutes per day. This obviously means that television advertising and in turn DRTV continues to reach out to more and more people, making it a sustainable profitable vehicle for advertisers.