FOR DECADES, advertising has been a relatively simple process dominated by a clubby world. Long-established advertising and media-buying agencies, most owned by half a dozen global giants, make TV or print ads and negotiate for airtime or space with TV networks or publications, most owned by a handful of other big media companies. But as a series of recent high-profile deals makes clear, the emerging importance of digital advertising is making for a shifting and more complicated advertising terrain.

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What makes direct response advertising different from general advertising? One word sums it up: response. No matter what type of direct marketing media you use to target your customers and prospects, your primary objective is to generate response – immediate or delayed, in the mail or online. And it’s your call to action working hand-in-hand with your offer that generates this measurable response. That’s why your call to action should never be…

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Anyone familiar with database marketing is aware of the cultural divide between creative types and data types. It’s as if the two groups speak a different language. While maximum response and ROI are shared goals, how the two groups go about understanding the audience to craft campaigns that achieve these goals often is completely different.

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“What is the optimum number of times in a year to contact my customers?” My answer: “When you have something to say and something to offer. Otherwise, leave them alone.”

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Web marketers can easily tell whether a particular consumer visited a specific site, when she visited, and whether she bought something. But despite a decades-long head start, television advertisers haven’t been as successful connecting the shows people watch to the products they buy. Now a new media research company, TRA – for “True ROI Accountability for Media”- is taking another crack at the problem.

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