Direct Response Archives

What Does DRTV Mean in Marketing?

Posted on September 12, 2023September 22, 2023 by Modus Direct

What is DRTV?

DRTV, or Direct Response TV, refers to a specific type of television advertising that urges viewers to take immediate action—usually by calling a toll-free number, scanning a QR code, or visiting a website. Unlike traditional TV commercials that primarily aim to build brand awareness, DRTV seeks a direct and quantifiable response from its viewers.

Why Use Direct Response TV in Marketing?

Tangible ROI: With its immediate response mechanism, businesses can easily track their return on investment by linking direct sales or leads to specific TV spots.

Flexible Budgeting: Direct Response TV allows for flexibility in terms of budgeting. Depending on the goals and size of the campaign, advertisers can choose between local, regional, or national broadcasts.

Captivating Storytelling: Especially with long-form DRTV, advertisers have the opportunity to craft a compelling narrative around their product or service, offering depth that traditional ads might not.

Why DRTV Matters in Today’s Marketing Landscape

DRTV offers a unique blend of traditional TV advertising and the measurable results more commonly associated with digital marketing. It’s a powerful tool for businesses looking for a direct and immediate response from potential customers. Whether you’re launching a new product or aiming to increase sales for an existing one, DRTV might just be the strategy you’re looking for.

The Two Main Types of DRTV:

Short-Form DRTV: These are typically spots that run for two minutes or less. They’re concise and aim to capture the viewer’s attention quickly, offering a compelling proposition and an immediate CTA.
Long-Form DRTV: Often referred to as infomercials, these can last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. They provide a deeper dive into the product or service, often including in-depth demonstrations, multiple testimonials, and detailed explanations.

Key Features of Direct Response Television

Direct Response Television (DRTV) stands apart from traditional advertising due to its distinctive characteristics designed to solicit immediate action from viewers. Foremost among its features is the explicit Call to Action (CTA), which encourages viewers to engage directly, be it through making a purchase, signing up, or seeking more information. DRTV commercials are uniquely tailored to be trackable and measurable, enabling advertisers to instantly gauge campaign efficacy by monitoring real-time responses.

DRTV in The Digital Age

As the lines between television and online media blur, DRTV has found new life in the digital age. With the rise of streaming platforms and on-demand content, DRTV advertisements have a unique advantage. They can be tailored to appear during specific shows or to specific demographics, ensuring a more targeted reach.

Moreover, integrating DRTV with digital strategies such as retargeting ads, social media campaigns, or email marketing can lead to even higher conversion rates. The digital age has also introduced interactive TV, where viewers can directly engage with ads by clicking on them, further bridging the gap between television and online response.

Modus Direct’s Expert Approach

At Modus Direct, we specialize in optimizing the unique power of Direct Response TV (DRTV). We utilize a data-driven approach that identifies the ideal channels and time slots in order to maximize your reach and ROI. We integrate next day analytic tracking with digital strategies, allowing for immediate insights. Trust Modus Direct to navigate the constantly evolving DRTV marketing landscape, ensuring your campaigns are both impactful and successful.

How Does DRTV Media Buying Boost Brand Awareness?

Posted on August 2, 2023August 2, 2023 by Modus Direct

Harness the power of Direct Response TV (DRTV) media buying and let your brand stand out in a competitive landscape. A robust DRTV marketing strategy can elevate your brand’s visibility and foster audience engagement.

What is Direct Response TV Media?

The concept of Direct Response TV (DRTV) marketing hinges on driving immediate action from viewers. This marketing methodology, which comprises infomercials and shorter length commercials, propels audiences to respond directly to the advertiser.

The Power of a DRTV Media Buying Agency

Employing a DRTV media buying agency can effectively streamline your media purchasing processes, reducing stress and saving your precious time. These agencies, well-versed in direct response TV marketing, can target the right channels and programs that resonate best with your audience.

Leverage Direct Response TV Advertising

With direct response TV advertising, you gain access to an audience ready to interact with your brand. By incorporating a call to action in the form of a phone number, web address, or QR code, direct response TV advertising enables brands to generate immediate responses from potential customers.

The Role of a DRTV Agency in B2B Advertising

In the realm of B2B advertising, a DRTV agency can play a critical role. By developing comprehensive media plans and strategies, a DRTV agency ensures that your message reaches the right audience, thereby driving high-quality leads and conversions.

The Future of DRTV: Brand Response Advertising

The future of DRTV lies in brand response advertising, a blend of direct response’s tactical approach with brand advertising’s long-term vision. This combination helps in creating memorable campaigns that drive direct engagement and also establish brand identity.

If your brand is ready to harness the power of DRTV media agency expertise and thrive in the era of brand response advertising, get in touch with Modus Direct today.

Don’t get caught up in the big data hype. It could be costly.

Posted on September 25, 2018July 21, 2023 by shanireardon

Don’t get caught up in the big data hype. It could be costly.

Since 1994 I have been reviewing the performance of client advertising campaigns – mostly direct response. In 1994 campaigns utilizing direct response principles were typically direct mail, television (with a TFN only), print and radio. In those days, tracking performance was relatively easy, and WOM (word of mouth) attribution was simply part of the formula. Analyzing business growth, and the contributions to that growth, over distinct periods of time was simply part of the formula. Today, with web, text, social, search, phone, WOM to name a handful, it has made tracking the effectiveness of distinct media channels even more cumbersome. What I always come back to, however, is the foundation of my direct response upbringing. The foundation is developing a method, agreeing on it with your client, and then executing a model built on baselines and collaboration. This is all regardless of the response mechanisms in which you are tracking. This is all just about the math.

There are many companies that are charging clients hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide insights into the impact television has on their business, but it just isn’t necessary. The findings that direct response professionals have been providing for decades continues to hold true, and the good television experts don’t charge extra for it.

I often reference an experience I had reading a case study that was done by Google on a well know brand. The brand utilized the Google 360 platform to test the creative performance of a campaign. The case study video testimonial delivered a compelling message to viewers as to the test environment and the methodical nature in which Google set up its test. This was not something that was revolutionary for me, this was basic stuff. In fact, we have been doing this for our clients since I have been in the business – since the 90s. We have never charged our clients to simply do our job – which is run the most optimal media, at the best times with the best creative. We constantly challenge the controls and change strategies and measurement based on the trajectory of the business and what the data is telling us.

I know different people can interpret the same data in different ways. But, if everyone is aligned on the method, and all parties are interested in the truth, then the end analysis should always be the same.

At the end of it all, don’t get caught up in the hype. You don’t have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to find the truth in the data. The truth is already there – you simply need a partner, who is also interested in the truth, and has the expertise to help you find it.

We Believe in a Balanced Scorecard.

Posted on July 2, 2018July 21, 2023 by shanireardon

We believe in a balanced scorecard. Why? Because it is what is best for our client’s.

As direct response television experts we are constantly challenged with “why television”, “why not put it all in digital”. We also hear a lot about how no one is watching television anymore. Well, if that was true Facebook would not have just launched a TV PR ad campaign to try to fix their privacy/consumer trust problem. Television continues to have the highest reach of any other media. Period. Are the patterns of how people consume video changing, absolutely! That is why the way we purchase television aka video has changed and must continue to change. We buy more VOD than ever before. We take advantage of DSPs more than ever before. We buy more Hulu and Roku than ever before.

Despite all of that, this article is to provide some up to date trends from IAB, VAB and other sources on how TV and digital media work together to make a positive impact on an advertiser’s business. We also provide some stats on media usage/time spent. And last, we provide some debunking of cord cutting.

Enjoy!

1. TV and Digital Executed Simultaneously Drove the Most Impact for Awareness, Familiarity, Opinion and Intent

2. Television continues to have the highest daily media consumption.

http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2018.html?q=*&q_10=listing&q1=Report&x1=contenttypetag&pageFacets=Report&defaultSearchText=&x3=categorytag&q3=Media

3. What are Adults doing any given minute?

4. Cord Cutting – Don’t believe the hype.

MYTH:

Pay TV subscribers will drop cable services for more affordable Over-the Top (OTT) options like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube.

REALITY:

83% of TV households watch cable – steady over the past 15 years

71% of US TV Viewers are “cord stackers” – subscribing to Pay TV and streaming services. Streaming-only customers account for only 11% of viewers. One of the reasons cord-cutters were liberating themselves from the shackles of cable was the cost of cable. In order to fulfill the viewing needs many are now having to subscribe to multiple paid streaming services – inching closer to the cost of cable.

Top 3 TV Strategies any Healthcare Organization can use to Build Loyalty, Awareness, Engagement and Ultimately Bring in New Patients.

Posted on June 26, 2018July 21, 2023 by shanireardon

Top 3 TV Strategies any Healthcare Organization can use to Build Loyalty, Awareness, Engagement and Ultimately Bring in New Patients.

All three of the below strategies are the foundation of a strong television campaign. The execution of a direct response television campaign is built to cost effectively build your brand, awareness, loyalty, engagement and deliver more patients to your institution. For over 30 years healthcare brands have been profitably utilizing direct response television (DRTV) to advertise their hospitals, clinics, healthcare institution, medical equipment, health insurance plans and/or surgery centers.

1. Formula Based Creative

a. Creative developed around the brand promise providing a compelling/arresting opening
b. Capitalize on the healthcare organization’s reason to believe. This can be most effective with testimonials and/or expert endorsers. Cultivate a creative strategy that demonstrates and rejoices the challenges the consumer may face every day and then why your brand is the solution.
c. Develop creative that builds on the brand to maximize loyalty and buying behavior resulting in competitive differentiation and market share growth
d. High-impact visuals to cement the campaign with physicians and potential patients
e. Provide a call to action and offer that is meaningful to the consumer. For example, a free MRI review, no obligation consultation, free treatment, call or go online to find out more; or many other options that would be relevant to the specific brand.
f. Encouraging consumers to visit your website is critical to growing your brand engagement. Ensuring the consumer experience is seamless, easy, informative and best represents your brand promise is imperative.
g. Companies such as AARP, Shriners Hospital for Children, Moffitt Cancer Center and Laser Spine Institute are just a few healthcare brands that deliver on this creative foundation.

2. Cost Saving, Targeted Media

a. Develop a media mix with television (video) as the champion because TV delivers the highest reach. Surround television with a suite of other media that best fit the goals, budget and target sets of the organization.
b. Purchase programming that profiles the target demo and programming/ pricing that is supported by extensive research.
c. With local market goals, focus on key locations, including near facility and competitors in order to have a high-impact to continually emphasize the campaign.
d. If the company has the ability to run national television (video) develop a national campaign with goals developed specific to the targets and individual executions specific to those targets. National cable delivers CPMs (cost per thousand) substantially lower than local TV media therefore if the advertiser has the ability to air media nationally they should air nationally. The goal should be to deliver a CPM under $5.00 with a national cable television plan.

3. Implement Tracking Mechanisms and Baselines prior to any media launch.

a. With the call to action and offer clearly defined in the creative, the foundation of the analytics should take shape. Whether the institution is tracking a lift in responses to their website, growth to walk-in traffic, growth in new appointments or overall growth in new patients, the metrics should be set up and tested prior to campaign launch.
b. Real-time access to the performance of your campaign is going to be critical as you monitor your media spend. Media optimizations based on the analytics should be occurring daily to ensure you reach the goals you established pre-launch. Ensure you have access to your data and performance in a format that is usable to you.
c. A baseline of your business before campaign launch commands attention, and thoughtful time. This baseline is going to provide the starting point to prove all the hard work has paid off. Constant monitoring and evaluation of real-time performance against your baseline will provide leadership the evidence that the campaign you have invested funds and resources has more than paid for itself.
Direct Response Television (DRTV) has been accountable, predictable and actionable since the 1980s and continues to deliver on that promise. For brands that are especially scrutinized to be fiscally responsible there is no other television execution for them other than direct response television (DRTV).