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In Praise Of The Humble Infomercial
MediaPost Marketing Daily | January 19, 2012
With consumers increasingly receptive to all kinds of how-to videos and sales pitches, whether on TV, YouTube or their cell phone, direct-response TV is doing just fine: Kantar Media reports marketers spent $3.26 billion on direct-response advertising on TV in the first nine months of 2011.
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TV Ad Connects a Smartphone to a Website
The Wall Street Journal | October 11, 2011
A new TV Ad instantly connects a viewers Smartphone to a website with a QR code and the call to action viewers are encouraged to "Pause it, Scan it and Get it(TM)" - and it is working - sales are up 400%.
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You Can Afford to Make TV Your Point of Sale
Point of Sale News | May 17, 2011
Dynomighty reports that since the TV ad with the QR code ran, sales are up 400%. Dynomighty has now become a case study of the Google TV Ad network. The nationwide campaign broadened the brand awareness of the Mighty Wallet and had an immediate effect on sales. Consumers and store buyers alike were ordering the Mighty Wallet in numbers never before seen with 63% of the respondents mentioning the TV ad.
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Lots of Laughs, and Even More Sales
The New York Times | December 21, 2010
“Getting into retail is not rare anymore but becoming a strictly retail brand is pretty rare. Usually even if something is successful at retail they still want to sell it as direct response, but there is no ‘call now’ push left on Snuggie’s TV ads.”
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The Infomercial Business Goes Mainstream
Bloomberg Businessweek | July 22, 2010
Such products may be cheap, but they're big business; sales generated by infomercials, or direct-response TV marketing as it's formally known, are expected to rise almost 30 percent, to a record $174 billion, by 2014, according to Yoram Wurmser of Direct Marketing Assn.
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As Seen on TV...and in Aisle 5
The Wall Street Journal | January 28, 2010
Behind the As Seen on TV retail boom: a domino effect triggered by the recession. Thanks to the reduced cost of television airtime in the year beginning the last quarter of 2008, the mostly small entrepreneurs who make up the niche were able to advertise their products more frequently and at more-visible times.
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Allstar Marketing Wins DRMA Marketer of the Year Award
Response | September 14, 2009
Allstar Marketing Group LLC, led by President Scott Boilen, was awarded the Direct Response Marketing Alliance (DRMA) Marketer of the Year Award, largely due to the wildly successful Snuggie, launched in the summer of 2008.
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Esurance's Rise Is Driven by DR
Response | September 01, 2009
Darren Howard says direct response — with the help of animated icon Erin Esurance — has pushed the company into the upper echelon of the auto insurance business.
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What Advertisers Can Learn From Billy Mays
Advertising Age | August 21, 2009
He was polarizing. Many consumers were disturbingly vocal in their dislike for him. But the true test of the effectiveness of DRTV is based on results, not random consumer complaints, and that was where Mays shined. People would complain about Billy, but he got them to buy, from TV and at retail.
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As Seen (Often) on TV!
The Wall Street Journal | May 11, 2009
Over the years, they"ve been comfort to insomniacs, the punch line of many jokes, and the butt of "Saturday Night Live" skits. But here"s something you may not know about infomercials: They work, and a growing number of small businesses are using them.
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How the Amish Helped Make the Heat Surge Hot
AdAge MediaWorks | March 23, 2009
The company behind Heat Surge spent some $44.2 million on advertising last year, a more than eight-fold increase from the year before...Heat Surge's inclusion of the Amish, while potentially off-putting, may be key to the company's image. The Amish "are representative of the value shift happening in the world," said Jon Bond, co-chairman of Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, who said he senses renewed focus "on family and relationships vs. superficiality and mega-consumerism."
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DRTV Is Gaining Mainstream Appeal
AdAge MediaWorks | March 23, 2009
Once considered the laughing stock of marketing, DRTV is having the last chuckle. In these days of softening demand for media time, the industry collectively outspends both P&G and Unilever combined, in terms of TNS-measured U.S. TV spending of $4.5 billion. And assuming an industry guideline that one of every three sales dollars is spent on marketing, that could push total sales for the short-form DRTV marketers north of $13 billion.
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ShamWow! Here's One Broadcaster That Looks Recession Proof
The Globe & Mail | March 07, 2009
With annual sales exceeding $300-million, up from about $250-million in 2005, The Shopping Channel has grown from a fringe player into a significant Canadian broadcast entity. A long-standing fixture on cable, TSC airs live from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m., 364 days a year (nobody shops on Christmas Day). In total, TSC airs more hours of live television each year than any other Canadian broadcaster.
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Alcohol, Sex Ads Get Prime TV Time
Los Angeles Times | February 13, 2009
In all media, ad real estate is increasingly up for grabs. That creates new opportunities for companies such as R2C Group, an ad agency whose clients include Total Gym (pitched by Chuck Norris) and an Obama commemorative coin among its infomercial clients. "Car dealers are pulling off the air, retailers are pulling off the air, which opens more time to our clients," R2C Group Chief Executive Tim O'Leary said. "We had a very good year."
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Marketing's New Red-Hot Seller: Humble Snuggie
Advertising Age | January 26, 2009
With 4 million of the blankets already shipped or on order, or just under US$40 million in retail sales, Scott Boilen, president of Allstar Marketing Group, Hawthorne, N.Y., is laughing all the way to the bank. The company behind the Snuggie is moving the blankets out the door as fast as it can get Chinese suppliers to crank them out. "Imagine a product like that just sitting on a retail shelf with no ad," he said. "No one would buy it."
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Infomercials Thrive Amid Downturn
NPR | January 13, 2009
A downturn in the economy has provided a boom for infomercials. A.J. Khubani, president and CEO of the direct response company TeleBrands, says his company has seen that business booms in bad economic times. He attributes the success to lower TV ad rates.
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Late-night Icon Ronco Reinventing Itself by Boosting Retail Presence
NRF stores.org | January 2009
"TV drives retail and it drives viewership and awareness," says Larry Nusbaum, who recently took over Ronco. "When we spend a lot of money on TV, sales go up; when we"re off TV, sales go down."
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Response | May 2008
Kodak's DRTV campaign for the EasyShare 5300 all-in-one printer debuted shortly after the American Thanksgiving holiday last November, but was off the air within 30 days. The reason? Quite simply, Kodak sold out of the printers from a DRTV inventory. In fact, nearly 300,000 EasyShare printers were sold during the campaign.
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Back To Basics Works
National Post | March 28, 2008
"I can't stand your commercial, but your product is amazing!" a man crows at the end of a commercial for Head On, an analgesic product known more widely for its in-your-face TV ads than for its possible therapeutic benefits. The tagline could serve well as an anthem for the marketing minds at Buchanan Group Inc., the production company behind the pervasive, indelible Brand Power and Zoot Review ads.
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