Brand Response vs. Direct Response vs. Brand Advertising

By Dr. Greg Cynaumon

Ad Age™ reported a survey among chief marketing officers noting a rapid shift in strategy and ad budgets away from traditional branding media messages and into brand response messages. Not only do we get this… we’ve been out ahead of this curve for 10+ years and have successfully implemented these strategies for our clients such as: LegalZoom®, 1-800-DENTIST®, REGUS Office Solutions® and LifeLock®. So, the question is… what’s the difference between brand, direct response and brand response advertising? Here’s a quick primer to answer exactly that.

Traditional brand advertisers run the gamut from soft drinks to beers to cars. Typically, their creative relies on being cute, clever and memorable enough to remain top-of-mind when consumers shopping – period, end of story. So while we absolutely track sales trends among our brand advertisers, it’s more at a macro level (state, regional and national sales trends) versus the granular, micro-measurements we apply to our direct response advertisers. In the latter, we analyze multiple creative iterations, web traffic, online vs. offline volumes, consumer demographics, multiple media formats, multiple calls to action and multiple offers and so on.

Sandwiched between our brand and direct response advertisers are our brand response clients. With these clients we are tasked with maintaining the highest degree of brand image and integrity. Everything in these creative strategies must increase value of the brand. These are the LegalZooms, eHarmonys, and Regus Offices of the world who rely on us to provide high-integrity creative which positions the company correctly, but is also compelling enough to motivate consumers to take immediate action. But don’t get fooled by the pretty creative! These commercials must sell. I suppose it speaks for itself why we are able to keep these clients satisfied and profitable for years.

But wait! (Sorry, couldn’t resist). Last, but certainly not least, we have our direct response clients. These are the products you see across all media platforms. They rely on hard offers, toll free numbers and web orders to stay on the air. Typically, these advertisers could care less about branding, looking pretty and winning AdAge™ awards. These clients have tasked ROI with one job… make the phones ring, drive traffic and make them money. And yes, we’re awfully good at that too.

ROI Media Direct is a full service direct and brand response agency with an unparalleled reputation for orchestrating memorable and inexhaustible campaigns. ROI’s acumen revolves around out-thinking, out-strategizing and out-performing other agencies in relation to creative, media placement, campaign optimization and results. Additionally, no other agency has stronger relationships or offers greater access to national radio personalities for endorsement campaigns than ROI. ROI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT). As a result, ROI also provides instant access to more than 3,750 celebrities including Olympic athletes and marquee active and retired players in nearly every sport. Bottom line… in an industry where results are the ultimate arbiter of how long an advertiser stays with an agency; it speaks volumes that ROI has maintained multiple tier one clients for years. Copyright ©2011 ROIM, Inc.

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