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March 06, 2007

Direct Response Radio Advertising, Data Visibility, and Black Boxes

Do architects build structures that have no windows? Not unless they're building a cave. Humans like light. The same goes for direct response radio advertising campaigns.

In direct response radio advertising, data provides the light. Radio campaigns produce lots of data, and contained in that advertising data is everything that one could possibly know about a campaign. Most notably, that data tells the client what works, when it works, and with whom.

Yet some radio agencies working in direct response marketing are like architects building caves. They don't let anyone else see the full data. The clients live in a dark, data-less cave. Have you ever tried to run a fast-moving direct marketing business in the dark - never mind try to maximize the profitability of the media dollars? It's about as fun as driving a car 65 mph on a crowded mountain road with a blindfold on. And just as impossible.

Many direct response marketing people don't realize that there are two kinds of direct response radio advertising agencies. One is called "Black Box" and the other is called "Full Data". Both are good at getting discounted media rates. But one architects radio advertising campaigns with lots of light. The other architects radio advertising campaigns behind a dark veil.

Didn't you know that "architects" is a verb, too? Business buzzwords often take form this way.

Let there be light.

Posted by Jeff Small & Brett Astor at 03:09 PM | Permalink