The Future’s So Bright?
BY THOMAS HAIRE
The members of the
Response Advisory
Board discuss the
solid 2012 media
marketplace and the
challenges facing
media buyers and
planners in the year
ahead.
d
planners in the year
With solid results during the first hree quarters of 2012, the direct response television media land- scape is enjoying its heartiest time
since before the Great Recession of 2008. And, ac-
cording to many members of our Response Advisory
Board, 2013 looks to be off to an even better start.
Still, many different factors continue to put a strain on the
role of the media buyer and planner in the DRTV world. Technology — from online sales to online video to the role of smartphones and tablets in the buying process, not to mention digital
video recorders (DVR) and on-demand viewing — continues
to expand, making the good old media efficiency ratio (MER)
harder and harder to calculate.
“The media environment continues to change as technology
changes and viewers have more choice as to what, where and
how they consume their media,” says Richard Stacey, president
and CEO of Toronto-based Northern Response Intl. Ltd. “Retail
drive using gross ratings points (GRP) rather than MER is also
becoming an increasing part of the traditional DRTV media
buyer’s role.”
We turned to our Response Advisory Board of industry experts
for our first quarterly edition of the 2013 Advisors’ Forum with
a series of questions regarding the state of media buying. Here’s
what they had to say.
