Infomercial Marketing – Infomercial Media Buying + Media Buying

The infomercial that aired during the 2009 Superbowl was an unusual site for some. It was the first of its kind to appear during the some of the highest and most costly time slots of the year. Traditionally, the Superbowl airs the big name brands and high budgeted products during these times. Most beer companies get in on the action because it is their target audience. But this year, there was a different commercial by nature and by product…it was an infomercial.

Cash4Gold aired a commercial this year. It was for their service where they exchange cash for the gold they send it. This commercial showed two celebrities who have taken to turning in their gold items in exchange of boosting their cash flow. It is a new turn for infomercial marketing. Gone are the days where you could only see an infomercial during the early morning hours. It is now mainstream and because of the success this medium brings, we will probably see more in the future.

Again, we are going to revisit the topic of how the down economy is boosting infomercial advertising. This past January, the infomercial king, A.J. Khubani told the NY Times that his profits have increased nearly 20%. Because the pricing for commercials has dwindled in the terrible economic conditions, the availability for infomercial marketers has broadened. Prior to this, many infomercials ran at undesirable time slots. They were suitable for the price, but not the prime hours for people to view the commercial. The networks that carried infomercials were also not as desirable.

With things continuing to weaken, the companies who ate up the prime spots are dwindling. They can no longer afford to advertise, and certainly not at the typical pricing they were accustom to. This leaves the networks with dead air time. The infomercial media buyers have caught on to this and grab up the opportunity to gain. The

There are some infomercial products that have lasting impact. Whether the product is actually proven effective and has great use for a household or if it is just fantastically fun and people just become drawn to it. Products such as the Chia Pet and The Clapper are two that have had huge staying power. They are two products that when you look closely, arent terribly useful. The Chia Pet is simply a ceramic piece that grows some sort of grass. The key to this product is watching it grow. You dont just put it in your house and admire it from a far, you watch the product grow and become a plant in front of you over a period of time. People become attached to it; caring for it and helping it flourish. It doesnt necessarily pose importance for you but you feel a sense of responsibility to it. The other product of note is The Clapper. The Clapper is an attachment for your outlets that when you clap, turns your lights on or off. Its convenience is the main pushing point for this product. People find they dont need to get up from bed or when watching tv to turn off a light. In the same instance, when you enter a room, you dont need to go looking for the light switch and can simply clap your hands to turn on the light. These two products have been hugely successful thanks to infomercials.

A recent article on DRTV noted a major retail store will be advertising with time limits to entice customers into stores. They are airing commercials that call customers in for a sale that has a time limit. For example, if a store says milk is on sale for the next 4 hours and that commercial reaches the right number of audience members, the sale of that particular item will increase.

Using direct marketing in this way is a new approach to seeing results in real time. It is calling the viewer to action and the product and commercial are given a specific time frame to prove the ad is working.

There seem to be a ton of new blogs about drtv / infomercial media buying and direct response television. We feel it is necessary to list a few of the sites for our readers:

www.directresponseblog.com ( Direct Response Blog )
www.directresponsetelevision101.com ( Direct Response Television Blog )
www.directresponsetelevision.tv ( DRTV Media Buying Blog)

These blogs have a lot of good content and new posts each week about everything relating to direct response television, media buying and drtv marketing.

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 an infomercial 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.