Two years ago, direct marketing was chugging right along, with everyone getting in on the band wagon. Ten years ago, it was like the old wild west gold rush – stake out your claim, and just pick up the nuggets. Well two years from now, we’ll probably hardly recognize the medium.
Does that mean DR is going away?
Hardly. It’s just moving more towards customization, personalization and more efficient ways of getting your product to the consumer who is looking for it. Sure, there will still be the :30, :60 TV informercial spots and probably still the longer format spots. But look for the content to change. And with more digital options available, I see them moving off of broadcast and more towards internet broadband download sites like AOL, iTunes, YouTube and others. You can then produce multiple spots each targeting a specific area or condition. Got a weight loss product that’s better suited towards men and you have a celebrity athelete spokesperson? Or how about a the same product but you want to target sedentary office workers? Come up with unique content for each and get specific about how it benefits that group. Then market directly to them.
The same goes for direct mail. You’ve already seen the jump in response rates with variable data marketing. One postcard design with specific graphics, consumer name and copy – all data base driven.
So what does that mean for copywriters? Boom time baby.
Because we can now talk very specifically to each group, crafting controls and measuring response rates with almost pinpoint accuracy. That’s a lot of copy – but the results will be worth it. Think about it this way. TV didn’t kill radio advertising. Cable TV didn’t kill network TV advertising. And the internet won’t kill cable and network TV. It’s all about the consumer being exposed to and finding the exact content that they are interested in – however it’s delivered. When the highly anticipated convergence happens with the net and TV, look to be able to insert specific spots geared right to the consumer on their particular home networks.
Now that will be fun!
Posted by thecopymonkey 
