Last week, the Wall street journal ran a front page article about the “upfront market” and the price of a TV advertiser reaching a thousand spectators. On Monday, the NY Times asserts the experts are predicting a robust 2011 up-front television advertising market too.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/business/media/16adco.html
Would it surprise you to learn these countrywide advertisers have raised their rates by 69% over 5 years? We were bewildered to hear that Chrysler agreed to pay $10 per thousand spectators and that Fox Reports were wanting $13! How will this affect direct response television advertisers?
“Don’t overpay for media, you will lose,” asserts Frank Pournelle, president of Last second Media Inc. “We total the same wire advertising inventory for $2.87 per thousand viewers.”
CMR, the national rating service, let slip that a previous legal client of Last second Media spent $30 million on TV when in reality they really only spent $9 million. “They did it through per investigation television advertising, where they paid only for each call,” announces Mr. Pournelle.
At Direct Response Agencies round the country, smart media purchasers have not cared about Nielson ratings they care about RESULTS. For national direct response Television advertisers, it’s a welcome formula to get television advertising with more bang for their dollar. In programs called pay per call, pay per lead and pay-for performance media advertisers pay nothing for the television ad time. Instead they pay for every call, each response or each valid lead in programs called cost per acquisition ( CPA ), or cost-per-lead ( CPL ). The historic phrase for this guaranteed kind of advertising is “per inquiry” as Last moment Media calls it.
Per Inquiry advertising brings together new countrywide advertisers together with less known wire networks. That’s the reason why you could see ITT Tech airing on unknown networks just entering the marketplace. If channels like SiTV and Fox Net lack rating info, there are instant nationally recognized brands ready to take the ad time on a per inquiry basis. If a digital television channel roles out on twelve local television stations, you’ll likely find countrywide per investigation offers across the majority of the commercial breaks.
The rationale is that DRTV advertisers want cheap eyeballs and the best form of measurement is performance based advertising.
As the market keeps on growing more competitive, however ; easy answers are getting tougher to come by. The general advertisers are leaving broadcast television and migrating into our sacred direct response territory : second, third and 4th tier cable networks.
It used to be the one place we could total millions of eyeballs at cheap rates to get tempting CPM’s. Now we are competing against package products, satellite services, electronics, political advertisers, fast-food and even those darned Enzyte commercials. Where do we grow now?
THE NEW FRONTIER FOR DIRECT REPLY SELLING
The 1st answer could be get out of buying time onTV for a couple of months and focus on radio, print, direct mail, Web and non-traditional medias like huge print directories. For instance, great deals are being found in national yellow page advertising sold on a performance or per inquiry basis.
By integrating these other medias, you can wait out the massive costs on TV and wait to secure Direct Response Television Advertising on a Last Second Basis.
Plus, you can build out some alternative channels to insure a consistent sales process by covering your gambles. However if you need growth at this time, many direct response advertisers are presently finding success on Direct Response television and the best CPM’s in :
- Digital Cable
- Aggregated Local Cable
- Syndicated Programming
- Satellite
- Cable Interconnects
Your goal may be to use these smaller broadcast footprints to aggregate millions of spectators and still enjoy centered broadcast. Using a media broker with experience in low CPM’s can help speed you through the process. That way you can pay 20 cents on the buck for the same broadcast.
If you are a countrywide DRTV agency or client, you can receive expert help in your national DRTV campaigns with a little help from media brokers that specialize in per investigation advertising. One of the foremost experts with over 11 years expertise is Frank Pournelle at Last Second Media Incorporated who can be contacted at 1-800-334-4500.