Electronic Retailer - April 2011 - 41

it will also help advertisers gain much higher brand engagement. “While you should have a social media plan at the get-go, a lot of advertisers have the misconception that the social media platform is going to bring them back positive direct-channel ROI. And therefore, either they don’t plan it properly or they drop it when they shouldn’t drop it, or they simply place too much emphasis on it to begin with,” Yallen says. Many advertisers spend too much money on it and don’t understand what the focus should be. Yallen also sees the trend more toward a lead-generation model. Because the television medium is based on 30-second increments, “we see lead-generation models becoming more important – especially as media rates increase,” he says. Although Yallen is not suggesting the demise of products that sell through hard price points, he believes “marketers need to change how they market a price-point product to be able to fit into a shorter commercial unit.” Next, Yallen perceives retail as becoming more important as media rates rise and as consumers become more educated. “A lot of consumers now see a product on television and say, ‘That’s a good product. I’m going to wait until it’s in retail.’ So, again, I believe 99 out of 100 marketers need to consider retail in their plan because consumers are expecting it to be in retail.” Over the next five years, according to Yallen, major brands will use DR to launch products and really look at the DR channel to be profitable before they even consider retail. You’ll see “more of the Fortune 100 companies embracing the hybrid model of using direct response as a component of the plan to engage the consumer differently than the brand advertising,” he adds.

So, what advice does Yallen give to marketers or advertisers who are just entering the market? “They need to find a direct response organization that specializes in their category,” he suggests. For example, if you have a product that uses a short-form commercial media approach, you should probably look at companies that specialize in short form. He also suggests choosing a company that

will assign its top team to the product rather than do the agency shuffle – whereby an agency will bring in a new client and then put its lower-tier people on the project. As Yallen explains, “although agency top talent is always important, realistically, somebody starting off marketing a new product probably needs the top team far more than an established brand that’s been around for a long time.”

Final Thoughts
For the past 37 years, Inter/Media has remained a leading player in a very competitive marketplace. How? By staying abreast of the current trends and constantly finding out the needs and wants of the client.
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April 2011 | electronicRETAILER

Electronic Retailer - April 2011

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