When Direct Marketing and Advertising Meet…

Inside Direct Mail ran a piece I did on the power of combining traditional advertising with direct response marketing and fact based research to produce a process I dub Direct Branding. This piece also features real-life case studies.

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750

The Direct Marketing Difference

I have always said that it’s easier for a direct marketer to follow branding then it is for a brander to become a direct marketer. This point was nicely captured in Ted Grigg’s latest blog.

Why is this the case? Because direct marketing is counter intuitive to traditional advertising and marketing thinking where the killer idea and killer creative reside. For measurable marketers it’s about the results. And results can be improved upon in direct marketing by segmentation and testing. After we reach our goals we do more testing.

Traditional advertisers swing for the fence, whereas direct marketers are happy to move the base runners and are even more comfortable striking out — as long as we learn and can apply that knowledge to our next at bat.

It is why direct marketers are in demand. The “new” media is measurable and thus requires the thinking of direct response pros.

And it’s about time!

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750 

Advertising Results Should Matter

Most readers of this Blog will agree that measurable marketing is growing and that measurement is critical in the client-ad agency relationship. But it’s hard to get advertising and marketing firms to change their ways. This was brought to my attention by a recent Adweek article on the lack of incentives for performance based marketing.

The web, microsites, email, direct mail, SEO, banners/links/placements, mobile, word-of-mouth, social media, even traditional media and PR can be measured, albeit not perfectly. Marketing today is and should be about accountability and relevancy to the customer/prospect. The problem, I think, is that most traditional shops still try and sell their killer creative and treat the web and other emerging channels separately and want to cling to the past. They fail to understand that marketing is changing.

Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts was interviewed in Business Week and he still sells and believes in the killer creative that does not work nearly as effectively as in the past. While I admire his conviction, the article goes on to talk about the shift in marketing to those who understand and practice measurable marketing. Both articles are worth the read.

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750