Direct response
It is absolutely important to differentiate between “direct response” and any other form of advertising, and this applies as much to media buying techniques as creative, and never more so than in the case of television.At the risk of being a little arbitrary, the following check-list could be applied:
The point is direct response must be predicated on exactly that – response. Response is the only media objective. It is the creative task (and of course the product itself) which influences who responds and the “quality” of that response.
Direct response advertising on television is a multi-million dollar industry and the rules are well established and well proven. Peak time programming, while it often has the numbers against the target audience, is very effective and almost totally ineffective.
High interest, “quality” daytime and weekend programmes are also expensive and do not elicit direct response. The reason is simple – people chose to watch their favourite programmes or programmes of interest. They are “viewing”. They will see a commercial of interest, and be interested in responding, but they will not do it then. If they do not do it “then” – they never do it.
Low unit cost, low audience, low “appeal” programmes catch a prospect. The proposition will always stand-alone to an interested prospect. Given the casual involvement with the programme and even a disinclination to continue “viewing”, the prospect is motivated to act at that moment.
The end result is off-peak programmes in other than the high-rating “Midday Shows” and soaps, generates a continuing and very economical list of direct respondents.
At the other extreme, it would be possible to run a spot in say, “Sixty Minutes” and not generate a single phone call.Corporate Television Advertising
Of course there may be other communication objectives.Creatively, these may be achieved with a similar – if not the same – commercial. But the media task is different.
We would, as we always do with campaign advertising, research the relevant data to optimise the ideal schedule in terms of audience reach, frequency and controlled frequency to achieve effective reach. We may also exercise some qualitative judgements in terms of ideal programming.
The task is to meet pre-determined audience delivery parameters. The end media result is to contribute to the objectives of the “corporate” campaign – whatever they may be.
Obviously a sales result is a legitimate marketing objective, and the “corporate” campaign will contribute. It may well encourage people to enquire, and often works well with the support of online, newspaper and or radio.
But such a schedule is not “driven” by an objective to maximise “direct response”.