based Broadcast Communications Media.
Pet-oriented products in particular
are a noticeable newcomer to the top- 10
spots of Jordan Whitney and IMS short-form rankings. Bark Off by TELEBrands,
Pet Zoom Trainer by Emson Corp., Pillow
Pets by Ontel Products and Emery Cat
by Allstar Marketing have all appeared
in Jordan Whitney’s Top 10 from May
through August.
“The challenge when you are able to
snap up low-cost media for traditional
DRTV advertisers is that oftentimes the
consumer response is down,” says Marc
Johnston, CFO, Clackamas, Ore.-based
Direct Avenue, “so while a good DRTV
agency will continue to hit client goals,
true DR metrics such as CPO, CPL and
MER remain relatively level despite the
favorable rates.”
Long-Form Pricing (and Response)
Down
“From the agency and buying side, we
see that pricing of the media on broadcast
and cable on long form is off between 20
choosing to mitigate risk by sticking with
products that they know will perform or
that they can quickly move into retail.
“When dealing with long-form media,
our mantra has been ‘rate reduction or
cancel’ all year,” says Stacy Durand,
president of Santa Monica, Calif.-based
Media Design Group (MDG) and Rev-
enue Frontier (RF). MDG is a traditional
media buying agency and RF is a per-in-
quiry agency. “Our industry is fine when
rates are commensurate with results, and
this is a constant game you have to play.
In my 20 years in this business I have
never seen so many rounds of rate reduc-
tions. Every time we got a rate reduction,
the results would dip again. I think the re-
sults are finally stabilizing for infomercials
and will hopefully hold through the rest
of the year.”
Total long-form media spending in
2009 was $1,108,578,5000, about 5. 5
percent down (roughly $64.5 million)
compared to 2008, according to Response’s
in-house research. Long-form media ex-
perts have experienced more of the same
Health and beauty has remained strong
despite the economic slump, according to
CEO Kathi Moore of Engagem3nt, which
recently launched Wrinkle Freeze, a product
from an Australian DRTV marketer.
“Interestingly enough, some of the strongest product
categories have been lower-priced speciality items
that are priced less on the front end, products such as
household items, pet products, gizmos to improve the
home or improve conveniences.”
— Doug Frankel, Broadcast Communications Media
and 25 percent year-over-year, so the cost
of media is still down, and it’s dropping,”
says Rob Medved, president of Burl-
ington, Wis.-based Cannella Response
Television and a member of the Response
Editorial Advisory Board. “So an avail
that cost $1,000 last year costs $700 to
$800 this year.”
Due to the discounted rates, Medved
explains, there has been more paid
programming on the air in the first six
months of this year compared to the first
six months of last year. However, con-
sumer response has remained weak and
fewer new long-form campaigns have
been introduced to market. Marketers are
in 2010.
Focusing On Hispanic DRTV
General market advertisers often consider whether to add a Spanish-language
component to their ad campaigns, and if
not, how much money could be left on
the table.
According to Moore, who also manages Spanish-language DRTV, short- and
long-form Spanish-language media have
shown similar trends to the English-lan-guage market.
