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"Koeppel Direct's media buying expertise has played an integral role in making my company successful. Koeppel generated so much business for our company, occasionally we have to limit their media buys, in order to handle all of the new business." | |
| - R. Gregg Marketer of Senior Products |
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MEDIA BUYING DIRECT RESPONSE TELEVISION (DRTV) ARTICLE ...... |
Mix Up Your Marketing Mix
By: Matt Alederton
Published: 06/07 Small Buisness Resource Center |
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When San Diego's modern art museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD),
decided to market its expanded downtown location early this year, it wanted to attract an entirely new
population of museum-goers -- young ones. Specifically, the museum wanted to find art lovers under the age of
25, to whom it would offer free admission.
There was one problem, though. Used to interacting with an older audience via traditional advertisements, the
museum realized that its tried-and-true marketing tools were the very same ones being rejected as suspect and
old fashioned by most modern-day young people. A standard newspaper ad would no longer do. It needed something
different.
"Our greatest results are coming from a combination of more traditional media outlets with other, more extreme
non-traditional ones," says Jonathan Bailey, CEO of Bailey Gardiner, the San Diego-based integrated
marketing company that MCASD hired to help it reach its new demographic. "Our ideal strategy for clients is at
least a 50 percent spend on non-traditional mediums."
The strategy his team recommended for MCASD was no different. The museum launched a traditional ad campaign
via magazines and billboards in order to reach its older base of customers. It coupled that, however, with an
interactive viral Web site, www.feedthegreedyorgan.com, designed to encourage younger consumers to "feed
their greedy organ" -- their eyes -- with a free visit to the museum. The museum's traditional ads drove
traffic to the non-traditional Web site, resulting in a 200 percent increase in museum attendance by the
under-25 set.
The lesson for small business owners is this: In order to succeed with your marketing dollars, integrate,
innovate and interact. "You need every marketing dollar to count," Bailey says, "so simply relying on methods
that might work for Fortune 500 companies and household brand names will not work for emerging
companies."
You still need traditional advertising. However, to get more bang for your advertising buck, try these
suggestions for enhancing your traditional media buys with new tools and fresh ideas.
Print Advertising
Next to word of mouth, print advertisements are perhaps the oldest means of marketing a business. They used
to be the most effective, too. Not anymore, though.
"I am an avid newspaper reader -- three papers every morning with my coffee," Bailey says. "Yet, I believe
the historic form of newspapers are d-e-a-d."
Denise Patrick, senior marketing counsel for Houston-based Pierpont Communications, agrees. A former
small business owner herself, she says that many entrepreneurs chase advertisements in major daily
newspapers, which are expensive and seldom read in their entirety. Instead, she says, try buying ads
in community newspapers.
"People read their community newspaper cover to cover," Patrick says. "The grandkid that won the softball
game, that's where his name is. That's where the church news is and that's where the pictures of the ladies
in the garden club are."
The key is reaching your target audience -- and only your target audience. That's why community papers are
better than city papers, she says -- because the readership is more targeted -- and why advertisements in
BtoB publications or trade magazines are often more effective than those in national consumer
titles.
Even more effective, however, is another tool entirely, according to Patrick -- public relations. That's because
the modern equivalent to a printed ad is printed news coverage. The former costs money, but the latter is
free, and only one benefits from the credibility of a legitimate journalist's byline. Before buying an ad
in your favorite publication, therefore, consider doing something newsworthy -- organizing an event,
donating to a charity or launching a notable new service -- and sending it a press release,
instead.
Radio and TV Advertising
Like print advertising, when it comes to radio and television, targeted messages are best. As such, small
business owners should avoid spending big bucks for 30-second spots on major TV networks. Their money is
better spent, experts advise, on commercials that reach niche markets, run on cable TV, for instance, or
on radio stations with narrow demographics.
The best new tool for TV advertisers, however, is actually an old one, according to Peter Koeppel, president
and founder of direct response ad agency Koeppel Direct -- the infomercial. He says that long-form
TV ads are ideal for small businesses because they cost less -- a 30-minute infomercial spot can cost as
little as $50 or $100 -- and, because the average consumer watches an infomercial for 10 or 15 minutes, they
give emerging brands an opportunity to educate consumers about their product.
Even if you don't go the full infomercial route, consider borrowing for all your ads -- print, TV and radio -- 3
at least one infomercial feature: the response mechanism. "A lot of advertising is just branded type of
advertising to build awareness for a product," Koeppel says, "but nowadays you'll see a larger percentage of
advertisers inserting an 800 number or a Web site in their ad, which allows them, one, to get a lower media
rate -- the direct response rate -- and, two, to measure ad response."
Internet Advertising
Eventually, it all comes back to the Internet, where old media is bound to converge with new. "Quite
literally, this is the future," Bailey says.
Considering buying a print advertisement? Write a blog, instead. Thinking about radio? Try recording your own
podcast. The Internet even presents a world of new opportunities for small businesses that are looking
into television, according to Koeppel, as approximately half of people who are online are watching TV at
the same time, and most have broadband connections for watching video. "If you don't have the money to
run your TV spot," he says, "you can always run it on your Web site."
Just because something's online, though, doesn't make it a good idea. Like standard print and television
ads, many standard Internet advertising vehicles, such as banner ads, are quickly becoming dated. "People
aren't clicking on banners as much as in the past," Koeppel says. He therefore recommends investing instead
in search engine marketing, buying keywords and search terms via services such as Google AdWords.
In the end, it all comes back to engagement, according to Patrick. "It's about taking a static form of
advertising and really looking at how interactive you can make it," she says. Run a print ad. Make a TV
commercial. Build a Web site. Just make sure that all roads lead back to the cutting edge.
Click Here to view the entire article
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