Direct Response Television Blog

This years Superbowl featured an infomercial, the first of its kind during a the game. It was a DRTV commercial for Cash4Gold. The commercial starred MC Hammer and Ed McMahon. It was a comical take on an unfortunate situation. The two stars who had once  been  financially well off, have both experienced difficult times with money. They poked fun at the fact they had purchased large amounts of gold which included a gold toilet. It was mocking the fact that they had large amounts of gold purchased from their previous riches, but now have to sell it to replenish their dwindling cash flow.

This was one of the first infomercials to air during the Superbowl. At a reported 3 million for the 30 second spot, it needed to go above and beyond the normal traditional commercial. Because it was the first of its kind, it was memorable and stood out above the typical game advertisements.

Here are ways to optimize the best possible DRTV advertisement:

1.  Centralize your approach: It may be best to use only this form of media to market your product.  It can eliminate overhead and give you a more focused approach to marketing.

2.  Keep it simple: Keeping your product and ad campaign simple can center  your core target market, but also keep a wide audience.

3. Set a performance budget: If you create a budget  based on target cost per order, you can determine sales more accurately. Make a breakdown: average cost per order- product costs plus shipping and the money allocated for marketing.  Set up some sort of outline for your budget.

4. Maximize your relevance: Some products are completely unnecessary to your life. Spending money on some of these products is out of the question, yet tempting. Giving your audience a good reason to purchase and how else it can benefit you; aside from just convenience.  If you can get your audience to understand it can save you money or time, you can convince them of the value the product has.

5. Create a strong call to action: Getting your audience involved and then increasing the value of the product increases your chances for the viewer to purchase. For example, when giving order information, and then adding another product for ‘free’ it increases your chances marginally to make the sale.  Another way to make this work is by decreasing the price last minute so the viewer  believes they are getting  a deal.