This Vice President Account Director discusses some effective branding and direct-response campaigns the agency has done for Hanes and Maybelline.

Lori Goldberg is currently the Vice President Account Director of ID Media, which is the online division of both DraftWorldwide and Initiative Media Worldwide. ID Media works with clients such as Maybelline, Nikon, American Standard, Bayer and Hanes. WE talked with Goldberg recently to get her views on the industry.

iMedia Connection: What’s one of the most successful “DR” campaigns your company has executed recently, and what made it successful?

Goldberg: Maybelline is traditionally a brand advertiser. However, we are held to direct-response metrics when advertising online. The goal of most of our Web advertising is to drive traffic to Maybelline’s site to get consumers to register into the database. We’ve found that through sweepstakes (i.e. a chance to win a trip, free makeup, and/or a free shopping spree) we substantially increase Maybelline’s database. In addition, there is an incentive for consumers to fill out their information accurately.

iMedia Connection: What’s one of the most successful “branding” campaigns your company has executed recently, and what made it successful?

Goldberg: The most successful branding campaign was done on behalf of our Hanes client. What made it successful is the rich-media creative we purchased as well as the ad integration within the content. We strategically bought this campaign based on reach against our user target. In addition, this online campaign was flighted to run in conjunction with a huge TV ad awareness launch. Following the campaign, there was a 93% lift in online ad awareness and a 52% lift in message association.

iMedia Connection: So it sounds like your company can point to evidence that suggests online advertising and marketing are contributing positively to branding metrics?

Goldberg: Yes, through Reach & Frequency tools, which we use on every campaign that we buy.

iMedia Connection: Have you piloted any early Reach & Frequency planning on behalf of your clients? What did the results reveal?

Goldberg: Yes. We use both Atlas’s Reach & Frequency tool as well as the new tool that came out from comScore. It helps online marketers speak the same language as offline marketers and puts us in the same playing field. We like to look at this as a “shifting of GRPs” instead of “lost GRPs”.

iMedia Connection: Are most of your clients taking advantage of day-parting or is this perhaps more hype, than hope?

Goldberg: It’s something we have been pushing as an agency for the past year. From the beginning, we have been touting the day-part targeting as a way to hit the at-work user day-part, which is less prominent in broadcast. Inherently, there are certain clients for whom this day-part makes the most sense, and we buy accordingly.

iMedia Connection: What remains the industry’s biggest stumbling block?

Goldberg: It takes an online buyer more time to plan and buy an online campaign than it does for a traditional campaign. Either higher commission structures or hourly rates have to be negotiated until planning tools, billing and impression counting is standardized.

iMedia Connection: What knowledge can you share to bridge the gap on how to better serve marketers’ needs in the online world?

Goldberg: The best way to bridge the gap would be to educate the offline planners who, in turn, have access to clients and can put you as a line item on a media plan. In this way, online can be viewed as just another media type when planning a multi-media campaign.

iMedia Connection: Have any of your clients successfully utilized any emerging technologies, such as IM, wireless, iTV, etc.?

Goldberg: Certain categories are appropriate for this market. For example, we’ve used wireless to advertise a telecommunications client which was very successful. I believe that the audience level has still not reached its full potential especially if any geographic or demographic targeting needs to happen. However, this is definitely the next generation of communication platforms.