September 2010 – Channel Crossing: Legal

Do You Need a Legal Physical?

When was the last time you had a physical? What about a legal physical? If you’ve got a product you’re selling on TV, online or at retail, it may be a good idea to get one from a qualified attorney.

The Examination
Not to worry you, but here are just a few of the subject matters to be considered in the course of such an examination:

• Product/Patent rights. If you obtained your product or invention from someone else, do you have a written contract? Does it include all the rights you need to market the product for as long as you will need to market it and in all the channels of distribution you desire? Is there a patent application or patent? Should a patent application be filed, and if so, by whom and at whose expense? What about international IP protection? Can the product be marketed without infringing someone else’s patent, i.e., has a search of other patents been conducted? Are the royalty and other financial obligations clear?
• Name/Trademark rights. If you obtained the name or trademark of your product from someone else, do you have a written contract? Is it a license or assignment? Does it give you the rights you need to use that name or trademark in commerce as and when you desire? In the contract, is it clear who is indemnifying whom and holding them harmless against future third-party claims, alleging trademark infringement if any arising out of the use of the mark? Is the mark even available for commercial use in the United States or does it infringe registered or unregistered “common law” trademark rights of a third party? Is it confusingly similar with a third party’s mark? Has a full search been done on this, i.e., beyond just a Google search and a www.upsto.gov search? If it is available, should a U.S. trademark application be filed, and if so, what kind, by whom and at whose expense? Is the mark too descriptive to be registered with ease or too easy for someone else to come close to with a similar but lawful “knockoff” name? What about international registrations? And, is the name perhaps too good, meaning the FTC might view it as being deceptive if it impliedly conveys to the ordinary consumer that your product has some benefit, if that claim isn’t substantiated?
• Ad Copy/Copyrights. Who owns the spot or infomercial for your product? Who owns the content of the website? Is there a written, signed “work-made-for-hire” agreement or copyright assignment contract with every person who provided any creative input, so the “chain of title” is clear and is in your name for copyright purposes? Has the material been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office? What about registering the material with U.S. Customs? In your contracts, is it clear who is indemnifying whom against third-party claims, alleging copyright infringement arising out of the material?
• Production. Is there a production contract? Is it clear? Does it include the necessary “work-made-for-hire” language? Does anyone (e.g., talent) have a right of script review or approval? Have you consulted with legal counsel about the script and advertising claims? Are there any edits that should be made or supers or disclaimers added for legal reasons? Were the product demonstrations “rigged” in any way? Is there a release form signed by all on-camera talent? Is there a testimonial affidavit signed by all of your testimonialists? How were they recruited? Were any of them paid or given anything and if so how much, when, by whom and for what?

If you have an expert (e.g., a doctor) who is going to endorse your product in your ad, what exactly did he or she do to evaluate the product and to support whatever he or she is saying or implying about it in the ad; and is there a signed expert endorsement affidavit to back it up? Under your contract, is it clear who will indemnify whom for any third-party claim of copyright infringement or false advertising arising from the ad?

• FTC claims review. No advertising should be done without there having been some FTC claims review or consultation ahead of time. What express claims are being made? What would the FTC believe the implied claims are? Liability exists for both express and implied claims. For each, do you have adequate substantiation according to FTC precedent? Given your product and your claims about it, what degree of substantiation would the FTC likely require? Do you need a clinical? Do you need two? Does it need to have a placebo group or other design features? Is there any preexisting substantiation you can borrow from, that may apply to your product and your claims? What edits could be made and what supers or disclaimers added, for a reduced legal risk level? What substantiation could be developed? Does your product or your claim about it fall into a category that the FTC historically has been interested in (e.g., weight loss)? Are you subject to other regulatory bodies such as the FDA? Do you use testimonials? If so, have you ascertained and are you disclosing the results that one can “generally expect” from use of your product in the depicted circumstances? Are you using the word “free” and if so how and why? Are you “guaranteeing” any results? In terms of the online space, is your privacy policy adequate? Are your terms of use adequate? Are you running a sweepstakes or contest? Are you using disclaimers and disclosures properly and in the right locations? Are you using online affiliates or affiliate networks? If so, is their conduct in compliance with the FTC Act and the FTC’s guidelines? The same question goes for any bloggers or other social media participants you pay or to whom you may send free product or gifts. Are they, for example, disclosing the material connection that they have with you (e.g., that you gave them free product)? Finally, in your contracts, who is indemnifying whom for FTC or other third party (e.g., attorneys general) claims of false or deceptive advertising?
• Contracts. Does everyone who has an obligation to you, and does everyone who has a right to be paid by you, have a signed contract? Is anything vague, ambiguous, unclear or otherwise a “loose end,” and if so which party does that favor?

Consult with an Expert
On some of the above matters, it may be reasonable to defer getting legal advice until you’ve tested your campaign and you know it will make money; but on others, it is a major risk to do that. Figuring out which is which is the first step. As they say on TV, “always consult your physician before beginning this or any other exercise program…”

Greg Sater is an attorney with Rutter Hobbs & Davidoff in Los Angeles. Contact Sater at (310) 286-1700 or at gsater@rutterhobbs.com.

September 2010 – Feature: Special Section-An Industry Remembers

Direct response veterans reflect on 25 years of the infomercial and the lessons that they’ve learned along the way.

BY RICHARD SCHEINER

Welcome to the fourth installment of Electronic Retailer’s celebration of the 25th anniversary of the infomercial.

As we all now know, Al Gore did not invent the Internet by himself, and Lebron James can’t win a championship without some help. It takes many individuals to create a success, and the direct response industry is no exception.

As inventors, marketers, producers, media agencies, telemarketers, fulfillment service suppliers, webmasters and product manufacturers–many of us have played our part. Some individuals have endured the test of time, and others have stepped in to bring the genre to the next level.

In preparation for the D2C Convention in Las Vegas in September, the ERA Public Relations Committee and ERA staff have been busy at work, assembling exhibits of some of the industry’s most iconic and memorable infomercial products to be featured at the convention’s 25th Anniversary Pavilion. Included will be product samples, clips of memorable shows, and information on some of the people and companies that have contributed to the growth and success of the infomercial. We urge all attendees of the convention to stop by the pavilion to visit and reminisce.

This month, we hear from Mercury Media’s John Cabrinha and Dan Danielson, Tim Hawthorne of Hawthorne Direct, Jeffrey Knowles of Venable LLP and Richard Stacey of Northern Response (Int’l) Ltd.

Richard Scheiner is chief operating officer at International Commercial Television Inc. in Wayne, Pa.

Dan Danielson
and John Cabrinha
Co-Founders and Co-Chairmen
Mercury Media

Electronic Retailer: How did you both get into the DRTV industry?

Dan Danielson: John Cabrinha got his start in the DRTV business in 1982, answering telephones for one of the first home shopping shows called “Telephone Auction.” He worked his way up from an operator to a media buyer and was actually an “on-screen demonstrator” a couple of times.

John Cabrinha: I met Dan Danielson at a company called SyberVision in 1987. We were two of the first people to ever call a television station and convince them to sell us a half-hour. We developed relationships with cable systems and broadcast stations all over the country. Back then, stations didn’t know what the value of the time period was and neither did we, so we did some calculations on what they should sell it to us for, and we waited for the response to see if we were correct. We quickly developed a database of stations, markets and time periods and what price they worked for and what types of products were successful.

Danielson: This was so early in the history of DRTV that half-hours weren’t even called infomercials back then. There were only a handful of shows on the air during that time, and we were all learning things as we went along.

ER: Is there any one product that you believe changed the face of DRTV for the consumer?

Danielson: If we look back over the past 25 years of infomercials, we could almost create a time line of the business over those years based on the “mega-hits” that were out there–the products that became household names. Some people in the industry are too young to remember some of the older titles that were there at the start of the business.

SyberVision: The Neuropsychology of Weight Loss was one of the first “home look- and-feel shows.” So many shows followed the style that this show set in 1987. Tony Robbins Personal Power was one of the first shows to use true celebrity hosts and to appeal to a mass audience. Ron Popeil’s Food Dehydrator and Pasta Maker were two of the first massive kitchen product hits. There were other kitchen shows that worked, but Ron took it to another level.

Cabrinha: Tae Bo is one that we consider “the” mega hit because it was the first show that hit the airwaves and ran so much media in a relatively short period of time, and people still talk about it to this day. It is a show to compare your success to, and that success was met or exceeded over a long period of time by The Total Gym.

We consider Bare Escentuals to be the quintessential makeup product that created a brand and had a long TV life and shelf life. Magic Bullet would be considered the modern day big hit. It’s had a long TV life, went to retail and continues to be successful in both channels. They set a trend and broke the mold. I’m sure there are so many shows that we are leaving out that were monumental: Proactiv Solution (long life, brand establishment), Power 90 (exercise, weight loss, customer satisfaction, web, etc.), Kevin Trudeau (various shows developing the talk-show format). Also, Time-Life (with the music and video). We could go on and on.

ER: What is your most memorable (insightful, funny or endearing) story of the DRTV industry or a colleague in the industry to date?

Danielson: We have been doing this for such a long time now that we have so many stories and experiences that have been funny, exciting, humorous and sentimental. As the industry is getting older, the individuals in the business are getting older. We have lost some of our fellow industry pioneers in the past few years. We have always loved this industry because of the people. We have worked with so many great people, whether as clients, vendors, consultants or just friends growing up in the business.

There are lots of stories that we can’t publish, and there are many that are way beyond the word limit we have in this article. The one reason we keep going to work every day and attending every industry event is because we love the relationships and the people we have met over the years, and look forward to seeing those relationships continue to blossom, and hopefully continue to develop relationships with new people as they come into this industry.

Timothy Hawthorne
Founder, Chairman and Executive Creative Director
Hawthorne Direct

Electornic Retailer: What were you working on 25 years ago, in relation to DRTV?

Timothy Hawthorne: In November 1984, I sat in the basement of a local electrician’s home (one of the few C-band satellite owners in Fairfield, Iowa), struggling to tune in tiny cable network, Satellite Program Network (SPN), awaiting the telecast of my first infomercial to air in what, unbeknownst to me, was soon to be a new era of DRTV.

Moments after the hour-long infomercial, I anxiously called our small telemarketing partner in Omaha for results. I was disappointed to learn only 100 orders had been posted. One hundred seemed like a fraction of the potential, considering SPN was in 5 million homes. I pulled out some scratch paper and did my first MER calculation: cost of media: $3,000. Sales: $30,000. Ohhh…a 10 to 1. Thus began my transition from DGA director and documentary filmmaker to DRTV advertising. Over the next 18 months, I helped build the Beckley Group, 525 staff strong, with over $100 million in sales–one of the first major long-form direct marketers.

ER: How has the DRTV industry changed over the past 25 years?

Hawthorne: In 1986, I launched Hawthorne Direct, an ad agency dedicated to bringing long-form DRTV to brand advertisers. For 15 years, I had been telling compelling human interest or investigative stories via documentaries; now I was telling product stories. I still considered myself a filmmaker, not an adman–but these “product stories” presented an even greater challenge: results not measured in TV ratings, but sales and immediate feedback on how successful I executed my visual communication skills. It was thrilling and frightening at the same time.

My vision was that all major brands should capitalize on long form’s inherent power: “The more you tell, the more you sell.” It took a while, but over the past 25 years, hundreds of brands have incorporated DRTV into their marketing mix. Along the way, average production budgets tripled, media prices quintupled and hit ratios “inverse septupled” (from 1/3 to 1/20). Simultaneously, our business has gained complexity, credibility and customers, and expanded product categories, professionalism and stability.

ER: What, if any, technologies and trends will influence future growth and help to shape the DRTV industry?

Hawthorne: PVR, VOD, Internet, mobile, interactive TV, gaming, local, TV Everywhere, Digital Out of Home, social, apps, fragmentation, consumer choice: these are the hallmarks of the New Media age–nothing less than a revolution in communication and advertising as significant as moveable type.

The 65-year-old linear TV viewing experience will remain for a few more decades but diminish in use, replaced by viewers interacting with advertising messages on four screens: TV, computer, mobile (hand set or tablet) and out-of-home digital displays. The primary threat to all advertising remains: in a world of infinite choice, how do we engage viewers in our products’ stories? Any ad delivery mechanism that provides consumer control, immediacy and relevancy will win out in the end. But ads incorporating the trademarks of DRTV–great products and motivating offers–should always find success.

Jeffrey Knowles
Partner
Venable LLP

Electronic Retailer: How did you get into the DRTV industry?

Jeffrey Knowles: In the late ’80s, my brother, an entertainment attorney in New York, introduced me to Tom Fenton and Dick Kaylor at Synchronal. I did some legal and FTC-compliance work for the company, which was then the largest infomercial company in the nation.

In 1990, Congressmen Ron Wyden and Norm Sisisky invited members of the infomercial industry to testify at a hearing about the industry’s practices. I was tasked with preparing Greg Renker, co-founder of Guthy-Renker, to testify as the industry’s representative.

During Greg’s testimony, Sisisky asked whether there were industry standards or an industry group representing the interests of companies producing infomercials. When Greg said there were none, a light bulb went off. I decided the industry needed an association, and I set out to organize it.

Over the next few months, I worked with Greg and other industry leaders to form the National Infomercial Marketing Association (NIMA), which eventually became ERA. Twenty-one years later, the rest is history.

ER: What product or products have changed the face of DRTV within the past 25 years?

Knowles: In my opinion, Proactiv Solution is the single most transformative DRTV product over the past 25 years. It has generated more sales than any other DRTV product, and Guthy-Renker’s success integrating A-list celebrities into direct marketing marks a turning point in the industry’s history.

The Thighmaster was another transformative product. As the first wildly successful exercise product marketed through DRTV, it paved the way for other exercise programs such as Tae Bo and P90X that have continued the tradition of reshaping the industry and customers’ lives.

Thighmaster was also one of the first DRTV products to experience widespread counterfeiting and marketing of knockoffs. Many of the legal strategies we employ today to defend clients’ intellectual property were developed while protecting the Thighmaster.

ER: What is your most memorable (insightful, funny or endearing) story of the DRTV industry or a colleague in the industry to date?

Knowles: Greg Renker’s testimony before Congress in 1990, was a turning point for the industry in more ways than one. I will never forget how Greg carried himself during the hearing. At the time, he was only 33 and was president of one of the fastest growing direct marketing companies in the nation. Only a few years earlier, he had been working at the Indian Wells Racquet Club. I had prepared a number of executives to testify before Congress during my career, and it’s safe to say none of them were like Greg.

Watching him in front of the committee and the steady gaze of television cameras from all three major networks, you could tell he was something special. The way he carried himself, the way he responded to questions with the perfect combination of conviction and respect, I could see this was a guy with the intelligence and passion to reshape an industry.

Richard Stacey
President and CEO
Northern Response (Int’l) Ltd.

Electornic Retailer: How did you get your start in the DRTV industry?

Richard Stacey: In 1984, I had a company in Canada selling home-study courses that I wrote on how to get rich in your own business and real estate. They were sold through seminars and mail order. I began seeing infomercials in the United States, selling similar courses by people like Tom Vu, Tony Hoffmann, Hal Morris, Paul Simon and Ed Beckley. I decided to write a script for a 60-minute show called “Blue Print for Success.” That show was a condensed summary of my eight-hour live seminar.

The first time we aired it, the station ran it for free, as they thought it was a public-service educational show. That’s how “early” those days were back then! The phone lines were jammed for over a week from that first single Sunday afternoon airing. From that day forward, I was in the infomercial business.

ER: What product or products have changed the face of the DRTV industry within the past 25 years?

Stacey: In the beginning, the infomercial industry was mostly home study and self-help courses. As the ’80s progressed, companies began experimenting with hard goods like the Hard-Hammered Chinese Cooking Wok or the Annushka Cellulite Reduction Kit. Then the industry literally exploded and everybody got into it. At the same time, the cable industry was expanding so they had plenty of airtime to sell and the industry had plenty of shows to fill it. It was a perfect partnership. We locked up huge blocks of airtime often from midnight to 6 a.m. on most stations. We stopped producing shows and started distributing them. We’ve now distributed over 3,000 shows over the past 25 years. The products have not changed too much–need, greed and vanity still sell. There are certain types of products that fit the DRTV genre in short form and long form. Lately, it’s more about retail and products that can be introduced by DRTV and later sold into Walmart.

There are many memorable and breakthrough products and productions that took the industry to new levels each step of the way. I always thought Media Arts with its Amazing Discoveries series had a big impact in the early days by showing what was possible. Guthy-Renker took it up a notch with its first Personal Power show, which again demonstrated a new standard of quality in DRTV products and production. These types of shows pointed the way.

ER: What is your most memorable (insightful, funny or endearing) story of the DRTV industry to date?

Stacey: What I have always loved about this industry is that there is always something new and exciting going on. Probably the most important insight is that there is no telling what people might buy–it almost always pays to test. Our biggest hits are often ones that you would not have predicted in advance. Sometimes, a show is not so well produced or the product is sort of gimmicky, but that is often what sells.

I remember years ago, a show on how to get better grades in school that reportedly cost a million dollars to produce (a lot of money at that time), that was shot on film and starred many sports stars like Wayne Gretzky. We had to call the station to see if it aired–there wasn’t one call! A few days later, we aired a very simple show called Smart Mop and it took off like a rocket. So you just never know. It also means you have to always keep an open mind because no matter how crazy or off-beat a product is, it might just be the next winner.

September 2010 – Feature: Engaging the U.S. Hispanic Consumer

The U.S. Hispanic Marketplace Breaks Records in Growth, Buying Power and Success in DRTV.

BY JACQUELINE RENFROW

U.S. Hispanic consumers are rapidly becoming one of the most important segments in direct marketing. In fact, with Hispanics constituting 15.4 percent of the total population in the United States–more than 46 million people–the industry can hardly afford to ignore them. This second largest ethnic group not only continues to grow, but so does its spending power. Despite myths, credit card use in this population is high–90 percent of U.S. Hispanics who purchase through DRTV have access to credit cards, and 46 percent use credit and 26 percent use debit when making a purchase. The collective buying power of the segment is expected to reach $1.2 trillion in 2010, up from $862 million in 2007.

“Our client case studies have shown that we experience an average of three times the call conversions when comparing the Spanish to the English version of a show,” says Eitan Cohen, president of Media Stream Direct, a Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based media buying company with more than a decade of experience in the U.S. Hispanic marketplace.

Beyond growth and spending power, marketers are finding renewed success in categories such as beauty, ingestibles, hardware, financial services and kitchenware thanks to U.S. Hispanics. And with Spanish-language advertisements drawing strength from DRTV, marketers are expanding campaigns across growing channels such as mobile and online social communities.

Growing Market, Growing Power
The most important reasons to be in the U.S. Hispanic market space are twofold: the size and the spending power.

“It is the demographic growth of the market that is driving the growth of DRTV,” says Marcelino Miyares, director of Mercury en Espanol, a division of Mercury Media in Santa Monica, Calif. “In fact, it is the population growth of the Hispanic market that is driving the population growth of much of the country. It is not necessarily that Hispanics are spending more, but rather that more Hispanics are spending.”

Along with population increase, there is a new comfort with using credit cards. In turn, marketers have seen an increase in direct-response sales via long-form television commercials. Not to mention, the demographic is more likely to purchase via direct response. An estimated 11 percent of U.S. consumers will make a purchase through DR, but that number is as high as 15 percent among the Hispanic population.

Purchasing Trends
According to Cohen, products that tend to sell the best in DRTV correlate with the interests of the Hispanic demographic such as beauty, fitness, health and housewares.

“We have been able to take English infomercials in these categories that are either successful or, in some cases, only marginally successful, and create tremendous hits with a Spanish creative,” says Cohen. Media Stream Direct recently brought the Ab Rocket infomercial to the U.S. Hispanic market. Although the product was successful over the past three years in the English version, the introduction of the Spanish version created a resurgence in response.

Miyares agrees that ingestibles, housewares and beauty products are the workhorses of U.S. Hispanic DRTV, along with music and video, diet and exercise, hardware, and financial services. In addition, language learning services and telecommunications continue to be stronger in the U.S. Hispanic marketplace versus the general market.

Miyares also believes that U.S. Hispanic DRTV has followed the general DRTV trend to push to retail. “What makes this convergent with Hispanic marketing is that Hispanic shoppers over-index at these types of retailers–Walmart, Kmart, Bed Bath and Beyond, Anna’s Linens, etc.,” says Miyares.

“I forecast that over the next 18 months, we will see a proliferation of products in the two extremes–$19.95 and $200-$400 range. The lower-priced products have been difficult to make work given the costs of limited media inventory. This problem is solving itself with the addition of more cable channels. And the higher priced products have simply been inaccessible to cash-oriented customers, but credit card penetration has reached a critical mass,” Miyares adds.

Today’s Challenges in a Unique Space

Though very lucrative, experts agree that marketers, media buyers and call centers all need to be aware of the nuances of the U.S. Hispanic market and brace for a learning curve when starting a campaign. One of the biggest challenges when marketing a product to Hispanics in the U.S. is translation into Spanish. The key, says Cohen, is not to translate but to “transcreate.” “When speaking to the Hispanic market, it is essential to understand that there are different expressions and nuances in the phrasing that simple voice dub-over cannot communicate,” says Cohen. “Taking the time to properly re-phrase the intention of each statement into appropriate Spanish dialect immediately ingratiates the viewer to the brand and the show. We’ve had several marketers come to us after working with other agencies, who simply had the show hastily dubbed over and could not explain why the campaign did not work.”

Another challenge to the U.S. Hispanic market is client patience. “The problem is that few clients truly commit,” says Miyares. “While in the general market they may test offers, media mixes and telemarketing scripts until a campaign works, the Hispanic market is more like one or two strikes and you are out.” He advises clients–who can eventually imagine their product on the shelves of a Walmart–to stick with a campaign.

Yet another challenge marketers face is properly budgeting Hispanic campaigns versus general market campaigns. In markets that are predominantly Hispanic, Spanish-language media can substantially lift retail sales and increase overall campaign performance. Interestingly, Denira Borrero, vice president of operations for Omni Direct Inc. in Miami Beach, Fla., says that English-language sales lift when running a Spanish-language campaign simultaneously. This is mostly due to the fact that U.S. Hispanics consume media and use the Internet in both languages. So the message is reinforced in their native language, but in many cases, orders are processed through English-language channels. Omni Direct was established in 1999 as a company focused on the potential of Hispanics as a U.S., not foreign, market.

Kathi Moore, CEO and president of Engagem3nt in Newport Beach, Calif., believes the biggest challenge in this market is breaking down the myths that surround it. One myth is a belief that the demographic doesn’t have credit cards, when 84 percent of Hispanic DR purchases are made via credit. Also, that the market is too small to be worthwhile. And finally, the myth that marketers don’t need to advertise in Spanish because Hispanics will catch the English campaign. However, 30 percent of the market watches only Spanish-language television and even those who watch both respect advertisements in their native language.

Callzilla, a Miami-based call center specializing in the U.S. Hispanic space, deals with the same issues as a call center for the general market–converting calls to sales and now, more than ever, third-party upsells. What’s different about a Hispanic-focused call center is how the sales agents are trained. It’s about “training, educating, retraining and monitoring ">the agents and making sure they adhere to best practices that the industry mandates,” says Neal Topf, president of Callzilla. He says there are three main challenges for call centers. First, reaching the expanding demographic. Second, call centers must be ready for an increase in credit and debit transactions. And finally, the economy has put pressure on marketers to capitalize on a new segment.

Channel Changing
DRTV continues to be the strongest media channel for both general and U.S. Hispanic DR. Cable and satellite televisions have increased in popularity over the past two years, both in channel options and distribution, even though broadcast television has taken a hit. And interactive and digital TV activity among the U.S. Hispanic market will increase over the next 18 to 24 months, according to Miyares.

One of Omni Direct’s recent successes was with the campaign for “Sobre de Oro,” marketed in non-Hispanic markets as “My Gold Envelope,” by Money 4 Gold. The campaign ran on TV, radio, online and print channels and has expanded internationally. Money 4 Gold believed its product was under-tapped in the U.S. Hispanic market and so it worked with Omni Direct to develop creative production and identify Hispanic celebrity endorsements. The campaign built a trusted name through a customized Hispanic message. Even when the category suffered bad press due to other industry players, “Sobre de Oro” withstood the hit because of its brand recognition among Hispanics.

While the buying principles for time in the U.S. Hispanic market are the same as with the general market, the universe is limited. There are far fewer cable networks, particularly in the long-form space, and even fewer in broadcast networks. This creates a high-demand, low-supply situation, according to Miyares. As more marketers begin focusing on the Hispanic market, demand for long-form media time will rise and subsequently, so will rates.

Online is increasing faster than any other channel. Since 2008, the U.S. Hispanic online population has grown faster than the non-Hispanic population in terms of visitors and time spent and pages consumed. Just two years ago, most Hispanic campaigns did not have an e-commerce website. Now, about 25 percent of U.S. Hispanic campaign orders come through the Internet. “Based on our own research and national statistics, we expect Internet usage to continue to grow in this direction,” says Borrero. “Also, because Hispanics are significantly over-indexed when it comes to the use of mobile technology, we expect to see growth in marketing through the mobile channel, even within the very short term.”

Moore says that mobile is definitely a growing segment of the demographic. Everyone is trying to monetize the channel’s value and it’s already an effective means to get outbound messages, special offers, reminders, etc., to customers. And U.S. Hispanics are conducting more business transactions via mobile than the general market.

Moore also says that grassroots event marketing is a strong channel in the U.S. Hispanic demographic. The group tends to have more family oriented outdoor events and attend large festivals in population-dense cities such as New York, Miami, San Diego and Los Angeles. It benefits a marketer to spend money and have a booth at these events.

According to Topf, there is an emerging trend in using online social media in the direct-to-customer acquisition space. Although at the moment it’s not being used much in this way, users of social media and other web applications (either on the computer or by phone) will start to see a correlation between purchases and this channel.

No matter what the channel, more and more marketers are going to arrive in the U.S. Hispanic space in the coming year. The question, according to Topf, is not “Do I have to be there [the U.S. Hispanic market], but how do I get there?”

Jacqueline Renfrow is a freelance writer, who has been writing about the direct marketing industry for the past few years.

September 2010 – Feature: What’s Ailing Long Form?

Are Infomercials An Endangered Species? Just in a Recession-induced Slump? It Depends on Whom You Ask.

BY JACK GORDON

Is the half-hour infomercial headed the way of the dinosaur? Maria Kennedy isn’t saying yes, but she regards the question as a serious one.

Kennedy is vice president of direct response and paid programming for Discovery Communications in New York City–the Discovery Channel. When the U.S. economy tanked in 2008, she says, both general and direct response advertising fell off dramatically. Rates charged by her network and others had to drop. Rates remained low throughout 2009, a grim year for the television industry.

This year, Kennedy says, especially since automakers returned to the air, general advertising has bounced back strongly–and 2011 promises to be even better. The same applies to short-form DR advertising. “Short form is incredibly strong right now,” she says. “It has come back gangbusters.”

But long form? As of mid-summer, the long-form market has picked up so slightly that she might as well call it flat. She estimates that long-form rates are still down 15 to 20 percent from two years ago across most or all networks.

Also troubling to Kennedy is that she is seeing no influx of new advertisers into the long-form space. “In short form, we’re getting tons of new advertisers every quarter,” she says. Not so in long form. The established infomercial marketers are still there–”the Euro-Pros and Product Partners and Guthy-Renkers”–but no new marketers seem to be trying long form. And the “big corporate advertisers” who at least dabbled in long form in the past–she mentions General Motors and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals as examples–are no longer doing so.

“The industry hasn’t seen a big new hit in long form for a couple of years,” Kennedy says. So, she wants to know, is this just a slump of some sort? Or is the half-hour infomercial format no longer working for some reason? “I’m asking,” she says. “I want to know.”

Consumer Confidence?
Among media agencies that buy television time on behalf of DR advertisers, the consensus is that the infomercial format is perfectly viable and healthy. The problem lies in the national economy. Therefore, it’s temporary.

Why would long form be slower than short form to recover from a recession? It’s simple, says Dick Wechsler, president and CEO of Irvington, N.Y., media agency Lockard & Wechsler Direct. Long-form advertising is much more reflective of consumer confidence than short form, Wechsler says, primarily because most long-form products have higher price points. “And consumer confidence is a lagging indicator,” he says. “Coming out of an economic downturn, it’s the last thing to come back.”

In other words, Wechsler says, nervous consumers remain reluctant to make more expensive purchases. He notes that one reason short-form advertising is strong right now is that price points for many successful short-form products have dropped from, say, $19.99 to $9.99, with margins being partially made up in shipping and handling charges.

ss competition for half-hour avails. Hence the fallen prices for those avails, Wechsler says. He predicts that the long-form marketplace will begin to pick up by January 2011, due to increasing consumer confidence. “But I think that the price of half-hours will continue to fall until then.”

So infomercials have no problems that an improved national economy wouldn’t solve? Another media buyer who makes that case is Dan Zifkin, president of Zephyr Media Group of Evanston, Ill. “It’s the economy” that is responsible for the sluggish long-form market, Zifkin says. It’s not the Internet, it’s not the ‘fragmentation’ of viewers brought on by proliferating numbers of cable and satellite TV channels, it’s not shorter audience attention spans. It’s the economy.

It is true, he says, that fewer new players appear to be coming into the infomercial market. But that is due to the same consolidation that produced the kind of strong, established marketers to which Kennedy referred: Guthy-Renker, Product Partners, Euro-Pro, Allstar Marketing, Tristar Products and others. And while there may be no brand new long-form hit at the moment, “that doesn’t mean the process doesn’t work,” Zifkin says. Just look at the continuing success of long-form products like exercise program P90X.

Zifkin doesn’t buy the argument that major brand advertisers of the General Motors ilk have deserted the infomercial format. They were never in it to begin with, he says, at least to any significant degree.

“The big brand guys have never really come into our space,” agrees Rob Medved, CEO of Cannella Response Television, a DR agency based in Burlington, Wis. “The closest we’ve come to bridging that gap is probably with pharmaceuticals on the short-form side. As for long form, the same verticals we had when I started in the business still dominate DR–[business opportunities], beauty, housewares and fitness.”

But does that suggest any reason to think we are witnessing “the beginning of the end of long form,” Medved asks rhetorically? “No. We’re having incredible success in the space. The Guthy-Renkers and Product Partners are as healthy as they’ve ever been.”

“It is way too early to ring the bell on the death of the infomercial,” Zifkin concurs. “I think that long form is still one of the best forms of advertising by far.”

Some executives on the TV-network side of the fence agree that long form’s problems are a temporary, recession-induced condition, brought on by a lack of consumer confidence. And even the perception that no new advertisers are trying infomercials is not shared across the board. “We’re seeing a mixed bag with long form,” says Paul Teja of Chesapeake, Va., vice president of direct market sales for the ABC Family network. “We’re seeing more new infomercials than in the recent past, which is a good indicator of strengthening in the marketplace.”

At the same time, Teja confirms that “current advertisers have cut back on the quantity and pricing of various time periods. I believe this is mostly due to the economy,” he says.

Doubts
But other network executives share Kennedy’s view that something deeper has gone wrong. “I think there are more problems with infomercials than just a bad economy,” says Christine Georgakakis, senior vice president of direct response for the TV Guide Network, located in New York City.

“The 30-minute infomercial is at risk. I think we need to do some things differently with that business,” she says.

Due to digital video recorders (DVRs) and the proliferation of TV channels, not to mention the parallel universe of Internet sites, “paid programming is getting lost in the clutter,” Georgakakis says. She also questions whether viewers still have attention spans long enough to accommodate half-hour infomercials.

Granted that the premise for the infomercial’s existence is that some products cannot be explained and sold effectively in a minute or two, Georgakakis wonders if 30 minutes is too long for today’s audiences. “Maybe we should be looking at alternatives,” she says, such as programming two 15-minute infomercials into a half-hour slot instead of one 30-minute program.

She offers one concrete recommendation: Given the prevalence on on-screen program listings for cable and satellite customers, Georgakakis says that the most important thing infomercial sponsors can do to boost the success of their shows is to list the show’s title in those on-screen guides. That is, if you’re selling real estate secrets or power mops, say so in the program listings; don’t just allow your show to appear as “paid programming.” The fee to list your title is minimal in relation to overall media costs, and it is enormously helpful for attracting viewers who might be interested in your product, she says.

Seconding that advice is DRTV producer Jeff Meltzer, of Meltzer Media Productions in New York City. He agrees with Georgakakis on some other points, as well. Clutter, for instance, is a real problem, he says. Because of what he calls “a saturation of DRTV commercials,” consumers have become more discriminating. To make an infomercial pay today, you have to make a better infomercial, Meltzer says.

He also suspects that attention spans are getting shorter and agrees that 15-minute long-form programs might be worth testing. “We probably need to get to the point quicker,” he says. “I think it’s been proven that people tend to buy in the first pod of an infomercial–the first eight minutes or so–or they don’t buy at all.”

Where’s the Bottom?
To the extent that the “problem with long form” has to do with the fact that half-hour avails are going cheap, that is actually good news for infomercial sponsors. But time buyers, time sellers and producers all know that there is a floor beneath which the price of a half-hour avail will not be allowed to fall. That is the point at which a station or a network can make more money by airing 30 minutes of regular programming, with spot advertisements, than by selling the time as a half-hour slot.

Kennedy, Georgakakis and Teja all say that their networks have not begun to convert any infomercial slots to regular programming. “But we watch [the numbers] all the time,” Kennedy says. “This is a business.”

Medved says that while a few infomercial avails may have vanished on channels here and there, nothing like a mass conversion to regular programming is underway. “It hasn’t happened, and I don’t think it’s going to happen,” he says. Long form may be slower to recover from a recession than short form or general advertising, he says, but those shorter ads are subject to the same basic economic conditions–and audience fragmentation exerts the same downward pressure on advertising rates.

Teja predicts no significant conversion to regular programming by his network or others. The infomercial, he says, “is one of the cheapest, most effective methods for getting across to the consumer the benefits of quality products. I believe that long form is here for the long run.”

Jack Gordon is a freelance writer based in Minnesota. He has been contributing to Electronic Retailer magazine since 2004.

September 2010 – Columns: Shop Talk

Here, There and Everywhere

For decades, conventional TV advertising wisdom suggested it took three net impressions to break through to a consumer. Infomercials were a counter-point to this argument because they did not require frequency—a viewer could be sold in one complete, half-hour pitch. While that may still hold true, things may have come full circle. With so many messages competing for a consumer’s attention combined with escalating media fragmentation, a direct marketer needs to be here, there and everywhere.

Piquing Consumer Interest
Here are some innovative ways to create consumer impressions that help develop awareness and prime viewers so that when they see your direct pitch, they are ready to buy:

• Mobile -With nearly half the world’s population now owning a cell phone and 3.3 billion global subscribers, the so-called third screen (after the TV and computer) has come of age. The iPhone alone has 200,000 apps and endless opportunities for advertisers. With the generational shift away from the TV, this can be an excellent way to broaden your consumer base.
• Product Placement - The ongoing boom in reality television gives marketers many opportunities for product placement. For example, Kymaro’s Rhythm Rocker will be featured in a new NBC series, “Ultimate Women Challenge.” The product will be showcased prominently as contestants use it to get fit in this mixed martial arts competition.
• User-Generated Content – Do-it-yourself satirists are posting their own versions of commercials and getting millions of views. Marketers should embrace such lampoons—it comes with the territory. But amateur archivists are also doing their own time lapse of body transformations by using fitness programs marketed through direct means. The unadulterated authenticity of such programs is simply terrific, organic promotion, but it doesn’t mean that marketers can’t do it for themselves, as long as they disclose material relationships with endorsers.
• Video sharing sites - Everyone thinks YouTube, but there are nearly 70 different video sharing sites that allow marketers to post content. Advertising, product reviews and personal appearances on talk shows are just some examples of what can be posted. Even an infomercial can be dissected and then organized so that consumers can get ready access to the content they seek.
• Blogging - It isn’t just about your blog—it’s about their blog. Many bloggers will post opinions about your products. And yes, such posters have to disclose any free product that you provide, but who cares? Find trendsetters in your category, send them free product and bask in their evangelistic glow.

While every marketer would like to achieve the brand ubiquity of a Nike swoosh—or even a Snuggie—sometimes, you have to seed the marketplace. While such tactics may not be as easily quantifiable as pure direct marketing, today it’s not just about being seen on TV, but everywhere the consumer is paying attention, and that could be anywhere.

BJ Fazeli is president of BJ Global Direct and Concept2Consumer. Contact Fazeli at (949) 825-5822.

August 2010 – Department: Product Talk

Nothing in the universe ever stays the same; it is either expanding or shrinking. That is especially true of your product’s reputation. Without professional networking, advertising and social media to build and expand your product’s reputation a terrible thing happens…nothing! It is becoming more and more apparent to me that the new thread common to all important product talk has come down to product reputation management. You may still call that function publicity, or advertising, or search engine optimization (SEO), or professional tradeshow networking or social media, but it all really comes down to reputation management. We’ve all heard of new media or modern media so let’s talk about “new networking” or “modern networking” and the importance of building a product’s positive reputation as part of your networking efforts. You will enhance your prospects for successful tradeshow networking if you launch even a low-cost product reputation campaign, which is specifically designed to enhance your networking prospects. Savvy media executives actively Google search direct response product categories—from weight-loss products to household items—to find hot new products online and to learn what comments people are making about them. So seasoned product promoters have learned they have two jobs to promote their products: 1) launch an online SEO campaign to create some product awareness by building the product’s online reputation; and 2) introduce their product’s good online reputation through professional networking with buyers and media marketing executives. If your product does not have a reputation, no one will search for it or find it. If you don’t know how to build a reputation for your product, you need professional help. If your product has a bad reputation (deserved or undeserved) you need to cure it by fixing the product or fixing your product’s reputation. And if you’ve launched your product and it has a successful reputation, then it is still easily vulnerable to reputation assaults by cunning competitors (a different management problem). So I believe direct response networking and marketing all begin and end with product reputation management (yes, a lot goes on in the middle, too). This month’s panel has many years combined experience in direct mail, online marketing, social media and print advertising. Joy Gendusa, PostcardMania CEO, founder and direct-mail marketing maven, recently learned that she is amongst the “Top 50 Entrepreneurs” when Business Leader Media announced its first annual awards. Gendusa focuses on her passion to educate business owners in effective ways to grow and expand their companies through various marketing techniques. Marianna Morello is president and CEO of Manhattan Media Services, a media buying company based in New York City that specializes in direct response print advertising. Morello has 30 years’ experience creating successful print strategies for clients such as Bosley, Hair U Wear, Telebrands, IdeaVillage, Jamster, JBrand and many others. The company works with clients from print media creative all the way through placement, buying, test runs and full rollout campaigns. Mike Hughes is an independent reputation management expert. www.ReputationManagementPartners.com To offer product analysis in a future column or to join our virtual trade-show network, visit www.YouTube.com/ ProductTalkShowcase, e-mail us at producttalk@gmail.com or call (925) 210-9005.

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Gendusa: This is a low-cost item that you need to sell in volume so you’d start with TV, radio and billboards rather than postcard marketing. Hughes: Let’s talk about your experience with marketing products and use the Yoshi Blade knife as an example. Gendusa: Well, what I can tell you is that the Yoshi Blade has done a very good job because I know what the Yoshi Blade is. I actually just saw one in Walgreens. I thought, “I would like to have a Yoshi Blade.” I haven’t made the purchase yet, but I understood it and I knew what the Yoshi Blade was because they’ve done such a good job of getting their name and explaining how their product is different out there. To get more market share, I’d just continue what they are doing because it’s working. Hughes: So you’d use that direct-response exposure to broaden their market in retail sales? Gendusa: Yeah, I haven’t seen it in Home Goods or TJ Maxx so those would be good places for the Yoshi Blade, as well. Hughes: Let’s go back to product reputation marketing. What does it mean to you? Gendusa: You are trying to change the opinion of another human being and bring them over to a certain kind of understanding to do what you want them to do. So it’s really just a matter of communicating with people and getting people to react. That’s really basic and that works in traditional marketing, direct-mail marketing, e-mail marketing, web development and design, and user functionality. It all has to do with raising the rapport that you have with the individual prospects and getting them to make that decision to purchase. Those basic points of marketing are used in all forms of media. Morello: The Yoshi Blade is doing very well in print, on two-minute TV spots, online and at retail. The push has been to use direct response as the push to Walmart and “As Seen On TV” retail products. Hughes: How important is professional networking for someone interested in launching a new product? Morello: It’s very important—networking and knowing all the different players and whose the best at doing what. Whether it’s a call center or a fulfillment center of someone whose going to produce a commercial of the creative on your ad, networking is vitally important. Hughes: What about online marketing? Morello: Consumers are going to go online before they decide to buy rather than from TV, radio or print. The online testimonials that you have for a product will push consumers to a sale and any negative comments will cause people to think twice about a purchase. Hughes: What advice would you give someone starting out with a $19.95 product to begin a step-by-step launch? Morello: For an in-home product like this, we look at the free standing inserts (FSIs) on Sunday. We test at a low CPM to find out if we have a winner. We also look at things like Parade magazine and Weekend, which are in the Sunday papers as well. This gives us a quick reading. Once we know we have a very good response, it means the ad is working. If we are getting that type of reading, then we are definitely going to want to roll it out.

PRODUCT VIDEO #2: HotelsEtc. Lifetime Discount Card – RETAIL $89.95 Become a member of HotelsEtc. and use the company’s pre-negotiated discounts to save every time you travel, go out to eat or even buy a movie ticket—for the rest of your life! All of HotelsEtc.’s travel and entertainment discounts have been negotiated and tested to provide 100-percent accuracy. So, imagine going on an all-inclusive vacation to Hawaii, the Bahamas, or even Italy, and staying in a five-star resort for the price of a two-star resort. Or, imagine taking your family out to dinner and saving 70 percent or more off your restaurant bill at over 15,000 restaurants.

Gendusa: I think the HotelsEtc. Lifetime Discount Card sounds really interesting. If I received a well-designed post card that explained how I could get 70 percent off my travel by just spending $89.95, I would be sold. It’s a great offer for somebody who travels a lot. If you are targeting travelers, it’s perfect. I travel so much and I always stay at good hotels and it adds up. It really sparked my interest and with direct mail, you get a high enough response rate to warrant an $89.95 purchase. Morello: HotelsEtc. sounds like a very good program, especially with the economy being what it is. If you are a member, you get substantial discounts and it’s worth the $89.95 price point. To have all these things available to you for hotels, cruises, car rentals and more, it seems like a very worthwhile price for a membership like this. Hughes: How important is it to promote a product that is already on people’s minds, which is making and saving money today? Morello: In this case, you need to repeat the benefits. With the economy being what it is, people are looking to save money. The current unemployment rate has caused people to stop going out to dinner at restaurants as frequently. So on a local level to be able to go out and have a restaurant meal at discount pricing, I think they will be very interested in the HotelsEtc. Lifetime Discount Card. Hughes: For a few hundred dollars you can also buy the cards at deeply discounted wholesale rates to resell as a money-making opportunity. Morello: If there’s a way for consumers to market the cards locally for discounts on restaurants, theaters, museums, etc., then they seem to have everything covered. I think for a person who wants to start a home-based business—as a lot of people are trying to do—it sounds like a good opportunity. Hughes: Using your experience to speak as a marketing visionary, what advice can you offer new product promoters? Morello: First, you need to know whom you are marketing to and be very specific. If you are marketing to seniors, the market is huge and print alone may be just right. However, if you are marketing to the younger generation, you cannot look only at marketing online as being the future. Print is something that’s going to be around for a long time—even with younger people who love the gossip magazine. They read In Touch, OK!, Us and Star. The younger people are reading magazines and responding to ads. The web is drawing a lot more traffic than it used to. I think it’s a fantastic combination with print.

August 2010 – Column: Ask the Expert…Radio

Direct Response Radio: The Future Is Now

Q: Why should I venture into DR radio?

A: In a world of satellite television, smart phones and iPads, radio seems as antiquated as print. To embrace radio as a hot medium for direct response advertising looks at first like a Luddite’s step backward. But we shouldn’t invest in new mediums just because they’re buzzy, nor should we abandon proven media just because they’re as familiar as well-fitting old sneakers.

The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) says that 235 million Americans listen weekly, on average three hours a day. While that’s exactly what you’d expect from the RAB, such a large potential audience offers unique advantages to:

• Affordability. Any DR client can afford radio. Revenue-hungry stations discount rates frequently–and all offer remnants–resulting in low CPMs. Per-inquiry schedules are available, so advertisers can pay only for what works.
• Expanded DR client pool. “Pitchmen” spent last summer on Discovery Channel dismissing candidates for DRTV campaigns because the products weren’t suited to jaw-dropping demos. Since radio can’t utilize video at all, killer demo isn’t fatal to DR ambitions.
• Built for multi-tasking. DRTV spots lose power if the viewer is only half-watching while ironing, preparing dinner or reading e-mail. Radio is designed as a companion medium, to be consumed simultaneously with other activities. Messages crafted for “just listening” obviously lose nothing when the audience isn’t looking.
• Easily obtained spokesheavies. Commercial reads are business as usual for radio personalities–from a city’s quirky local radio DJs, to nationally syndicated powerhouses like Hannity, Ramsey and Dobbs.

If you’re like most drivers, you’ve programmed your car radio with a line-up of favorites. If you only want to hear music, you probably start punching pre-sets once unwanted songs play or commercial blocks start. On television, consumer impatience has some DR advantages: infomercial discovery relies on viewers clicking impatiently. But for one- to two-minute spots on both TV and radio, preventing that switching boosts message consumption.

While direct response has always required agile reactions to fluid media and consumer realities, overall media strategy may well be morphing from embracing given mediums (TV, radio, web, mail) to embracing genres of timely content that appear there. Similar to our messages themselves, this content is less entertaining than informational. All mediums deliver “don’t touch that dial” entreaties, but they really only work if missing what’s next exacts an undesirable penalty: being out of the loop.

The future of DR radio isn’t any dramatic change in creative execution–it’s the increasing utilization of news, weather, sports and talk radio. Did my team win the game? Is it going to rain all next week? Listeners needing answers to these questions are simply more likely to stick around. Making the ad sticky is our job.

Tim Hawthorne is founder, chairman and executive creative director of Hawthorne Direct, a full-service DRTV and new media ad agency founded in 1986. Contact Hawthorne at thawthorne@hawthornedirect.com.

August 2010 – Feature: Celebrating Women in Business

Photograph by Hemera/Thinkstock

Hear the stories that have shaped the careers of seven leading female executives in today’s direct-to-consumer marketplace. Their companies are highlighted in ERA’s Women in Business Pavilion at the D2C Convention.

BY VITISIA PAYNICH

For the past few decades, countless women have made an indelible imprint on the corporate landscape as entrepreneurs and high-powered executives. From media moguls Oprah Winfrey and Cathy Hughes of Radio One, to Avon CEO Andrea Jung, to high-profile political candidate and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, it’s clear that more women are reaching the top rung of the corporate ladder.

Many will agree, however, that more barriers still need to be broken. Yet as long as forward-thinking and shrewd women continue to make further advancements in business, that proverbial glass ceiling is certain to be shattered once and for all.

The direct response industry, in particular, has produced some of the most savvy and innovative women business leaders in its 25-year history.

And to celebrate these pioneering executives and their contributions to the industry, ERA and sponsor Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP present the Women in Business Pavilion at the D2C Convention, September 22-23. The Pavilion is located at Booth 1100 right on the show floor.

Electronic Retailer asked some of the women who will be participating in this year’s Pavilion, to share a few insights into their own careers in this thriving industry, as well as bestow some valuable advice for women who are just launching their careers in the direct-to-consumer space.

Electronic Retailer: How did you get involved in the direct response industry?

Francine Bergman: I spent many years in the first part of my career, writing and producing for network television. It was a time when most producers came home with awards, not mega dollars. A friend of mine, Earl Greenburg–who’d made the transition from free TV to direct response–suggested that it might be time for me to make the leap. Changing direction has always been a bit anxiety ridden, but Earl assured me that my experience would make a huge difference in this relatively new business.

One of the first projects I produced was an uncomplicated two-minute spot for a product called “One Touch.” The process was creative and fun…and much to my surprise, the spot was successful. I had a small piece of the back-end. When I opened the envelope with my first royalty check, I was hooked! It wasn’t as pretty as an Emmy, but it bought a lot more shoes!

As the years have gone by, I’ve found more and more that the process of directly affecting peoples’ lives is a powerful and intoxicating force. Whether it’s a skincare product, a kitchen gadget or the latest (and of course, best) new weight-loss product, I find that getting a chance to deal one-on-one with real people every day is challenging and rewarding. Creativity sculpted by ingenuity mixed with sales moxie. It’s been a great ride…and I’m still hooked!

Electronic Retailer: Describe your most significant accomplishment in your career.

Linda Goldstein: One of my most significant accomplishments and rewarding experiences of my career was serving as the chair of the Electronic Retailing Association. It was an incredible honor to be selected by my peers to lead the association, and being the first woman to occupy this position made the experience even more special.

Serving as the chair of the association presented many unique opportunities and challenges, but the one accomplishment that stands out most in my mind is the creation of the Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (ERSP) and the impact this development had on our relations with the FTC. While establishing a self-regulation program had been a long-time objective for the association and a personal goal of mine, it took an enormous amount of hard work and consensus building to bring this project to fruition.

Looking back on this event these many years later, I am proud to see that ERSP has withstood the test of time and served as a model for other organizations. I am grateful for the opportunity that ERA provided to me to give back to the organization, and to create something so special that has truly made a difference for the organization and its members.

Electronic Retailer: What advice can you share with other women who are just beginning their career in direct response?

Fern Lee: If you are a woman just beginning your career in direct response, get ready for the ride of your life. You have chosen an industry that allows for an online and offline collaboration of marketing skills. The players in this industry are known for their creative style and business savvy. Setting a path for a professional career depends just as much on the people you are surrounded with as it does with your personal character. My advice to you is the following:

• Always be honest about your opinions;
• If you say you are going to do something, do it;
• Your reputation is all you have to stand on;
• Treat others, as you would like to be treated;
• The DR industry is small, so your misgivings will be shared with others;
• Be pro-active, take initiative, go the extra mile;
• Admit what you don’t know; and
• Play nice in the sandbox.

Electronic Retailer: Describe the most challenging obstacle that you were able to overcome in the industry.

Dena Levy: Having been in the DRTV industry for 21 years, there are two specific obstacles I have encountered and overcome. As cliché as it sounds, being a woman in a man’s world was an obstacle then and still is to some degree.

When I started in this business, I was working for American Telecast–I assisted producer Steve Scott and while I learned a great deal from working with Steve, the most important thing I learned was if I wanted a career producing and directing infomercials and to be able to control my own destiny, I would need to start my own company. So I founded Two-D Productions in 1989 and 21 years later, I have produced and directed every project that has passed through Two-D, seeing every project through inception to rollout. Women-owned businesses in the DRTV world are rare, especially production companies, but it is a challenge I welcome.

The other challenge I often face has to do with being pigeonholed in a music genre. My first infomercial under Two-D Productions was for Time Life Music and was a very big success. The show aired for four years, so I became known as “the woman for music infomercials.” While I love music, over the years, I have produced long- and short-form campaigns for virtually every category in this business: Fitness, Beauty, Housewares, Electronics, Financial, Business Ops, Golf, Automotive, Pet Care, Nutraceuticals, Dating Services and more. Yet, I am still often associated with music shows since that was my first success. I guess it is no different from being a comedy actor and trying to get your first gig in drama. The moral of the story is: no matter what industry you are in, following your dreams with hard work will get you through any challenges!

Electronic Retailer: What was the most challenging obstacle you were able to overcome in the industry?

Geraldine Newman: I have no idea what an obstacle is. The dictionary describes “obstacle” as something that “hinders progress” or “blocks passage.” I never met one. Challenges, yes. Obstacles, no.

One of the biggest challenges and significant accomplishments was leaving the world I knew and where I had “made it.” I was the creative supervisor at Young & Rubicam, the biggest ad agency in the world; a VP group creative director at Backer & Spielvogel, the hot shop of the moment; and I was winning major big league awards for creativity (Clio, One Show, ANDY). Yet, I was giving it all up to become an entrepreneur when I opened NEWTHYNK / Geraldine Newman Communications.

I entered the immediate pass/fail, exciting moment-of-truth world of DRTV. I broadened my creative involvement in writing, directing, producing and inventing products. I took only the clients, partners and products I wanted to work with, while gathering the best creative teammates to work with.

Basically, I learned that you can do anything you want that you are willing to be responsible for. And, “yes” opens more doors than “no.”

Electronic Retailer: Share a funny story about your experience working in this industry.

Ava Seavey: I’ve always been a major risk taker. So it was only natural that I gravitated toward DRTV. In the early days, there were not that many females. I remember hanging out with the guys at the first ERA (then NIMA) Conference at the Mirage in Las Vegas. I was scared to death.

I usually stuck out at the conferences. Not only being female, but also I often had crutches, a cast, a sling, a cane or other type of accoutrement from my other high-risk activity, jumping horses.

All my high-risk activities culminated at the ERA D2C Convention in 2009. It was to be a big show for me. I was speaking on a panel, participating in the first-ever Women in Business Pavilion and was a finalist for a coveted ERA Award. The night before I was to fly to Vegas, I had a catastrophic injury and could not walk at all. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but I knew it was bad.

My choices were to go to the emergency room or get on a plane. I got on the plane and decided to do the show on a scooter, figuring I would get better each day. I did not get better, but I did make all my meetings, the panel, the Pavilion–and lo and behold, I even won the ERA Award! I put the scooter in fast speed and ripped up to that stage, almost mowing down several revelers. It was a funny moment and one I will always remember.

When I got back to New York, my doctor took an x-ray and rushed me to the emergency room. It turns out I did the entire conference with a dislocated hip! Incredulous, he looked at me like I was crazy and asked why on earth I would get on a plane in such a condition and asked confidentially if I might be a compulsive gambler. I laughed and said you could say I’m a gambler. I am in the DRTV business. Every day is a gamble. But it was my best show ever, and I don’t regret going. They say if you fall off a horse, you have to get up and ride again. It’s kind of like DRTV. You win one day and lose the next. This business sure keeps you humble.

Electronic Retailer: What’s been your most significant accomplishment in your career.

Katie Williams: I am lucky to have worked with many amazing people, and am moved that I was able to inspire and mentor them in the fast-paced, crazy, frequently frustrating–yet rewarding–world of DRTV and infomercials. I consider my greatest accomplishment to be the number of my “alumni” who are in leadership roles throughout the industry or who have gone on to start their own companies. In 1987, when I started Williams Worldwide, my first company, the infomercial world was still in its infancy and there was essentially no talent pool. People in the advertising world scorned the infomercial world or were unable to adapt to the constant changes and the frenetic pace of the results-driven DRTV business. I had little options for recruiting experienced people, so I looked for great raw talent that could learn and grow.

I devoured books and publications like “The Corporate Mystic,” Inc. magazine and Fast Company, and talked to advisors and consultants in an attempt to discover the secrets of great small business management. Somehow, I figured out how to attract good people, to empower them and create an environment where they could thrive. One of the key things I learned was not to be afraid to surround myself with people who were better, stronger or smarter than me. As a result, my company flourished, and I believe this is the single most important factor in business success.

I’m especially proud of the number of women who got their start in my companies. I didn’t plan it that way, but the first 16 people I hired were all women. They were just incredibly talented and bright go-getters. After those first 16, I hired a lot of great men, too.

Thanks to all of those who through thick and thin created a fantastic team! Among those who have since started their own amazing DRTV companies: Gerald Bagg and Renee Hill Young (Quigley Simpson); Michelle Cardinal (Cmedia), Nancy Lazkani (Icon Media Direct), Greg Sarnow (Direct Response Academy), Alain Bransford and Sylvia Morales (Williams Worldwide Television), Lisa Bodlak (Express Media), Tee Kuboki, Robin Allen, David Brodess, Denise Graham, Alissa Stakgold, Linda Bartos, Nick Altomare, Perry Berman, Giuseppe Scavone, Stan Bruckheim, Paul Clement, and thanks also to the many who are in senior positions at Mercury Media, Euro RSCG Edge, Product Partners, Guthy-Renker and Fitness Quest!

August 2010 – Special Section: DR Milestones

Applauding the impact of the infomercial and the visionaries who recognized the opportunity

BY KEITH CONNERS

Welcome to the third installment of Electronic Retailer’s celebration of the 25th anniversary of the infomercial.

It seems like yesterday the Chia Pet hit the airwaves and allured audiences of all ages to the point where they rushed to buy one. As a boy in the early 1980s, I had the opportunity to witness this product come to life in front of my eyes.

Or what about the Clapper? This was truly an awe-inspiring invention and I had to have it! The new vehicle promoting these innovative products like the Chia Pet and Clapper was a sneaky phenomenon that penetrated our households and set the stage for the powerful marketing tool known as the infomercial.

Behind the scenes in the early days, were a few influential pioneers who recognized the opportunity inherent in the infomercial. I can hardly imagine the exciting experience it must have been to develop those early long-form commercials, buy media time and wait to see what happened!

Of course, we all know what happened…sales soared and many inventors got in line to place their product on television. A natural progression occurred and the legend of the infomercial was born. Companies were created to orient those brave inventors to the process of purchasing media time and capturing the desired response with one thing in mind, keeping the customer happy so he or she will buy again and again.

In this issue, we recognize three visionaries who laid the groundwork for the Electronic Retailing Association that we know today. The first of which is Frank Cannella. In 1982, Cannella created the infomercial by recognizing a product, New Generation, which benefited men everywhere. Our second pioneer, Michelle Cardinal, put products like NordicTrac and Hoover on our televisions and in our homes. The final forerunner we acknowledge this month is Fern Lee. Her years of experience and knowledge of the industry brought us FocusFactor, a product that has influenced the success of millions of professionals on a daily basis.

Visionaries like Frank Cannella, Michelle Cardinal and Fern Lee set the stage for the rest of us. It is truly an honor to introduce them to you as this month’s infomercial pioneers!

Keith Conners is marketing director at MicahTek and a member of ERA’s PR Committee.

Electronic Retailer: How did you get into the DRTV industry?

Frank Cannella: Believe it or not, my introduction to the business came when I was a kid cutting grass and weeding. When I was 12 years old, I took care of the lawn of a guy who became my mentor. I sought job advice from him prior to graduating from college. He must have liked the work I did on his lawn because he got me an interview at A. Eicoff & Company. I started in the accounting department and was promoted to media buyer upon graduating college. It’s funny how networking can open doors, even at such an early age.

ER: Is there any one product that you believe changed the face of DRTV for the consumer?

Cannella: There were numerous products: just about any Guthy-Renker product, The Banjo Minnow of the mid-’90s, Tae-Bo, P90X and Total Gym, to name but a few.

ER: What is your most memorable (insightful, funny or endearing) story of the DRTV industry or a colleague in the industry to date?

Cannella: An advertising VP walks into an AE’s office and gives him a lead to call on. The AE reacts and says, “It’s for a half-hour long commercial that says it will cure male-pattern baldness. We’ll never get it on the air. The FCC only permits two minutes max.” The AE follows up on the lead anyway, obtains the account and gets numerous broadcast stations to run the media. The lead becomes the first program-length commercial on the air since the 1950s. This is 1982 and the joke is that this is how the industry all began. Eventually, the AE and his media staff expand the genre by capitalizing on the FCC’s deregulation and take it to the mainstream broadcasters. After a couple of years of obscurity and thousands of airings, a new industry called “infomercial advertising” explodes! And I was the lowly AE who asked to follow up on the lead we never thought would go anywhere. Moral of the story…always follow up on your leads!

ER: What is the most significant obstacle facing the industry today?

Cannella: Consumers have so many media and other options to choose from now. There is so much technology that keeps them from traditional TV viewership. Add to that the proliferation of TV viewing options from broadcasting to cable networks to Netflix, and you have a viewership that keeps getting further fragmented. Fortunately, we are in a supply and demand business, and we can keep clients profitable by negotiating lower rates and creating new media buying opportunities. We’re all working harder to keep up, that includes broadcasters and cable networks, too.

Electronic Retailer: How did you get your start in the DRTV industry?

Michelle Cardinal: I began as a sales assistant at KADY-TV in Santa Barbara, Calif., selling airtime to early DRTV stalwarts such as Time Life, Sports Illustrated, Twin Star, Guthy-Renker, Synchronal, Quantum, Ron Popeil, etc. Not knowing a thing about DRTV when I started, I got a crash course in not only the industry, but also its colorful and controversial characters! In 1991, I went to Williams Worldwide Television as an assistant media buyer. As one of the leading buyers of infomercial media in the country, Williams was a demanding environment. During my first week on the job, three buyers were fired for poor performance. Clients were depending on us to deliver upwards of 4:1 ROIs. If you couldn’t deliver, you were toast. I loved it!

CEO Katie Williams was an inspiring mentor to me, and I credit much of my success to her tutelage. Over nine years, I worked in every aspect of her business: media buying international and domestic, client services, and marketing and research. By 1994, our clients consisted of many successful direct marketers (Kent & Spiegel, Ron Popeil, Quantum, NordicTrack), as well as major corporations (Philips, Braun, Hoover). We were the first to effectively work with major corporations, teaching them how to effectively use DRTV to drive direct and retail sales.

In 1998, I started Cmedia. My vision was to create a direct response media buying company that could aggressively negotiate in multiple formats: short form, long form (eventually print, radio and digital).

I knew we had to perform not only for highly demanding direct marketers, but also provide strategic DRTV for major brands, intuitively knowing both these genres were on the verge of intersecting. I began by training and hiring some of the most aggressive media buyers in the country. We focused on highly analytical media strategy and client service, while also designing and programming our own proprietary media system; the Cmedia Tracker. Over the past 12 years, we have had enormous growth and now rank as one of the largest buyers of DRTV media in the country.

In 2004, my husband and business partner, Tim O’Leary (former CEO of Tyee), and I merged our two companies (Respond2 and Cmedia) to form a holding company. Now the R2C Group, we are a full-service agency, with five direct response agency services companies (Cmedia, Respond2, MMSI, Production West and R2 Entertainment) that has over 200 employees and offices nationwide.

Our practice now includes paid and PI DR media services (all formats), creative production, duplication, talent management, operations consulting and an in-depth digital practice including building transactional websites and digital media.

R2C Group is the largest independent DRTV agency in the country with annual agency billings over $400 million.

ER: What are the most significant challenges facing our industry today?

Cardinal: Fragmentation of media viewership and increasing media rates continue to be significant challenges facing our industry. At the end of every day, our clients still rely heavily on their ability to generate sales to pay for media and make a profit. ROI is not just a fancy advertising word hijacked by Madison Avenue. It’s a matter of our survival.

Smart marketers need to run faster and jump higher year after year. This means focusing on the most efficient and strategic media buying and analytics. We put enormous effort into ensuring we are on the cutting edge of developing alternative DRTV formats as well as doing creative media deals to leverage rates through our enormous clout. Media tracking can no longer be done with outdated Excel spreadsheets. Now, sophisticated tracking software and data algorithms are essential to track trends quickly and efficiently. If you’re not getting daily multiple-format reporting that rolls up and deciphers all your results in one report, you are leaving valuable dollars on the table. Your focus now needs to be, “where do I spend my next incremental dollar efficiently?”

We also stress perfecting marketing messages through multiple formats, including short form, long form, offline media and digital media, as well as thinking realistically about retail distribution. Success on this level requires multiple-format marketing (800 numbers and websites that sell), as well as media plans that drive both direct and retail sales. And let’s not forget online reviews and tight web transactions.

According to Jupiter Research, 77 percent of purchasers do online research before they purchase and over 50 percent of sales volume comes through the web, according to our Cmedia Tracker™. Thus, improving your review rankings and making your web transaction seamless will directly affect your results.

DRTV drives search–it’s a fact. Therefore, focus on where you will spend your next media dollar most efficiently, and be careful not to overspend on search. In a world where low CPOs mean spend, spend, spend, search can be misleading (especially with high weekly DRTV media budgets). Unlike most media that is scalable by rate, search has a finite spend ceiling, and much of your dollars can be wasted if you scale too high. Instead, find your sweet spot through extensive media tracking, and reinvest extra dollars in media that drives search.

ER: What is your most memorable (insightful or funny) story of the DRTV industry or of a colleague in the industry to date?

Cardinal: In my 20+ years in this business, I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the industry’s most colorful characters. One of them was Atida Karr. Standing no taller than 4′2″ and brimming with wavy gray hair (think Dr. Ruth), Atida was a doctor of dermatology, who had developed a highly successful infomercial product called Acne Statin. She was really the forerunner in the acne category to use infomercials to expose heart wrenching testimonials and amazing “before and afters” of people suffering from acne. She was the epitome of an eccentric entrepreneur.

She would often come to meet with our media buyers, to discuss her campaign and extol her theories on where, when and how her media dollars should be spent.

On one such occasion, she arrived, excited to share her most recent observations and decided her messaging needed some pizzazz! She rewrote the words to an old song, “Never on a Sunday” (by Bing Crosby). With much fanfare and theatrics, she proceeded to sing to the group (with her son, by her side, humming in harmony), her desired media strategy. Enthusiastically prompting everyone to join in…”You can buy me on a Friday, a Saturday, a Sunday which I’ll never refuse, but never, never buy me on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday as those days shall not work. …”

Hey, I thought, “Atida has a lovely voice and are all clients this passionate about their media strategy?”

I’ve had the pleasure of working with many industry leaders and legends who have taught me much, entertained me and became lifelong friends. It’s been a wonderful ride!

Electronic Retailer: How did you get your start in the DRTV industry?

Fern Lee: When I first started in the business, there wasn’t the word, “infomercial.” My first foray into DR was in the print and direct-mail vertical for our client, Vikki LaMotta Cosmetics. Print led to media, which led to the infomercial. We did one of the first skincare infomercials with Vikki in the 1980s with great success. The industry rules were being formed on the go and the journey was creatively challenging.

ER: What product or products changed the face of DRTV within the past 25 years?

Lee: I was fortunate to work on many of the products/campaigns that changed the face of DRTV in the past 25 years, e.g., Richard Simmons, Billy Blanks, The Firm. The past 25 years brought other great inventions from legendary pitchman, Ron Popeil, who gave us the Chop-o-Matic, The Pocket Fisherman and the “Set it and Forget it” Showtime Rotisserie. And, of course, we can’t forget to acknowledge successful products including Jane Fonda, The Thigh Master, Ginzu knives, Psychic Hotline and The Ab Roller. Guthy-Renker set the bar with Proactiv Solution; while P90X from BeachBody/Product Partners is the current trendsetter in DRTV today.

ER: What is your most memorable (insightful, funny or endearing) story of the DRTV industry or a colleague in the industry to date?

Lee: My fondest memory is Earl Greenberg’s first annual Christmas party at the Rick Weiss Apartment complex. It was amazing how Earl gave others not only Christmas gifts, but also the gift of sustainability and “home.” I’ve had so many laughs with Earl and the men and women who created the world of direct response. We, the veterans of the DRTV world, were and still are marketing mavens. We create continuity models and communities, and yet we are the tireless champions of bringing all together for direct-to-consumer sales.

August 2010 – Feature: Say ‘Oui’ to the Quebec Market

Photograph by Hemera/Thinkstock

Don’t let language or cultural differences deter you from expanding your North American business into Quebec. Simply partnering with an expert in the marketplace can translate to added profits.

BY ED CRAIN

Canada has proven itself to be fertile ground for DRTV marketers. It offers a population the same size as California, with consumers who didn’t suffer nearly as much in the recent recession as their neighbors to the south. But many firms continue to ignore Quebec, a lucrative segment that represents a quarter of the Canadian population. This makes as much sense as moving into the California market but overlooking Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose.

Yes, the dominant language in Quebec is French and the culture is decidedly different than English-speaking North America. These issues are easily overcome by partnering with a DR media buying firm experienced in the Quebec market. Following are some helpful examples and tips for navigating your way through the Quebec market.

Despite many examples of success, a psychological barrier continues to intimidate some American DR marketers. As a result, the Quebec market is notably less competitive than any other region in Canada. An anti-wrinkle cream campaign, for example, won’t be going head-to-head with every single competitor. And the media rates can be far more efficient and flexible if managed properly. Putting it all together, this translates into the potential for considerably higher ROI for your efforts in Quebec.

When Parisian French Just Won’t Do
The actual mechanics of marketing in Quebec require French-language labeling and translated product instructions. Websites fully functional in French must also be created.

As well, short- and long-form spots need to be dubbed in French. It is crucial that the dialects are correct since an infomercial dubbed with a Parisian accent will alienate viewers. And just like faces, voices matter so it’s important to have access to top talent.

All of these language issues are not a big deal. A worthy Canadian DRTV media buying agency with experience in Quebec will handle all these matters.

With the right local partner, U.S. direct response marketers can literally run their entire Canadian program–including Quebec–from a laptop.

Photograph by Hemera/Thinkstock

Quebecers and Power Tools
Let’s take the Rockwell SoniCrafter, a handheld multipurpose power tool, which rolled out a direct response campaign across Canada. Quebec quickly became the star of the show. The province is home to 24 percent of the 34 million people living in Canada, yet it accounts for half of total SoniCrafter sales.

SoniCrafter’s impressive success in Quebec helped it secure distribution in both regional and national bricks-and-mortar retail chains. In total, 675 stores in Canada now sell the product, one-third of them in Quebec.

Another well-known brand, Lithium WorxGT, a cordless garden trimmer and edger, also leveraged its DRTV success in Quebec to build retail distribution. Of the 1,070 stores that carry the Lithium WorxGT, 39 percent are in Quebec. The lesson is clear–Quebecers love their power tools!

Cosmetics, Too
Perhaps the most lucrative market for DRTV in Quebec is cosmetics and skincare products. The people in Quebec have always been very fashion conscious, as any stroll down a Montreal street will show.

This desire for beauty helps explain why campaigns for anti-wrinkle products are even more successful in Quebec than in the rest of the country. A perfect example is Balley Direct. For its campaign for Resurgence by Murad, an age fighting skin cream, its media buy for French-language television spots accounted for 43 percent of total spend in Canada, despite the fact Quebec represents only 24 percent of the country’s population.

Fitness Products Can be a Stretch
While Quebec offers very compelling opportunities, the fitness market requires specialized knowledge. In the 10 years my company has been buying DRTV media time in Quebec, we have gained valuable lessons in terms of what works and what does not. Yet, the differences are not always obvious.

You would think that demand for products that enhance someone’s appearance, such as cosmetics, means exercise and toning products would be big sellers. Indeed, fitness equipment has had phenomenal success, including a leg toning apparatus that glided to big sales across Canada, including Quebec.

The tricky fitness products are workout DVDs, big sellers in English Canada. Quebecers buy exercise DVDs, but only if they are fully dubbed in French. The clear exception is very successful exercise DVD sets that combine dance and music. No words are needed to get into the groove. But for DVDs that include plenty of instruction, the sheer cost of dubbing the disk sets is too high to make economic sense. One company tried using subtitles, but it isn’t easy reading a TV screen when you are prone on the floor, with arms and legs stretched out.

I also advise clients to skip the Quebec market if they are selling pet products. Quebecers do love their cats and dogs, but they don’t seem to want to pamper them. Or, more accurately, Quebecers do not buy products for their pets through direct response campaigns.

But perhaps the biggest irony in DRTV marketing in Quebec is the fact that English-language music CD sets sell phenomenally well. In fact, one of our most successful long-form campaigns sold CD sets featuring romantic music hits. It seems love conquers all barriers, including language. Other top long-form successes in English-language music box sets include classic rock and songs from the ’50s.

The Upsell
The upsell can mean the difference between a profitable campaign and a smashing success. When DRTV campaigns run in both Quebec and English Canada, we have consistently found that call center operators supporting Quebec campaigns are more successful in selling additional product, driving up average sales. Of course, higher revenues per call drive up ROI.

For instance, a popular wallet sold on TV gets half of its sales from Quebec even though the province accounts for only a third of the media buy. We have no science explaining why this is the case, but the numbers tell the story. And that story ends with more money in your wallet.

Translating DRTV Into In-Store Sales
The ultimate prize for DRTV campaigns is securing sales in bricks-and-mortar retailers. In Quebec, our experience shows that for DRTV campaigns selling products already in stores, every $1 in sales through direct response spots generate 12 times the volume in in-store sales. The comparable multiplier in English Canada ranges between four and eight. Effectively, DRTV sales eventually subsidize the media buy to drive sales at retail, or “cost deferred advertising.”

This brings up another key lesson. Direct response marketers cannot fully reap the profits of parlaying DRTV success into retail unless they control their own media. Reluctance to work in French plays a big role in this decision. It should not. Again, language and labeling issues are easily overcome by working with an experienced partner.

For example, a hugely popular kitchen blender initially licensed its Canadian distribution to another firm. But after seeing the success of its blender, it didn’t renew the agreement and took Canadian distribution back in-house. This move proved to be, well, magic.

Less Competition
Despite ample success stories, psychological barriers about working in French still prevent direct marketers from targeting the Quebec market. As a result, firms that have moved into the market face relatively few DRTV competitors. The lack of competing infomercials sets the stage for significantly higher response rates.

Regulatory Benefits
Quebec broadcasters are far more flexible when it comes to schedules. We can thank government regulations.

In the name of protecting Canadian culture, the federal government restricts the number of foreign shows broadcasters can air. To do this, the government sets a minimum percentage of a broadcaster’s content that must be made in Canada. Typically, TV broadcasters in English-speaking Canada air their foreign content–mostly American entertainment shows–during primetime.

Since most shows on French-language TV in Quebec are indeed made in Canada, broadcasters there can offer long-form opportunities during primetime. Those primetime broadcasts can be very lucrative.

The Long and Short of It
There isn’t a big difference in the success of long- versus short-form campaigns in Quebec compared with the rest of Canada, but there are some nuances.

Short-form DR campaigns are cheaper to translate and dub in French, but such costs are not large enough to influence a decision on format. On the other hand, running long-form campaigns in Quebec has an advantage on the media buy since the availability of 30-minute opportunities is more flexible. As mentioned, government regulations actually result in our ability to purchase primetime slots with Quebec broadcasters.

The bottom line on short versus long ultimately comes down to the product. If it needs to be demonstrated, you’ll likely need more than two minutes.

Canada is a land of opportunity for DRTV marketers. The business case for heading northward only gets better when you include French-language Quebec. Team up with the right local partner and enjoy the rewards.

Ed Crain is president and CEO of Kingstar Media in Toronto, Canada. Contact Crain at (416) 869-0631.