Search Results

SmartResponse Launches Fischer's new Three Minute DRTV Creative and Media Campaign in March. On March 1st Fischer Future Heat launched their inaugural three-minute Direct Response TV (DRTV) advertising campaign promoting their innovative home electrical heating system range on national TV in the UK. The DRTV advert creative production and TV media buying/planning was undertaken by SmartResponse Media – the specialist London based full service DRTV agency. Commenting on the activity, Tom Nurse, Marketing Director at Fischer Future Heat - “We are delighted by the impact our three-minute DRTV advertising campaign has delivered, as managed by SmartResponse, in terms of overall consumer response and new customer leads. The longer format of DRTV allows us to fully showcase our brand and the extensive product range at Fischer to our target audience to clearly explain the features and benefits of our state of the art domestic electrical heating systems”. Pete Mills, Managing Director of SmartResponse Media, responded - “We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with such a great and respected brand like Fischer. We felt immediately that three-minute DRTV advertising would be a great medium to promote their services and to grow their market share in a highly competitive marketplace”.

There are trade shows and then there is Ambiente - the annual monolith that takes place in very cold Frankfurt every February and is credited with being the world's largest consumer product trade fair. Attended by over 140,000 trade visitors, manufacturers and brands from across the globe to showcase their new houseware products and to understand the forthcoming sector trends. I think this is my 20th attendance of Ambiente and still exciting to meet new companies, touch base with old friends from the International Direct Response TV (DRTV) industry (still dedicated after all these years!) and to understand what is going on in the world of multichannel retail - this is one not to be missed...

SmartResponse Launches VYBZ True Wireless Earbuds with Three Minute DRTV Creative and Media Buying/Planning Campaign in June. On June 1st SmartResponse Media launched the inaugural UK DRTV campaign for VYBZ True Wireless Earbuds distributed by JTB Products based in West Chester, Pennsylvania in the United States. VYBZ True Wireless Earbuds encapsulate the latest audio technology delivering outstanding premium sound quality, available in six different distinct and impactful colourways and have many technical features and benefits including Bluetooth technology and active noise cancellation for an optimal consumer listening experience and are being sold at an extremely competitive price as part of their introductory UK exclusive ‘TV Offer’. Tyler Canfield, Director at JTB Products, commented; “Based on our commercial success achieved to date with selling our VYBZ Earbuds in the US market we are excited to now launch this unique audio product in the UK and were delighted to appoint SmartResponse, the specialist DRTV agency, to produce our new DRTV advert and to manage our DRTV media buying/planning and dynamic campaign optimisation”. Pete Mills, Managing Director of SmartResponse Media, responded; “We are extremely pleased to have signed JTB Products to launch these exciting new VYBZ Earbuds in the UK and look to emulate the outstanding results already achieved in the US”.

SmartResponse are delighted to announce a new DRTV Media and Production Client - Mobility Plus+ Three Minute DRTV Creative and Media Campaign in May On May 12th the leading mobility brand, Mobility Plus, launched their inaugural three-minute DRTV advertising campaign promoting their innovative range of walk-in bath and showers on national TV in the UK. The DRTV advert creative production and longform media buying and planning has been undertaken by SmartResponse Media – the specialist London based full service DRTV agency. Ian Davis, Chief Commercial Officer at Mobility Plus+, commented; “We are excited to see how DRTV advertising performs for our brand and are delighted with the DRTV creative execution that SmartResponse have produced on our behalf. This longer format of DRTV advertising allows us to fully convey the extensive range of products Mobility Plus+ have on offer and our competitive advantage“.   Pete Mills, Managing Director of SmartResponse Media, responded; “We are delighted to have been appointed by Mobility Plus+ to manage their DRTV advertising account – their brand and mature audience is ideal for our specialist DRTV marketing services, and we look forward to delivering great results for them from this new campaign”.

We are delighted to announce that SmartResponse Media is 10 years old today. We founded the company in May 2015 with the intention of offering our clients the ‘full service’ covering the four overriding principles that we had found to make DRTV work in our previous careers on client and agency side: 1.        Script to screen advert production creating DRTV adverts that sell 2.        Specialist DRTV media buying/planning 3.        Thorough in-house analytics 4.        Continual in-campaign optimisation to drive performance for our clients This is all managed in house with the overriding vision to deliver our clients a far greater attributable return on investment from their DRTV advertising campaigns.  In short, from day one of trading we were making SmartResponse unequivocally responsible for every element of our client’s DRTV campaigns. SmartResponse Media Driving Responsive TV Campaigns for 10 Years: We have stuck to our principles throughout the last 10 years, consistently advising our clients to ‘spend as little as possible, to find out as much as possible’ for their test DRTV campaigns, to grow their businesses with care and attention and always with a client view at the core of our recommendations, and  always  to be 100% transparent with all our activities. As we reach this important milestone of a decade trading, we want to thank all the key stakeholders in making this happen; our highly valued clients, the media owners and our excellent staff who have stuck with us as we have encountered many ups and downs, not least the existential challenges of COVID.   We would also like to thank our families and friends who backed us in 2015 to launch SmartResponse and have done ever since – we could not be more grateful. On the back of the performance and ROI delivered to clients from our DRTV campaigns, we have grown significantly in recent years and the future looks very bright for SmartResponse as we start our 11th year in business on May 1st, with further substantial growth forecast for the next 12 months. We very much look forward to working with our incumbent client base and new clients who want to employ our specialist services in DRTV advertising, to establish a new and profitable marketing and sales channel for their businesses – what we wake up early every morning to deliver to the very best of our abilities. Thanks again for all your support.

There is no doubt that much of the Direct Response TV (DRTV) content released and put on our screens in the infomercial heyday of the noughties was not the most sophisticated of advertising. But Direct Response TV doesn’t have to be a tirade of bigger and louder is better. DRTV comes in all sorts of formats, from 30 second snapshots of a product or offer right up to 30 minutes of information about your brand, product or service. And not only that, DRTV can (and should) be cut for all sorts of media. Gone are the days where just one creative is made for linear TV. DRTV advertising is an asset that can be used to build brand voice across online and offline marketing. So could DRTV be a sleeping giant, yet to be discovered in your media mix? Testing is key, so SmartResponse often recommend to our clients that they test a variety of lengths of creative, and sometimes different creative stories with the same brand themes running throughout. The lovely thing about DRTV is that you can see and measure response to different creatives immediately and the creative begins to pay for itself immediately too; in the form of incremental awareness, interest, traffic and sales. So, instead of cutting TV advertising budgets in difficult times because of concerns about waiting for the payback, maybe DRTV is worth a try.

On December 26th Tiboo launched a new Direct Response TV advertising campaign to promote their range of eco-friendly bamboo based toilet paper on nationwide TV.  The 30 second DRTV advert creative has been produced by SmartResponse who will also be managing the specialist DRTV media buying/planning and campaign optimisation. Commenting on the TV campaign, Russell Stock, Managing Director of Tiboo: “We are very excited to promote our innovative Tiboo brand with DRTV advertising with SmartResponse. Our excellent new 30 second advert really captures our brand values whilst driving sales on our dedicated ecommerce website”.  Pete Mills, Managing Director of SmartResponse, responded: “We are really excited to see the results generated from the Tiboo launch on TV over the festive period and beyond”.

On January 1st 2025 April King Legal, a specialist legal firm based in Nottingham, launched their nationwide direct response TV (DRTV) advertising campaign to promote and showcase their innovative April Wills® product in the UK.  The 180 second DRTV advert creative has been produced by SmartResponse who will also be managing the specialist DRTV media buying/planning and campaign optimisation. Commenting on the new DRTV campaign, Paul King, Managing Director of April King Legal: “The longform DRTV advertising format that SmartResponse specialise in, is perfect for our business model to clearly explain the distinct benefits of the April Wills®concept to assist our clients to save material capital in the future”.  Paul added: “The team at SmartResponse have been amazing, from initial contact through to advert production and media planning. It is clear very that they are a highly experienced team and one that we are delighted to be working with”. Pete Mills, Managing Director of SmartResponse, responded: “April King Legal are an excellent and highly apt client for SmartResponse by virtue of their product concept, April Wills® and their mature target audience. Their April Wills®concept requires very clear consumer explanation for a mature indexed viewing audience so three-minute DRTV advertising is an excellent marketing vehicle to achieve this commercial goal”.

Attended by over 700 television industry professionals from 26 countries in London the Connected TV (CTV) World Summit reflected on the TV media industry impacts and the systemic challenges that continue to develop and affect TV media markets now and looking ahead. The key learnings for TV advertisers and agencies alike were as follows: ·      Only six-to-seven CTV or Subscriptions Video on Demand (SVOD) platforms are likely to remain in business in the mid-long term including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+ delivering scale and reach, whilst mass consolidation amongst the smaller players is inevitable over the coming years. ·      Original content, which drove SVOD subscriptions and lifetime value for individual platforms behind their ‘walled gardens’, is now being sold to competitors too to bolster overall revenue streams. ·      ‘Bundling’ of multiple CTV/SVOD discounted consumer offers by media owners is a key driver for subscription growth looking ahead.  ·      Lower tier advertising subscription costs are now driving growth in SVOD platforms – 55% of new subscribers to Netflix are now coming via the lower cost monthly subscriptions – creating a significant mass TV advertising opportunity outside of standard linear TV advertising and BVOD. ·      Whilst Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ now all carry third party TV advertising and are independently audited on the BARB panel (independent audience measurement) most CTV channels are not. ·      Prime video to introduce new interactive business model for advertisers later this year so consumers can utilise their remote control to buy TV advertised products immediately via the Amazon Prime transactional website.  ·      Many smaller CTV channels face many of the same problems that have persisted in recent years for advertisers – there's no independent auditing system to confirm delivery of content or audience viewing, no frequency caps on advertising with the same copy being delivered over and over again and poor delivery of content leading to buffering or non-delivery of content.  On Netflix there were apparently over 100,000 consumer complaints during and after the recent Jake Paul Tyson fight that was watched by over 108million viewers concurrently. Pete Mills, Managing Director of SmartResponse, commented – “Whilst CTV continues to evolve in the UK there are clearly going to be several growing opportunities for DRTV advertisers looking ahead.  We are excited to see the introduction of the Amazon’ TV to Till’ strategy in H2 2025 which could represent the ‘Holy Grail’ for DRTV clients; the ability to combine highly responsive DRTV advertising, delivered to precision audiences who can buy products and services immediately via Prime (assuming their products are listed on  Amazon.co.uk  already) to be delivered in 24 hours”.

Retail sales in UK towns and city centres decreased by 7.9% year on year in December 2024 according to Rendle Intelligence and Insights. While the Centre for Retail Research released more challenging statistics this month regarding the consistent demise of High Street retail in the UK; with 13,479 stores of varying sizes closing in 2024 – a 28% increase on the previous year – with over 130,000 jobs lost in the process. Under pressure from the Labour government’s first budget last October including higher national insurance contributions, the business levy that particularly affects the retail and hospitality sectors, combined with doggedly high business rates, many stalwart UK retailers including the Co-op, WH Smiths and Shoe Zone have had to close yet more shop doors during 2025, with industry commentators forecasting a further 17,000 outlets to close over the coming year alone in the UK. Many brands who have previously been heavily reliant on the High Street for most of their wholesale sales are predictably now sharpening their focus on growing their direct commerce revenues to manage reducing revenues and footfall from traditional retail.  In 2024 26.2% of total sales were made online and this figure is predicted to grow again in 2025 and beyond as multichannel retail continues to adapt to consumer demand and changing buying habits. Concurrently the media costs of some of the key digital/online media owners including Meta (6% YoY) and Google (13% YoY) have continued to inflate in the last twelve months in the UK as e-Commerce demand grows. For direct response television (DRTV) advertisers conversely, the cost of TV airtime has deflated in the last 18 months, driven partially by the growth in Subscription Video on Demand platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+. This development has led to many brands now adopting DRTV advertising to drive and scale profitable growth in online sales and incremental brand awareness of their products and services in a challenging retail market – the future remains bright for those brands willing to break away from traditional marketing and distribution in the UK, as we continue to see  growth in Direct Commerce and DRTV.

On December 26th Oakhouse Foods launched a new direct response TV advertising campaign to promote and showcase their extensive range of frozen savoury and sweet dishes for home delivery across the UK. The 180 second DRTV advert creative has been produced by SmartResponse who will also be managing the specialist DRTV media buying/planning and campaign optimisation for this advert. Commenting on the campaign, Briar Holdsworth, Acquisition Marketing Manager of Oakhouse Foods: “We are very excited to promote our brand with DRTV advertising with SmartResponse. Our excellent new three-minute DRTV advert showcases our wide range of delicious frozen dishes whilst promoting our company heritage and dedication to optimal customer service and home delivery – we cannot wait to see the results from the campaign”.  Pete Mills, Managing Director of SmartResponse, responded: “It has been a delight working with the talented team at Oakhouse Foods – a perfect company for the medium of DRTV advertising with such a great story to tell about both the brand and their exciting and extensive food offering”.

On December 26th Brand Architekts launched a new brand response TV advertising campaign for Super Facialist Rosehip Cleansing Balm to support their e-commerce and distribution in multiple premium multichannel retailers in the UK. The 60 second TV advert creative has been co-produced with SmartResponse who will also be managing the TV media buying/planning and campaign optimisation. Commenting on the campaign, Anna Palmgren-Houel, Marketing Director of Brand Architekts: “We are very excited to support the launch of our new rosehip Cleansing Balm with a TV campaign featuring a demonstration by Super Facialist's Expert and are delighted to appoint SmartResponse as our co-producers and TV media buying/planning specialists”. Pete Mills, Managing Director of SmartResponse, responded: “It has been an absolute pleasure working with the marketing team at Brand Architekts and we are looking forward to seeing the positive results from the new TV campaign for this innovative new product”.