Connecting the Dots With Videoactive Television

Successful DRTV marketers should be entertaining and educating, not just selling

No one likes to be "advertised to," but everyone loves to be entertained and educated. Knowing this, why aren't more marketers taking a page from the large corporations' books and creating commercials that do more than just push products and services on consumers that really aren't watching - or paying attention - anyway?

Response Magazine: July 2007
Timothy R. Hawthorne

Successful DRTV marketers should be entertaining and educating, not just selling

No one likes to be "advertised to," but everyone loves to be entertained and educated. Knowing this, why aren't more marketers taking a page from the large corporations' books and creating commercials that do more than just push products and services on consumers that really aren't watching - or paying attention - anyway?

It's a question that we at hawthorne direct ask ourselves every day, but most especially while we're at home, kicked back with the feet up on the hassock, watching television ourselves. From that vantage point, we can see clearly exactly what works and what doesn't. And after years of having products hawked at us through ineffective formats, we came up with something: what the world really needs is videoactive advertising.

What is it, you ask? Simple: a type of advertising that mixes both entertainment and education into a lively format that viewers actually want to watch, and that will prompt them to either pick up the phone, visit the Web, or lock up the house and drive to the nearest retailer to purchase your product.

Videoactive advertising gives viewers a virtual experience that is as impactful as it is compelling, and as immediate as it is relevant. It reaches into their lives, enticing them to "take another look" at the show that stands out from the rest of the clutter that's filling up the television airwaves today.

The concept works as well in the traditional advertising world as it does in the direct reponse arena, where positive reactions can be immediately measured, tracked and used to tweak commercials and media buyers in order to increase their efficiency. The Web is a vital component of videoactive advertising, for it serves as a platform through which marketers can deliver - at a more affordable cost - an even wider selection of video messages, entertainment and education.

On the Internet, pre-enthused and pre-educated traffic accounts for as much as 70 percent of orders and leads in certain DRTV campaigns. A recent study indicated DRTV campaigns can increase daily search impressions up to 1,200+ percent and click rates up to 50+ percent.

On their Web sites, for example, marketers can combine video-based advertising and video-centric advertising to create one- and two-minute short-form spots that include toll free numbers and a call to action that entices cybersurfers to hit "buy now." This can be achieved through a simple invitation woven into a DRTV short-form spot or infomercial. The Web component picks up where the television advertising leaves off, using the same format (the same host, for example, or set).

Online, DRTV principles like "the more you tell, the more you sell" can be kicked into high gear, doing their job to close the sale. Hosts can rave and real-life testimonials can brag about their success with your product. What you couldn't achieve in that one- or two-minute spot, you can now excel at online, where real estate is cheap and captive audiences sit at their keyboards, ready to be entertained and educated.

So long after your product is off the air, the immense persuasion power of multi-platform video continues to work for you. When deployed effectively, videoactive advertising combines integrated television and new media advertising to produce a magical selling combination. It transcends other traditional persuasion media by giving the viewer a virtual experience that is engaging, accountable and ROI-driven in a way that no other medium can match.

Videoactive advertising also encompasses mobile and digital platforms, creating a symbiotic union of video through analog and digital platforms that has created a "gold rush" mentality within the advertising arena. That gold rush is being led by the consumer, who continues to take more control over what they watch and how they watch it.

The future bodes well for DRTV marketers who already know how to optimize their marketing investments through concepts like videoactive advertising. Equipped with an understanding of highly measured and accountable advertising, they come into the new age of advertising armed and ready to tap a basic formula for success: The longer consumers watch, the more they interact. The more consumers interact, the more likely they are to buy.