Infomercial Marketing – Infomercial Media Buying + Media Buying

Whether it is television, print, radio or internet advertising it is a very saturated market to understand. DRTV is an excellent way to target and audience and see clear results. Direct response television is a reasonably priced medium where you can view the results of your campaign in real-time. It gives you the ability to improve on your campaign and it gives to the ability to see how well your campaign was produced. Either way, with DRTV you are informed as a marketer.

DRTV accounts for 25% of all advertisements on television. Statistics show that nearly one third of Americans have seen an infomercial. Infomercials are popping up in marketing campaigns more and more frequently as well. Everyone from travel companies to insurance has joined the infomercial route to marketing.

DRTV advertisements account for at least 25% of all television commercials. And nearly two third of American viewers have watched an infomercial. This shows that DRTV is a powerful tool that can reach a wide range of people. Whether it is getting orders for your product, marketing and branding, or getting leads and calls for a developing database, DRTV is the ideal medium for products and services.

DRTV has come a long way from selling multi purpose knives. DRTV is currently used for all categories from consumer electronics to pharmaceuticals, travel resorts to insurance companies – advertisers span a spectrum of products and services.

Traditionally DRTV has been used by the ‘slicers and dicers’ – products that fall into the household and kitchen categories, health and beauty products or utility items. As the days go by, more and more diverse services and businesses have woken up to the huge potential of DRTV advertising.

An excellent case in point is the ice cream chain, Carvel. Aiming to reduce advertising expenses, Carvel recently decided to invest in a direct response campaign. It is possible today for such unconventional businesses to enter the direct response arena because networks are slowly relaxing the rules for entrants. Aiming mainly at potential franchisees, Carvel switched from traditional advertising to direct response television. When Carvel wanted to add more franchises to its chain, Advanced Results Marketing handled its direct response campaign and targeted the Miami market initially, advertising a franchising seminar that was to be shortly held in the city. The response was so great that Carvel is now planning to hold two more such seminars in other cities with DRTV spreading the awareness.

Another way Carvel plans to use DRTV is to display an 800 number at the end of their commercials that allows viewers to locate the Carvel store closest to them. When the viewer calls the number, their call is then transferred to their relevant store and they are able to place an order or to make inquiries. So from generating actual orders, DRTV has now progressed into attracting would be franchise owners for business chains. It will not be a wonder if DRTV is utilized in yet more ways since it is a cheaper medium than traditional advertising, yet just as effective.

With the increase in the number of internet users and a host of other technological gadgets like iPods, mobile phones and DVRs, theoretically speaking, television viewing is gradually declining over the years. This in effect, means a decline in DRTV viewership. But is this really true? Perhaps not.

What is true is that internet (and other media) users still watch television and are influenced by it. The challenge for DRTV is not survival, but evolution. With DRTV being put to more and more diverse uses, it is today a far cry from the original characteristic call-to-action campaign whose sole purpose was to generate product orders. Today, DRTV is used not only to drive sales, but also for brand-awareness. This combined effort is what will keep DRTV going strong in spite of the advent of other entertainment media.

This amalgamation of the two criteria has necessitated a new approach to a DRTV campaign. Creativity is now much more important than it used to be in the past. At the same time, the utilitarian aspect has to be emphasized upon. The upshot is a slick, ROI-oriented campaign with trackable and quantifiable results, and which increases the brand value.

DRTV has easily managed to strike the right balance between sales drive and brand building. Indeed, rather than being at a disadvantage, technology has only spurred DRTV to get more savvy and innovative.