Today we meet Jeremy Johnson, vice president of brokerage at Specialists Marketing Services Inc. Johnson sees new growth opportunities arising from Internet media—hardly surprising for a perky Web generation broker like him.
Johnson will be with Specialists two years in December. He works on accounts with clients such as Bonnier Publishing, Conde Naste, Motorsport Inc. PC World, Time Inc. and agencies like Ryan Direct. He previously spent almost 10 years with Millard Group Inc., where he started as an intern in 1997.
Web site co-registration, affinity marketing programs, search marketing, e-mail and other Internet media data sources are growing, while the direct mail list universe shrinks in what Johnson calls the "downward spiral."
For sure, Johnson still mostly works with postal lists, but he's been brokering more e-mail lists lately. Looking ahead, he anticipates all brokers will be working more with Internet media in coming years. Brokers who don't evolve will disappear like the dinosaurs, he says.
"We all need to know about more than just lists and insert media and learn about Internet affinity marketing and search marketing, because that's where things are heading."
We have to start referring to ourselves as media brokers, especially anyone new coming into this business. People who keep thinking of themselves as list brokers won't be around 10 years from now," he continues.
Consumers in their 20s and 30s are shopping more online and less inclined to flip through catalogs. Johnson believes today's children will be even less interested in direct mail when they become adults. "Think of it, they've been online their whole life."
Johnson says he can't help but notice that the Internet is making inroads at the expense of direct mail lists. He's not the first to notice that new print catalog and magazine lists are becoming rare.
"Direct mail used to be a huge part of customer acquisition, but things are changing. It's time for brokers to remember the old saying about not putting all your eggs in one basket," he adds.
Not all marketers have "jumped on the Internet bandwagon," but Johnson says a shift to more Internet media is inevitable and that brokers must be ready to seize the new opportunities.
Johnson is married. His hobbies include tuna fishing and deer hunting. "We have three dogs, those are our kids," he says.
How do publishers cope with shrinking list universes?
Publishers are following the lead of catalogers and turning to cooperative databases, because counts for individual lists are shrinking. New postal list sources are drying up and print publication circulations are generally declining.
"I think more publishers will be using co-op databases in the future. Just like catalogers, they can get more data and perhaps better data and achieve the same results with fewer names," Johnson says.
In what sectors have publishers achieved the most success with co-op databases?
Co-op databases work well for current events and financial news publications and especially for children's, cooking, crafts and gardening magazines, because list models can be built that also incorporate valuable cataloger buyer data, he says.
Know someone you'd like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mailJim.Emerson@Penton.com.
