Tim Hawthorne

Take a step back and think about what it really takes to educate a consumer on the value of your product using long-form or short-form DRTV. Understand that while the longer format will afford you plenty of time to get your point across, the shorter 60- and 120-minute spots also serve as the perfect backdrop for an educational campaign.

The pull of DRTV is too much for brands to resist. Traditional TV spots have morphed into simple blurs of imagery, while long-form shows provide a platform from which to educate and inform customers about specific products and services.

Brands with a future take risks. Giving consumers your brand platform -- for them to play with -- is the risk du jour. More and more companies are launching contests that ask consumers to generate commercials -- just like Madison Avenue makes (or so they hope!). Most participants love the challenge, while others crave the incentives. The standard issue prize package includes cash, air time and the fame that accompanies both. And a classic consumer ad contest in the making is from Heinz.

Advertisers are uneasy. It's not just because we're learning new media and formats, it's because our audience claims it hates ads. You've seen the statistics. DVR owners love their ad-skipping button. Web surfers install ad-blockers. Mobile phone users delete before peeking. Consumers gripe that ads are intrusive and interrupt the enjoyment of the content they want. Sounds bad. But if we accept these complaints at face value, we can knock down the walls of resistance. It's simple: we must make our ads as compelling as the content surrounding them.

A year ago, widgets were barely a blip on the direct response radar. Today, they're the Web's hottest trend and are page-one material on the blogosphere beat.

Tim Hawthorne, Chairman and Executive Creative Director of Hawthorne Direct, explains to direct marketers what Videoactive Advertising (TM) is all about, and why DRTV experts are uniquely equipped to thrive in the digital era.

With more and more companies launching consumer-generated video initiatives, you have to wonder if brands like playing follow-the-leader or if they can make a genuine marketing case. hawthorne direct's Founder and Executive Creative Director Tim Hawthorne identifies five ways to monetize these efforts, and suggests that a contest's design can itself play a role in its impact.

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?

Should you consider using a toll-free vanity number with your DRTV campaign?  Our first instinct is to say "skip the vanity number." Why? Vanity numbers defy the very goal of traditional DRTV, and that's to create an accountable campaign where you can tell exactly how and where every call - and ultimately every sale - is generated. Vanity numbers inhibit traceability and thwart a company's ability to track their media buys, successes and failures to specific telecasts and stations.

All too often, corporate America's trade associations quickly slap together their promotional web videos. Unfortunately, these half-hearted efforts make even the most professional associations look amateurish.