The Lincoln Media Proclamation, Issue 1
Hello! Welcome to the new Lincoln Media blog, where we will share what’s going on in the world of Direct Response media. Please read my first entry below. Thanks! -Laura Ballinger
October 27, 2011
In the article, “Fighting the Long-Form Response Drop” in this month’s Electronic Retailer magazine, Tim Hawthorne asserts that people haven’t totally stopped responding to TV Infomercials, they just aren’t responding as much as they used to. This could be attributed to several factors, Hawthorne points out, such as the economy, consumers’ available credit and consumers’ spending habits.
In this economic climate, many consumers have already maxed out their credit. Hawthorne argues that for the consumer, purchasing a big ticket item as presented on a long-form infomercial is probably not the most realistic expense for them at this time.
Consumers aren’t the only ones with limited means these days. Hawthorne mentions that clients are also more reluctant to spend what it takes to test their product in a long-form ad. Hawthorne quotes George Leon, Hawthorne Direct’s senior vice president of media, “’In this economy, it’s difficult to convince marketers to invest $500,000 in production costs right now.’” Clients want to get the most for their money and stay within their budgets so sometimes they will go the route of short-form ads instead. This is definitely something we see here at Lincoln Media Services, our clients want to get the best response for their money, so we recommend short form as a less expensive way to market.
Another explanation for the decrease in response to long-form programs, as presented by Hawthorne, could be the increase of HDTV in viewers’ homes. With HDTV comes more channels, which means that the viewer has more options of shows to watch, which means that they can select what they want to watch instead of being forced to click through other channels, through which they might happen upon an infomercial. This concept is the same with viewers watching programming on computers and mobile devices, they are watching what they want and they aren’t discovering the products being advertised on the traditional TV medium.
There seem to be many forces against us, but Hawthorn has several suggestions to help marketers survive and thrive in this economy. First is to “find a product or category where demand already exists and consumers want better options.” Second is to “take the products into retail, web, mobile, home shopping and other channels immediately.” Third is to use “upsells, cross-sells, multi-payment and continuity programs” because they will “give the consumers the opportunity to spend more money over time.” This will help ensure a maximum ROI.
Diversity is key now; we need to get our client’s message out there in a variety of media and change with the changing times. Lincoln Media Services is meeting this challenge by adding a variety of pay-for-action vendors to help our clients add value to their television campaigns to gain incremental sales. We are always exploring different media venues to meet our client’s changing needs.
