New media evangelism in the direct response industry begins to remind me of biblical tales of woe, the Old Testament tales where prophets are slaughtered or exiled or something along those lines. Or at least roundly mocked. It’s part of my personal story and also part of the state of the industry, and it’s truly unfortunate.

For those of us who embrace risk and are joyful and passionate in our approach to new media, evangelism can be the most grueling, frustrating part of the game. Trying to make a twitter proselyte out of someone who can’t figure out e-mail attachments? Yeah, it gets old.

Time after time when talking to DR agency folks, I’ve run into an impenetrable wall of mythology about new media. It’s fear-based, it’s preventing progress for all the worst reasons, it’s causing forward-thinkers to be punished, and it’s simply untrue. The mythology includes the ideas that mobile commerce isn’t functional, that social media isn’t measurable, that R&D can’t lead to ROI, etc.

Recently, an agency CEO quipped about media/tech adoption, “You can lead a horse to water…”

Alright, so publications such as Electronic Retailer are leading the DR horse to water through education. Firebrands such as Marty Fahncke, Dana Todd, and a slew of others are leading the horse through sometimes-rabid evangelism. Research firms publish data saying that consumers are ready for new media. Clients are beginning to ask for more creative digital solutions.

I do begin to wonder: What’s it going to take to get that horse to drink…Damn it.

Jolie O’Dell is a mobile, social and evolving search enthusiast.

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The term “multichannel” is tossed around in direct response as a casual new buzzword that everyone claims to provide. However, there’s a difference between using multiple channels and truly having an integrated multichannel approach. The strength of a true multichannel approach is in the results that add up to more than just a sum of the various elements.

While you work with partners on different aspects of a campaign—creative, media, response/order take and fulfillment—you need to focus on the complete picture (and work with partners who allow you to do that!). Many marketers stick with what they know works and use traditional metrics to evaluate success. As media is expensive, it is understandable why that’s the case.

But, what happens when your customer sees that spot on TV and decides to purchase via mobile phone or web days after the airing? What about the customer who saw the ad, visited the site and did not buy? Or, what about the client who did not see the spot, but is a potential buyer because of his or her past history? Unless you have a plan to catch all of these opportunities you may not be using a big enough net—and you may not have the data you need to make decisions about how effective the media truly was. Take the multichannel integration test!

Consistency and Coordination
· Do you coordinate advertising events so all channels launch with the same message at the same time?

· Are changes to your DRTV offer or creative simultaneously reflected in online and mobile activities?

Analysis and Media ROI
· Do you view key metrics for all channels together to assess the full impact of your media, as well as the contribution from each channel?

· Do you know how buying patterns differ for customer purchasing via phone, online and mobile (upsell take rates, cross-sell success, etc.)?

· Can you identify how customers who purchase via the phone differ from those who purchase online or through mobile channels?

Revenue Opportunities
· Do you include a call-in option with online and mobile activities? (For example: We see lift of 10-30 percent in online conversion when we allow visitors the option to place orders by phone.)

· Do you tailor upsells to channel?

If you’re not answering YES to the above, you’re leaving sales on the table for someone else to pick up. So get a bigger net to capture ALL the sales generated by your advertising activities!

Mike Ferzacca is CEO of Advanced Interactive Sciences

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It was supposed to be perfect. It was my birthday week and I had friends flying into D.C. so that we could go see Radiohead live at Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Virginia. The concert was Sunday, May 11 and I had Monday off. Nothing could go wrong…until Mother Nature stepped in. Cell phone rings. “Are you guys even still going?” Claudia asks cautiously as I maneuver my way around the grocery store picking up last-minute tailgating items. “Of course we’re still going,” I say, somewhat irritated at the mere suggestion of skipping out. Sure, I had heard rumors of some rain, but I was fully prepared with my hooded sweatshirt—it was May!

Flash-forward two hours. We’re situated in lot B. Our other friends are over in lot A. No one in my car wants to get out. People in the cars around us are not getting out. “But Leikin flew here from Cleveland,” I plead, trying to motivate my peers. We finally manage to open the trunk door of Josh’s Toyota 4Runner. We’re happier once the beers start flowing, but it’s imperative to stay underneath the trunk door unless your drink of choice happens to be half Coors Light/half acid rain. It was at this point that things began to get delusional, yet laughable.

“Oh my God! It is seriously raining harder now,” Amber stammers as we watch the rain grow thicker and hear the pounding on the roof grow louder. Another concertgoer runs over to our car. “Can I make a quick call under here?” Yes, it was THAT bad. I begin to think about different products that would make the scenario easier. That’s the beauty of the direct response industry, solving a common problem that a consumer doesn’t typically think about. There was an extreme need for ponchos. What about an invention to protect your beer from the rain so you could still enjoy it? I couldn’t help but remember the umbrella hat I saw last September at ERA’s annual convention. I kind of mocked it then, but I would love having it right now! As we packed up our things to walk to lot A, we decide to leave all electronic items in Josh’s car. No cameras anymore, no cell phones, no iPods—only a credit card and license are deemed reasonable. Josh makes his last phone call, informing our friends that we’re on our way before closing and locking the doors.

During the walk, the sky only gets darker, the rain harder and the temperature colder. We’re literally soaked from head to toe. Amber’s umbrella breaks because of the wind’s severity. As we approach lot A, we realize we can’t keep walking straight because a river has begun to flow right in front of our walking path. We manage to work our way around the river. Walking in jeans becomes arduous as the denim plasters itself to our thighs and calves. Where are our friends? We couldn’t call or text. We just had to keep searching.

“What the hell am I doing here? I don’t belong here…” ~ Creep, Radiohead

“Why didn’t you guys buy ponchos?” our friends in lot A scream, alarmed that we’re so drenched. “They haven’t made it over our way yet,” Josh explains, sounding like a movie line straight from a disaster flick. Byron lights a cigarette under their car roof, which they too were all huddled under. As soon as he steps out to greet me, the rain pounds his cigarette off of its filter and onto the ground. Jokes about Vietnam begin to seem appropriate. We’re now shivering. My entire body begins to shake. Then, out of nowhere, I hear Claudia’s voice. She approaches the group, umbrella in hand, raincoat on. “I have plastic bags wrapped around my feet under my boots and I also have a change of clothes in the car for the ride home,” she says. We all stare at her with jealousy. Some of the girls express interest in just going home. No way. We paid a lot of money and we’ve come this far. The worst of it had to be over, right? Let’s just hear one song and decide.

Onward towards will-call we go. We try to walk faster, but our legs are like liquorice in our soaked jeans. Toby tries to take his ticket out, only to realize his printed ticket is ruined—unrecognizable. Only those in sealed plastic bags will work. Our group unintentionally splits up. We can’t see anything in front of us. “Bruce?! Claudia?!” They’re nowhere to be found, but Bruce has my ticket! Even if someone around me does have their BlackBerry or iPhone, it is no help; no one else has their phones. Byron luckily has an extra ticket, so I make it inside the gates. Off to the lawn we go. People are falling down the lawn’s sloped hill left and right. Radiohead begins playing. The large screens are turned off for electrical reasons, obviously. Shiver, dance, shiver, dance, shiver, dance…

Back at the car everyone strips to their underwear, turning the heat up full blast in an effort to thaw out. What the hell just happened for the past six hours? Was this the worst concert experience ever? Was it the best? It was memorable none-the-less. I began to think of the concert in terms of being a product we bought. It was marketed to us as a rain or shine event, after all. The band had to be fully aware of the conditions outside. As they played one hit after the next, it seemed to me like they were simply using an age-old direct response format: But wait, there’s more!

It’s ironic that the same band that broke technology and industry barriers last year by allowing its new album “In Rainbows” to be downloaded for free on the Internet held a concert that reduced us back to the 1980s technology-wise. Without Byron’s extra ticket, I would have been wandering back to the car before hearing one song. We were all thrown for a loop without the gadgets we’ve become so dependent on. However, for as much as my generation is sometimes too reliant on technology, elements of our parent’s generation were clearly evident as we continued the simple pursuit of live music, much to the detriment of our comfort and health.

“For a minute there, I lost myself…” ~ Karma Police, Radiohead

Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia Editor

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“Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately it takes a lifetime to master.” ~ Philip Kotler, U.S. marketing guru

I think the quote above succinctly sums up one of the truisms known to marketers. The business school practice of breaking down the definition of marketing into the 4 Ps is really oversimplifying a complicated art and science process that is fundamental to business success and growth. If you are developing a smart marketing mix, you must also toss in gut instinct, research, sales history, customer patterns, trends, competitive analysis and so many more factors. Even with all of this, success can explode from unexpected opportunities while sometimes the most thoroughly researched, planned and executed campaigns can fail miserably. Still, that is the beauty of marketing: it is never dull or routine. And today, marketers have far more resources to help drive sales and engagement than ever before.

As I begin a new chapter in my career by joining ERA in March, I think about the resources available to us today. In doing so, I can’t help but to reflect back on my first entree into the workforce, then too, in the marketing arena. It’s easy to dismiss as simpler times. It was the mid 1980s: typewriters outnumbered PCs, printed mailing labels predated Excel files and voice mail and fax were office novelties. By evaluating the bottom line and ROI, we believed our marketing efforts were successful back then. But who could predict that the introduction of the Internet and email to the masses was just around the corner? This would forever change the way we, as a society, communicate and access information and entertainment. It would also open the door to new strategies and tools to add to the marketing mix.

Today, it is much more than access to the Internet that allows marketers to brand product, advertise value and engage customers. Video streaming, HDTV, HD Radio, podcasting, TV on demand, mobile devices, blogging, wikis and online social networks have all played a role in expanding the marketing function and enhancing the customer experience. Some might suggest we are on the brink of the golden era of marketing. Perhaps. But what is certain is that today’s consumers have become more integrated into the marketing process. For marketers, this is a time of unleashed creativity. There are more opportunities than ever before to connect with customers, track patterns and utilize multiple formats to convey messages. Direct mail, TV/print advertising and other more traditional forms of marketing are still certainly relevant, but marketers no longer have to rely on a finite number of tactics to promote product. And few industries are leveraging these platforms as aggressively as the direct response community.

It makes for smart practice then that the association that represents this community would also leverage multi-platforms as necessary. At ERA, we too are on the brink of entering our golden era of marketing. Not because of my new role, but because it is what our community will expect and demand. I hope that you will check out the new ERA website, which debuts next month, and I encourage you to pay frequent visits to this blog. These enhancements are just the start of many advancements ERA will introduce to allow us to better brand ourselves, fine tune messaging, build member integration and promote the industry and its value and services through new and emerging technologies. These extensions and improvements in communications help us to better enforce our mission to drive, grow and shape the future of electronic retailing. Let’s master the marketing mix together.

Tom Quash is ERA’s vice president of marketing

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After talking with clients and mobile advertising firms over the past year, I wasn’t surprised to see that, in addition to its mobile website, Amazon will now offer a more interactive buying experience. In the new TextBuyIt program, customers text Amazon (262966) with the item name, UPC or ISBN code of a product they want to buy and Amazon replies with product information and prices.

What really caught my eye about Amazon’s new program is the method used for order completion—a phone call. While mobile is all the buzz, the challenge for direct marketers has been how to translate that buzz into real sales activity. Amazon’s approach is similar to one AIS uses with its mobile marketing partners and clients, which blends the ease of the mobile’s “click to call” with our IVR platform to allow prospective customers to complete their transaction quickly and easily via a phone call. (Please note that mobile Click-to-Call is NOT the same as online CTC.)

Research shows that customers are already using mobile as a way to respond to ads they see on TV and that number is growing. For certain age groups, mobile texting far surpasses traditional phone and e-mail as the primary method of communication. But when prospective customers try to buy, they are often directed back to the online website or to a mobile website transferred directly over from an online site, with little consideration to the size limitations of the mobile screen. And almost always, there’s no clear and easy way to buy.

Amazon’s introduction of a phone component to its mobile offering and feedback we’ve received indicate that the nascent mobile e-commerce component is still a work in progress. That’s where the direct response industry can take the lead—bringing clarity and years of acquisition experience—to help mobile marketing deliver sales, not just buzz. With higher click-through rates than online and a captive audience, mobile has great potential to capture customers at the moment they want to buy.

Mike Ferzacca is CEO of Advanced Interactive Sciences

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Pick up the newspaper: Our country and the world are in a state of anxiety about the economy, especially in light of a potential recession. What does that mean to us as marketers? Just how does the recession affect direct response advertising? Recessions are different from other economic downturns and need to be approached differently, but there are ways to weather the storm.

History teaches us that recessions reward the aggressive advertiser and penalize the timid one. Indeed, firms that maintained or increased their advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession averaged significantly higher sales growth, both during the recession and for the following three years, than those that eliminated or decreased advertising.

By 1985, sales of companies that were aggressive recession advertisers had risen 256 percent over those that didn’t keep up their advertising. Why? One reason is that a recessionary market can provide an opportunity for businesses to build a greater share of market through aggressive advertising. Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves about the short-term benefits of advertising: It creates sales immediately; it generates added business from current customers; and it brings in new leads and prospects. In short, as one marketer pointed out, “When times are good, you should advertise. When times are bad, you must advertise.”

One trait of a true recession lies with shifts in consumer patterns. We can no longer expect even our core base of customers to behave in ways familiar to us and comfortable to them. Preparing for changes in consumer behavior will allow us to jumpstart new messaging, platforms and technologies—when this makes strategic sense—to capture the attention of both loyal and new customers. One false assumption is that it’s safe to reduce the advertising budget if the competition is reducing theirs. Research shows that companies maintaining or increasing advertising during periods of economic slow-down will boost market share. (more…)

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Here’s a few photo highlights from parties held during ERA’s recent eRetailer Summit in Miami. Check back often, your mug shot may be up next!

Click here for more information about upcoming events!

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Amnesty International “Protect the Human” project has gone to some interesting lengths to promote its cause for human rights. It’s even employed shock tactics to drive traffic to its website. However, one of its recent campaigns pokes fun at the DRTV industry.

As an industry that’s had its battles with credibility, many direct response marketers try hard every day to improve our collective image. This is one of the main reasons ERA (formally NIMA) was founded in the first place!

Does this sort of joke offend you? Or, are you flattered that an international cause would use a faux live shopping segment to promote its agenda?

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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