DMA Roundtable: Alternative Media Experts Say Clients Wary of ‘Net Marketing

Alternative media companies are climbing a steep learning curve when it comes to integrating interactive media into their clients’ marketing plans, according to the 21 alternative media brokers, managers and mailers at a Direct Marketing Association Alternate Response Media Counsel roundtable yesterday, which also included Internet advertising company DoubleClick.

At its core, Web marketing is another type of alternative marketing, said Jeff Holland, SBC Directory Operations Inc., the meeting’s moderator. “The ‘Net gets information to the right people at the right time,” he said. “That’s what we’ve been doing for years.”

“The Internet is not different,” insisted Myron Gould of MegUrbia.net, a direct marketing Web shopping mall on the verge of launching. “If you want to represent Internet programs, it’s the same as representing inserts,” he told the brokers.

Their mailer clients see the value of having Web sites. Jill Hilliard of cosmetics cataloger Yves Rochet, said publishing the Web site address in the catalog doubled response over the last 12 months.

But brokers said mailers are often Web-reluctant because of the lack of data available about online customers and about online response rates. “Our clients haven’t called on us to do online advertising for them,” said Linda Callahan, Leon Henry Inc.

Robin B. Neal, Book of the Month Club, said these factors make it difficult to justify an investment in banner or e-mail advertising to corporate decision-makers. They also make it difficult to test and build data.

Decision makers must be informed about the medium’s value, DoubleClick’s Paul Tsigrikes said: “Opt-in e-mail, for example, is targeting tighter and tighter. It’s another choice for BOMC, and if they don’t do it, Amazon is already doing it.”

“I haven’t heard that Amazon is making money,” Neal said, further pointing out the difficulty in justifying an investment.

“There is an uneasy marriage between Internet marketing and traditional direct marketing,” said James Lyons, Millard Group Inc., citing his catalog clients’ foot dragging over joining an online newsletter-sponsorship program.

“You have an edge now because you understand direct marketing,” Gould cautioned. “If you don’t take advantage of it now, the ‘Net marketers will learn direct marketing and six months from now you will be lost.”