DraftWorldwide CEO and founder Howard Draft recently talked with DIRECT about the state of the agency business and the role of various DM media in today’s market.
DIRECT: From an agency perspective, what do you see as the hottest direct marketing media today?
DRAFT: I still think television is the media that’s going to generate the largest volume of new customers. Digital is a technique you use to build loyalty with your customers, and print advertising is still very effective. Radio is still the least effective of all the media out there for us to drive a client’s business. Direct mail is an important, but it’s not as important for acquiring new customers. It’s still paramount in loyalty programs to reward clients for being loyal customers.
DIRECT: For DRTV, is there good availability and pricing opportunities?
DRAFT: We’re probably the largest buyer of direct response TV in the country, with our ID Media company. There’s plenty of opportunities to buy. First quarter of next year will again be very strong from a buying standpoint. Once the election is over we’ll go in and buy in a strong way. But we bring so many hundreds of millions of dollars to the market that we don’t have much of a problem in our ability to clear and get the right channels. [Our billings] are all on a fee basis. We buy the media for our clients at our cost, and just charge them the time it takes to buy and manipulate the media.
DIRECT: Are you seeing a lot of companies leaning towards multichannel strategies?
DRAFT: [It depends] on what the client’s business objective are
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