Direct Marketing

Explosive growth in call-based advertising, driven in part by mobile proliferation, will lead to major advances in call analytics and call quality, according to a new report by BIA/Kelsey titled, “Call-Based Ads: Eliminating the Unknown From Advertising.”

VoodooVox Inc. announce that it has teamed up with Espacios Media LLC, a Miami-based media representation company to bring direct response marketers a cost efficient, quality lead generation platform that addresses the Hispanic marketplace.

The battered US economy has driven price-conscious consumers online to do research before making a purchase, and eMarketer estimates that there will be 92.5 million online coupon users by the end of 2012. Those savings-savvy consumers will no doubt be helped by electronic circulars, which now rival their print counterparts in penetration, according to a November 2011 study of US internet users by Yahoo! and Ipsos.

Last month I attended one of the best parties in L.A.  No, I’m not talking about the Oscars.  I’m talking about the Brisk Bodega-Star Wars Cantina party, presented by Brisk Tea. Now ostensibly the party was intended to present and offer party-goers samples of Brisk Tea.  But by partnering up with LucasFilm, Brisk was able to offer another element of intrigue at its party: an exhibition of art conceived by emerging, young artists, and based on the iconic characters from the “Star Wars” film.
 

Kantar Media reports that retailer advertising expenditures increased 1.6 percent and retailer participation in Free Standing Insert (FSI) coupon promotion pages increased 30.7 percent in CY 2011 versus CY 2010.

Once just a sliver of all online dollars, US online ad spending on branding-based objectives now accounts for a significant—and growing—percentage of total online ad spending.

As many of you have seen in the movie 2012 and have heard from scholars based on their interpretation of Mayan culture and the Mayan calendar, the world will end December 2012. Doomsday is upon us in 355 days on December 21, 2012.

Direct-response marketing may soon be taking a backseat to online brand advertising initiatives. According to a DIGIDAY and Vizu “State of the Industry Survey,” more marketers plan to increase their online branding initiatives in 2012 than they do their direct response tactics.

Kantar Media reports that more than 272 billion Free Standing Insert (FSI) coupons were distributed in 2011 which represents a 6.5 percent decrease in activity versus 2010. This decline in FSI coupon activity follows two consecutive years of annual increases of 8.0 percent in 2009 and 7.2 percent in 2010. Despite an overall decrease in FSI coupon activity, retailer promotion pages within the FSI vehicles recorded a 30.7 percent increase to more than 17.0 billion pages in 2011, continuing the significant annual increases in retailer promotion activity which began in 2007.

It happens thousands of times per day in America: a shopper walks into the supermarket, leafs through the store circular to find discounts on products, and, fingers smudged by newsprint, sets off to shop, often with the circular in hand. But while the paper circular – whether delivered by mail, as a newspaper insert or viewed in the store – still reigns as the most popular way for shoppers to find sale items and product information, it is evolving in kind with consumers’ desire to seek deals across media.

Epsilon Targeting released the 2011 Channel Preference Study, which shows that through economic turmoil, technology advances and channel proliferation, direct mail continues to deliver as consumers’ preferred means of receiving marketing messages from brands.

‘m still not sure why Ad Age felt compelled to give a voice to hate. I mean, how else do you explain their decision to invite a bona fide prophet of hate to their upcoming “Media Evolved” conference?  Glenn Beck may be doing something interesting in media (according to Ad Age) but he’s still a racist.

I recently read an article in another of the Latin American Market focused trade journals that interviewed a US Hispanic Marketing Director at the client level and two mayor New York Hispanic Agency based Media Planning Executives with most of their experience in mainstream advertising and Latin America respectively to give their opinions about the US Hispanic Market.

Paradysz Research released its 2011 Seasonality Study of direct mail trends. According to the study, key direct mail months and overall seasonal patterns remain relatively stable for most consumer sectors despite continued economic challenges for marketers and consumers.