Two months ago our newsletter highlighted the potential risk to response from a summer of partying. We warned that the Jubilee, Euros and Olympics could prove significantly more interesting for UK consumers than the allure of many marketing messages.
As I write this on the Thursday after the Jubilee it seems we were right. We have taken a selection of results, across a range of sectors, from retail to media owners, from travel to charities.
Three big learning’s emerge.
Firstly- the scale was about what we expected. It varied by client, but ranged from 30% to 50% decline in response across the weekend.
Secondly- the impact was very short lived. The down turn didn’t really happen until Monday. Saturday and Sunday saw some short fall, but very limited compared with Monday & Tuesday when the whole world seemed to be out to lunch. Wednesday we saw evidence of hangovers, but no mass absenteeism as results climbed back to approach normal. On Thursday morning all the evidence is of a return to near normality.
Finally- the impact vary significantly by channel (and thus by inference by audience) Phone response saw the largest falls- up to 85% down on comparable periods, with mobile, web and retail sales seeing the smallest impact.
Our conclusions- we are actually taking heart from this data set. Our view is that with careful channel management and very careful timing the impact of response downturns this summer can be managed. Coupled with selection of media for value there should be opportunities for very specific investments that may yield additional growth at the expense of competitors. Do call if you want to discuss further.
Mike Colling, Managing Director
Showing posts with label direct response. Show all posts
Showing posts with label direct response. Show all posts
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Media Down Under
I’ve spent the last year living and working in Sydney, Australia, but returned to London a few weeks ago and into the open arms of MC&C. When I tell people that I wasn’t forcibly removed from the Land Down Under and actually wanted to come back to England, their reaction is usually along the lines of a high pitched ‘REALLY?!’, followed by the incredulous raising of at least one eyebrow. It’s true though, I really did miss this city, and having now experienced working in direct response media on both sides of the globe, I have also developed a deeper appreciation of how we do things over here.
After arriving in Sydney I was fortunate enough to find work quickly, and joined MediaCom on two new pieces of business they’d won. One of my clients was Australia’s largest insurer, the other a new mobile telecoms start-up, lead by a group of entrepreneurs who had been there and done it in several European countries including Germany and Spain. Joining such a renowned agency and knowing I would be working on clients with extensive budgets, I was, perhaps naively, expecting to slot in to a large, well-established team, working with clients who were well prepared for the demands of creating successful DR campaigns.
This isn’t quite how it panned out. The insurer, despite being Australia’s largest, had only started using DR advertising a few months earlier, and it soon became apparent that to them DR was the ‘black sheep’ of the marketing family. Targets were set in a very inflexible manner, with their data department struggling to supply us with accurate numbers on which to report. The telecoms client was well versed in online media, but when it came to offline found it difficult to distinguish between measuring success on DR as opposed to brand metrics, when our strategy called for a careful mix of both.
Even within the agency, the amount of work needed to make DR successful for our clients was underestimated by senior management, although this was rectified later on, with additional recruits joining from their London office. Most difficult of all though was dealing with media owners, most of whom just did not seem to fully understand that we weren’t just trying to screw them down on price (not all the time, anyway) but that we really did have cost per response and ROI targets that we needed to achieve.
By the time I left, I was exhausted, having experienced what felt like uphill battles on all fronts in the name of direct response during my time there. I would like to think I won a few of those battles, if not the war, and I expect Australia will continue to look to the UK as it wakes up to the potential power of DR.
Kyle Seeley
After arriving in Sydney I was fortunate enough to find work quickly, and joined MediaCom on two new pieces of business they’d won. One of my clients was Australia’s largest insurer, the other a new mobile telecoms start-up, lead by a group of entrepreneurs who had been there and done it in several European countries including Germany and Spain. Joining such a renowned agency and knowing I would be working on clients with extensive budgets, I was, perhaps naively, expecting to slot in to a large, well-established team, working with clients who were well prepared for the demands of creating successful DR campaigns.
This isn’t quite how it panned out. The insurer, despite being Australia’s largest, had only started using DR advertising a few months earlier, and it soon became apparent that to them DR was the ‘black sheep’ of the marketing family. Targets were set in a very inflexible manner, with their data department struggling to supply us with accurate numbers on which to report. The telecoms client was well versed in online media, but when it came to offline found it difficult to distinguish between measuring success on DR as opposed to brand metrics, when our strategy called for a careful mix of both.
Even within the agency, the amount of work needed to make DR successful for our clients was underestimated by senior management, although this was rectified later on, with additional recruits joining from their London office. Most difficult of all though was dealing with media owners, most of whom just did not seem to fully understand that we weren’t just trying to screw them down on price (not all the time, anyway) but that we really did have cost per response and ROI targets that we needed to achieve.
By the time I left, I was exhausted, having experienced what felt like uphill battles on all fronts in the name of direct response during my time there. I would like to think I won a few of those battles, if not the war, and I expect Australia will continue to look to the UK as it wakes up to the potential power of DR.
Kyle Seeley
Thursday, 4 August 2011
It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.
Commercial radio’s impressive Q2 performance just shows what hard work and innovation can achieve. Quality content that’s accessible across multi platforms is starting to pay dividends for commercial radio. As a result, it is continuing to grow its audience, its listening hours and its market share.
Listening hours at Absolute Radio Network have jumped from 17.6 million per week, to a massive 24 million! With their combined audience creeping towards the 3 million mark it is cause for celebration indeed.
And over at Magic 105.4 they will no doubt be celebrating taking the title of London's biggest commercial station, in terms of hours and reach.
One statistic that has caught my eye is that stations who podcast their shows are also reporting success stories. In particular, Absolute Radio's Frank Skinner Show posted record figures of 5 million downloads in the first six months of the year, and a million downloads in June alone, which for a station with 1.6 million listeners at the latest count is a phenomenal number!
Unusually for a media agency that specialises in direct response we really like radio as a medium. We totally buy into the increased brand browsing argument and for our charity clients, follow-up calls to an SMS brings in quality donors. So it’s great to see the industry experiencing another great set of results.
Ian Prager
Planning Director
Listening hours at Absolute Radio Network have jumped from 17.6 million per week, to a massive 24 million! With their combined audience creeping towards the 3 million mark it is cause for celebration indeed.
And over at Magic 105.4 they will no doubt be celebrating taking the title of London's biggest commercial station, in terms of hours and reach.
One statistic that has caught my eye is that stations who podcast their shows are also reporting success stories. In particular, Absolute Radio's Frank Skinner Show posted record figures of 5 million downloads in the first six months of the year, and a million downloads in June alone, which for a station with 1.6 million listeners at the latest count is a phenomenal number!
Unusually for a media agency that specialises in direct response we really like radio as a medium. We totally buy into the increased brand browsing argument and for our charity clients, follow-up calls to an SMS brings in quality donors. So it’s great to see the industry experiencing another great set of results.
Ian Prager
Planning Director
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)