Direct Response (DRTV)

Under a new feature, the Google TV Ads platform can now automatically provide an advertiser with a cost-benefit analysis for a direct-response ad. The system provides a spreadsheet that breaks down the cost-per-call an advertiser receives per spot.

Infomercial products are morphing from gizmos marketed to insomniac TV watchers to little splurges for shoppers bargain-hunting at stores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Walgreens is scaling back some of its other offerings to make more room for Topsy Turvy Planters, Perfect Brownie Pan Sets and ShamWows.

Direct marketing spending makes up 54.3 percent of all total ad expenditures, up from 52.7 percent last year, and is expected to remain above the 53 percent mark for the next five years, reports the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

SMS may lack sizzle, but it can deliver the goods if provoking your audience to action is the goal, as Chicago's Shedd Aquarium recently discovered from its summer test campaigns. To herd visitors to its new Fantasea aquatic show, Shedd Aquarium put a couple of direct-response tactics to the test to see if consumers preferred SMS or web-based calls to action.

Ad spending among the U.S. media monitored by the Nielsen Co. declined 15.4% during the first half of 2009 vs. the same period in 2008, according to preliminary figures released this morning by the research company. Total spending across those media declined by more than $10.3 billion to $56.9 billion. Cable TV was the only medium to show significant ad revenue growth, rising 1.5% over the first six months of 2008.

"Powered by the air that you breathe. Activated by the water that you and I drink!" With those words promoting the massive hit product OxiClean nearly a decade ago, Billy Mays moved from successful pitchman into the ranks of direct response television's legends. Throughout the next decade, and dozens of hit TV products that grossed more than $1 billion in sales, Mays career skyrocketed, cementing his place not only in DRTV but also in pop culture. Sunday's announcement that Mays, 50, had died at his Tampa home left not only DR industry insiders stunned, but also a nation of fans and customers in mourning.

Back in 1975, NBC launched a pop culture marvel: Saturday Night Live. For those of you who didn't see Dan Aykroyd puree fish in the Bass-O-Matic, there's Hulu.  That's the first DRTV parody I remember seeing, the granddaddy of a phenomenon that grows bigger each year.

Hawthorne Direct just made their Creative team one of the strongest in the business. Along with their hit-producing veteran Paul Allen, they have now added award-winning producer Melissa Higgins. The result: two, top-of-the-line creative directors. Higgins has 13 years experience in Direct Response and over 25 years in General Advertising, TV broadcasting and feature films. As Hawthorne's second Los Angeles based Creative Director, Higgins will be responsible for the concept, script, look and feel of specific clients' DRTV creative and production projects.