ERA Announces Creation of Canadian Council The Electronic Retailing Association announced the formation of the ERA Canadian Council today. “Canada has always represented a vibrant market for direct marketers,” commented Rick Petry, Interim President and CEO of the trade organization. “However, some marketers may shy away from crossing the border because they don’t understand the cultural and business nuances required to succeed there. The Canadian Council will be focused on how to create the greatest Canadian marketplace opportunity through multi-channel direct marketing including DRTV, online, print, direct mail other means.”
The council will be open to all ERA members who wish to participate and will be led in its inaugural year by board of director Michael J. Moreau, CEO and Founder of Dream Team Direct and Common Sense LLC. Moreau added, “This council will hopefully draw both Canadian and international members who can help us develop the market and create economic opportunity for all.”
Those wishing to be a part of the council can contact Michael at mike@dreamteamdirect.com or ERA’s staff liaison, Karla Kelly at kkelly@retailing.org.e
^ Back To Top Dream Team Direct Announces New Board of Advisor Kathe Mogan-Sanz, Director of Marketing & Communications for Dream Team Direct Inc is pleased to announce that Linda Goldstein, Partner - Chair, Advertising, Marketing Division of Mannatt, Phelps & Philips, LLP will serve on Dream Team Direct Inc.'s Board of Advisors.
Linda is widely recognized as one of the leading advertising and marketing industry lawyers in the country. She represents clients in every sector of business in advertising, marketing and media matters. Ms. Goldstein's practice also focuses on representing advertisers in connection with their long and short form marketing campaigns and is well known to infomercial
businesses, program producers and home shopping channels. Her
expertise
extends to such highly-regulated product categories as weight loss, dietary supplement, and cosmetics and the complex laws governing loyalty programs,
affiliate relationships, and advance consent offers.
Mike Moreau, CEO for Dream Team Direct Inc. says "We couldn't be more excited to have someone with Linda's reputation and experience on our team, shaping the way we grow our business." Linda is former Chairman of the Board of the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) and currently serves as a member of its Board of Directors. Ms. Goldstein is a legal columnist for Response and Electronic Retailer magazines and regularly participates as a speaker at ERA conferences and legal workshops. ^ Back To Top
CEO & Founder of Dream Team Direct Elected to the Board of Directors of The Electronic Retailing Association Michael J. Moreau, CEO & Founder of Dream Team Direct has been elected to the board of directors of the Electronic Retailing Association. Moreau begins serving a three year term on the board at the annual ERA conference in Las Vegas in September 2008. The board is the governing body of the association setting strategic direction and providing oversight for the direct response industry.
He has previously acted as recruitment chair of the member committee where he has served for a number of years and was awarded the 2007/2008 Volunteer of the year award. He now co-chairs the member committee along with incoming ERA chair Lee Swanson.
Dream Team Direct Inc is a direct response services provider and agency based in Winnipeg, Canada with offices in the United States. ^ Back To Top
A Unique Per Inquiry Advertising System
A per inquiry (PI) advertising system that’s guaranteed to work! Higher Power Marketing (HPM) is the PI advertising agency that creates and places PI radio, TV, print and Internet advertising that produces measurable, trackable results for you, or you get your Money Back-GUARANTEED!
A PI advertising system with a money-back guarantee is the idea that launched Higher Power Marketing.
If your advertising isn't producing and you're looking for results with a lot less risk, then take a look at HPM's PI system. We have clients thanking us for creating the system that delivers results with LESS risk! A real world advertising money back guarantee is the answer to every advertiser's dreams, and it's the very foundation of how we help our clients enjoy the benefits of radio, TV, print and Internet advertising without them being ruined in the process. Using HPM’s unique per inquiry advertising system will pay you dividends, or we'll give you your money back! There isn't another advertising agency out there that has that much faith in what they do...ONLY HPM does! Face it, you want more than someone paying lip service to effective advertising. You want a new way of making your radio, TV, print and Internet advertising work, every time.
Yes, you’ll find a few PI shops out there, that require you send them a bunch of money and they cheer you on, so you can hope for the best. But these other companies don't possess HPM's PI advertising system with a money-back guarantee!
Here's how we do it...we literally pay radio station, TV stations, newspapers, magazines and Internet publishers all over the country to produce a direct response for our clients. Instead of paying the media's time/space costs, our PI advertising clients prepay HPM to produce a specified number of inquiries! Think about that for a moment: HPM's PI advertising media partners are willing to be responsible for producing a specific number of inquires for you! If HPM and its media partners fail to produce the quantity of leads we’ve promised during your PI campaign, we’ll refund to you the amount you paid per lead, for every unproduced lead, less our small fee. And we process refunds (as infrequently as they do happen) in five (5) business days. Your money is serious business, and we treat it that way.
The direct-response message from your PI advertising could be rolled out to dozens of partner TV and/or Radio Networks, as well as to more than 400 local cable affiliates, 200+ newspapers and hundreds of lead-gathering websites! HPM's partner TV networks cover 97% of the U.S. marketplace, and our partner Radio networks cover 99%. Our newspaper partners reach over 37 million readers, while our Internet partners reach over 7 million people each and every day! We can tailor your PI campaigns to your specific wants, needs, and desires.
The fact is that your PI advertising commercials will likely run in all of the top 100 major metro markets including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Tampa, Orlando, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Memphis, New Orleans, and many, many more!
If your company has a national presence and is looking for a way to stabilize its cost per lead or cost per acquisition , the HPM PI advertising model must be your next inquiry. If you want to get some real world answers to your tough PI advertising questions, please email us at info@hpowermarketing.com or call us toll-free at 888-501-5544. We’ll be happy to discuss your situation and tell you if we see a fit between what you need and what we can deliver.
^ Back To Top
Leveraging Direct Response Print Media to Drive Retail Sales In today's highly fragmented media marketplace, companies that have a desire or plan to move their product into retail channels face many challenges....they include: - working to position their product to national big box retailers as a viable SKU to carry (and commit to) amongst numerous SKU's within any given category
- how to remain profitable at a retail channel?
- determining the best direct to consumer channel to test a retail "offer"
- knowing the numerous channels that are available to a marketer - how to best negotiate DR rates for a retail CTA? (call to action)
- committing to and engaging in a media/sales channel that national retailers have an affinity to - a channel that gets on their "radar"
- measuring the ROI of any given media/sales channel even though the CTA is retail
- navigating upfront cost of the media channel including production costs
These are just some of the questions a product marketer must face when deciding to move their product at the retail level.
So, with these challenges facing a company moving into the retail sector, what can a marketer do in order to smoothly transition into retail and, most importantly, be successful?
First and foremost, as many DR pros know, you must start your sales/marketing and media strategies using direct response strategies. This is true for PRINT as it is for radio, TV, on-line, direct mail and any other channel......the lowest possible rates and accountable advertising. For many clients that I've worked with through the years, they find that committing to direct response print media early in the life cycle of their product has direct benefits as they migrate into retail. The direct benefits of this tactic is multi pronged:
*low start-up costs: creative development and final production of a print
ad(s) vs. other media channels*low out-of-pocket for testing print media: initially testing creatives and offers in daily paid newspapers, determine roll-out potential and then test national magazines *a strong affinity of national retail chains to print media including their customers (they have a history with print, they know it and understand its benefits)*print media proven as a media to drive retail foot-traffic and sales *breakeven strategies: using DR print media (800# or web) to generate direct sales while using store logo/"bugs" to drive retail traffic/sales *ability to promote multiple products on one ad *quick to market/ease of creative changes
Important considerations for a retail/DR print strategy for a marketer include: a) start placing DR ads FIRST for each new product offer before moving to retail CTA's - typically a 60-90 time frame, b) embrace print media that is placed with flexibility/pre-emptive placements in order to achieve the lowest possible rates, c) give the reader a reason to respond, special offer, non-SKU "coupon", reader benefit and a strong CTA's (web, 800# and of course listing of stores chains AFTER your strategy is grandfathered at the DR level), d) "prove" the media to your retail partners through measurable store sales/increases in media spend around your brand while promoting the fact your placing ads a pennies on the dollar! and e) realize the benefit of print media strategies as a positive effect towards other media channel channels - 10 to 20% lift in towards other channels - especially radio and DRTV.
The companies that have directly benefited from this print strategy include:
http://www.dermasilk.org
http://www.resperate.com
http://www.jointflex.com
I trust this information is of value to you and/or your clients/prospects. Please contact me if you have any questions. 612-758-8604 ^ Back To Top Thinking of Switching Your Campaign to Blu-ray? DVD Blu-ray Mastering & Replication: Evolution vs. Revolution
Similar to the early days of DVD, we recognize that as the new Sony DVD Blu-ray format increases in popularity, and as more replicators get into the business, costs will eventually go down. Not so similar is the speed of which this format will take hold in the marketplace. VHS to DVD was revolutionary in both picture quality and ease of operation. But now we also have 16:9 wide screen TVs, the major expansion of digital broadcasting and DVD 1080 upgrade players all being bought by consumers at a feverish rate.
If you view DVD Blu-ray for the first time, but are already a seasoned viewer having a wide screen 16:9 TV and digital broadcasting, the average persons response is oh…that’s nice, but it is no longer knock your socks off better. And this reaction coupled with the high cost of Blu-Ray players and discs will make this new format evolutionary, not revolutionary.
Yes, the Blu-ray players are backward compatible (they will play your existing DVDs), but until player costs and disc costs come down, we don’t see the average consumer rushing to their local electronics store to buy one. Only when your household may need another player for whatever reason, will you consider Blu-ray. Back to the content owner, replicator and associated license fees.
Understanding AACS License Fees
First, basic fee is a deal made directly with the rights holder and AACS (Advanced Access Content System). This is the consortium that holds all the Blu-ray patents, and it seems they want a return on their investment back very quickly. The simplest arrangement between the rights holder and AACS is called a Content Provider License. For a onetime fee of $3,000, they will give you a license number to work with Blu-ray replicators. The replicator cannot accept an order from anyone without this license and associated license number.
So now you have your license and you’re ready to replicate. Well, not quite. When the material is sent to the replicator, you will then be charged the following fees by the replicator (which are also mandatory and by the way, keep changing). First you need the AACS Media Key that encrypts the content of the disc, an AACS Content Certification for that title, and finally an AACS Order Processing fee. All this for each and every Blu-ray title and the average costs for all three is approximately $1,700.
So you have now spent $3,000 for the Content Provider License and you will be spending an additional $1,700 for keys, certification and processing per title.
Now we are finally ready to replicate DVD Blu-ray if you still have any money left. Whew, I’m exhausted. Like I said at the beginning of this article, evolution vs. revolution.
Bob Orzack is vice president of Cine Magnetics Digital & Video Laboratories. ^ Back To Top
InfoTech Gets Million Dollar Boost A Minot business will receive a $4.3 million technology upgrade.
U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan has secured the money for the Minot Technology Center of InfoTech to help create a new system that allows Department of Defense personnel to access military databases from anywhere in the world.
The funding was secured through the Defense Appropriations Bill.
InfoTech will use the funding to adapt a core internet service. This project will create a single Web location where Department of Defense personnel can go to access military databases around the world, while still remaining secure. It is part of the Pentagon’s effort to build a worldwide information network called the Global Information Grid. The bill now goes to the full committee for approval.
http://www.kmot.com/News_video.asp?news=22233
InfoTech Gets Federal Funds
A hi-tech company in Minot has won another batch of federal funds to serve the military.
North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan says InfoTech will be getting $4.3 million dollars to help create a new system to allow Department of Defense workers secure access to military databases from anywhere in the world.
InfoTech established its Minot office based on an earlier federal grant to work on similar projects for the military.
Dorgan says the funding for the new project passed a subcommittee today and goes next to the full Appropriations Committee
http://www.kxmc.com/video.asp?ArticleId=274496&VideoId=22194
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