OBSESSED WITH RESULTS

Isn’t it great you don’t have to rely solely on TV or print to advertise anymore?!  After watching Don throw his client out of the door on Madmen’s premiere episode of season 4, I thought, poor Jantzen for not having other advertising options.   If you didn’t see the episode, Don presented a provocative swimwear layout to Jantzen.  A black bar covers the model’s top. “So well built, we can’t show you the second floor,” was the slogan.   Jantzen, a family oriented and conservative company didn’t like the risqué idea, thus making Don so mad he threw them out.   Can you imagine throwing your client out if they don’t like your idea?

Today, there are more opportunities than ever to advertise, anywhere really.  It made me thankful that I work at Ionic Media, in the advertising industry today, because we can be more creative than ever.  There are so many ways to reach the consumer…  iPhones, iPads, Blackberrys, portable TVs, Facebook, Wi-Fi everywhere (even on airplanes now!)!  How much you want to spend or who you want to reach is a good way to start.  You could advertise on TV or why not put the commercials on the web?   Utilize paid search or optimize your current website?  The key is to not depend solely on one element, which will in turn be more efficient and effective.   The trick will be to coordinate all elements to send a consistent message.

Wow, what a relief to advertise today where you truly can run with your imagination.

Great marketing minds think alike. So I would like to believe we keep in good company with renowned marketer, Seth Godin. He recently made an accurate distinction between mass marketers vs direct marketers which got me thinking under which category we, as a company, belong to.

Mass marketers such as Best Buy and Microsoft capitalize on their ubiquity. They have successfully infiltrated our homes and our spending habits and in doing so, now enjoy massive revenue.

On the other hand, direct marketers focus on a capturing a specific niche, getting terrific response rates and only then will they venture into expanding reach. They don’t need to be in every home, but they need to count in each home they actually get introduced to.

Godin says, “The key distinction is when you know it’s going to work. The mass marketer doesn’t know until the end. The direct marketer knows in the beginning.”

These things considered, Ionic Media prides itself in being prolific direct marketers – with a huge emphasis on testing creative thoughts on a well-researched niche, followed through with the ability to analyze results. Only then do we expand into a bigger reach with data at hand and calculated, educated risks. This is not to say we are unable to go big and handle ubiquity. With big brands such as B+L and Disney under our belt, we need to think like mass marketers as well. But we do so intelligently and profitably. It doesn’t always work. But it usually does. And when it doesn’t, we figure out why and do better on the next go.

Bottom line is, we care enough to do the work upfront to reap the benefits of being right (or wrong) in the end. We understand that the best mass marketers, it seems, start off as excellent direct marketers.

Ameetess Dira
Account Director

For years I’ve read articles about the lift Display provides to Paid Search. However, it’s always been difficult to nail down actual proof due to the inadequacies of tracking or the inability to measure actual impact. So the question remains: Does Display really provide Paid Search with added lift?

The answer: Yes – but it’s extremely dependent upon a wide variety of factors

Over the past six months we have been tracking lift trends for two separate clients with similar products, searching for some indication of lift, optimal frequency and seasonal trending. When results varied between the two clients we had to dig a bit deeper to determine why there was such a difference. In the end, I was able to boil lift down to the following factors:

• Marketing mix: what is the weighting between Display and Paid Search? Are there any other channels in the mix that could have impacted one or the other?
• Awareness: is the product well known, or brand new to the market?
• Constraints: low budgets? Frequency capping? Geo-targeting?
• Message: are the messages synonymous? Do they have the same tone and Call To Action? Is the creative engaging? Does it make an impact and stand out from the clutter?
• Product Type: is this a retail product that needs a credit card? Or a 5 question form that requires limited personal information?
• Buying Cycle: Is it a product that needs extensive research? Or socks?

The list goes on and on and on (envision running up and down Eschers stairs). The most definitive conclusion is that yes, there is some amount of lift and it appears to be relatively one-sided: that is to say, Display usually gave Paid Search lift, not the other way around. However, there are many other elements, such as aided and unaided awareness, that also come into play and require more extensive testing than the click of your mouse. So in the end, it’s best to have a well-rounded media campaign.

And if you’re going to set aside the extra cash to test (http://www.ionicmedia.com/contact.html), 6 months is all you really need.

Dee Dee Paeseler
Account Director
Ionic Media

Background:
Research indicates the longer you keep a viewer engaged with your ad, the higher the likelihood of converting the viewer to a customer. We tested this theory with a direct response client that offers a free trial certificate by incorporating the interactive capabilities of TiVo into the media mix. The ads are called interactive because they ask the viewer to do something such as press a button on the remote to request more information.

Solution:
A TiVo sponsorship best met the brand’s ITV needs. For a couple of weeks a TiVo owner was able to interact with the screen via their remote to learn more about the brand via a product demonstration video, watch the commercial and request the free trial coupon. The certificate was emailed to the viewer using the TiVo’s subscriber’s on-file address.

Results:
The test was successful; TiVo subscribers showed that they were intrigued and actively engaged in the campaign by responding to the interactive tags, requesting the trial offer and taking the time to watch the video content. We were pleasantly surprised that the campaign beat the TiVo category benchmarks. Total free trial requests were 8,000+ at a CPA lower than what we were seeing from other media channels.

Follow-up:
Six months later the brand repeated the campaign and was a hit on all fronts again. Viewers were engaged, responsive to the video content and 12,000+ free trial coupons were requested. The CPA was under $7.

Client Feedback:
A Unilever brand person said it best – “…the remote control and DVRs have been a marketer’s worst nightmare [and] what we’re doing with ITV is we’re actually making the remote control our friend.”

Catherine Hahn
Media Director
Ionic Media