Electronic Retailer - October 2011 - 39

BY ROBERT B. YALLEN

Technology Investment in Advertising is the Key to Staying on Top
CHANNEL CROSSING: DRTV
To compete in the ever-changing and fragmenting multimedia landscape, agencies need to have the ability to plan, think and execute better than they did just a decade ago. Agencies that do not embrace technology will lose their competitive edge in the marketplace, hurt their ability to attract new business and be unable to maintain their existing client base. Direct response agencies need to think well beyond direct response metrics and DR software programs, as advertisers require the more sophisticated planning and executing embodied in media optimization programs. Sophisticated media optimization programs were first rolled out in the 1960s using mainframes that were used to process payroll. Now, 50 years later, media optimization programs are built upon extremely complex algorithms incorporated into software housed in virtual server farms whose computational capacity exponentially grows with every off-the-shelf server that is added. Now in our second decade of the 21st century, with the line between TV, computer and mobile shrinking, media planning and buying has become exceptionally more complicated. With the growth of social, search and mobile, consumers can now be targeted in a variety of different ways including their habits and behavior. sophisticated algorithms that take into account all media and competitive spending – as well as all of the points of distribution – are then able to optimize on those points quickly. Test budgets are able to be reduced and tested across a greater number of channels ranging from local to national campaigns and across a variety of new media verticals that have a better ROI. While many general agencies have their own programmers that work with their teams to develop technology to give them and their clients an edge, most typical DR agencies are still caught-up in the direct metrics and miss a lot of opportunities within the bigger picture. For the past 10 years, we have made it a priority to internally develop our own solutions, crafting specific systems and programs to meet our evolving needs. Through our subsidiary InfoTech Development, we are able to develop cutting-edge technology that our clients harness to give them an advantage in the marketplace. Our software engineers are seasoned veterans of the media and retail industry. Their many years of experience have allowed us to create systems that our clients want and need. Our clients depend on our technology and many are logged into our systems from the start of their day to wee hours of the night. In addition, we have streamlined both our business and our clients’ through a variety of proprietary integrated autonomous systems. Our systems have also lowered the cost of entry for startups looking to get their products to consumers. With this kind of sophisticated intelligence, our staff members can truly demonstrate their leadership, and our client retention increases. Fortunately for direct agencies, most of the general mainline agencies have at best only minimally embraced direct response. This positions the direct agencies that can develop their own technology – combining direct and general media planning requirements – to gain more client marketshare. Robert B. Yallen is the president and CEO of the Inter/Media Group of Companies, a $500 million media, marketing, creative and entertainment organization. Through its entertainment business unit – Inter/Media Entertainment – the company has secured commercial celebrity representation deals with Larry King, Elliott Gould, Jimmy Johnson, Kate Jackson, Arsenio Hall, Donald O’Connor, Chuck Woolery, Judge Joseph Wapner, Joe Theisman and Fran Tarkenton. Yallen can be contacted by (818) 995-1455 or ryallen@intermedia-advertising.com. 39

Lease, Buy or Develop
The original media optimization programs were only available to the large agencies that could afford the high costs of these programs and the hardware to run them. Now there are many software companies that either sell or lease some type of program to assist in crafting efficient media buys. So, at a minimum, the common denominator is having an optimization program. But the agencies that are really at the cutting edge of technology either contract with programmers or hire on-site staff to develop their own more robust systems, as well as other applications. And now agencies who take advantage of cloud computing are even further able to reduce costs, increase remote collaboration, rapidly add storage capacity and have greater flexibility to shift focus in a quickly-evolving industry.

More Than Just Media Optimization
Since no two clients are the same, agencies need to look for solutions well beyond standard media optimization to offer clients maximum ROI. For example, now, with ever-increasing competition and higher media rates, direct and retail channel sales go hand-in-hand. Agencies that build programs with

October 2011 | electronicRETAILER

Electronic Retailer - October 2011

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