Backchannelmedia

Backchannelmedia

By TIMOTHY R. HAWTHORNE Founder, Chairman and Executive Creative Director hawthorne direct inc.

The short-firm DRTV arena is booming right now thanks to an influx of brand marketers into the space, and the overall realization that accountable media actually works by getting people to pick up the phone to order, get online to learn more (and, hopefully order) and/or visit a local retailer to touch, feel and buy the product that they saw demonstrated on TV.

Short-form DRTV's growing popularity isn't just lip service. Over the last year we've produced spots and/or managed campaigns for brand advertisers within the insurance,higher education, manufacturing and mortgage industries, to name just a few. This year we're rolling out campaigns for firms in the auto insurance, adult education, home appliance and home repair sectors, among others. Add in the traditional DRTV marketers in the pain relief, auto care and food industries, and it's no secret that we have our finger on the pulse of the short-form industry.

From that vantage point, I've picked up on five key trends that are taking place within the short-form DRTV marketright now. Here they are, ready to tap and use to your advantage:

1) The commercials are getting shorter. The biggest news in short-form in the last few months was Salesgenie.com's 30-second Super Bowl spot. Considered unsophisticated and cornball' by the advertising critics, the $2.6 million media purchase provided enough exposure to drive at least 10,000 customers to the Salesgenie.com Web site to sign up for the company's services. On the other hand, at least half the Super Bowl traditional spots his year were still missing Web site URLs, which cements the fact that Madison Avenue still abhors 'asking for the order.'

2) The dominators are gaining ground. Financial services like insurance, mortgage and credit card firms, joined by pharmaceutical companies, are dominating branded short-form (and have been for about three years now). Consider GEICO's immense success, with media budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and how it has pushed all auto insurers '" even those with a traditionl 'agent' structure '" to ask for the call. More recently, we've seen some revived short-form campaigns by tool and kitchen appliance brand advertisers, such as Home Depot, Bosch, Oster and KitchenAid. On the local broadcast level, we're seeing short-form activity for the post-high school vocational schools such as ITT and Bryson, making this a leading category in broadcast DRTV media.

3) It's all in the budgeting. What's the difference between an entrepreneurial short-form spot and a branded one? To things: budget and branding. Branded short-form has an average budget that is two to four times higher than that of the traditional DRTV spot, or about $250 to $1 million. Those dollars are spent on higher-grade talent, music, graphics/animation, and usually are shot on 35mm or high-definition formats.

4) Branded spots are sticking to their guns. The brand advertiser isn't afraid to spend more time creating entertaining, humorous spots that evoke core product brand values such as 'friendly,' 'concrned,' 'efficient' and/or 'category leader.' These advertisers spend less time delineating product features and benefits, or motivating an immediate response. While the brands do want to generate leads and Web visits, they never do it at the expense of brand equity.

5) New technologies are booming. For seven years now, DRTV advertisers have watched with glee as their online order percentages increase. Going forward, that synergy between TV and the Web will continue to increase, while at the same tim DRTV spots will move into new technologies like video on-demand (VOD) in a major way. Product showcases put up by companies like TiVo and cable companies like Comcast will begin to gather more eyeballs and increased sales. We're in the doldrums now, awaiting the growth of VOD, which should be new fertile ground for both entrepreneurial and brand marketers.

Timothy R. Hawthorne is chairman and executive creative director of hawthorne direct inc, a full-service DRTV ad agency founded in 1986. A 33-yea television producer/writer/director, Hawthorne is a cum laude Harvard graduate.