E-LOAN (EELN) discusses offline marketing (1Q05 conf call quotes)

E-Loan (ticker: EELN) is launching a new advertising campaign. However, in contrast to other Internet companies, E-Loan is spending its marketing dollars on offline ads, despite the greater ease of tracking return on investment of online ads. Here's how CEO Chris Larsen described the campaign on his May 10th Q1 earnings conference call:

…we have developed and implemented a new marketing campaign. .. we believe this campaign is the first time we have succeeded in communicating through all mediums our core values of speed, affordability, ease, transparency and privacy. This new advertising and branding campaign unveiled the Company's new tag line: "E-LOAN: Radically Simple." The campaign… was inspired by ELOAN's pro-consumer values... You can see our new ads on E-LOAN.com/TV.

The integrated campaign is designed to strike a chord with consumers who are fed up with the lending industry's confusing and misleading sales tactics and will appear on local and national cable television, radio, on-line, and outdoor bill boards, and at select music and community events. We are confident this campaign will enhance our image as the leading consumer advocate in the business, further differentiating us from the competition and strengthening our brand.

…initially the results have been positive, but it's really too early to tell. When you're doing advertising in TV it takes an average of three to four times for somebody to see an ad before it clicks in. You don't get the feedback or the impact right out of the gate, but initial results have been promising.

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)

EELN chart below.

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