Infomercial Producer Blog – DRTV Advertising News and Views

A friend of mine decided to launch a new product. He said he was going to build a website. I said, “Good. And when are you going to do DR?” He said, “I don’t need DR. I’m doing digital.” After he built his website and nothing happened he decided to do online banner ads. I said, “Good And when are you going to do DR?” He said, “Don’t have to. I’m doing online advertising.” After his banner ads came and went and nothing happened he decided to do social media. I said, “Good. And when does your DR start?” He said, “DR? I’m doing email blasts and linking with my target market.” After all that work and money spent and nothing happened other than having his website being visited by tire-kickers and browsers, he said, ” I’m going to do DR.”

Guess what? He was doing a form of DR all along. He just wasn’t doing it right because he neglected to recognize the three things that DR does that are absolutely vital to getting a new product off the ground and into the hands of the target market. DR, especially DRTV, lets you dramatically demonstrate HOW the product works…build credibility with actual users saying WHY the product works for them…offering the consumer an introductory offer that they can take advantage of NOW.

I love Direct Response. It’s the true pulse-pounding, sweat-provoking, emotion-tweaking form of advertising that can’t be duplicated anywhere.

Picture this: You come home, turn on your TV and there’s no service. What do you do?

Just say, “Oh well, I’ll just turn on my computer and watch movies or old TV shows or go stare at videos on YouTube.” Yeah, right.
You know what you do! You call your cable TV company. Sit through audio prompt after audio prompt until you reach an actual human being. Then you explain the problem and hope that you hear the cable person say, “It’s only a temporary problem and service should be restored shortly.”
That calms you for a minute or two. You try to distract yourself with emails, magazines, housecleaning, or something else that will calm your now fevered mind. But you can’t resist. Every minute or so you grab the remote and check to see if the cable is back. Where is it? Why isn’t it back on?
You decide to make some phone calls. Of course everyone you call hears about the problem with your cable service. And while you’re talking you’re also checking to see if service is back. You can’t take it anymore so you put the leash on the dog and go for a walk. Every minute you’re out you’re thinking about how nice it will be to go back home and turn on your favorite TV show.Then you walk in the door and of course you check out the TV to see if service is back. Not yet! At this point the panic sets in. “What if it doesn’t come back all night? What will I do?” You’re at the end of your rope. So what do you do? You actually reach for a book. Just then you notice that there’s a picture on your TV screen!!! Service is back. You flick from channel to channel. As you move from news to sports to gossip to fashion with the flip of a finger your anxiety disappears and your mood brightens. Life is good again. TV is back. Even the commercials look good, particularly those Direct Response TV commercials. You think to yourself, “I feel so good I’m going to buy one of those diet products. And while I’m at it I’m going to get that kitchen gadget. And that exercise program. And that nutritional supplement.”

I ask: Does any other media do that to you? Does any other media make a DR message so attractive and interesting?

Nope. And that’s why I love DRTV.

Neil Brownlee,  Creative Director / Copywriter
Neil has created famous campaigns for major clients in virtually every product and service category. MTV, Reebok, Jiffy Lube, USA Today, WCBS-TV, Harrah’s Casino, Honda, ESPN, to name a few. Neil is an award-winning expert at motivating, interesting, involving and results-provoking advertising.

Avalanche promotional campaign. Spot number one. How do you like it? Let us know…

NEW YORK, May, 2012, Avalanche Creative Services, Inc. a leader in direct response television advertising, has won the 2012 Best of Business Award by the Small Business Community Association (SBCA) in the Advertising Agencies category. The SBCA is dedicated to empowering and recognizing small business owners who make a difference in their respective communities.

Founded in 2001, Avalanche Creative Services, Inc. is a full service ROI advertising creative and production company specializing in branded direct response television, online/mobile digital video, radio, and print. Avalanche has created and executed hundreds of DRTV commercials and campaigns in the health & wellness, beauty, house and home, pet care, intellectual property, and financial categories and has generated over a billion dollars in sales in both English and Spanish languages.

 CONTACT:
Ava Seavey

https://twitter.com/drtvqueenbee
http://avalancheblog.wordpress.com
http://pinterest.com/avalovesselling

As an infomercial producer for many years, I have recently taken to Twitter to communicate tips, get ideas from vendors, stay up to date with news, trends, etc, but I never ever thought I would get hacked!

I just wanted to warn other people about it and let you know exactly how it happened to me so that you can be on the lookout.

I received a direct tweet from a fellow DRTV professional. It said something like “there are bad rumors spreading about you” with a link. Now, being in the infomercial business and author of many DRTV come ons, part of me felt it was a set up for an email blast, a newsletter, etc, but the vanity and paranoid side of me clicked on the link. When I clicked on the link, it led nowhere, so I tried it again. What a dope!

I thought nothing of it until a few hours later on my twitter feed I saw the same DRTV professional tweeting about a great diet product that he tried. Being the infomercial producer that I am, I did find that a bit odd as I would not ordinarily tweet about a product that I tried that worked to the business community. I might put it somewhere else, but certainly not in a tweet.

The next thing I know, I received a tweet from myself about the same diet product. OH BOY! Did I feel jerky! Again, as an infomercial producer, I am all about the message, the offer, the pitch, the sell. I try so hard to get people interested in my client’s products to click on a web site or pick up a phone to order.  But the products I market are legitimate and not scams. And here I was scammed!!!!

To Twitter’s credit, I did receive a message from them within 24 hours that my account was compromised and to reset my password, which I did. I also have to wonder why some nefarious geek would want my 200 some odd hard fought followers.  I guess there is some value in all this, so just maybe I will keep doing it, but be very careful about what links I click on in the future.

But if any of you receive a tweet from me about some great diet product I tried, it was not really from me after all.