The potential of mobile advertising has media buying experts getting excited (and with good reason) about seemingly the limitless possibilities.

With new devices like the iPhone emerging on the scene, the newest generation of mobile devices comes fully equipped with full browsers allowing consumers to remain connected

everywhere. Advertisers have an open opportunity to make a strong impression on this market with their products ands services.

Is the world ready for mobile advertising? The fact is that mobile advertising offers media buying experts a multi-faceted opportunity to reach their target market. What could

be better than that?

Still, media buyers and media buying experts know that mobile advertising is unchartered territory. These mobile devices are nothing like television and other traditional

advertising methods. Mobile devices allow consumers to search for, receive and share information with others in an instant.

A crash course in mobile media trends… Advertisers are attempting to learn all they can about the mobile Internet audience and what it will take to get their attention. Keep an eye

on developments within the mobile web market to find out just where mobile advertising fits in.

The Miniwatts Marketing Group has been charting Internet usage by world region since 1995. Statistics show an overall increase in Internet market penetration. In fact, less than 1 % of the world's population (.4%) were regular Internet users in 1995. The most recent figures, from March of 2008, show an Internet usage increase of over 2000%. From that same source, we also know that worldwide Internet usage figures are now at 21.1 % or the world's population (1,407 million Internet users worldwide).

No other type of media has grown so dramatically during the same time period.

Internet usage has grown most rapidly in industrialized nations. Internet usage in industrialized regions of the world, where individuals tend to have a higher per capita income, has increased even more rapidly than in other areas.

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In the past, advertisers have focused on reaching consumers in the 18-49 age range. Today, that may be changing. As more and more companies are realizing the buying power that the Baby Boomer generation possesses, infomercial marketers are shifting their ad dollars and campaigns to reach this powerful market segment.
 
The Baby Boomers-those born between 1946 and 1964-comprise a market of 76 million people. And unlike the younger generations who are saving to buy houses and cars and struggling to raise a family, Boomers have a fat wallet of disposable income (some experts have approximated that Boomers have nearly a trillion dollars of spending power). Knowing this, no direct response television company can ignore the sheer size of the market, nor the wealth or voice that they have. That's why smart marketers are rethinking their ad campaigns and targeting this profitable niche.
 
So what's the best way to reach this market? TV and Internet, for sure. While television is still the most effective medium for reaching Boomers, the online options are growing fast.

Peter Koeppel has been selected as chairman of the Electronic Retailing Association Meetings and Conventions Committee. As chairman, Koeppel will head up one of ERA's most important committees, which accounts for a sizeable portion of ERA's revenues. "I'm honored that I was selected as a chairman for such a prestigious ERA committee. "We selected Peter because of his leadership, strong marketing background and his continued commitment and contributions to ERA," said Karla Kelly, VP of Meetings for ERA.
 
Peter Koeppel is founder and president of Koeppel Direct, a leader in direct response television - DRTV, online, print and radio media buying. Peter has over 25 years of marketing and advertising experience. Koeppel has helped Fortune 1000 businesses; small businesses and entrepreneurs develop infomercial campaigns to increase profits.

Direct Response Television (DRTV)
 
Direct response television (DRTV) is an excellent vehicle for marketers to utilize for selling product and services directly to consumers. Direct response TV has proven to be an effective marketing channel for both Fortune 1000 companies as well as entrepreneurs. Direct response television consists of both short form DRTV spots, generally:60 or :120, and long form DRTV, which are commonly referred to as infomercials. DRTV works best for products that appeal to a broad audience and are highly demonstrable.
 
Typical DRTV Purchaser
 
The typical direct response TV viewer and purchaser is a woman about 50 years old with a household income around $55,000. However, males now make up a sizeable segment of the DRTV viewing audience. In fact, one of the leading direct response television products over the last several years was a ladder product and 60% of the DRTV purchasers were male. In recent years the direct response TV industry has experienced growth in DRTV purchases among a younger segment of the direct response television audience.

An "If you build it they will come" mentality may work for baseball fields but not necessarily for new product launches. The truth is that whether you're a designer debuting a new faucet profile or a large manufacturer rolling out a new cabinetry collection, you need to follow a proven 10-step process that will give your new wares the greatest chance for success:
 
Develop a DRTV direct response television product that's in your area of expertise. If you or your company are already an expert in a certain field (plumbing or appliances, for instance), then stick with that area of expertise. If you're an authority in a particular area, you will better understand what the consumer finds interesting about the product and know how to most efficiently market it.
 
Research your potential consumer. Find out if your new product has market appeal by conducting a survey of past customers who bought a similar product in your line and ask for their opinion of this new product. You can also engage focus groups to give you input.
 
Research existing patents, then file for a patent. Take note: Someone else may have already come up with your brilliant idea but has yet to launch the product. Nearly 97 percent of all patented products never make it to market, so go to the U.S. Patent Office website at www.uspto.gov and complete a product search. Also, be sure to check out retail stores and scan catalogs to see if any similar merchandise is currently available.
 
Make a prototype of the product. Before you file for a patent, you need a prototype of the invention. Be sure this is the final form of the product idea you want to patent, because if you make changes after your patent is filed, you'll need to re-file.
 
Ask the right questions. When you're considering patenting something, be sure you ask yourself some key questions to determine if it's a good idea to move ahead, such as: "Is this a unique product that solves a real problem?" "Is this product easy to manufacture?" "Who will buy this product?" "What is the size of the direct response market?" "What are the growth prospects?" and "Who's the competition?"

The union of direct response television and the internet is spawning a wide variety of offspring Bosses in the television industry have been keeping a nervous eye on two Scandinavians with a reputation for causing trouble. In recent years Niklas Zennström, a Swede, and Janus Friis, a Dane, have frightened the music industry by inventing KaZaA, a "peer-to-peer" (P2P) file-sharing program that was widely used to download music without paying for it.

Then they horrified the mighty telecoms industry by inventing Skype, another P2P programme, which lets internet users make free telephone calls between computers, and very cheap calls to ordinary phones. (The duo sold Skype to eBay, an internet-auction giant, for $2.6 billion in 2005.) Their next move was to found yet another start-up -- this time, one that threatened to devastate the television industry.

It may do the opposite, as it turns out. The new service, called Joost and now in advanced testing, is based on P2P software that runs on people's computers, just like Skype and KaZaA.

And it does indeed promise to transform the experience of watching television by combining what people like about old-fashioned TV with the exciting possibilities of the internet. But unlike KaZaA and Skype, says Fredrik de Wahl, a Swede whom Messrs Zennström and Friis have hired as Joost's boss, Joost does not "disrupt" the industry that it is entering. Instead, rather than undercutting television networks and producers, he says, Joost might, as it were, give them new juice.

There is, in short, no consensus about the best way to combine television with the internet. Instead, there are a variety of experiments, of which Joost is the latest example and YouTube the best-known. But as with telephony, the internet is unpicking service delivery from network ownership. Joost, YouTube, iTunes and Netflix do not need their own networks to supply their video services: they can piggyback on fast internet links provided by others.

Screen India

Nationally recognized direct response television media buying firm, Koeppel Direct, introduces their breakthrough Multi-Channel Direct Response approach to media buying.
 
Koeppel Direct, a leader in direct response media buying for the past decade, is launching a new service: Multi-Channel Direct Response media buying. The announcement will take place at the upcoming Electronic Retailers Association meeting. This new service combines direct response media buying for television, online media, print and radio. This industry-transforming announcement of Koeppel Direct's new media buying approach will enable direct marketers to maximize profits from their direct response advertising.
 
As part of their Multi-Channel Direct Response media buying services, Koeppel Direct has formed Koeppel Interactive, a specialty division providing online buying for direct marketers. The combination of DRTV, online, print and radio media buying services allows Koeppel Direct to maximize campaign performance for direct marketers.
 
"Our Multi-Channel Direct Response media buying approach brings together a full range of media options and allows us to find the channels that perform best for each campaign," touts Peter Koeppel. "This helps optimize clients' media campaigns and maximize their return on investment."
 
Koeppel Direct is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with satellite offices in Detroit, Austin, Iowa and Chicago. The Electronic Retailers Association meeting will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 9th - 12th.

How does one stay ahead of the curve and adapt to the changing drtv media environment? In my opinion, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers and Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., are two of the leading media figures in business today. They understand the changing media landscape better than others and are positioning their companies to capture revenue from Interactive and emerging digital media. Keeping on top of the latest moves of Murdoch and Jobs may provide you with insights into the latest changes in the direct response television media landscape.
 
Shift to Interactive and Digital Media
 
Murdoch has spent $1.6 billion recently buying up Internet businesses. He also plans to spend an additional $1 billion for adding broadband to DirecTV, according to a NEWSWEEK interview (2/13/2006). Murdoch also noted in NEWSWEEK that, In the whole world today, only 190 million homes can receive broadband. That's going to go up in the next 10 to 20 years to at least 3 billion homes. We're just now at the very beginning of the shift to digital media. He understands that the convergence of TV and the Web is coming and that can translate into a major revenue source. He also understands that to reach consumers today they need to be targeted through a myriad of devices and media outlets. Murdoch notes in the NEWSWEEK interview that in other parts of the world, where mobile-phone service is more developed, people are downloading segments of the Fox hit 24 on their cell phones.
 
Apple has sold 42 million iPods according to the Wall Street Journal. Jobs has worked out deals with NBC and ABC, so that consumers can download shows like Desperate Housewives and Lost onto their iPods for $1.99. Jobs is also capitalizing on selling video clips on the web. Apple sold 12 million video clips at $1.99 each from its popular iTunes Music Store in just a few months, according to the Wall Street Journal (3/1/06).

Peter Koeppel is Founder and President of Koeppel Direct