What is Video Direct Marketing?

Video Direct Marketing (v-dm) is the process of sending flat screen video advertising to prospective customers directly in the post. When the recipient opens the envelope a high-resolution LCD screen embedded within the card plays out a live video advertisement.

This is the latest innovation in advertising, merging above the line TV advertising with below the line direct mail and it represents a paradigm shift in the way companies market their products and services. Where e-dm (electronic direct mail) concerns itself with a “scatter gun” approach - mass marketing with increasingly low customer interest and open rates, v-dm (video direct marketing) uses carefully targeted customer profiling techniques with low volumes - and exceptionally high customer interest.

The shift has come about because of the fragmentation of media and the changes in the way that people consume media that have taken place in the last decade.

Where previously advertisers could probably catch a fair slice of their target audience with a few carefully chosen slots on the TV networks, now there are hundreds of TV channels to choose from, and then of course the internet, which today has quickly overtaken TV in percentage share of people’s media time.

Whilst TV is undoubtedly still the most potent form of media, advertisers are now looking at ways to ensure that the high production costs of TV commercials are maximized and by combining the most powerful form of media (TV advertising) with the most targeted form of marketing (direct mail) advertisers can pick and choose their prospective customers and “take the water to the horse” by sending each individual a video copy of their advert directly in the post. This guarantees the highest response rates to their advertising.

Where companies have related products or services, they are able to make this media very cost effective. For example, a credit card company which has a target audience of 10,000 customers who have all be pre-qualified as eligible for a particular card, sends out a video direct mail to the customers which advertises not only the card itself, but also the types of things that a customer’s might wish to purchase, a holiday, white goods, electronics etc., all of which will earn additional credit card points if purchased using the card. This is just one example of how multiple vendors work together to profile and target customers while sharing the cost of the delivery mechanism

Whilst it is accepted to be a highly potent media, the costs of v-dm are high in comparison to e-dm and therefore it is important to measure the effectiveness of this media in terms of Return on Investment.

Generally speaking, companies who use e-dm find a response rate of 1-2%. That is around 98 out of 100 people not responding to the email.

Companies who carry out customer profiling methodology and use carefully targeting mailings can expect a higher response rate, but response rates rarely rise above 5%. That is around 95 out of 100 people not responding.

By contrast a test mailing carried out by Blackscreen Media Dubai to a random sample base of 100 people produced a response rate of 48% which rose to 76% with follow up calls to those non-responders. Whilst this is only a small sample, Blackscreen Media reports that of its current client base, all have expressed an interest in re-orders, with many companies ordering now in several multiples of their first order. This would seem to indicate the effectiveness of the medium in addition to the existing statistical data.

An interesting further aspect of v-dm, which may outweigh even it’s immediate effectiveness, is that it is also extremely viral – recipients want to show off this new innovation, which in turn spreads awareness of the advertisement to among their social network and beyond.

A UK based company, Vidioh!, reports client observations that many respondents have been as interested in this new technology as the product or service being offered by the advertisers. This is seen as an additional benefit, creating a dialogue between the advertisers and their target audience, which, in a world a digital noise, is seen as vital for any advertiser that wishes to stand out and have their message heard by the prospective customer.

V-dm is also exceptionally “sticky”, as customers can also re-use the video cards and even load additional video content directly from a PC or Mac, they retain the cards, in turn continually advertising the companies branding and own video advertisement.

Vidioh! also reports another interesting aspect of this new form of marketing; it requires very low minimum run rate to make it effective. With a cost per card in the region of $50, companies can send out 200 – 300 cards (and outlay of $10 -$15,000) and expect a response rate of 40% - 60%; which means 80 to 180 new customers.

Prospective customers who respond are also more aware of the product or service being offered, both because video tends to be more easily absorbed than print and because customers tend to watch the advertisement more than once due to the innovative nature of the medium. A trend that has been also recognized from the early stages of product videos online is that customers are less likely to return products having viewed a video demonstration.

Initial interest in the video media cards has been from technology and events companies.

HP, one of the world’s largest technology companies, recently used video cards provided by Blackscreen Media for the worldwide press launch of a new 3D printer in Dubai at the end of February 2012 and has subsequently placed eight new orders for video cards across several divisions of the company.

Xerox Emirates recently used video cards for an event to showcase the company’s new Managed Print Services offering, while The Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2), the ocean liner now now stationed in Dubai, send out video cards to VIP guests as a keepsake with a video for those attending the New Year’s party on board.

The mail video advertisements come in MP4 or AVI format and the video auto-starts when the card is opened. Manual control buttons can be positioned under the display which allow for the playing of multiple videos.

The high resolution, 16:9 aspect LCD display is powered by a custom board with built-in storage for about 30 minutes of video footage. There's an included speaker, and the Li-ion battery is fully rechargeable via the included USB port.

If required, battery capacity can be increased to up to 7.5 hours and onboard storage boosted up to 4GB – which is enough for 8 hours of video.

The Real Power of Social Media

I’m competing silently with a colleague to see who can acquire the largest community of contacts on social media sites. He peers at me disapprovingly from above his spectacles and remarks that ‘it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality’.

And he’s right, of course.

But not in the way you might think.

Because although we are all rather good at counting how many contacts we have – be it Twitter followers, Facebook friends, or LinkedIn connections - most of us aren’t very strategic when it comes to the best way to take advantage of the enormous potential of our own social networks.

Almost 30 years ago, a landmark study, entitled "The Strength of Weak Ties", showed conclusively that the best new business opportunities come from your more distant colleagues and friends, as opposed to your closest ones. This isn’t because close friends don’t give good recommendations; it’s because you and your close friends are more likely already to know about the same opportunities. Opportunities known to more distant colleagues--those who you don’t interact very often--are not as likely to be known to your own friends - and therefore to you.

So start thinking more about how your network operates, and how you can better operate within it; if you want exposure to more opportunities, make better connections with people and groups you don’t know much about.

An excerpt from Russell’s facebook (where some words may have been edited to remove bad language or drunkenly misspelt words)
Saturday 5^th November 12.47 -  Heathrow
Is sipping champagne thanks to those wonderful people at Emirates Airlines. Flying to Hong Kong with a brief stopover for Sunday lunch on the Palm. Chocs away.
Sunday 6^th November 17.26 - Dubai International Airport
Lady at check in: "did you pack your bags yourself?"
Me: "good heavens no. My wife packed them."
Lady at check in: "Why is that, sir?"
Me: "because if I packed my own bags they would contain an elephant's foot warmer, an automatic card shuffler, a tennis racket and no clothes. It's a constant source of surprise and delight to me when I open my bags that I actually have useful items inside them".
Lady at check in: "you need to say "yes" to this question, sir".
Me: "yes"

Sunday 6^th November 18.03 - Dubai International Airport
Bit of a drama whilst on walkabout to see if I can find anyone to upgrade me. Return and pass chap in green combos with large gun standing over my luggage. Smile at him. Wander. Pass him again a few minutes later. Nod happily.
“Is this your luggage sir?”
Me: “yes”.
“You must not leave your luggage unattended, Sir”
Me: “It’s not unattended. You’re standing over it with a large gun. I doubt anyone is going to try to steal it”
This is not the correct response. “I was kidding” doesn‘t help enormously, either.

Sunday 6^th November 18.24 - Dubai International Airport
I have been ushered to the relative sanctuary of the Emirates Lounge and introduced to a rather nice looking bottle of Chateau St Georges 2002.
A breezy girl in a fetching uniform says. "We'll do what we can to upgrade you. You don't have to go anywhere. You can stay here" which could possibly be translated as "you are not funny. Now for goodness sake leave us all alone".
"No problem at all" I say cheerfully. "I'll check in on you in an hour or so". China here we come. Chin Chin

Sunday 6^th November 18.55 - Dubai International Airport.
Just stood up to get a further bottle of this French number and immediately intercepted by a waiter who has possibly been briefed about my predilection for popping along to see how they are all getting on with the busy task of upgrading me.
"I will bring you whatever you need, sir", he says.
"I'll start with another one of those please. But don't go far away", I say.
"I won't" he assures me, in a tone that underlines these words.
Sunday 6^th November 19.09 - Dubai International Airport.
I seem to have mislaid my passport.

Sunday 6^th November 19.33 - Dubai International Airport
Clandestine Search of luggage and person reveals passport is AWOL. Unsure whether to alert waiter / Guard at this early stage as may compromise existing supply of Nuits St George.

Sunday 6^th November 19.57 - Dubai International Airport
Waiter has brought passport. We didn't discuss where it was. We just nodded.
Sunday 6^th November 20.27 - Dubai International Airport
I will hear news of my upgrade request at 2.30am Dubai time.

At 2.30am I was rather tipsy, but I can report that I was, indeed, upgraded.

Monday 7^th November 05.12 - Bangkok
Just landed at Bangkok. I thought I was going to Hong Kong

It is Olivia’s birthday party today. She will be thirteen, which, according to Mrs LG is “a very important age”, which means that everyone in the LG family except for yours truly and Tom is out getting their hair and nails done.

Her actual birthday is on Monday and because I will be away for this, and because I was in Hong Kong last week where everything is cheap, Mrs LG suggested that I buy something to put in what I like to call the “going-home now thank God” party bags.

So I decided to check out one of Hong Kong’s most famous street markets.

 “I want to go to a market” I said to the taxi driver

“WHA?” shouted the taxi driver. Taxi drivers tend to shout at me a lot.

“A market” I said “where I buy cheapy cheapy”

“YOU WAN RADYS MARKET” the driver nodded sagely

“Ladies Market?”

“RADYS MARKET CHEAP CHEAP”

“Yes, but I don’t want to buy any ladies?”

But it had been decided and I was slammed against the back seat and we were off with my head swimming with thoughts of being tossed into some back road nightclub. But twenty minutes later we were amidst large crowds and market holders adept at untying even the tightest of purse strings. And of course I realised immediately why it was called “Ladies Market” because it was full of pretty, shiny things that nobody needs.

So I jostled my way happy among the stalls, smiling “no” politely, until I stumbled upon a group of children slapping brightly coloured plastic watches onto their wrists.

The watches were rigid, but as they hit a hard surface (aka a wrist) the straps sprang to life and coiled tightly around the object. Utterly brilliant, I thought. Shiny. Tick. Novel. Tick.

But were they cheap?

“How much are these watches?” I asked

“ONE HUNRED THIRY DOLLA”

No tick there then. There are just over ten Hong Kong dollars to the pound, making these watches just shy of thirteen quid each. So if Olivia was inviting ten friends to the party I’d need over a hundred quid.

“How much for more than one?”

“HOW MA YOU WANT?”

It was a good question and I held up an index finger to indicate a hiatus in our negotiations and called Mrs LG, who was lunching somewhere in the UK. I explained the story so far and repeated the stall holder’s question.

There was a pause.

Pause are not good signs in the LG household, for they indicate Mr LG has unwittingly stumbled across information that has previously been hidden from Mr LG on a Need To Know basis.

“Thirty” said Mrs LG.

“THIRTY?” I spat into the phone.

The stall holder perked up.

“Where is she having the party?”

“At our house” said Mrs LG, calmly. “It’s going to be a disco. And actually it’s more like thirty five”

“FOR THIRY I GIVE YOU SEVENY DOLLA EA”

“ARE YOU CRAZY?” 

“No I’m not crazy” said Mrs LG

“OK. OK. NOT CRAZY. SIXTY DOLLA” said the stall holder

“Who are you talking to?” asked Mrs LG

“YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING”

“OK. OK. NOT KIDDING” shouted the stall holder. “FIFTY DOLLA LAST PRICE”

“Are you talking to me or him?” asked Mrs LG

“YOU”

“Well, i think you should be talking to him. That sounds like a jolly good price to me” said Mrs LG. “Get forty five to be safe. Probably a few will drop out”

“FORTY FIVE?”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA” the stall holder belly laughed before leaning in towards me and the phone “OK, OK, FORTY FI DOLLAR. NO MORE.”

“DONE” said Mrs LG.

And I had been.

We've bought a dog

We’ve bought a dog.

“What make is it?” I asked.

“It looks like a Shih Tzu” said Lolly

“What’s a Shih Tzu?” asked Thomas

“One with no animals” said Tilda, her eyes on the television.

“She’s a Miniature Schnauzer” said Mrs LG. “And she’s called Lola”

I didn’t want a pet – I wanted more children

Don’t get me wrong, the first time I found out my wife was pregnant I wasn't exactly thrilled, but they grow on you, these children. And over the last few years Mrs LG and I have been out to a few dinner parties where the subject of children has come up and we have 3 children now, and when the women at the dinner parties ask me if I want any more children (and it’s always the women who ask) I answer ‘yes’ and Mrs LG, never far away from me in social circles with predatory females, answers ‘no’ and ushers me quickly away. Nothing to see here.

Because if Mrs LG doesn’t want to have any more kids, then we won’t be having any more kids. Having more kids joins the long list of things that I want to do that Mrs LG is not going to do, and the first thing on the list is to talk about the list.

But I know she thinks about it, because when I walk aimlessly down an aisle in Sainsbury, wondering how I’m going to acquire Rooney in my fantasy football team without losing Van Persie, she pulls me back by the small of the neck quickly rendering me as incapacitated as a suspended kitten, and she looks at me with smiling eyes and says “don’t think I don’t know why you are walking down the baby aisle.”  

And of course I smile back. With no mention of footie. I want her to think I'm cleverer than I am, and in my expereince the best way to do that is by keeping my mouth firmly shut.

And while the kids issue seemed to be getting to her, there was always hope.

But that has all backfired spectacularly as now Mrs LG, in her concern for the fact that I’m getting broody, has bought a dog. A Miniature Schnauzer, called Lola.

Lola and I don't get on particularly well. She knows her place in the family pecking order. And it's way above me. She tends to show me her tail a lot when I try and call her. Or at least I think it's her tail she's showing me.

And for the last two weeks while I have been away, noone in my family has called me. They’re all going gooey over the dog. Time is flying by.

And I can see that Mrs LG, Tom, Olivia, and Tilda have been posting photos on Facebook, of the upgraded family, minus Dad but more than complete with Miniature Schnauzer frolicking in the autumn leaves, perched across Tila’s shoulders outside school, shitting on the spare (my) bedroom floor, that sort of thing.

 And when I call, they only want to talk about the dog.

So now I have slid ever further down the slippery slope known to a man as the family pecking order; which now stands at: Mrs LG, Olivia, Tilda, Tom, Lola the Miniature Schnauzer, the one-eyed goldfish and then a long, long gap, that stretches out to the horizon.

 And then, if you squint really hard, you can see me.

But despite all this, Lola is growing on me. And I missed her, just a little bit, when I was away. And I’m happy being way down at the bottom of the pile, just as long as we can throw some more bodies in-between.

And if they all have to be Miniature Schnauzers, then so be it.

Diets and the battle of the sexes

Diets and the battle of the sexes.

 For the last three weeks I have been on a diet, although it has been a long time coming as it all started about the time of the riots. I was working remotely from France and bemoaning the fact that David Cameron was returning home to sort out the country, thus putting us remote workers back several years in the process, and Mrs LG, who is far more comfortable delivering rather than receiving personal information, and has no problem with wandering off on tangents, remarked that I should go on a diet.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you are fat”.

I rushed to the nearest mirror and discovered that it was true. I was not a dead ringer for the lithe energetic hoodies leaping from Currys with forty inch plasmas. I was the outraged Daily Mail reader; in pink shorts; bald, chubby and with a slight whiff of a middle-aged homosexual gone to seed.

This, in itself, did not force me into any change of habit (unless you count avoiding mirrors) but since then there has been an ever increasing stream of hints about my (over) weight, and then three weeks ago I returned home to find that my wife had bought me a book.

Mrs LG doesn’t buy books, because there’s already plenty of unread books scattered around our house, more that you could ever read, because I make a point of buying books, particularly books from small independent bookshops. And as I make a point of passing small independent bookshops, this is quite often. It’s a weakness of mine to buy books from people who love books, just as it is a weakness of mine to buy my meat from nice people dressed in large cotton aprons covered in large splatters of blood. Because just tastes nicer that way.

The book that she had bought me was The Atkins Diet

Now normally when a woman (and it’s always a woman) starts talking about diets (and Mrs LG has many friends who pop over and indulge each other upon this subject) my brain automatically shuts down all vital response mechanisms other than the occasional nod so that I can appear to still be listening while free to roam on autopilot, but, being a clever old sausage and knowing that I am a bear of very little brain she was quick to give me a brief synopsis before I slipped into my comatose state and that synopsis of 366 pages was two word, which were, No Carbs.

OK. I get that. And, well I’ve never quite understood pasta, noodles and rice anyway, so it sounded like a rule that even I could follow. And so I have been, and, in three weeks, I’ve lost a tone and a half; or perhaps a stone and a half.

So you’d think Mrs LG would be happy, but far from it. It appears that diets are supposed to be traumatic challenges that are agonised over and debated at length. They’re not supposed to work.

Mrs LG - along with all the other yummy mummies who shove their kids into class and then rush off (five past nine is gym time) - invests a lot of time, energy and money on a rigorous training programme. This seems to involve a variety of jaw-droppingly terrifying exercise programmes run by someone called Claus and then sitting around my kitchen complaining that they’ve only lost two pounds while shoving in another handful of quavers. So my weight loss has been greeted with distinctly muted enthusiasm by the ladies who lunch. As has my answer when asked how I did it, which is – by following the instructions.

Men, unlike women, don’t need to give themselves the odd “day off”. We either crash diet or fall of the wagon completely and keep rolling, lacking the long term commitment to something as boring as a diet. And the good thing about Atkins is that the effects are pretty quick. Possibly because eating becomes so dull that the laws of mathematics kick in and the less food you put in your mouth, the more weight you lose.

And it also helps if you’re pretty fat to start with.

But when she looks at me distastefully as I scoop a selected Sainsbury’s £2.99 seafood medley directly from the box into my mouth at breakfast time, I know it’s not the smell. It’s the fact that it’s working.

Because it only smells when I burp.

Advertiing to children

My six year old daughter, Matilda, runs the house, which I believe has something to do with her ability to make people accede to her bizarre, irrational demands.

I try to spend as much time with her as possible; i’d like to find out her technique. But it’s hard weekdays as I tend to leave for work before she wakes up and when I’m back she’s in bed again, clearly exhausted from all the bizarre, irrational demands she has been making throughout the day.

But this weekend we got some time on the sofa. We’re both early birds and we both like some quiet time in front of the telly, and in a family of five mornings is the best time, and the earlier the better, believe me.

So I get downstairs first and put the news on, and when she wakes up she comes down and then we watch what she calls “something we both want to watch”, which means something that she wants to watch.

And we have about two hours before anyone else emerges from the nest.

So I’m pretty clued up on iCarly and the hundreds of other shows that are beamed directly from some Hollywood studio to my kitchen sofa and I try to get my daughter’s attention with some sparkling conversation and this is not an easy task for me, as my conversation is not that sparkling even if it wasn’t competing with Hollywood Hills, and it usually goes something like this;

Me: Have you noticed how the brake lights of cars look like eyes staring back at you?

Tilda: Who’s eyes?

Me:  People’s eyes. Anyone’s eyes.

Tilda: I think you are confusing your eyes with everyone else’s eyes daddy.

Or these

Me: Look out at those bright stars! Oh wait, they are airplane lights. They’re very bright, aren’t they?

Tilda: (looking at television): They’re brighter than you.

But during the ad breaks conversation becomes easier. Not because Tilda finds advertising boring. Quite the contrary. And the one subject Tilda is happy to talk about during the ad breaks is how much she is missing what the various advertisers are selling and what my plans are to rectify this vacuum.

I do buy my daughter a lot of random presents, mainly second hands from charity shops. If you close your eyes hard enough Princess Alice Hospice can look like Hamleys. And like most children, Tilda doesn’t really know what she wants. So she wants everything.

Now I know that what she really wants is cheap stuff and stuff that she can get bored with 9 times out of ten but because it only cost 50p an item I don’t really care.

And one time out of ten she finds something she loves and makes it worthwhile.

Advertising is a powerful tool in front of children. Some of the ads i remember the most were for toys when i was about the same age – weebles that wobbled didn’t fall down, indestructible Tonka Toys, that sort of thing.

But it’s a powerful tool in front of anyone. We’ve just bought out a range of flat screen LCD TV greetings cards so advertisers can now beam their wares directly to those they think are more likely to buy them. And that could be kids, I guess.

There’s no escape.

But does advertising to kids really work, or is it just advertising to amenable parents? Children move on very quickly from disappointment to disappointment and their tears are easily drowned out by the cries of parents; “Course my precious can have the new sparkly dress with the flashing lights! Nothing’s too expensive for my Princess!”

Of course my daughter wants everything that’s offered her, especially if it’s done in a memorable and entertaining way on the screen. But when her cousin who is about the same age comes over she’ll trade whatever she’s got for whatever he’s holding.