7th Annual AdSphere™ Awards  Recognize Top Direct-to-Consumer Advertisers in 2022 AbbVie, Geico, Adaptive Health, CarShield, E. Mishan & Sons, SharkNinja, Luminess Direct, Ideavillage, among those taking top honors. SAN DIEGO- (March 6, 2023) – Direct-to-consumer advertisers spent over 22 billion on national cable and broadcast networks in 2022 according to DRMetrix, an iSpot company.  To celebrate the industry’s accomplishments, the AdSphere™ Awards will honor the direct-to-consumer industry’s top advertisers and brands. The awards will be presented to winners at PDMI EAST 2023, where the leaders in Performance-Driven Marketing will come together in Miami Beach, Florida from March 20-22nd, 2023.  The AdSphere™ Awards is the first awards program to be inclusive of the entire direct-to-consumer industry with advertisers such as T-Mobile, Universal Pictures, Chime, Golo, Wayfair.com, Southern New Hampshire University, Sheex, ZipRecruiter, NortonLifeLock, Consumer Cellular, Sleep Number, and many others being honored. “The AdSphere awards recognize best-of-class advertisers and brands across four industry classifications including brand/direct, lead generation, short-form products, and 28.5-minute infomercials,” said Joseph Gray, founder of the AdSphere Awards and DRMetrix.  “Direct-to-consumer campaigns achieving this level of scale demonstrate consumer popularity and best-in-class creative and media execution.  The AdSphere Awards are the most inclusive award program for the entire direct-to-consumer industry recognizing nearly 60 honorees including all of our best-of-category award recipients.” AdSphere monitors a universe of 140+ national networks on a 24/7/365 basis.  In just over nine years, AdSphere has identified over 16,000 direct-to-consumer brands.  In addition to detecting over 800,000 infomercial (28.5 minute) airings, AdSphere has detected over 110 million spots of varying creative lengths up to five minutes in duration.  The awards recognize top brands across a wide range of industry categories representing all facets of the industry.  AdSphere segments campaigns across over 190 major categories and sub-categories. The complete list of AdSphere Award winners is online at www.drmetrix.com/adsphere-awards.html. About DRMetrix DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, monitors over 140 national TV networks 24/7/365, tracking direct-to-consumer ads using all creative lengths including spot, 5-min, and long-form which include web addresses, mobile app response, SMS, or toll free numbers.  For more information, please visit www.drmetrix.com and be sure and download our latest direct-to-consumer industry study! Share on social media

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It’s been two years since we last encountered a national TV scatter marketplace favorable to direct-to-consumer (DTC) & direct response television (DR) advertisers.  Back in 2020, during the depths of the Covid lock down, DRMetrix an iSpot.tv Company, measured the largest ever year-over-year growth for DTC and DR.  Media rates were at their lowest at a time when more people were watching TV than ever before.  In contrast, traditional TV ratings couldn’t keep up leaving brand advertisers at a disadvantage.  For more information, please download DRMetrix’s 2020 industry study. Following 2020, the media pendulum swung the other direction.  In 2021, traditional brand advertisers flooded back onto the airwaves.  On top of a tighter scatter market, DTC and DR advertisers also began to feel the impact of global supply chain issues.  But that same pendulum may once again be swinging back to the favor of DTC and DR advertisers.  According to Standard Media Index (SMI), by the 2nd Quarter of 2022, scatter market investment declined 17% year-over-year.  By Q3, things got even worse with SMI reporting that scatter spend on traditional TV was down 38% year-over-year.  Marketing Brew wrote a story about this which you can read by clicking here.  How will these trends bode for DTC and DR advertisers? It’s now January 2023, and Bank of America just released their Consumer Checkpoint data reporting that 2022 was a solid year for consumer spending.  Total card spending per household finished 2022 up 2.2% year-over-year boosted by services spending.  If consumer spending holds up in Q1 2023, while the scatter market remains soft, it will definitely benefit DTC and DR advertisers.  In fact, during the first 3 media weeks of 2023, DRMetrix is already measuring a significant +25% increase in ad units for DTC and DR advertisers year-over-year. What we witnessed in 2022, during the Covid lockdowns, was the inability of brand advertisers to navigate the rapidly changing media and economic environment.  Traditional ratings don’t provide a read on consumer sentiment leaving many traditional TV brands little choice but to be conservative and pull back on media expenditures.  Quite often , these are years of great opportunity for DTC and DR brands who enjoy the unique ability to measure consumer response and sentiment in real time.  As long as consumers continue to respond and purchase, these brands will aggressively expand their media buys even during the most worrisome of economic times.  Since media commitments in scatter can be made week-to-week, DTC and DR advertisers are able to optimize and change their media strategies on the fly. If you’re interested in learning more about the DTC and DR television industry, click here to learn more about DRMetrix and our competitive media insight offerings.  Also, be sure to subscribe to this blog to be informed when we release our upcoming 2022 industry study (estimated to be in February of 2023) and when we announce the top DTC and DR advertisers in 2022 through our annual AdSphere Awards program. Share on social media

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Thanks to Covid-19, the use of QR codes was popularized by the restaurant industry for accessing menus. This has helped to create mass consumer awareness of QR codes and how they work. Both iPhone and Android devices have integrated QR code readers into their native camera apps further popularizing the use of QR codes.

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I started my career in the performance-driven television industry back in 1989.  Back then, we called it “Direct Response Television”.  Heck, 33 years later, I still call it that.  In fact, the “DR” in DRMetrix stands for “Direct Response” although some affectionately refer to us as “Doctor Metrix“. As many of you know, I sold “the Doctor” to iSpot.tv back in October of last year.  This month, I’m celebrating my one year anniversary with this incredible company. One of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on this past year, has been enhancing iSpot’s ability to detect and measure impressions on national cover-up (DPI) units. Where do these impressions come from?  Historically, iSpot has partnered with Vizio to detect ads running on over 19 million opted-in smart TVs.  Add another 20 million plus, thanks to iSpot’s recent deal with LG, and another 12 million set-top boxes under license, brings the total size of the iSpot panel to over 50 million! On these smart devices, iSpot can detect ads delivered via linear, CTV, and OTT.  iSpot can also measure business outcomes when consumers are exposed to TV ads and take action by visiting a website whether that be direct, via QR code, or via a mobile text exchange.  No more “last touch”, as iSpot’s deterministic measurement allows advertisers to measure true reach and frequency, and the performance of TV schedules with greater precision than ever before.  Both Fortune 50 and the largest D2C brands are using iSPot’s Real-Time Measurement Platform to better inform and optimize their media placements with amazing proven results. As iSpot becomes DPI compliant sometime in 2023, our best of class solutions will help the DRTV industry to address measurement and attribution for previously unsupported DPI ad units. If you haven’t scheduled a time with us already, we’d love to meet with you at PDMI West on October 24, 25th, or 26th. Representatives from both iSpot.tv and DRMetrix will be available to meet.  Our booth will be located in the main “Legends” meeting hall at the Hard Rock Hotel. If you’re interested in learning more about iSpot.tv, please book a time with Robert Hoffman by clicking here. Or, to learn about some of the new and exciting advancements coming to DRMetrix, including our detection and support for QR codes, please book a time to meet with Joseph Gray by clicking here. If you’re not attending the PDMI event, please send an email to [email protected] and we’ll setup a Zoom call! Share on social media

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I started my career in the performance-driven television industry back in 1989.  Back then, we called it “Direct Response Television”.  Heck, 33 years later, I still call it that.  In fact, the “DR” in DRMetrix stands for “Direct Response” although some affectionately refer to us as “Doctor Metrix“. As many of you know, I sold “the Doctor” to iSpot.tv back in October of last year.  This month, I’m celebrating my one year anniversary with this incredible company. One of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on this past year, has been enhancing iSpot’s ability to detect and measure impressions on national cover-up (DPI) units. Where do these impressions come from?  Historically, iSpot has partnered with Vizio to detect ads running on over 19 million opted-in smart TVs.  Add another 20 million plus, thanks to iSpot’s recent deal with LG, and another 12 million set-top boxes under license, brings the total size of the iSpot panel to over 50 million! On these smart devices, iSpot can detect ads delivered via linear, CTV, and OTT.  iSpot can also measure business outcomes when consumers are exposed to TV ads and take action by visiting a website whether that be direct, via QR code, or via a mobile text exchange.  No more “last touch”, as iSpot’s deterministic measurement allows advertisers to measure true reach and frequency, and the performance of TV schedules with greater precision than ever before.  Both Fortune 50 and the largest D2C brands are using iSPot’s Real-Time Measurement Platform to better inform and optimize their media placements with amazing proven results. As iSpot becomes DPI compliant sometime in 2023, our best of class solutions will help the DRTV industry to address measurement and attribution for previously unsupported DPI ad units. If you haven’t scheduled a time with us already, we’d love to meet with you at PDMI West on October 24, 25th, or 26th. Representatives from both iSpot.tv and DRMetrix will be available to meet.  Our booth will be located in the main “Legends” meeting hall at the Hard Rock Hotel. If you’re interested in learning more about iSpot.tv, please book a time with Robert Hoffman by clicking here. Or, to learn about some of the new and exciting advancements coming to DRMetrix, including our detection and support for QR codes, please book a time to meet with Joseph Gray by clicking here. If you’re not attending the PDMI event, please send an email to [email protected] and we’ll setup a Zoom call! Share on social media

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