“The Japanese tsunami and fundraising”

It’s now nearly two weeks since the dreadful tsunami hit Japan. Unlike its 2004 predecessor when disaster relief fundraising started at a huge scale almost the next day, there was initial confusion as to whether a first-world economy like Japan needed support.

When the scale of the problem became apparent only a select few organizations became involved and started direct appeals. These included the Red Cross, and our own client The Salvation Army, who had relief workers on the ground less than 24 hours after the tsunami hit and who began emergency appeal advertising within the first week. We weren’t surprised by the results we are seeing to press advertising, search and other online appeals.

What has surprised us is the results we are seeing to other charity donor recruitment during the last two weeks.

Those of you who know us well know that we work with some 18 charities, including a number of development organizations such as Oxfam, WaterAid and Care.

We have a number of campaigns running, typically multi-media integrated campaigns, using DRTV, door drops, inserts, search, online display and email.

We have seen a significant increase in response to these campaigns since the tsunami hit, most noticeable to the sms response from drtv.

To our minds this serves to underline, once again, that the recession cannot be blamed for poor fundraising performance. As fundraisers the challenge is to show a clear demonstrable need. Show that need, and the means to alleviate it, and one can fundraise in any environment.

Mike Colling
Managing Director

Changing Affluence

I’m at Cheltenham this week, racing, and whilst I won’t pretend it’s 99% play, a little work does creep in from time to time!

Not only are there record crowds (probably a result of a very strong promotional campaign) there also seems to be record shopping.

Whilst the highstreet outside may be suffering (retail sales down 0.4% in February 2011 see http://www.brc.org.uk/brc_news_detail.asp?id=1908) the shops at the racecourse are packed to the gunnels.

Yet another piece of evidence for the rapidly changing pattern of UK affluence at both a tribal and micro regional level. Across many of our clients we are seeing significant changes to their transactional audiences. It’s not the same people borrowing, saving, spending or donating as it was even two years ago. And that has massive implications for media planning, be it a full scale integrated media campaign or a simple DRTV schedule.

Our last newsletter talked about the work we are doing looking at changing patterns of UK affluence. We would love to speak further with anyone who suspects it might be happening to them.

Mike Colling
Managing Director

DRTV exists - honest!

On Tuesday I was invited, along with some of my colleagues, to Response TV – an event organised by ITV to present some research they had conducted with the DMA to prove that TV advertising makes other media work harder.

Well, I can tell you I went with high hopes that ITV were finally going to acknowledge that DRTV exists. And that it is a good thing.

We arrived at Television Centre and were invited to watch a film. The voice-over stated: “It is widely accepted that TV advertising works by building brand associations over the long term. ... However, the responsiveness of TV campaigns could historically only be estimated by long-term sales figures or post-campaign research. Response was almost impossible to calculate accurately and brand owners would shy away from television”

Right – so I’ll just get my coat then as clearly I have been making up all of those phone calls generated in direct response to a TV ad.

No wait – once again it's simply a case that DRTV doesn't actually seem to exist. The only thing worth talking about seems to be 'Brand' television advertising.

I do get a bit cross at times – DRTV is estimated to account for 35-40% of all TV advertising. Based on 2009 Neilson figures that would put the value at between £1.2 and £1.35 billion!

But let me forget my grumpiness for a minute. A study being done by a reputable trade body such as the DMA backing up what we have been saying for quite a while now is fantastic.

At MC&C, we have numerous case studies showing that TV uplifts other activity – DRTV, inserts, doordrops, search etc. And it's nice to have someone back it up.

Anything that gets brands back to spending on TV has to be good for everyone in the media and advertising industry. This might help the TV stations get back the nearly £1/2 billion revenue lost from 2008!

Nicky Legg, Broadcast Director

India: A massive emerging DR opportunity

I have just had four of the most energetic and enervating days that I have had for a long time. One of our clients asked me to join them for a trip to Mumbai to review the media scene there, and the opportunities for recruiting subscribers to their organisation.

Before I went I guess my understanding of India was hazy to say the least - major inputs being Slumdog Millionaire and EM Forster.

What I found was a group of bright, creative, motivated entrepreneurs. And that applied across the board from the smaller organisations right up to big corporates.

We met with a bunch of media owners, clients and agencies. What we found was a media scene of extremes. Fewer than 10 million broadband internet connections. More than 350 million mobile phones. The largest circulation newspaper at just 5 million copies, but pay TV penetration at nearly 100 million homes.

Direct marketing as a discipline is still fairly immature. It is used mostly for CRM (airline loyalty programmes, financial services cross selling). There is little direct mail for acquisition as data sets are small and of dubious quality.

But the DRTV scene is alive and flourishing. The suburban Indian housewife has discovered the delights of slow cookers, teeth whiteners and exercise equipment in the same way middle America did. And DRTV is beginning to creep into the mainstream marketers lexicon, with financial services and charities conducting campaigns that we would recognise in the UK.

It's potentially a very interesting opportunity for DM acquisition. A growing market of affluent middle class (numbers vary but think more middle class Indians than Americans in the next 10 years), very low media rates (say 10%-20% of UK rates) and a sophisticated call centre infrastructure.

I’m going back. I don’t know how yet, but I am sure India represents volume and value opportunities for our clients and ourselves.

Mike Colling, Managing Director