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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”.

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...

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”.

SmartResponse today launched their new company website - www.smartresponse.tv SmartResponse have redesigned their website to promote their specialist full service offering within DRTV advertising including creative production from script to screen, TV media buying/planning and dynamic in campaign optimisation. The new website showcases many of their most current DRTV adverts, publishes their latest blogs and also includes details regarding their new press buying/planning and creative division - SmartPress.

SmartResponse Media, the full service specialist DRTV advertising agency, are pleased to announce they have launched a new press and inserts media buying/planning and creative division called SmartPress. They will now offer their incumbent and new clients a specialist press direct response focussed media buying/planning and creative service. SmartPress will be buying across 350 press titles in the UK to offer the best value in the print marketplace to their growing client base. Typically both press and DRTV advertising are indexed heavily against the mature audience segment. SmartResponse believe that by co-ordinating print and broadcast media both in terms of creative execution and media buying/planning they will give their clients a strong competitive advantage looking ahead to drive the profitability of their future direct response campaigns. Pete Mills, Managing Director of SmartResponse, commented: “We are very excited by the launch of the new SmartPress division and look forward to extending the success of our clients across DRTV and press platforms looking ahead”.

Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK, has just published a detailed case study for the DRTV advertising activity of Kärcher the premium home and garden brand - SmartResponse couldn't be prouder to work with this great company producing their DRTV adverts, coordinating their DRTV media buying/planning and campaign optimisation. Kärcher’s DRTV business – Success Upon Success Key Points Kärcher wanted to drive their direct-to-consumer business in the UK They tested longform advertising to assess which products were the most responsive As a result, the UK D2C business has grown significantly and they have seen a halo effect across retail Challenge Kärcher are innovators, known for their quality and design, with a big foothold in the Pressure Washer sector and a lot of love for their Window Vacs. However, there was also a feeling that Kärcher’s depth of range was little known and this was an area they wanted to address. Kärcher UK had high aspirations for their direct-to-consumer business, recognising this as an area they needed to grow. As a regular TV advertiser with 20 and 30 second brand adverts, TV was not a new concept to their marketing team, but they had yet to test the waters with direct response TV advertising. The challenge was to drive awareness of the Kärcher D2C website and grow D2C sales. There were also specific objectives which were to deliver a sales to advertising ratio of 3:1 (£3 in sales revenue for every £1 spent on media) and to grow brand awareness and desirability. The TV Solution SmartResponse Media were tasked with developing Kärcher’s inaugural DRTV programme. With such a depth of range, SmartResponse’s advice was to find out as much as possible as quickly as possible about which product lines were the most responsive. The client and agency taskforce created a strategy to find the winning product lines and then to push forward with an ‘always on’ strategy with the proven winners. Working with SmartResponse, Kärcher selected ten different products to test with DRTV. The creative was filmed across three days in a studio setting to create an ‘as live’ format, which was then combined with Kärcher’s existing footage to create eight 4.5-minute advert segments, two 9-minute advert segments and two 30 second promo elements to run between the product segments. These segments were then formatted into two 30-minute infomercial shows to showcase the products and to test whether Kärcher was going to be as successful in DRTV as the team believed. The Plan The advertising first launched in 2020 with the aim of educating people about the range of products and high quality that Kärcher offers and engaging as many people as possible on a limited test budget. The 30-minute longform media test was planned across a broad range of both Editorial and Shopping Channels. The majority of longform ads aired early in the morning, where the fixed costs per spot are inexpensive and was therefore the optimal time to test multiple products within the same parameters. The advertising drove an immediate discernible sales uplift from day one of the campaign launching. As with all DRTV campaigns, as the campaign built, so did response. Three very clear winning lines were identified (SC 3 EasyFix, FC 3 Cordless Premium and K 4 Premium Full Control Car & Home) within ten days and these then went into the next phase, which involved a DRTV campaign of 180-second spots. These three-minute ads continued for the remainder of 2020, through 2021, 2022 and into 2023. The continued programme of the three-minute DRTV campaigns were planned to reach the desired audience depending on the product being advertised. Kärcher’s product range targets a wide variety of audiences, so stations were selected based on this. The spots were placed in daytime only, as this was the timeband that had been proven to deliver the optimum return on investment. An average monthly weighting was in the region of 80 TVRs across two product campaigns. Campaigns were continually optimised by day of week, upweighting key times within the month (e.g. around payday) and by TV channel. All optimisations were analysed and proven to have a pronounced effect on the client’s ROI, whilst also delivering longer terms benefits of brand awareness and affinity. Results Kärcher increased their whole online D2C business by 400% in sales in the first year of running Direct Response TV advertising, very much aided by the unusual Covid19 lockdown and shift in working from home lifestyles Kärcher have continued to see D2C growth on 2020, in both 2021 and 2022 DRTV campaigns continue to perform very well for Kärcher despite a challenging economic environment, with Dec ‘22/Jan ’23 campaigns delivering a 313% increase in Daily Sales Revenue for the advertised products during this key sales period, a 71% improvement in Conversion Rate and a Peak Sales Revenue vs. Advertising Investment Ratio of 10:1 The campaign created significant search volumes and improved traffic to their D2C website dramatically DRTV products account for a significant proportion of the overall web sales There was a halo effect of TV seen across other products and in an uplift of retail sales Kärcher have seen some incredible results from DRTV, the top response drivers delivering Sales to Advertising ratios of 25:1 at the peak “The team at SmartResponse are professional, know their stuff and deliver outstanding service. They are great to work with and we at Kärcher have all had fun working with the team whilst more than meeting our business objectives”. James Gordon Marketing Director, Kärcher Databank Sector: Homewares Brand: Kärcher Campaign objectives: To drive sales and profitability through the Direct-to-Consumer website Target Audience: ABC1 Adults Budget: initial budget £80k for creative and £90k for the initial two-month longform media test Campaign Dates: The test campaign ran from 1st Jan to 28th Feb 2020 and the campaign has continued since then with DRTV ads on in most months TV Usage: 30-minute longform DRTV airtime, followed by three-minute spots ongoing from April 2020 right through to 2023 with some 90-second and 120-second cut-downs Creative Agency: SmartResponse Media Ltd Media Agency: SmartResponse Media Ltd

There is an ongoing debate on whether marketers are increasingly spending too much of their advertising budget on Performance marketing and not enough on Brand. The argument being that focussing on the short-term will be at the detriment of longer-term building of brand equity. Some say that while Performance media delivers immediate measurable results, it is very difficult to use it to drive that all-important brand awareness, affinity and trust. Direct Response TV (DRTV) doesn't fit neatly into either of these terminologies. Despite driving both immediate measurable returns and brand effects, it is all too often a missed opportunity. · DRTV is mass market, can deliver brand messages, emotional response, awareness, differentiation and trust; and ultimately long-term brand growth…but it isn’t categorised as Brand advertising. · DRTV delivers immediate, measurable and often huge impacts on search volume, site visits, retail sales (both online and offline) and that all important pound for pound return on investment…but it isn’t Performance marketing per se either. So, is DRTV a hybrid then? Do we even care? I suppose what really matters is, for those who can put the historical connotations to one side and are ready to dip their toe in the DRTV waters, DRTV really does deliver. In an era where every penny needs to count, this lesser used form of TV advertising is a media that can be used to satisfy both short and long-term business goals.

During recent meetings with senior retailers in both traditional bricks and mortar and online space SmartResponse note how much of a concern, not a commercial benefit, this relatively recent consumer buying annual event of Black Friday is perceived to be by ‘the trade’. Retailing has and will always continue to be both a seasonal and ‘event driven’ business. Since the advent of Christmas commercial urban myths – and some reality – dictates that the last two weeks of trading pre December 25th are often the key determinates in whether household name retail brands make annual profit, or losses. Black Friday has fundamentally changed the profile of Christmas forever… The layman’s view of Black Friday – now established in both retailers and the public’s mind alike as a key marquee date akin to the imminent Father’s Day event profile – from recent SmartResponse observations is nothing less than a ‘poison chalice’ from a commercial and operational perspective. In essence the US imported Black Friday phenomenon of offering standard discounts of up to 20% on the last Friday of November has distorted Christmas retail trading that is already becoming increasingly unpredictable as the consumer continues to adopt an increasingly multi channel buying behaviour. So Black Friday not only changes the buying and stock management dynamic of Christmas for any retailer at a macro level – as discounted sales are inevitably brought forward – it also challenges the multi channel capacity and operational efficiency of any retail business. There are a myriad of stories circulating that retailers just could not cope with consumer demand in 2014 for Black Friday and this year are bracing themselves for an even greater ‘spike’ in sales for Black Friday 2015. SmartResponse has yet to hear an entirely positive view from the trade about Black Friday – in essence it appears to be a competitive obligation and must have event for key retailers. Any successful Black Friday will therefore be governed by any given retailers ability to embrace the operational challenge and to be able to deliver the initial Christmas rush.