Is the Internet a direct response medium or a branding/awareness medium?
This question, which not too far back into the past was used as a means of somewhat eruditely suggesting that, perhaps, there is more to Internet Advertising than clicks and immediate conversions, has now become part of a wider phenomenon of over-generalizing that has hindered progress in the Internet Advertising space over the last two to three years.

Few are quicker to point out this fact than Rudy Grahn, a key Analyst covering Internet Advertising, and specifically, online branding at Jupiter Media Metrix - one of the world's foremost independent Internet Research and Audience Measurement firms.

Over the last months, Jupiter Media Metrix has released important research findings authored by Grahn, concluding that Internet Advertising has significant branding effects, the majority of which go unmeasured by Internet advertisers.

In what follows, avant|marketer speaks to Rudy Grahn to get his thoughts on the direct response versus branding debate, the future of brand/awareness advertising in the online medium, whether this form of Internet Advertising will soon overtake the various forms of direct response marketing that have come to define Internet Advertising since its inception, and what advertisers need to do to better harness and understand the branding capabilities that the online medium offers.

Editor's Note: You can also download a complimentary report entitled "What Works In Internet Advertising" (I didn't so I don't know how good it is).

This very in-depth study, which includes information through Q4 2002, covers everything a marketer needs to know, from the continuing development of advertising technology (animated gifs, ubiquitous pop-ups and embedded advertising methodology) to the statistical analysis of media purchasing trends, and much more. Of special interest is the overall conclusion that online advertising is increasingly direct marketing (as opposed to branding) focused.

In addition, the report contains good information on email delivery rates and high failure-to-deliver statistics. NetZero rings in with a 27 percent non-delivery rate, Yahoo! has a 22 percent failure rate, and 18% of AOL email does not get through. Quite significant information as you contemplate your next email campaign. [WDFM Annotation]

Here's a useful tool for marketers who want to get their legitimate email newsletters and sales campaigns through the blockades and filters that ISPs are using to stop s*pam.

S*pamCheck will run your email piece through its software and then will deliver a "s*pam score" and recommendations on how to decrease the odds of your email being filtered (by changing words, phrases or formatting). S*pamCheck is part of the SiteSell software suite. See the website for instructions on how to get a free S*pamCheck test run. [WDFM Annotation]

According to many students of Direct Marketing, Claude Hopkins was ahead of his time. Jumpstart your DM learning curve by reading "Scientific Advertising," the classic tome penned by legendary ad man Claude Hopkins, who was born in 1866 and who worked for Lord & Thomas advertising agency, forerunner to today's Foote, Cone & Belding. The book has been reproduced in its entirety at this site for free.

Hopkins was an incredibly successful copywriter and strategist whose six-figure salary (enormous for that time) was the result of careful adherence to principles, fundamentals and ROI. In his quest to improve ROI, he was the first to formalize many classic advertising testing methods such as ad tracking, double blind headline testing and more. Dig into all 21 chapters of "Scientific Advertising" for free right here; they are as fresh as the day they were written eighty years ago.

PS - Hopkins is also the author of the autobiographical "My Life in Advertising", another "must-read" for DM students. [WDFM Annotation]

In this interactive feature, Forbes.com looks at the world of direct-response TV ads. The question: Are they a good deal for advertisers? Ask Johnny Carson. His Carson Productions has sold some 2.5 million copies of its best of The Tonight Show videos, a number the author notes, "is comparable to the DVD/video sales for a hit Hollywood movie." Nearly two-thirds of all Americans report seeing infomercials, and more than 1,000 products a year are sold through this channel, according to this report. And infomercials aren't just for hawking crazy knives and foot soakers anymore. Established brands including Apple, Whirlpool, and Time-Life have mounted direct-response commercials. The report includes lists of the most successful infomercial products in 2002 (headed by the Bowflex Home Gym), and the best pitchmen (Need you ask? Ron Popeil). [HBS Working Knowledge Annotation]

This article reviews the various forms of online advertising available and some of the relevant research about the effectiveness of those formats. A good introduction and big-picture look at the field for marketers and site-owners alike.

What draws you towards a particular make of footwear displayed on a store wall? What will be the sales impact of a new shelf display? Where in a shelf should you put your brand and how many facings should it have? To understand consumer decisions at the point of purchase or to measure the performance of POP marketing, Professor Pierre Chandon shows that the often-used memory measures are not very informative. He takes a close look at eye-tracking as a valuable way to measure POP marketing effectiveness.

Robert Bly explains how to persuade the engineer to take action. If you take the broader view, this is information about how you sell to the Analytic personality type - engineers generally possess strongly analytical personalities. So if you hope to persuade them, you can't ignore their needs, anymore than you can ignore the needs of your Amiables, Expressives and Assertives.