DRTV Clicks For Sales

Direct response TV (DRTV), long used by marketers to drive immediate results, has typically been punctuated by phone operators who are standing by to take orders. Flouting convention, some marketers have been cutting out the call centers and use a Web address as the call to action.

FreeScore.com, a subscription service that lets users monitor their credit reports, launched a DRTV campaign featuring financial expert and TV personality Ben Stein. The campaign’s only call to action is Freescore.com’s namesake URL — there is no 1-800 number to call. R2C Group produces DRTV ads for FreeScore.com.

Philip Sandler, VP of marketing for Adaptive Marketing, an affiliate of FreeScore.com, says the exclusive drive to the Web offers "the best combination of an effective response vehicle and trackability."

"A few years ago we would have been really fearful to do [a URL-only call to action]," said Tim O’Leary, CEO of Respond2, a unit of R2C Group. "Now having a pure Web campaign isn’t unusual at all." He estimates that 5% to 10% of the campaigns R2C Group creates on behalf of clients drive only to the Web.

When there’s no 1-800 number, there’s obviously no need for a call center, which O’Leary says can save money and time that would have been spent developing telemarketing scripts and tracking capabilities. This is a perk in a down economy.

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