Not long ago, a company could launch an advertising campaign solely because an entity known as “Corporate” had set aside a budget for it — and many companies did just this. As for objectives? Pish-posh. As long as people remembered the ads or the board of directors liked them or the viral video was downloaded like crazy, everyone assumed the campaign was working.

Alas, the good old days of such ego-indulgent marketing are endangered to the point of near-extinction. (As you undoubtedly have heard, we are in the midst of a recession.) Now, more than ever, your marketing has to justify itself.

It’s certainly no secret that, in a recession, that dreaded group of executives known collectively as Those Who Allocate Budgets (or TWABs) turn a skeptical eye on programs that consume money without demonstrating a direct contribution to the bottom line. This leaves traditional brand advertising particularly vulnerable, since the link between recall scores, likeability, downloads and awards is, at best, inferred. Even claims that sales increased during a campaign are not immune from skepticism, since surges can result from other factors.

If you work in a branding agency, the word for this development might be “disconcerting.” But if you happen to be a direct marketer or the client of one, that word should be “opportunity.”

DIRECT IS ITS OWN BEST DEFENSE

Direct response is, after all, the only form of advertising with built-in, empirical proof of its contribution to the bottom line. Good direct marketers need never resort to inferential rhetoric to justify their existence. At any given moment, they can plop under the noses of the most penurious TWABs a spreadsheet that shows if a direct marketing program is earning its keep, and by how much. There is no wiggle room, no weaseling. No other advertising discipline can do that. In an economy in which every dime counts, direct response is the dream of obsessive-compulsive TWABs everywhere.

But, to paraphrase Shakespeare, here’s the rub: We cannot assume that all TWABs understand the advantages of direct response marketing. These days, there is a real danger that your friendly neighborhood CFO will decide that all marketing and advertising, direct response included, is the proverbial bathwater — and, worse, that there never really was a baby in the first place. Thus we may find ourselves summarily discarded without having so much as stuck a tentative toe in the tub.

We may be in part to blame. Half of the direct marketer’s historical challenge has been to get clients to consider that maybe, just maybe, awards, popularity and recall scores are not all they’re cracked up to be. Since there’s nothing quite like a shortage of funds to make clients figure out such things for themselves, the economy may have taken over that fight for us. It’s just as well. A recent study cited by the New England Skeptical Society shows that, a few weeks after the fact, most people erringly recall a debunked myth as having been confirmed. If so, it’s possible that in trying to debunk advertising myths, we have in fact been reinforcing them.

GOING WITH WHAT WORKS

I shudder to think. Especially since we could have put that effort into the other half of our challenge — namely, that of establishing direct response as the desirable, profitable alternative that actually works. Even here, it is ironic how often direct marketers ignore their own advice by selling the features of direct response rather than its benefits. To wit: We brag that direct response is built on tested and proven methods, yet we often stop short of saying what tested and proven methods do for the client (produce revenue); we say that direct response is accountable, but fail to drive home what that accountability demonstrates (that we’re producing revenue); we say that direct response allows for ongoing adjustment and improvement, but forget to point out what ongoing adjustment and improvement do for the client (produce ever-increasing revenue).

But right now we have a renewed chance to sell direct response in glowing, positive terms. Business decision makers know that besides cutting expenses, they must also find new ways to produce revenue. Given that that is exactly what direct response marketing does, this is our opportunity. It’s not too late to seize it by doing a more effective job of selling direct response marketing. And since the economy has largely relieved us of having to point out the drawbacks of traditional advertising, we can devote more copy than ever to the positive aspects of our craft.

These times do not demand doing away with marketing. They demand marketing that pays its way. Only direct response can demonstrate that it does. If anyone should have the moxie to convince clients (and TWABs) of this, it should be direct marketers.

After all, how good are we?

Steve Cuno heads the RESPONSE Agency in Salt Lake City. He is the author of the book Prove It Before You Promote It: How to Take the Guesswork Out of Marketing and is a popular convention speaker for the Direct Marketing Association, the American Marketing Association, the James Randi Educational Foundation and others. He can be reached at Steve@ResponseAgency.com.