Back before everyone had a satellite dish on their roof, we helped DirecTV launch the whole concept to consumers. The rest is media history.

Not so long ago, there were Three ways to get a TV signal in your home: An antenna on the roof, a cable in the wall or a satellite dish the size of a Buick in the back yard.

When DirecTV launched satellite TV service with a compact dish and a reasonable price, consumers were skeptical. To make matters worse, there was an immediate and fierce competitive response from the cable industry. Then copycat satellite services sprang up, creating a confusion of competing brands, technologies, pricing models and available content.

DirecTV found that saturated penetration of TV in general made identifying potential target consumers difficult and expensive. Advertising seemed to be successful at clearing awareness, but consumers were still unsure of the benefits of satellite service. The company wondered if direct marketing might help, and so they turned to us for advice.

On the creative side, we developed a direct marketing campaign that focused on the benefits as consumers saw them - telling the product story in detail and building credibility among early adopters. We used testimonials from real customers to give credibility to this new technology.

On the business side, we developed an investment model to help DirecTV acquire customers with the highest potential ROI. We tested a variety of media and converted 206,000 possible variables to 9 service packages, providing better economies of scale in production.

Our efforts for DirecTV lead to what was arguably the most successful consumer electronics launch ever. Our direct marketing program was seen by the client as a key driver of their growth and a critical bridge from general advertising to "closing the sale." And in the process, DirecTV gained a competitive edge that it maintains to this day. It is second only to the cable giant Comcast in pay-TV market share.