Response Magazine - September 2008

According to Carl Langrock, president and COO at COREMedia Systems in Fairfield, N.J., the blending of DR and traditional advertising capabilities dates back to the late 1990s, and was largely driven by big pharmaceutical firms’ entry into the DR space. “These days it’s hard to come up with a product category that doesn’t buy DR,” says Langrock.

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Pick up the last ball

Doug Garnett, president, Atomic Direct in Portland, Ore., and a member of the Response Editorial Advisory Board, says his firm frequently “crosses over” into traditional agency territory. The most successful campaigns, he says, are those that blend the work itself, rather than the individual agencies’ capabilities. That’s because few traditional agencies can do

DR right, and often wind up throwing toll-free numbers onto spots and infomercials that don’t meet the basic standards or requirements of direct response.

“Those types of shows are pretty much guaranteed not to generate response,” says Garnett. What works better, he adds, is when general agencies recognize DR’s specialized nature and bring in experienced agencies to handle that aspect of the campaign. Atomic Direct, for example, worked with a San Francisco-based general agency to create a campaign for the California State Automobile Association. “They looked around for a DRTV specialist to handle that aspect of the campaign, and it worked out very well,” says Garnett. “It was a pairing of the best traditional agency and the best DRTV work in one.”

LAST BALL

Lead Tracking
Call Recording
Rapid Recall 800 Numbers
Intelligent Call Routing
Lead Demographics

This campaign for the California State Automobilie Association, which serves Northern California, was crafted in a cooperative effort by an independent traditional ad agency and a DR-centric agency.

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Such “blending” of capabilities tends to produce the best results when the

DR component is addressed early in the planning stages — and not treated as an afterthought. Garnett says getting to that point can take time, but is highly effective once the traditional agency realizes the value of involving DR on the front end. “When we are in on the planning,” says Garnett, “we can give advice on whether DR is right for the client and address other issues early in the game.”