• Ad Age, Tuesday, April 11, 2006 12:45 PM

Once sneered at by most major marketers as being low-rent and tacky, direct response TV advertising is gaining respectability. The reason is because when it comes to hot marketing buzzwords like ROI, measurement, and engagement, DRTV offers advantages that its more upscale brethren do not. In fact, DRTV experts predict that in five or 10 years all TV advertising will be some form of direct response because it can deliver on those highly sought-after goals. "People think that direct response is all about pills and potions and get-rich-quick schemes," said Michael Kokernak, CEO of Backchannel Media, a DRTV specialty agency in Boston. "But direct response is really just a measure of human engagement. You're going to find it will be the only way TV is bought and sold." At least one major marketer has caught on to the idea, and now more are likely to follow because this advertiser--Procter & Gamble--has the power to set the pace for the entire consumer products industry. P&G has been experimenting with DRTV for the past four years and signaled a much deeper commitment last month when it named its first DRTV media-buying agency of record, Quigley-Simpson Brand Response, Los Angeles. P&G quietly broadened its use of DRTV in recent years, from small efforts for low-priority brands such as Dryel to more than a dozen including Cover Girl, Iams and Old Spice.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »