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Timothy R. Hawthorne is the founder, chairman and executive creative director of Hawthorne Direct Inc., a leading full-service direct response agency. He is regarded by many as the “Father of the Modern Infomercial.” Hawthorne’s agency has produced or managed more than 600 campaigns for such leading-edge clients as Apple, Discover Card, US Navy, Time-Life, AARP, Paramount, Bose, Taylor Made, and Nissan.

Author of numerous articles, a sought-after speaker, and expert witness, Hawthorne was named Entrepreneur of the Year by USA Today/Ernst & Young, and one of the 25 Most Influential People in DRTV by Response magazine. He received the Electronic Retailing Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

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Leverage Videoactive Ads To Boost Purchases 300%

Written on
August 13th 2008
Author
by Timothy Hawthorne  |
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video_advertising_small.jpgADOTAS EXCLUSIVE — Reading the tea leaves of advertising’s future gets more difficult each day. As technological advances enable new options, we experiment enthusiastically. Yet in critical ways, our innovations look strangely familiar. Both the Internet and our portable media devices increasingly resemble interactive variations of television.

It’s tempting to dust off the old cliché that “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” because digital ads so often look like TV ads. But interactivity has altered the playing field dramatically and permanently. As far back as the seventies, when Warner launched QUBE in Columbus, TV visionaries have projected its future to be one of interactivity. But since the Internet arrived to co-opt this engagement, TV has had to scramble to catch up.

That many still view TV and the Web as bitter competitors is completely understandable. Few entrenched ad agencies warmly embrace the unfamiliar, and the original online revolutionaries were pretty insufferable, smugly dismissing TV as antiquated, passive, and decidedly uncool. But pitched competition leads to grudging respect. TV marketers launched trials online. Internet marketers gained even more exposure and reach the more the Web started resembling small televisions. Our worlds did not collide, they coalesced, spawning the exciting new Videoactive hybrid – the intensive use of video components in online and mobile Web sites, with interactive capabilities.

Online advertising and direct response television (DRTV) enjoy the same strengths: precision-targeting, performance tracking, and accountability. Merged as synergistic Videoactive advertising, the model offers big benefits well beyond what one medium can singularly provide.

EIGHT VIDEOACTIVE ADVERTISING BENEFITS

1) Time is critical to successful DRTV. The more time you have to demonstrate how products solve problems, the greater your odds of making the sale. The formula is easy to remember—the more you tell, the more you sell—and video-rich Web sites put it to good use. Visitors who click and graze video testimonials and product demos for three or more minutes will usually buy. For examples, see the Videoactive Web sites for Oreck vacuums and ActivStyle’s incontinence products.

2) Videoactive Web sites can “have it both ways,” ceding control to consumers while directing their actions. According to CyberTech, 81% of Web users who visit pages with a video will watch it. These videos should follow the direct response playbook: engage viewers emotionally and inspire rational appreciation of products’ problem-solving benefits.

3) DRTV campaigns closely track response via unique 800-numbers and TV-specific URLs. You learn quickly what is and isn’t working, allowing quick adjustments to creatives and media buys. Videoactive sites’ click-streams reveal equally actionable response patterns, such as what visitors view immediately before they click to buy.

4) Web marketers contend that they hand consumers the power to choose their own content. To click is to opt in—to choose where to seek information about goods and services. DRTV works the same way, inviting viewers stay awhile with the TV commercial and go deeper into a product’s benefits and features. Online videoactive campaigns thrive by providing more than consistent brand messages; they also issue similarly engaging information invitations.

5) DRTV drives purchasing decisions and inspires viewers to conduct further research. 800-numbers make t-commerce simple, but Videoactive Web sites provide click-to-buy functionality that enable instant e-commerce purchases the minute you persuade visitors to act.

6) Adding a second channel—whether TV or Internet—boosts both exposure and reach. While dual channels won’t double penetration in our multitasking world, they should easily double impressions. Even traditional TV brand campaigns rely on repetition to drill home their messages. Videoactive campaigns reinforce both channels’ impressions, provoking the “Aha!” response when Web sites trigger the same positive reactions that TV created.

7) Videoactive campaigns enable quick and efficient multichannel deployment. Brands that simultaneously shoot video for their online and TV creatives save money. Plus online roll-outs are functionally multichannel in themselves, incorporating elements from TV, radio, and print campaigns—all of which can extend further outward with email blasts, video banners, and so on.

8) Videoactive advertising resonates with contemporary consumer behavior. For the increasing number of shoppers who flock online for preliminary product research, price comparisons, and direct purchasing, good Web sites close deals that TV initiates.

LET THE NUMBERS DO THE TALKING

From their respective beginnings, both DRTV and Internet campaigns rely heavily upon data: who’s calling, who’s clicking, and how many products you ship. Numbers are also the best gauge of Videoactive advertising’s value. According to Web developers whose sites incorporate video, even direct replays of DRTV spots can boost online purchases by 300% and revenue per order by 50%. These are very strong numbers for simple deployments. They will only grow larger when you plan Videoactive from the start.



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