Time was that traditional agencies
saw their DRTV cousins as threats,
lurking in the wings ready to chip
away at the control that the brand
agencies had worked so hard to establish. As
DR matured as a medium, however, those
lines began to blur and the phrase “never the
twain shall meet” began to fade into the past.
And while no single agency can claim to be a
true one-stop-shop for users of both DR and
traditional advertising, the lines between the
two entities continue to blur.
“On one side, the successful DR [marketers] are growing beyond one or two products and starting to think
more like traditional marketers,” says Craig Aramaki,
president at Euro RSCG Edge in Portland, Ore. “At the
same time, we’re seeing more traditional advertisers and
marketers realize the value of spending money on ROI-focused media that’s more measurable and accountable.”
As a result, Aramaki says traditional advertisers are
seeking out agencies that can provide DR-oriented services, whether they are handled in-house (by “blending”
two agencies, as Euro RSCG Edge has done) or out-sourced to an experienced DR agency (a move that other
traditional advertising firms are taking).
Mark Hodor, vice president of direct response for
Carat in Chicago, has also observed an upswing in the
blending of general agency and DR agency capabilities, and calls it “the smart thing to do, based on client
demand.” Unfortunately for those clients, he adds, such
mashing of capabilities isn’t always done very well.
“For the longest time, DR was just another line item
on a flowchart, which isn’t blending,” says Hodor, who
adds that Carat merged its traditional, digital and DR
offerings into a single unit about a year ago. “Blending
comes when results of all media are looked at holistically
and ultimately budgetary decisions are made by planners
to fund the media combination that can move a client’s
brand and achieve desired sales results in the most efficient way.”
