This year, ERA premieres the D2C Learning Lounge, which is designed to provide attendees with education in quick and concise 15-minute increments right on the show floor. Presentations will cover a variety of direct-to-consumer marketing topics, offering audience members valuable best practices.

Wednesday, September 14

‘Hot’ Products in a ‘Cool’ Economy (video recording)
11:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Speaker: Collette Liantonio, Concepts TV Productions

It’s no secret the economy has cooled off in recent years. But ‘As Seen on TV’ products such as the Amish Heat Surge Fireplace and the Twin Draft Guard have been nothing but ‘hot’ this season. Come hear Collette Liantonio, President of Concepts TV, the creative mastermind behind these DRTV smash hits and learn how you can warm up America even during a recession. Collette will touch on every stage, from production to media and even retail, and teach you strategies on how to break through the ‘ice.’

The Art and Science of Creating On-Target DR Commercials—Using the Creative Brief (video recording)
11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Speaker: Mal Karlin, Karlin+Pimsler

A creative brief is like a road map. And a great brief leads to imaginative and persuasive ads. In this session, Mal Karlin, the CEO of award-winning Direct Response Creative Agency Karlin+Pimsler, will teach you how to effectively use a creative brief to ensure your DR commercials are smart, creative and deliver excellent ROI. A creative brief is the first step, and the most important step, towards a successful communications campaign. Karlin will take you through a sample brief, how it worked for a particular campaign and client, and why it helps drive the whole strategic process. At the end of this session, you will receive a sample brief to work with and use in your future DR campaigns.

Top 5 Ways DRTV Marketers Can Use Prospects and Customers to Drive Profitability (video recording)
11:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Speaker: Jillian Lakritz, Partner, Sandbox Collaborative

With the cost of media steadily increasing, when a spot or infomercial isn’t performing to expectations, you can’t afford to waste time or money on edits that won’t move the needle. Prospects and customers are one of your most lethal marketing weapons when it comes to improving performance of your DRTV efforts, but too often DRTV marketers are missing opportunities to leverage these resources to drive revenue and increase profit. In this session, we will discuss how to use simple, low cost market research techniques to help optimize creative, product and messaging strategy and review how to implement a high impact market research plan that will save you from wasting limited resources on changes that won’t improve results.

One Simple Rule to Increase Response (video recording)
11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Speaker: Scott Richards, Dial800

Forget about one simple rule for a flat stomach, we’ve got the antidote for flat media results!  In less than 15 minutes, you'll learn a deep, yet little known direct marketing secret that major DR companies are quietly using, but not sharing.  You'll discover why the latest scientific research on number "chunking" and short-term memory can generate 25 to 69% more calls. Join Dial800 CEO Scott Richards and learn the powerful secret that is the ultimate in working smarter, not harder!

There’s Gen X, Gen Y and Introducing Gen L…the Lead Generation (video recording)
1:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Speaker: Brendan Condon, REVShare

Lead generation is an important part of the DR process and, for those who are using it effectively, we like to call them “Gen L.” Lead generation could work for just about any business, but most industries using this type of marketing include insurance agencies, education institutions, and financial companies. Trends show that lead generation will become even more popular marketing tactic in the future, especially for service-oriented businesses. In this innovative session, Brendan Condon, CEO of REVShare, takes us through a best-practice presentation for Gen L—the Lead Generation. Coming out of this session, you will learn how to drive leads and convert customers—an effective strategy for achieving D2C success.

Boost Consumer Confidence to Boost Conversion (video recording)
1:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Speaker: Shane Lundy, buySAFE

This session will address a systemic issue that is hurting every electronic retailer, a lack of consumer confidence. During this 15-minute format, attendees will learn the unique approach that is increasing conversion and customer satisfaction for over 5,000 online retailers and direct response marketers. It’s designed to provide insights into the primary concerns that consumers have, how those concerns lead to an average of 98% abandonment and will provide an overview of best practices for reducing those concerns. When consumers feel confident and safe, they buy more and buy more often. This is a must-attend session for anyone looking to convert more shoppers into buyers.

The 411 on Short-Form DRTV Success (video recording)
1:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Speakers: Rick Petry, Creative Writer LLC and Jenny Munford, Bube Tube

If you've ever wondered which price points work in short-form, how long a toll-free numbers should be up, and whether or not you should use a male or female voice over, we've got these and other answers.  We've broken down the top 20 DRTV spots as ranked by IMS to sift out their common denominators. Join Creative Bube Tube's Jenny Munford and creative writer and columnist Rick Petry as they separate fact from fiction in this 15-minute session jam-packed with best practices you can use to perfect your campaigns.

Using Web-Monitoring Tools to Find Your Customers & Sell Them Your Products (video recording)
1:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Speaker: Chas Salmore, Marketingworks, Inc.

This session will address the question: Why are these powerful online research tools so important to finding new leads and future customers? In addition, attendees will gain a simple (and clear) step-by-step understanding of how to find/use both ”free” and “licensed” web-monitoring tools for their company. How can you make these “findings” and “insights” a great complement to your other direct-marketing efforts? A few “real-world” case studies will show how web-monitoring tools can evaluate competing products, provide unbiased community feedback, find influential bloggers (and brand evangelists) to help promote your products, etc.

Thursday, September 15

Building Consumer Trust and Your Digital Street Cred (video recording)
10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
Speaker: Daryl Colwell, MediaWhiz

Direct marketers understand that regulatory compliance is a critical best practice for campaign success. But that’s no longer enough. Today, the name of the game is trust building – establishing long-term customer relationships and building digital “street cred” with the new brand ambassador – the customer. This presentation will offer insightful, forward-thinking best practices for D2C marketers to leverage to establish online credibility with consumers in the age of emerging technological platforms. Colwell will also demonstrate how utilizing performance-based affiliate marketing, email marketing, data acquisition and social media can give you the digital intelligence tools needed to implement these best practices and drive results.

A New Perspectiva: Why the 2010 Census Will Change Your Mind about Hispanic Marketing (video recording)
10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Speaker: Marcelino Miyares Jr., Mercury en español

The 2010 Census results are mythbusters for Hispanic marketers. The market now tops 50 million, yet there are a mere $3 billion marketing dollars spent annually against $850 billion in Hispanic spending power. This session will expose some of the stubborn myths that exist about Hispanic consumers and translate learnings from the 2010 Census into actionable strategies for growing your Hispanic consumer base using in-language Direct Response Television.  Let Marcelino Miyares of Mercury en español, the largest full-service Hispanic DRTV agency in the U.S., translate a historically complicated market into your next major growth opportunity.

Holding Television Advertising Accountable (video recording)
11:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Speaker: Steve Kraft, Google Tv Ads.

Do you hold television advertising to the same standard as online when it comes to reporting and measurement?  We believe you should.  Find out how Google has taken key learnings from online advertising and applied them to television. Google will show you how the suite of Google TV Ads attribution tools can give you insight into the ROI of your television campaigns, including measuring the volume of phone calls and web traffic generated.  

Key to Profitability - Don’t Forget Your Customers! (video recording)
11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Speaker: Bruce Stone, Applied Perceptions

You have your product, you have great marketing, you’ve bought your media, you have new customers and you are well on your way to being a direct marketing success. But will you be profitable? Don’t forget that the most important part of your business, by far, is your customer. You not only need to get a customer, you need to keep the customer. You may attract customers and sell them products or services. But if you don’t keep the customers happy, keep the products in their hands and keep them buying more, you will work very hard, but will have little or nothing to show for it. Come to the Learning Lounge to get quick and immediate tips on how to keep your customers happy, save sales, lower your return rates, have more new sales and, ultimately, make more money.

If you have any questions about the D2C Learning Lounge please contact Vi Paynich, Content Manager, at vpaynich@retailing.org

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