by Nanette Straw

All of us in marketing have been faced with the question: Which advertising media or media mix should we use when setting up a direct marketing campaign? Should we use newspaper, radio, co-ops, direct mail, television, telemarketing, free-standing inserts, or a combination?

The simplest answer is: You need to evaluate the market, then ask yourself the single question, "What media or combination will reach my target audience the proper number of times to generate the most cost- effective response?"

Our goal is to have advertising build awareness and direct marketing provide the measurable response or action.

Let's review the advantages and disadvantages of the different media available to us. Once the media characteristics have been recognized, the task of matching the media to the market and product is made much easier.

As an example of how this works, we can use SAFECO and the media selection strategies we used in three different sized cities of our Key Market program; Chicago, one of our large markets; Dayton, a medium sized market; and Springfield, Illinois a small market. The product is auto insurance.

The objective in each market was to generate company and product awareness by general advertising and responses primarily by direct mail and telemarketing. In Chicago, SAFECO's principal market is in the suburbs as that is where the company's agencies are located and marketed. Any advertising in the metropolitan Chicago area would be expensive and to some degree wasteful, plus we operate on a somewhat limited budget. We evaluated which media to use to best reach our audience in the most cost-effective manner. Using the media characteristics resulted in the following marketing plan.

Television - Television in Chicago and the suburbs is difficult to target, with 30-40 cable stations causing clutter. Due to the size of the market, TV is cost-prohibitive. We simply would need to buy too much air time to make this an effective medium and to fit our budget and needs. The "disadvantages" of difficulty to target and cost outweighed the advantages. Any consideration of TV as a major driving media was dismissed.

Radio - On the other hand, in radio we knew which stations appealed to our target audience of age 35+ homeowners. Also the stations that reached an audience which matched the demographics of our agents book of business and target market. Radio also had local appeal and the ability to tag the agent's name, address, and phone number along with an 800-number. The "advantages" of low cost, multimedia support outweighed the disadvantages. We selected a number of stations to reach the various listening tastes of our audience. Commercials were aired on drive time as our prospects were primarily commuters.

Newspaper Inserts - Newspaper was the next medium added to the mix. Newspaper inserts with 800-numbers were placed in selected papers. These are highly measurable, tied well into the radio advertising, and were very inexpensive. We used a suburban newspaper network and targeted ZIP codes in the agent's marketing area.

Newspaper - We advertised in papers the week prior to the mailings. Agents participating in the program were highlighted in our full and half page ads. The suburban editions of the Chicago newspapers were used. The newspapers provided excellent multimedia support, concentrated coverage, local appeal, and low cost.

Co-op Direct Mail - At the conclusion of the two-month radio campaign with a small amount of TV image advertising in select areas, cooperative direct mail was used. This was a low-cost and targeted medium. Through our experience, cooperative mail also provided a very good response both in quantity and quality of leads. Mailings were targeted by ZIP code and included a brochure with information listing the agents representing SAFECO. Based on our experience we were able to guarantee agents a minimum response rate and cost lead. They knew the minimum number of prospects (leads) they would receive.

In summary, a large market necessitated the use of more targeted media to avoid wasted advertising dollars while still generating high response.

For our medium-sized market of Dayton, we again looked at how to best reach our audience in a cost effective way.

Television - In Dayton most of our audience watch TV news. As most of our audience was unfamiliar with SAFECO, TV fit our needs. The advantage of broad immediate reach with our image advertising was of utmost importance and outweighed the disadvantages of TV. In addition, there was no need to target our message to a specific area, and air time for this sized market was affordable.

Radio - While TV built image, we used radio to emphasize product differentiation. Radio again gave us the ability to tag the agents' names, addresses, and phone numbers and was also low cost and highly supportive of TV.

Newspaper Inserts - The inserts were targeted to specific ZIP codes through suburban newspaper delivery and were very inexpensive and highly measurable. Although the response rate for 800-number inserts was lower than co-op direct mail, the sales conversion potential of each lead was much higher.

Newspaper - Half page newspaper ads were used tagging agents. These ads were timed to coincide with our mailing. Newspaper gave us local appeal and provided excellent multimedia support.

Direct Mail - We did direct mail targeted to prospects with the most desirable demographics. Then direct mail allowed us to target our efforts into the agents' specific markets. Targeted co-op mailing was not available in Dayton. The radio, TV, newspaper and insert support lifted direct mail response 25 percent.

The major difference between Chicago and Dayton was the fact that TV became the foundation for our marketing efforts in Dayton. We also experienced a much higher response rate in Dayton mainly due to its size, lack of mailbox clutter, and consumer awareness of the company products.

The basic principles of media evaluation were applied to our small market of Springfield, Illinois.

Television - Television often becomes difficult in a small market and the costs can be prohibitive or have "cable clutter." Although cable is available, it did not fit our needs in Springfield and was discounted from our media plan.

Radio - We felt our advertising dollar could be more wisely used with other media, so we purchased air time on the two major radio stations to reach our target audience. Radio gave us local appeal, excellent agent and advertising tie-in for this type of market and was very low cost.

Direct Mail - Again, direct mail was used to target the appropriate audience at the end of our advertising campaign. Based on market size and strong consumer awareness, our lead cost was extremely low while the quality of lead was excellent.

There is really nothing new or ground-breaking about SAFECO's approach; the markets were reviewed and media was evaluated and tested. We found that the results of testing media in similar sized markets could be successfully applied to markets of the same size and demographics in all areas of the country. In all cases, general advertising was incorporated into an effective direct marketing program. The combination proved very beneficial to our agents and the company.

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This resource is (c) and compliments of The Direct Marketing Association, Inc, New York.