What Companies Are Using Direct Marketing for Advertising?

Direct marketing is a type of advertising that allows businesses to be able to speak directly to the consumer and receive a fairly quick response. Unlike formal channels of advertising such as television, newspapers or radio, direct marketing utilizes fliers, product catalogues, sales letters and the Internet to reach customers. Direct marketing techniques for advertising are usually marked by driving a particular "call to action," which is a core principle of successful advertising. This part of direct marketing focuses a great deal on actionable and measurable outcomes that produce positive responses from consumers.

On August 10, Janrain rolled out its Capture software platform, which was created to cull information from social networking websites. The National Geographic Channel decided to use the software to acquire data about visitors to its website. When consumers sign up for a company's website or use Twitter, MySpace or Facebook sign-in data, the data is shared with the client. Before using the software, the National Geographic Channel was not in the practice of gathering data on its website's visitors. The channel didn’t have any consumer registration, only message board and blog comments that were anonymously posted. The Capture software allowed the company to implement direct marketing to collect consumer data and proceed further to solicit feedback from its viewers.

Hoping to sell more burgers, fast-food chain Burger King recently introduced a mobile Web site as a direct marketing vehicle designated for driving consumer traffic to its restaurants. The site comes equipped with a Burger King restaurant finder, which uses maps and zip code, and nutritional data on the restaurant's offerings. Burger King emphasizes the importance of extending traditional and digital marketing so that it can connect with the growing number of customers who use mobile communication as a source of information. Burger King’s internal research outcomes show that customers welcome this option.

Verizon and Motorola teamed up to launch a sweepstakes in connection with the next Super Bowl to increase customer response to the event. Both companies are sponsors of the National Football League and called on a sports marketing agency to handle the task. When the “Ultimate Game Day Access” sweepstakes was introduced, a program was created to benefit the consumer and utilize both companies’ assets under one roof. Consumers are able to participate in the sweepstakes on the Motorola website through a landing page. They are then required to provide an e-mail address and view a presentation about Verizon's FiOS to enter the contest. Tickets to a December NFL game are offered as the prize.