Why is web design important to infomercial production ?

A savvy infomercial production and drtv media buying company fully understands the importance of having a website / landing page be a part of the drtv campaign.

Boston based internet marketing and boston web design firm has been working on drtv campaigns for over 6 years and has seen a huge shift in strategy. Test campaigns usually consisted of a phone number and marketers used phone calls to determine if a campaign would be successfull or not.

Those days are long gone, it is essential to have a mix of tv, internet, radio, telemarketing, text messaging, satellite radio. Many campaigns could function fully on a internet only basis as the end user/ customer may be a part of target demographic that only relates to the web. Here is a great blog that talks about how the internet and infomercials work together. However, its best to work with a drtv media buyer and speak with an expert media planner before you start you drtv campaign.

Emotional DRTV Ads

There are a number of ways a DRTV ad can connect to a persons emotions. Many infomercials strike the viewer emotionally with demonstrations of how their product can simplify the their lives. Infomercials often give testimonials of how a product can save you time. Whether its a new cleaning product or a great kitchen gadget, people welcome the feeling of convince in their lives.
Some DRTV ads will connect to viewers on a more intimate level. The ASPCA has a DRTV advertisement where singer Sarah McLachlan is featured explaining the need for animal adoption. To most, the idea of these poor animals being without homes is tough; even for the resilient. It is memorable and because of the emotions attached.
Some other infomercials use forms of emotion to be memorable in different ways. There are a few that air regularly with loud, obnoxious hosts who yell or bark about the product features. This creates a form of annoyance to the viewer. Although the viewer may be annoyed or amused by this sell, it is nonetheless memorable.

Infomercials Brand Awareness

Infomercials can generate more than just profits for a product. Whether short form or long form, infomercials are longer in length than traditional style advertisements and allow more time for the viewer to make a connection. In more common infomercials there are characters or hosts that leave a lasting impression on the viewer and giving the product more to be remembered by. Often times products that were initially offered through infomercials get moved to retail stores. In this case, the product is already a familiar item to most people who had seen the infomercial. In addition to the conventional forms of advertising, DRTV has caught on as a popular medium for a marketing campaign.

True vs. False DRTV ? What's that all about ??

True DRTV and Infomercial Marketing depends on your DRTV media buying agency . The media agency works to get their clients the best cost / sale and not the lowest cost / viewer . While complimenting your brand, a TRUE drtv campaign is all about ROI and calculating this by measuring the responses you get.

What this means:
a) Plan your campaign
b) Measure your spend
c) Calculate the responses based on your spend
d) Track which channels give you the best responses for the lowest media spend

Phases of Infomercial Production

Infomercial production entails many phases. These phases include some of the following:

1) Creative development and brainstorming process
2) Research your demographic and who fits as a customer
3) Write a script and outline the story you want to convey
4) Cast the characters and develop a group of testimonials
5) Filming the actual tape
6) Refine the video to complete the infomercial

Media Buying for DRTV

There are several steps to a successful DRTV campaign. One of the most important steps is media buying. DRTV media buying refers to the strategic planning, negotiation and buying of television time. Once the buy is placed and the media airs all the results are traceable and can be optimized in real-time. Every airing is tracked by networks and daypart and is evaluated on a cost per leads/order basis. If results are found to vary from the client’s campaign goals, revisions to the schedule can be made mid-stream. A media buyer will be able to revise the schedule based upon 1^st week results to bring the CPL/CPO to the goal level.

Direct Response media costs about 60% less than traditional advertising and is a great benefit for small time entrepreneurial companies as well as fortune 100s. The cost for each airing vary in price depending on the market it will air in (local cable), if it will be a national airing, or if it is a national/local split (where the commercial will run nationally, but will be covered up in some of the larger markets). The daypart also impacts the cost since prices will be higher for prime time airings (7p-8p) due to a higher viewership, than overnight (2a-5a). Costs also greatly vary between long form and short form placements.

Taking the costs into account, a media buyer’s goal is to provide a media schedule that maximizes the amount of people who see or hear the advertisement within the target market. Experienced media buyers are able to achieve these goals by maintaining relationships with the networks and negotiating with them for advantageous time slots and additional bonus placements.

Find out more about media buying for DRTV.

DRTV used by Obama campaign

Chances are you have heard or seen the words 'Yes We Can"

The Obama campaign used drtv / infomercials to reach out to the American people to get their message out in an effective manner.

We would like to give kudos to the drtv media buying company that helped the Obama team. They put together an amazing media plan that took advantage of all the available media outlets:

- drtv / infomercials
- TEXT messaging
- internet marketing
- word of mouth marketing
- in-person meetings with the general public

The most talked about item was probably the infomercials that were broadcast across all types of channels. The production and messaging were perfect and really helped camp Obama get a leg up on the team McCain

Infomercial Marketing & Media Buying

Infomercial Marketing is one of the most powerful marketing channels around, because everything can be tracked and optimized to improve campaign ROI. With infomercials your product or service becomes differentiated and breaks free from clutter. As a result, response is greater and sales dramatically increase because the viewer is being both educated and involved.

A major part of Infomercial Marketing is Media Buying. Media Buying can be described as the systematic negotiation, planning and purchasing of television time to broadcast an infomercial (both long form 28 minutes and short form :30, :60, :120 seconds). This is a specialized skill, which requires knowledge of the target demographic, consumer behavior, the media market, and the criteria used to measure the value of TV and radio programming. It is important to match the right schedule with the product/service target demo before the airing of a campaign. This is done by using historical data and analysis as well as research tools such as Scarborough and MRI.

Advanced Results Marketing is a one stop shop for effective Infomercial Marketing, Media Buying, Creative Production as well as all backend service that are need for the campaign (customer service, fulfillment, trafficking and telemarketing). Advanced Results Marketing (ARM) is a national Direct Response Marketing and Advertising Agency established to bring Direct Response marketing services to traditional advertisers. This mass communication tool is used to produce real ROI based results for products and services.

Product Demonstrations with Infomercials

A companies reason for marketing with DRTV may be highly dependent on the product demonstration. The demonstration is extremely important to some products and can be a huge reason why an infomercial is used to market it. In traditional advertising, you may not have enough length to a commercial to get the demonstration done. By using a short form or a long form infomercial, the product can be demonstrated, and the information to purchase the product can be given to the viewer. For example, the ShamWow is a towel that claims to be able to pick up and hold large amounts of water. The 120 second commercial shows the product picking up large spills and then demonstrating how much liquid was picked up by ringing it out into a bowl. All the while, the information to buy it is visible on the TV screen,

Helpful websites covering drtv and infomercials

Below are some helpful sites that cover topics such as drtv, direct response television, infomercial and infomercial production:

a) DRTV101.com - the basics of DRTV
b) Infomercial Marketing blog
c) http://direct-response-television.blog.com / DRTV Blog
d) DRTV Media buyer

Well known Infomercial marketers

There are a number of recognizable infomercials. Some of those infomercials are produced by the following companies:

*Guthy-Renker
*Ronco
*K-tel
*Time-Life Music

Many of these companies are the point of supply for infomercials. They also pay for the advertising spot, and production of the commercial. Some times the inventor has started the company and used infomercials as the sole way of selling the product.

There is also a well developed network of suppliers to the infomercial industry. These suppliers generally choose to focus on either traditional infomercials (hard sell approaches) or on using infomercials as advertising/sales channels for brand companies (branded approaches). In the traditional business, services are usually supplied by infomercial producers or by media buying companies. In the brand infomercial business, services are often provided by full service agencies who deliver strategy, creative, production, media, and campaign services.

Direct response television

Direct response television (DRTV) is an excellent vehicle for marketers to utilize for selling product and services directly to consumers. Both companies from Fortune 1000 as well as entrepreneurs have found DRTV to be very effective. Direct TV is made up of short ads, which generally last 60 to 120 seconds, and long form DRTV, often called infomercials. DRTV works best for products that appeal to a broad audience and are highly demonstrable.

One of the keys to a successful DRTV campaign is a media buyer. This media buyer will have the knowledge and ability to buy the best stations and time periods, at the right price to make your DRTV campaign as successful as possible. The U.S. has approximately 2,000 TV stations and hundreds of cable and satellite networks. A knowledgeable infomercial media buyer will guide you in choosing the best station that will attract the target audience, for your product or service. These media buyers will help you maximize your profits with your DRTV campaign.

Infomercials are usually 60 seconds or longer

Commercials running longer than 60 seconds are classified as infomercials , also known as paid programing. They typically run anywhere from two to thirty minutes. Before becoming length of time they typically range is anywhere from two to thirty minutes. However, there are 30 second spots too. These are used to raise brand awareness and usually prompt users to go to a website or "call a specific number"


Wikipedia definition: Infomercials (or informercials) are television commercials that run for durations ranging from one minute to as long as a typical television program. Infomercials are also known as paid programming (or teleshopping in Europe). Originally, they were typically shown overnight (usually 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.) --- outside of peak hours. Some television stations chose to air such programming as an alternative to the former practice of sign-off. By 2008, most infomercial spending is during early morning, daytime, and evening hours.

Long form and short form Infomercials

There are two types of infomercials , long form and short form, each can produce results. Here are the differences:

1) The most common is the "long form". Long form is typically 28 to 30 minutes in length. It is used to educate consumers of the function of the product. The added time can also be used to demonstrate the product that would otherwise be missed in a shorter time frame.

2) Short form is recognized as anything under two minutes. Agencies may buy left over air time from various media outlets to run either of these infomercials.

Infomercial marketing

Marketing campaigns benefit from DRTV in a number of ways. Often, companies use this as the sole way to aquaint a customer to their product. They use infomercials as an exclusive way to sell the product, but the product often finds its way to a retail shelf once the television campaign has run its course. Using DRTV as a tool to increase marketability has become very popular. There are now sections of stores devoted to these types of "as seen on TV" products and thus allowing a broader audience.

Boosting your infomercial response

Infomercial media buyers often have techniques to boost responses. Here are a few that are proven successful :

1) "Money back guarantee": Is the promise of a marketer when they refund all or part of the customers money. There is usually a time frame given, typically 30 days, in which the customer has to benefit from this offer.

2) Multiple payments: This is the technique where the retail price can be paid in smaller monthly installments via credit card. "Only three payments of $19.95" is an example. The option to advertise this way can increase sales as much as 25%.

3) Multiple offer: A multiple product offer is when the customer is offered numerous products in the same infomercial. The products may be in the same or different category as the originally offered product. It can be a tricky technique if the customer is given too many options and cant decide on anything.

What is the ''call now'' approach?

The ''call now'' approach to an infomercial is a motivation term . It uses bonuses, premiums and most often a discount to push the consumer to call and order immediately. It has been extensively researched and can produce results. Marketers are typically alerted to the difficulty of this presentation. If you declare the price is going to be ''$20 off in the next fifteen minutes'' you must comply to that claim.

DRTV value to your campaign

DRTV can be very valuable and successful tool to a direct marketing campaign. It allows the audience to connect on a more informed level with the product . If a product demands more explanation, an infomercial would be an ideal way to convey the message. DRTV allows the product to be demonstrated in a way that traditional advertising may not exhibit.
In addition to an infomercial being informative, a company is also able to assess the effectiveness of the infomercial. This is key information that can be used to to alter / improve upon the consumers perception of the product.

Infomercials and the benefits to using them

Infomercials have had a lot of success for many products . Companies have many options when it comes to choosing what marketing tools they use. Nearly a third of Americans tune into watch DRTV and that can transcend into large returns at relatively low costs. Using an infomercial to market your product may be the obvious choice for a number of reasons:

1) It allows you to speak to an audience for a greater length of time
2) Infomercials produce more practical information about the product such as a web address or a toll free number
3) It reaches beyond television by reinforcing the brand and heightening retail sales as well