A. Eicoff & Company: Press Releases

Networks Turn to DRTV in Tough Times

Mon, 24 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Ron Bliwas President and CEO, A. Eicoff & Co.
May 17 2010

On January 2, 1971, the ban on cigarette advertising created a huge drop in television advertising revenue to the tune of about $270 million. The recent recession created a similar decline. In both instances, direct response advertisers rode to the rescue.

In the 1970s, the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) began an effort to find new sources of revenue, and they decided that direct response advertisers were a natural source. At TVB's urging, stations relaxed their restrictions on longer-length spots, and agencies encouraged clients to capitalize on this move. Increased DRTV money helped compensate for lost cigarette ad revenue at the time.

When the recent recession hit, direct response advertisers again increased their spending, drawn by greater availabilities and lower rates. From pharmaceutical companies with direct-to-consumer spots to online companies trying to generate web site visits, they provided significant direct response revenue that propped up stations' sagging bottom lines.

As the economy improves, we're bound to see a swing back toward less availability and higher rates for direct response advertisers. The same thing happened in the 1970s after stations recovered from the loss of cigarette ad dollars.

Stations, however, should understand that a fundamental change has occurred. Many advertisers have shifted their budgets away from television and toward new media. Direct response advertisers, though, remain more committed to television than ever before. They include a growing number of blue chip companies, such as Ameritrade, Procter & Gamble and Sears.

Just as important, hundreds of companies have joined the DRTV ranks recently as they try to drive viewers to their websites. Given these trends, stations may want to think of DRTV advertisers not just as saviors in dark times, but as partners for a brighter future.

Source: Networks Turn to DRTV in Tough Times

U-Store-It Launches Television and Radio Advertising

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

WAYNE, PA--(Marketwire - May 21, 2009) - U-Store-It Trust (NYSE: YSI), a national self-storage company offering storage facilities, service and solutions, launched its first-ever television advertising campaign in early April with 30- and 60-second commercials. The company expanded the campaign to 23 major markets across the U.S. in subsequent weeks. The company launched 60-second radio spots in 19 major markets in early May to supplement the television advertising. The commercials promote a lowest price guarantee as well as the potential to receive the first month rent free.

"We are very pleased with the early results of our initial television and radio advertising," said U-Store-It Chief Executive Officer Dean Jernigan. "In April we realized strong growth in web site hits in the targeted markets, compared with March. We entered 2009 focused to broaden our reach through additional marketing initiatives. In today's economy, our lowest price guarantee delivered through local television and radio, national cable television and our web site is clearly resonating well with consumers."

The U-Store-It lowest price guarantee will beat the competition by 10 percent of the price variance and applies to immediately available storage units of comparable size within three miles of the selected U-Store-It facility. In addition to the lowest price guarantee, the promotion includes the potential for customers to receive their first month rent free at select locations. U-Store-It self-storage units are offered on a month-to-month rental term to meet the need for temporary or long-term storage.

The commercials also highlight the role of the company's local general managers. "Our managers are self storage experts and we want customers to know a helpful manager at each company-owned location is a vital element of our storage solution," said U-Store-It Director of Marketing Kristi Gubbels.

Viewers are given a toll-free number to call or they can go online at ustoreit.com to take advantage of the self-storage promotions and to find a nearby storage facility.

To view the U-Store-It commercials visit the company's YouTube page at http://youtube.com/ustoreitstorage. A. Eicoff & Company, the largest direct response (DRTV) agency in the U.S. produced the commercials.

Visitors to ustoreit.com can also view the sizes and features of individual self-storage units, reserve storage space, and pay their storage bills online using a safe, secure online payment function.

For more information about business or personal storage call U-Store-It toll free at 1-888-U-STORE-IT.

About U-Store-It Trust

U-Store-It Trust is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust. The Company's self-storage facilities are designed to offer affordable, easily accessible and secure storage space for residential and commercial customers. According to the Self Storage Almanac, U-Store-It Trust is one of the top four owners and operators of self-storage facilities in the U.S.

Source: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/U-Store-It-Trust-NYSE-YSI-993296.html

Media Zone: The DNA of DRTV

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Mike Powell

Published: April 1, 2009

Everyone wants to know the secret to direct response television (DRTV) advertising. In a world where converging technologies facilitate viewer responses, commercials bear URLs, and Web advertising seduces business with pay-as-you-go models, DRTV is appealing.

Advertisers who wouldn't have touched this tactic a few years ago are intrigued, and are siphoning funds away from traditional brand-only TV. Predictably, general market agencies are scrambling to learn more — to become facile in the world of selling direct. I'm in a good position to spill some DRTV secrets to the uninitiated.

After more than 15 years in the brand advertising business, I'm a DRTV convert. In fact, my enthusiasm prompted me to want to write something along the lines of This-Many Steps to Great DRTV. Unfortunately, a secret sequence of events doesn't exist.

Then it hit me. Rather than a series of steps to follow, like assembly instructions for a grill or backyard swing-set, could it be that successful DRTV spots have common elements that can be applied and work together in myriad ways? Kind of like DNA: core essential elements, assembled in an infinite number of combinations.

We've all heard that advertising isn't brain surgery. I suppose it's not genetic engineering either. But maybe it's a little like creative engineering. So, here's my perspective on the double helix that is DRTV. Specifically, here are the four essential elements:

Element 1: The E Factor

Your best chance at avoiding the tyranny of the remote or the mouse is to engage your prospect. Important point: this is all about them, not you. It's been said that a good salesperson is a good listener. But what do you do when you're not even in the room?

In the monologue of pre-produced video — on TV or online — the listening happens beforehand. Immerse yourself in your target audience, appreciate the value of your product or service to them, and figure out how the two fit together. You can't bully someone into responding to your offer with repetition and volume. You have to engage, not assault.

Element 2: CrV (Create Value)

Before you can elicit a phone call or mouse click, you must communicate value — and I don't mean how much it costs. Your commercial has to create value, enough that someone will not only be willing, but indeed want to spend money and invest time to get it. This isn't the time or place to imply or intimate. Be clear. Be concise. Be explicit. Demonstrate. Explain. Educate if you can. Share a success story. Does it resolve a conflict? Does it solve a problem? Does it do something surprising? Construct your case, and make it airtight.

Element 3: X-clusivity

Given a choice, a potential customer will almost always opt to wait. In the DRTV world of immediate and measurable response, this is not good. As a DRTV advertiser, it's critical to communicate exclusivity. Are there no others like it? Is this the only way to get it? Is it the only one available at this low price?

Engineer your exclusivity. Is there a respected brand association that separates it from the rest? Is there a personality who uses nothing else? Dig deep. And forget about faux exclusivity. Be genuine.

Element 4: Sell

Wait for it ... then sell. Timing has a lot to do with making the sale. Sell too soon, and you're likely to get the proverbial door slam. DRTV practitioners tell you to get the phone number up early. But it's going to have more impact when it coincides with something meaningful in the script. If you can, sweeten the offer in case someone is on the fence. Clearly ask your prospect to buy and tell them how. If your commercial works, selling is easy because your consumer is anxious to buy.

Of course, engaging the audience, creating value, engineering exclusivity and selling soundly are not for the faint of heart. DRTV spots are judged failures or successes within days or weeks after they air. You can't hide behind great production values or clever concepts — it works or it doesn't.

So add one internal element to your DRTV DNA: guts. You've got to be brave to be in this business, and if you're worried about being judged on every commercial you create, don't do one with an 800 number.

Mike Powell is senior vice president/executive creative director at Chicago-based A. Eicoff & Co. ( http://www.eicoff.com/)

http://www.responsemagazine.com/responsemag/Media/Media-Zone-The-DNA-of-DRTV/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/592269?contextCategoryId=1994

For more information, please visit ResponseMagazine.com

No One-Size-Fits-All Snuggie Model Exists for DRTV Agencies

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Jack Neff

Published: March 23, 2009

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- For years, direct-response agencies have toiled in the shadows of their more glamorous peers at conventional ad agencies. Now, direct-response TV shops are finding their place in the sun as the recession darkens the outlook for most of the marketing industry.

The definition of a direct-response agency is as fluid as the media schedules that define the space. There are new-age independents and major players owned by the top agency-holding companies striving for respectability in a marketing-services world that long has looked down its nose at hard-sell pitches. And then there's old-school "yell and sell" practitioner pitching the Ped Egg and the Snuggie -- production companies that shoot ads directly off client briefs and make no pretense of being "agencies."

But as the downturn rolls on and marketers increasingly start to look at ways to increase return on investment, the lines are starting to blur.

Prominently adorning the website of Sullivan Productions, run by well-known pitchman Anthony Sullivan, the man who helped make Billy Mays an even-better-known household name, is a quote from David Ogilvy: "If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative."

Meanwhile, the agency that bears Mr. Ogilvy's name at WPP owns what's regarded by many as the largest agency in the business, A. Eicoff & Co., Chicago. It would seem that it doesn't get any more old-school in DRTV than the 50-year-old shop that claims founder Alvin Eicoff coined the phrase "or your money back." But having become a division of Ogilvy in 1982 and with a client list that includes Procter & Gamble Co. and Sears in addition to the Scooter Store, Eicoff also has its foot planted firmly in the new-school camp of shops seeking mainstream respectability. "If you look at the Snuggies of the world, we kind of look at that as the old-school kind of DRTV," said William McCabe, exec VP-business development at Eicoff. "But frankly, that may not be where the business is today. Today it's Fortune 100 companies that are using this."

Fred Vanore, exec VP of Blue Moon Studios, a West Paterson, N.J., production house that shot last year's Snuggie ads that were adapted loosely off a brief from the marketer, All-Star Marketing Group, begs to differ. He's also produced ads for the likes of P&G, Johnson & Johnson and Church & Dwight.

Hard-sell branding
Sandy French, CEO of Northern Lights Direct Response, Toronto (slogan: "DR Campaigns that Sell and Build Brand") is one of many DRTV players who sees a convergence of brand advertising and the hard-sell of direct response. "Our commercials look like brand commercials," he said, but with benefit-driven copy designed to deliver immediate response.

One thing that often divides the so-called old and new schools is compensation. The traditional players are far more likely to accept, or even demand, compensation as a cut of revenue. The more-established shops attached to holding companies are far more likely to work for fees or retainers.

Mr. Sullivan, in fact, insists on a royalty for most ads he produces, and Mr. Mays likewise gets his cut.

That's not, however, the way shops such as Halogen Response Media, a direct-response unit of Publicis Groupe's Mediavest, operate. "There are companies [working off royalties] and there's a huge upside if they succeed, obviously," said Steve Friedman, senior VP. "But we're after long-term relationships with world-class brands that we can have a partnership with."

But Mr. Sullivan believes the royalty system gives him plenty of incentive to make his commercials work, in addition to giving smaller or start-up companies a chance to get on air that they otherwise might miss if they had to make big upfront commitments.

On the other hand, since he still does work for OxiClean marketer Church & Dwight, which doesn't go by the royalty model, he also charges more conventional upfront fees for more conventional clients. "At the end of the day," he said, "they'll be paying Billy and me a million dollars either way."
How to succeed at DRTV

STEAL WITH PRIDE: Neither your product nor the approach has to be entirely original to work. "At one time in the 1990s there were six ab machines that all looked substantially similar, cost substantially the same amount and had different celebrities promoting them, and all of them were doing well," said Gerald Bagg, CEO of Quigley-Simpson, a Los Angeles direct-response shop. "It validates the category. If there's one player only, people start to wonder, How valid is this?"

FAIL FAST AND CHEAP: The ratios vary, but it's one of the keys to direct-response success. Only about 1 in 5, or -- if they're lucky -- 1 in 3 products tested by multiproduct marketers such as TeleBrands or All-Star Marketing Group show potential for commercial success.

DON'T FORGET THE ONLINE COMPONENT: Increasingly, as many as a quarter to a third of sales of DRTV-advertised products come online, not through the toll-free number, according to Doug Garnett, CEO of Atomic Direct, Portland, Ore.

Increasingly, that makes search optimization crucial, since many people type a brand name or sometimes just a product description into Google rather than going direct to a brand website, said Tim O'Leary, CEO of R2C Group, also based in Portland, and one of the largest DRTV shops in the U.S. Search, therefore, gives competitors an opportunity to intercept consumers drawn by your ad, and an opportunity for you to close the sale.

For some high-ticket items, response to DRTV ads comes 85% online, Mr. O'Leary said. Increasingly, DRTV drives orders to Amazon, too, meaning daily Amazon sales also need to be tracked to measure ad effectiveness.

PRIME TIME MAY NOT BE PRIME FOR DRTV: Prime time has in some cases opened up to direct-response advertisers in recent months, but it's not clear yet it's right for them. "I don't think DR even belongs in prime time," Mr. Bagg said. "When you're watching prime time, you're not at your most disarmed state. You're in a state where you're watching content."

TWO-MINUTE ADS MAY WORK BETTER: WPP's A. Eicoff & Co. has always specialized in the 120-second spot, but it sees a particular surge in it now because of the avails. Whatever the media-cost implications, 120-second spots work better for DRTV because they often give the advertiser all or most of a pod and more time to drive home complex benefits, an 800 number and website URL, said Francie Gordon, senior VP-media.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=135319

For more information, please visit AdAge.com.

Guess Which Medium Is as Effective as Ever: TV

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

by Jack Neff

Published: February 23, 2009

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- The drumbeat of doom for TV advertising has sounded for more than a decade -- DVRs, channel surfing, fragmentation, clutter, the flight to digital media ... Jay Leno moving to prime time. Now the recession has even TV's most reliable moneybags of yore, such as Procter & Gamble and General Motors, yanking big wads of cash off the table.

Yet a funny thing is emerging from the smoldering ruins of what may be the ugliest quarter TV has ever encountered financially: a growing body of evidence which suggests not only that TV advertising still works, but that it may be working better than ever. Analyses by people and companies that have studied or made bets on advertising effectiveness for years find no evidence that all of the problems TV advertising faces have done anything to render it less effective.

A seven-figure ethnographic study due to be released next month by the Nielsen Co.-funded Council for Research Excellence from research firm Sequent and the Center for Media Design at Ball State University appears set to punctuate that point, finding that TV remains the dominant medium even for reaching youth, despite the inroads of digital and social media, according to a person familiar with the research.

If time shifting, ad skipping or clutter really were rendering TV less effective, then it should show up in marketing-mix analyses that have been done since the early 1990s as a lower average sales lift per gross rating point over time.

It doesn't, according to Marketing Management Analytics (MMA),* a unit of Aegis Group's Synovate. "We haven't seen a significant trend in the erosion of effectiveness of TV," said Douglas Brooks, senior VP of MMA. In fact, MMA, which reports to clients each year on its findings regarding aggregate TV effectiveness, has seen a slight uptick in effectiveness in recent years.

Offline driving online
MMA also has found a surprising spillover effect for TV in digital media: About a third of search queries for brands studied are driven by offline advertising, particularly TV -- a higher proportion than that driven by online-display advertising, Mr. Brooks said.

Leonard Lodish, a marketing professor at Wharton and one of the authors of the 1995 "Why Advertising Works" study, has discovered equally surprising results. He's found that TV advertising actually became more effective, not less, after 1995, in a paper published in 2007 by the Journal of Advertising Research, soon to be updated in a new study now awaiting publication by the same journal.

He got at the findings differently than MMA, and with less statistical modeling required, by using data from Information Resources Inc.'s BehaviorScan markets and other matched-market tests that compared different levels of spending in different test markets. Specifically, the average volume lift from incremental TV spending has increased since 1995, according to the study by Mr. Lodish, Wharton colleague Abba Krieger and University of Houston marketing professor Ye Hu.

One reason could be that commercial avoidance, fragmentation and clutter actually increased the reward from spending more. But the study also found a similar, if smaller, improvement since 1995 in volume lift for brands when they had any amount of TV vs. having none at all.

Despite the improved effectiveness since 1995, more than half the advertisers (16 of 29) in the study still lost money by running their TV ads. "The ones that did make a profit, though, did very well," said Mr. Lodish, to the extent that on the whole, advertisers in the study made a profit from their TV ads after 1995, but lost money before 1995.

Creative matters
That's obviously a serious caveat to the value of spending on TV. The other caveat is one that other marketing-mix analysts also report from client work that creative quality makes a big difference, in many cases explaining more about success and failure than media choices.

Mr. Lodish said he still doesn't really know how TV advertising effectiveness could have increased since 1995. Mr. Brooks can't really explain it either, though he has a theory that the highly analytical clients using marketing-mix modeling or matched-market tests may compensate for the impact of DVRs, fragmentation and clutter by making smarter bets.

"When the fish get finicky," he said, "it makes you a better fisherman. The presentation of the bait and how it's delivered -- getting it in the right spot at the right time -- becomes critical."

The other question Mr. Brooks often hears these days is whether recession historically has caused the average sales lift per GRP to decline. The answer, at least based on data from the relatively mild recession of 2000-2001, is no.

Looking for even more evidence? Executives at A. Eicoff & Co., a unit of WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather that's one of the biggest direct-response TV shops in the U.S., said response rates from its TV ads haven't deteriorated at all over the years. "The death of TV has been exaggerated," said William McCabe, the shop's senior VP-business development.

~ ~ ~
CORRECTION: The full name of the Aegis Group unit MMA -- Marketing Management Analytics -- was incorrectly listed as Media Marketing Assessment.

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=134790

For more information, please visit AdAge.com.

Google Turns to Direct Response TV

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

By Steve McClellan

In a deal that buyers have been pushing for, Google TV struck an agreement last week to integrate its ad buying platform with the industry's leading transaction processor for the direct response TV industry, CoreDirect.

For Google, the deal represents another stake that the company's Internet-based TV auction platform has been able to drive into the turf of traditional TV. For DRTV buyers, it makes the process of buying spots via Google much easier to analyze.

"I've been working with both sides [GoogleTV and CoreDirect] to help them understand our needs to make this happen," said Heather Lang, vp, associate group media director at A. Eicoff, the Chicago-based direct response firm. "They've finally nailed it down and it's working."

For DRTV advertisers the Google platform provides new insights into how to craft creative messages for spots, said Lang. "Their set-top box data shows us down to the second where customers are tuning out of spots," she said. "We haven't had that kind of granularity before." And now, with the CoreDirect agreement, GoogleTV spots will flow directly into analytical software, saving enormous amounts of time, she said.

The deal comes at a time when advertisers are demanding more precise ROI metrics from their agencies and when DRTV spending is on an upswing -- up 36 percent in 2007 -- while other media segments are near flat or down. With the agreement, said Roman Alemania, media supervisor at DirectPartners, Marina del Rey, Calif., "we are starting to achieve some of our most efficient response costs in our campaigns."

As Published in ADWEEK, October 20th, 2008

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3ie08aadb553c2ade9ab11da0ebf68e4e2

TV Commercials Are Dead! Long Live the TV Commercial!

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

By Bill McCabe
Senior VP
A.Eicoff & Co.

Ten years from now, television commercials will cease to exist.

This prediction is being whispered in the corridors of ad agencies, in television network hallways and in the meeting rooms of blue chip advertisers.

It is a prediction based on certain statistics and trends. For instance, an Advertising Age study found that the top 100 advertisers shifted $1 billion last year from television and newspapers to the web. In addition, experts estimate that 40% of households will have DVR capabilities by 2012, making it easy for viewers to watch programs without having to watch commercials. And market research firm Outsell Inc. recently reported that online advertising this year is expected to increase 12.3% and reach $105.3 billion, exceeding the combined amount spent on radio and television advertising for the first time.

So is the television commercial doomed? Not at all. Contrary to these statistics, certain types of commercials are healthier than they’ve ever been. Ten years from now, traditional 30-second, brand-building network spots may be scarce, but we’re going to see a new breed of commercial—a breed that is more measurable, flexible and targeted than what we’re used to.

Yet media pundits are quick to tar all television commercials with the same brush. They envision a time in the not-too-distant future where all stations will be similar to HBO and programming will be supported solely by subscribers and other ancillary income sources.

The problem is that these pundits are mistaking an evolution in viewer advertising attitudes for a revolution. People have always complained about commercials and sometimes muted the television when they air. But they have also accepted them as the price they pay for their favorite programming. There’s no evidence that this is changing. Huge numbers of people are still watching their favorite network programs, sporting events and talk shows in “real” time and sitting through the commercials. An unwritten pact exists between viewers and advertisers: You give us good programs and we’ll accept a certain amount of advertising.

This pact will remain in place in the future, though with modifications. Viewers have more leverage than ever before; they can watch commercial-free cable stations; they can zap commercials; they can download their programs commercial-free to various hand-held electronic devices.

As the balance of power shifts, so too will the type of commercials that air. As television becomes a much more individualized, responsive medium, commercials will follow suit. 30-second network “glamour” spots were perfect for a mass medium. As the medium becomes more specialized and as the individual viewers exercise greater power over what is viewed, we’re going to see more direct response commercials, more spots designed to lead viewers to web sites and more viewer-controlled advertising.

If you look closely at emerging trends in television advertising, you’ll see that many of these the predictions are already taking shape. Even an casual observer will notice that a much greater variety of spots exist now than ten years ago: longer-length spots for packaged goods products, a continuing expansion of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical commercials, a boom in direct response high ticket offers for cars and travel and a growing number of not-for-profits taking advantage of television’s fundraising power. If you look a bit more closely, you’ll also notice that more commercials are including web site addresses that, when viewers click on their sites, offer them various options: watching infomercials, finding tech specs, requesting a sales call.

Convergence technology will increase viewer control to the point that people may be given commercial options: choose between ten commercials, each for a different type of car; or the choice may be between a car commercial, a spot for a piece of athletic equipment and one for an airline.

If you still believe that television advertising is on the verge of extinction, consider three key advantages it has over web sites and other new media.

First, it partners well telemarketers. Viewers are accustomed to calling an 800 number after seeing a direct response commercial. They want to talk to a knowledgeable human being. It is a well-conditioned reflex, one that doesn’t work nearly as effectively on web sites. Browsing is an internet term, and that is exactly what people do when they visit a web site. Sites have not yet developed a similarly effective response mechanism.

Second, commercials on television are more impactful than commercials that run in the new media. A larger screen and a superior sound system allow commercials to have a much greater impact on viewers than the smaller screens and poorer sound of many computers, smart phones, etc.

Third, people don’t zap most commercials. DVRs are primarily used for top-rated network programs. The vast majority of television programming—reruns, older movies, talk shows and so on—aren’t recorded. On top of that, the majority of viewers don’t use DVRs frequently or at all. Television remains a passive medium. Most people prefer to sit there and watch rather than “do” anything, even if technology makes it simple to do away with commercials.

Rather than make the argument that television advertising is dying, a better argument is that television advertising is changing. It is morphing into a much more specialized, responsive strategy than in the past, and for advertisers that pick up on this trend, it will be an even more effective strategy than ever before.

Television Advertising's Salvation

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

By Bill McCabe
Senior Vice President
A. Eicoff & Co.

Can DRTV save television advertising from going the way of the dinosaur?

As advertisers shift significant dollars from television and into the web and as technology makes it easier than ever before for viewers to zap commercials, doom and gloom scenarios for television advertising abound. More than one media pundit has predicted that television stations will all eventually adopt the HBO model and make their money through subscriber fees and ancillary income.

What these pundits have failed to factor into their predictions, however, is DRTV. Direct response television traditionally does well in a recession, and this one is no exception. Offers for high ticket items, not-for-profit fundraising, web-site focused spots and direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical commercials are just some DRTV areas that are thriving.

More to the point, all the signs point to DRTV doing even better in the future.

First, consider an emerging trend—the diversification of DRTV spots. If you study the commercials that air in a given non-network, non prime time period, you’ll discover a startling variety of spots—a variety that didn’t exist until relatively recently. You’ll find hybrid DRTV/retail spots designed to generate sales directly and in stores; you’ll see direct response commercials for a range of high ticket offers (cars, travel, consumer electronics, home exercise equipment); you’ll come across numerous not-for-profit fundraising ads.

Second, the Internet has actually helped rather than hurt DRTV budgets. There’s no question that a significant percentage of advertisers have shifted dollars out of television and into Internet advertising. Yet most of these dollars have come from blue chip advertisers running 15- and 30-second spots on prime time, network shows. As viewership numbers go down, they naturally don’t want to continue paying an arm and a leg for these spots. Yet they see DRTV as a natural conduit to their web sites. In fact, we’re seeing a growing number of spots where the primary goal is to drive viewers to advertisers’ sites.

Third, as cable and satellite stations continue to proliferate and the number of subscribers continues to increase, DRTV will be the beneficiary. Since cable’s earliest days, DRTV has been its perfect advertising partner. With its more affluent audiences (than broadcast stations) and its specialized offerings, cable/satellite is tailor-made for DRTV advertisers. They can do a better job of matching an offer with the audience of a given station, and they can sell higher-ticket items because of higher income levels of viewers.

Fourth, DRTV is a highly versatile strategy, one that can adapt to the new media. Invariably, we’re going to see a great number of direct response spots running on web sites and smart phones, not just on television. As a response-based strategy, it is naturally well-suited to phones and computers, since it’s easier to respond to an offer with these devices than through the television-telephone combination. Perhaps more significantly, we’re bound to see advertisers creating traditional television DRTV spots to drive viewers to web sites to choose from a series of specialized DRTV offers. A car company, for instance, may run a “generalized” DRTV commercial on TNT, and then viewers who go to the advertised web site can choose from spots for the company’s 10 models.

Fifth, the High Definition trend is perfect for DRTV’s bread and butter: demonstration spots. From the earliest days of television, direct marketers have known that the more compelling the demonstration, the greater the response. Some products don’t demonstrate as well on television as they do live, in large part because mediocre picture quality and sound blunts the power of the presentation. HDTV coupled with large screens and superior sound systems are changing all this, and it’s going to make television an ideal medium for demonstrations of everything from high-end kitchen gadgets to home exercise equipment.

What all this means is that television advertising is going to change rather than disappear. It’s going to evolve in a response-oriented direction. In fact, I don’t believe I’m being overly bold in predicting that at some point in the future, every television commercial will include a response vehicle. Even brand-building, prime time network spots will provide viewers with a way to talk back, to ask questions and to voice their opinion. Advertisers are pretty smart. Once they realize that viewers are ready, willing and able to respond to just about anything that airs, they’re going to find ways to facilitate that response. Web sites may be a part of every commercial, superimposed on the screen from the commercial’s start to its finish. As technologies converge, a button may exist on the remote that allows viewers to respond immediately with all sorts of purchases, information requests or ideas.

None of this is bad, unless you’re a traditional advertiser or agency that refuses to accept that the DRTV spot that once aired in the wee hours of the night is entering the prime time spotlight.

You've Lost That Selling Spirit

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Why television spots fail to make a sale, and what brands and agencies can do about it

-By Ron Bliwas
July 14, 2008

Television commercials are losing their ability to sell. This thought came to me after being inducted into the Direct Marketing Association Hall of Fame a few months ago, when someone asked me how TV advertising had changed over the past 40 years.

Admittedly, as a television direct response advertising practitioner, I'm biased in favor of commercials that sell. But my statement applies to all types of television commercials. From image-focused car commercials to boundary-pushing beer ads to direct response insurance offers, these spots don't motivate viewers to take action -- to go to a store, to call a toll-free number, to visit a Web site. By and large, most commercials are unable or unwilling to make the cash register ring.

Why? Because product demonstrations tend to be poorly conceived and executed (or not used at all). Because toll-free numbers and Web addresses are presented poorly: They're not on the screen long enough; they appear at the wrong time, and the commercial doesn't compel viewers to get off the couch and respond. Because too many commercials focus on being clever and conceptual rather than creatively communicating reasons to buy. Commercials today seem almost embarrassed to ask for the order, as if doing so might offend viewers' sensibilities.

It wasn't this way in the early days of television, when commercials sold with bravado and tremendous effectiveness. Of course, what worked then would never work today because viewers have become much more sophisticated buyers -- they'd be turned off by the crude look and hyperbole of some of the spots. What would work, though, is recapturing the selling spirit of those early commercials. I believe you can learn a lot from history, so let me share a bit of television advertising history with you.

Until Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minnow delivered his "vast wasteland" speech in 1961 and the maximum commercial length was set at two minutes, spots were sometimes five to 10 minutes or even longer. Some of these longer commercials were actually listed in the television section of the newspaper and were as popular as the programs they competed against.

In a number of instances, advertisers brought in professional pitchmen from carnivals, department stores, open-air city markets and the Atlantic City boardwalk, trained the camera on them and gave them free rein to sell. And sell they did -- slicers and dicers, car polish, cosmetics, real estate and jewelry.

The production standards of these early commercials were low. The pitchmen often looked disreputable. The odds are that at least some of them stretched the truth to make a sale.

When they were finished, though, you wanted to buy. The demonstrations were compelling: They set cars on fire to demonstrate the durability of a car polish; they made chopping vegetables look easy and fun. They worked their audience into a buying mode, building on the benefits and presenting an airtight case for why you couldn't do without a product. They motivated with meaningful premiums, warnings that the deal wouldn't be available for long and slashed prices.

Pitchmen weren't concerned about building brands, an integral part of television advertising today, even for those of us doing television direct-response work. But it's possible to build a brand and sell at the same time. Too often, though, advertisers and their agencies act as if they're mutually exclusive activities. They rarely incorporate tried-and-true selling tactics into their spots -- testimonials, call-to-action devices, demonstrations, guarantees -- as if these techniques might somehow taint their brand building.

Too many spots focus on being provocative, funny or emotional, but fail to make a sale. Viewers scratch their heads, laugh or cry, but they don't buy.

To recapture the selling spirit, I suggest these tactics:

Create longer commercials. Some products and services are too complex to be sold effectively in 30 seconds, and a longer length allows for better demonstrations or more compelling offers.
Use a two-step process. The commercial should be the first step to drive customers to call a number, visit a store or go to a Web site. For many products and services -- especially high-ticket ones-it's much easier to sell viewers on taking a no-commitment step than actually buying. Once they make the effort to take this step, however, they qualify themselves and greatly increase the odds they'll buy if the second step is handled effectively.
Include an act-now reason. Try this experiment: Watch 10 commercials and see how many of them give you a good reason to buy now rather than later. Not many. Act-now reasons can be anything from limited-date offers to special pricing. One caveat: These reasons need to be presented with more conviction and sophistication than a car dealer's ad.
Tell agencies to create spots that sell. Agencies are perfectly capable of creating commercials that produce results, but they won't do so unless advertisers give them that direction.

Let me assure you that I'm not suggesting that all commercials should resemble late-night pitches for personal injury lawyers. That would simply make a bad situation worse. What I am suggesting is that television advertising is in danger of forgetting its true purpose, and that when commercials stop making the cash register ring, advertisers will look toward other media to achieve that goal.

Ron Bliwas is CEO and president, Ogilvy & Mather's A. Eicoff & Co.

As Published in ADWEEK, July 14th, 2008

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/community/columns/other-columns/e3i5dab627a6e5e9f670127924ab621c819

Bliwas and Morgan Inducted into DMA Hall of Fame

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Chicago — Ronald L. Bliwas, president/CEO of A. Eicoff & Company, the largest direct response television agency in the nation, and Charles D. Morgan, chairman of the board and company leader of Acxiom Corporation, a firm that integrates data, services, and technology, were inducted into the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) Hall of Fame at a luncheon today.

DMA Hall of Fame Committee Chair Marjorie Kalter, Ph.D., academic program director and clinical professor at New York University, presented the awards to Bliwas and Morgan. The awards, which are DMA’s highest honor, were presented during the DMA07 Conference & Exhibition, the multichannel global marketing event of the year, which concludes on Thursday at McCormick Place West in Chicago.

Ronald L. Bliwas
President/Chief Executive Officer, A. Eicoff & Company

As the head of A. Eicoff & Company for 27 years and an employee of the agency for 37 years, Ron Bliwas has earned a reputation as one of the country’s leading and most respected authorities on direct-response television advertising. Under Bliwas’ leadership, Eicoff has grown to become one of the top 10 agencies in Chicago, greatly expanding its client base over the years to include companies such as Sears, Bose Electronics, New York Life, and Ameritrade.

Bliwas writes and speaks frequently about television advertising, and his expertise and accomplishments have received widespread recognition. He has been named one of the most influential people in Chicago by Crain’s Chicago Business; has received similar recognition from Response TV magazine; and has been interviewed by Mike Wallace to provide “60 Minutes” viewers with an overview of the DRTV business.

In 2007, Bliwas’ book, The C Student’s Guide to Success, was published by Penguin (under the Tarcher imprint). It has been named a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and has received praise from The Washington Post, Chicago Magazine, and other publications.

In 2005, Bliwas served as DMA’s chairman of the board and today continues to serve on the DMA board. He also serves on Taylor Capital Group, Inc.’s Board of Directors, the University of Arizona National Board of Advisors, the Board of Friends of Prentice (Northwestern Memorial Hospital Foundation), and Illinois Institute of Technology’s Psychology Department Board of Overseers.

A 1964 graduate of the University of Arizona with a B.S. in marketing, Bliwas also received a degree from Northwestern University’s Institute for Advanced Advertising Studies.

Charles D. Morgan
Chairman of the Board and Company Leader, Acxiom Corporation

Charles D. Morgan is company leader of Acxiom Corporation. Under his leadership, Acxiom has expanded from a small data processing company into a global corporation that provides customer and information management solutions for many of the world’s largest, most respected companies. Earlier this month, Morgan announced that he would retire as company leader upon the selection of a successor.

After six years at IBM as a systems engineer, in 1972, Morgan joined Acxiom as vice president. Since 1975, he has served as the company’s chief executive officer and chairman of its board of directors. In 1991, he assumed the additional title of president. His title became company leader when Acxiom eliminated executive titles in 1997.

Morgan maintains a keen interest in technology and continues to participate actively in setting Acxiom’s technical direction. By instilling a unique business culture and vision of success, he has become one of the few executives in the country to see his company named five times to Fortune’s coveted “100 Best Places to Work” list.

In 2001, Morgan served as DMA’s chairman of the board. He also served for eight years as chairman of the board of trustees at Hendrix College and continues to serve as a trustee.

In 2002, Morgan joined 13 other senior executives from leading US companies to form the Mailing Industry CEO Council, which aims to unify the mailing industry and promote the critical role that mail plays in business and commerce. That same year, he joined the Enterprise Software CEO Roundtable, a group of approximately 30 chief executives and other high-ranking officials from the world’s largest software companies, who meet to share ideas and review industry trends.

A native of Fort Smith, AR, Morgan is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

About the DMA Hall of Fame

DMA’s Hall of Fame honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the practice, growth, and stature of direct marketing. Since it was established in 1978, DMA has honored 91 men and women whose vision and leadership have helped shape today’s data-driven, multichannel marketing profession.

URL as effective as toll-free number

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800

From DM News
By Ron Bliwas, President & CEO, A. Eicoff & Company

Most of you are aware that the inclusion of URLs in commercials is having a huge impact on our business. You may be unaware, however, that parallels exist between these proliferating URLs and the advent of toll-free numbers in direct response spots about 30 years ago. By examining these parallels, we can see how the current trend is changing DRTV on many levels.

Many commercials today incorporate URLs into their spots, some for true measurement purposes and others not. From high-budget, brand-building commercials to traditional, longer-length DRTV ones, Web site addresses are everywhere. The industry is buzzing with talk about the impact of URLs, just as the industry buzzed when 800 numbers were introduced in DRTV commercials.

Some of you may recall the "old days" of DRTV before toll-free numbers, when handling calls from respondents was a logistical nightmare. It was the lowest-tech operation imaginable, with separate numbers and separate operators for each geographical area.

Many viewers were reluctant to call these numbers because they assumed they would be charged or because they had called once and couldn't get through - or they did get through and had to deal with an unprofessional operator who couldn't answer their questions or do much more than take the order.

Toll free numbers changed everything. Not only did they make it easier for viewers to order, but they were psychologically reassuring - people who were suspicious of the "ordinary" phone numbers appearing on the screen were reassured by the toll-free technology.

Over time, this technology enabled advertisers to provide callers with options for more information and ordering, to capture information that could be used for future database marketing efforts, to qualify callers for higher ticker lead generation offers and so on.

Richer Experience Online

Today, the use of Web site addresses in spots is having a similar impact.

First, it is making DRTV an even more accountable advertising medium. Just as 800 number technology made DRTV more accountable years ago, the technology is now in place to track a given television commercial's impact on Web site traffic.

We can now determine how many people visited a site after seeing a commercial and then clicked on the button for more information, used a retailer-locator feature, printed a Web site coupon or ordered the product off the site. More so than ever before, advertisers have been demanding greater accountability from their advertising, and the combination of DRTV and Web site technology meets this demand.

Second, this linkage is ideal for the growing number of high-ticket, high-concept offers currently airing. Just as toll free ordering attracted blue chip advertisers to DRTV and expanded the range of offers, URLs are having the same effect.

Think about the wave of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical commercials. One of the problems with these spots is that viewers immediately want more detailed information about a given medication. Commercials linked to Web sites offer viewers the chance to find this information, especially as it applies to their particular condition.

Web sites also provide the advantage of anonymous information searches - many individuals don't want to share information about their health with anyone besides their doctor. This ability to offer a huge volume of information in an accessible and, at times interactive, format will entice any advertiser with an offer that demands more information before buying.

Third, and perhaps most important, these Web site connections make the entire buying process easier. One of the challenges DRTV has always faced is motivating people to leave whatever television show they've been watching to dial a number. Now they don't have to. They can simply slide over to their computer and be online in seconds.

In addition, as television and computer technologies become more integrated, they won't even have to move-they can access the site through the same remote that operates their television sets.

Imminent Integration

This is just the start of the revolution. Just as it took a little time for 800 numbers to catch on (some people actually distrusted the promise that they could make a call and wouldn't be charged for it), it will take awhile before DRTV spots and Web sites are in perfect harmony.

Advertisers still exist who don't understand how to use Web sites in commercials, which display the site address at the wrong time or in the wrong way.

Moreover, many advertisers lack "dedicated" sites - sites that are linked to specific commercials. As a result, it is difficult to track the impact of a spot on Web site traffic.

Nonetheless, these are problems that will resolve themselves with education and experimentation. In a relatively short period of time, we're going to see more innovative integration of DRTV and Web sites, and the impact will be as great if not greater than when 800 numbers changed our industry.

Ron Bliwas is president/CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide's A. Eicoff & Company, a direct response television agency in Chicago. He is also a past chairman of the Direct Marketing Association's board. Reach him at ron.bliwas@ogilvy.com.

That Ad is So Entertaining...But Can It Sell? Who Knows

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 00:00:00 -0800

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