Electronic Retailer - October 2011 - 60

Chief Media
Scott Paternoster
President & Founder
effectiveness, but do them all one at a time so you
can see the impact that each specifi c variable has
on a given campaign.
Chief Media pioneers new ways to buy direct response
media to effi ciently utilize every dollar to
its fullest potential. Chief Media brings its average
of 25 years of traditional and interactive media
expertise to bear, enabling its clients to realize
their ROI goals. Scott Paternoster is president
and founder of Chief Media.
What are the advantages to using a
company that can both create a DRTV
campaign and buy media time?
An agency that buys DRTV understands the need
for media effi ciency and optimization to achieve
the greatest return investment and has sophisticated
systems to track real-time response to data
(calls, visits, orders) and how it relates to the creative
message and the campaign overall. Ratings
and impressions are a component of a DRTV campaign
with sales being the main goal.
What are this year’s trends in the direct
response marketing space?
More unique technologies are being introduced to
our industry every month, technologies that cover
call routing/splitting, deep detailed media performance,
online tracking, data optimization/monetization,
third-party data look up, electronic tape
duplication, back-end transactional data technologies
– all elements that ultimately drive effi ciency
for the marketer and for our industry overall.
When analyzing a campaign that is
underperforming, how do you know if
it’s the product, the offer or the type of
media?
Isolating the variables is what leads to clearly determining
the impact a component may have on a
campaign’s performance. For example, if the assumption
is that the price is too high, then a soft
offer (no mention of price) or free trial should be
tested versus a hard offer. If the conversion rate at
a call center is too low, then offer a multipay option
to see the impact. If the media is in question,
then isolate dayparts and station mix to determine
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electronicRETAILER | Direct Response Marketing Guide 2011
As consumers shift to buying more
products online versus over the phone,
how have direct response campaigns
adjusted to reflect this change?
Here is where technology comes into play. Chief
Media has developed a proprietary tracking technology
that allocates all online visits and orders
to the original media property that generated the
response; it now allows for media optimization to
occur with the full picture of response. Marketers
are also offering more customer incentives to
transact online as the cost savings and data capture
can be substantial when compared with call center
orders.
What role do you feel social media
should play in a client’s DR campaign?
It’s a critical role that should be launched prior to
a DR campaign in order to manage the communication
of a brand from day one. Then once the
campaign is launched, keeping on top of the social
media component is critical to managing the ongoing
reputation of a product by staying in front of all
messaging – positive and negative.
Fragmentation is an ongoing concern
for the DR industry. How do you
alleviate that concern as a marketer?
Fragmentation means more media opportunities
for the marketer and taking advantage of most
of them – TV, radio, print, online, social, mobile,
maybe even outdoor media – can mean fi nding
pockets of very effi cient media in each medium
while increasing the frequency of the message for
the overall campaign across all of these engaging
platforms.
What advice do you have for any
company just getting its feet wet in
direct response marketing?
Hire professionals that will help do the upfront
analysis for you to evaluate your campaigns potential
before you spend the big money. It’s an expensive
business; it requires diligence and experienced
partners who will do the right thing for your
business to help make it a success.
Electronic Retailer - October 2011

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