It’s that time of year!  Voting is open starting today through Friday, August 26th for the 2016 DRMA marketer of the year.  For your consideration, here are some thoughts and insights gleamed from DRMetrix’s new AdSphere­™ Research System for the five DRMA nominees.

Differences in DRTV media execution

Three of this year’s nominees, Adore Me, Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, and Vista Print are executing their DRTV media buys on a non-traditional Brand/DR basis while AIG and Nutrisystem are executing their media on a traditional DR basis.  While both traditional and non-traditional DRTV approaches incorporate a call to action, there is significant difference in how consumer response is measured and how media buys are optimized.  In order to understand traditional DR metrics such as network cost per call, cost per sale, ROI, etc., one needs to track consumer response back to each network.  On the other hand, use of a vanity call to action, which is typical in the case of Brand/DR campaigns, suggests the advertiser is managing their buy based on “cost per impression” data from Nielsen.

Differences in Spend Levels

There are also significant differences in what each Nominee has spent on National Cable inventory. AdSphere™ tracks of all of the airings for every DRTV brand running across 92 national cable networks.  This has resulted in over 11.6 million DRTV spots detected since DRMetrix deployed it’s monitoring platform in December of 2014.  Each airing in analyzed taking into consideration the average price of DR media by network and ROS daypart.  Additionally, airings running in national ad breaks are segmented from those running in less expensive local “cue tone” ad breaks.  AdSphere™ utilizes a comparative spend index  where the brand with the highest level of spend is given a score of “100” and all other brands are scored in comparison.

Although they are not a nominee this year, the top DRTV short form brand for year to date 2016 is Liberty Mutual earning a short form spend index score of “100”.

Our first nominee, by order of projected media spend, is Nutrisystem with a short form spend index of “46.93”.  (DRMetrix estimates that Nutrisystem spent 46.93% of what Liberty Mutual spent for the broadcast period 12/28/15 – 8/14/16.)  It’s also worth noting that Nutrisystem is the only nominee that also advertises via 28.5 minute long form infomercials earning a long form spend index ranking of “10.47” compared to the top infomercial brand year to date which is Cize from Beachbody.

AdSphere™ Expenditure Data

Here’s how the short form spend index breaks down for each of our five nominees.

1. Nutrisystem – 46.93
2. Vista Print – 28.33
3. Adore Me – 6.05
4. Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority – 1.08
5. AIG – 1.07

Those of you with access to AdSphere™, please login and run a 2016 YTD this week to see more details such as number of airings detected for each of these brands, their actual media schedules, and you can watch all of their creatives as well!

You are now free to explore the DNA of Direct Response

If you don’t have access to AdSphere™ please feel free to take advantage of DRMetrix’s free week trial for first time users.  You can also checkout the AdSphere™ Biannual 2016 industry report “2016 Mid-Year” which debuted on www.drmetrix.com last month featuring rankings for the top traditional DRTV product campaigns and advertisers.  The new Biannual report was created in partnership with SciMark’s “True Top 50” industry report which was released on July 24, 2016.