Repair Rather Than Replace

Housewares products hit the right note in tough times

by Collette Liantonio, from the March issue of Response Magazine

Since the onset of the Great Recession in 2008, DR agencies have been faced with one tough question that overrides all others for their clients: How can a consumer justify a purchase when he or she is barely holding on to a job or a home?

It’s not easy. When DRTV commercial producers create a spot or long-form infomercial, defining the true value of a product is crucial to the sale. Getting the consumer to grasp that he or she is, in fact, getting a great deal for a great product is tougher than ever. One needs to look no further than the explosion of ‚“buy one, get one free” offers being used to prompt consumer action.

Consumers can’t afford to replace major household products when money is tight. The need for home improvement doesn’t go away. It just means consumers have to look in another direction.

Perhaps that’s why the housewares space continues to be very good to DR marketers. Rather than replacing worn out items, or spending thousands on home improvement projects that were all the rage in the home equity heyday of 10 years ago, consumers are now looking for low-cost replacements until the economy turns around.

Three products from Hampton Direct have had great success, Twin Draft Guard, Wonder Hanger and Furniture Fix. In each case, the product was built for DRTV demonstration. Each was a simple, inexpensive solution rather than an expensive replacement.

Consumers on a budget simply felt more comfortable utilizing a quality product like Twin Draft Guard, rather than contracting out for a complete weather-stripping job on their homes. By using Wonder Hangers, they also were able to find a simple and easy way to expand their closet space, without knocking out walls to rebuild their closets. And rather than shelling out $1,000 for a new living room set, they were able to easily repair sagging chairs and couches with Furniture Fix.

While each of these products hit a sweet spot during the Great Recession, they still required an eye for the production capabilities particular to direct response marketing. Any successful DRTV campaign is built around amazing product demonstrations that cut through the clutter of a crowded television landscape and turn ever-skeptical consumers into customers.

In the Furniture Fix spot, sumo wrestlers weighing a combined 1,000 pounds sit together on a couch using Furniture Fix to emphasize the product’s strength. In the Wonder Hanger spot, the product supports a 20-pound weight. The difference that proper creative development can make to allow your campaign to cut through the clutter is immeasurable. At the same time, it’s crucial that your producer knows the leaders in the DR space to connect you to other capable vendors. If your producer doesn’t have a complete DRTV network, beware.

Still, the ultimate key is that the right DRTV production agency can help you find the right message to reach the right consumer. And with the right producer, one that understands your product, whether it falls into the housewares vertical or beauty or fitness, your product stands a much better chance of finding its way into consumers’ homes, even in a difficult economy.

Collette Liantonio, President of Concepts TV Productions is featured in the March issue of Response Magazine, speaking about how technology has helped producers work smarter and more efficiently in a challenging economic environment.

DRTV producers focus on quality shows that entice consumers and add value to their lives.

One Hit at a Time

By: Bridget McCrea

The recent recession changed the way a lot of companies do business. And while the DRTV industry as a whole was somewhat insulated from its effects, both long-form and short-form producers have learned to work smarter, better and faster in the challenging environment.

The fact that modern-day technology and sites like YouTube have turned all of us into videographers has put even more pressure on the professionals. ‚“All of my children got HD cameras for Christmas this year and their production quality is incredible,” says Collette Liantonio, president at Boonton, N.J.-based Concepts TV Productions. ‚“But there’s more to developing DRTV campaigns than just a camera; people don’t always appreciate the fact that we’re DR gurus and not just producers.”

That lack of appreciation has pushed key players in the industry to find less expensive production techniques, all the while maintaining (or enhancing) the overall look, feel and effectiveness of the campaigns themselves. Technology helps producers achieve this balancing act, what with the myriad production techniques (like green screens) and editing suites (which allow remote parties to work on the computer from their own location) that are available on the market today.

‚“We don’t have to send rough cuts out of the state or country for client review and approval anymore,” says Liantonio. ‚“We all get into the virtual editing suite and get the job done much more efficiently.”

Liantonio also uses virtual backgrounds when shooting testimonials to minimize crew and costs that add up when working on location. ‚“As long as it doesn’t compromise the integrity of the testimonial’s message,” she says, ‚“it’s a great way to save both time and money.”

To stay on top of the game, the most experienced producers are making sure to stay in tune to the key trends, opportunities and challenges currently impacting short- and long-form production.

Going Short

Rolling up Their Sleeves

Short-form producers rolled up their sleeves in 2011 and found innovative ways to meet higher production standards without breaking budgets. ‚“Even emerging, entrepreneurial brands are demanding higher production values, knowing that those values are vital to building a business that can compete with established brands,” says Tim Hawthorne, chairman and executive creative director at Hawthorne Direct in Fairfield, Iowa, and member of the Response Advisory Board.

Concurrently, ‚“faster and cheaper seem to be a growing trend,” says Hawthorne, who increasingly turns to technology to help achieve the delicate balance between high production values and smaller budgets. ‚“Client requests for faster, cheaper shows is not a positive trend for the industry,” adds Hawthorne, ‚“but it’s certainly representative of the current economic climate.”

To augment its clients’ short-form campaigns in a cost-effective manner, Hawthorne Direct incorporates online video into all websites; actively uses social networking for research and ‚“listening” to consumer feedback; uses SMS text as a response mechanism; and is experimenting with the use of QR codes.

Liantonio says the Web has become a hotbed for short-form testing. Some test shows are created with an in-house camera, no set price points, and few, if any, production values. Those efforts have pushed short-form producers into the role of Web designers.

‚“That’s a big change that’s taken place in our industry,” says Liantonio. ‚“If you can’t do Web design, you really can’t be in short-form production.”

Taking Center Stage

Concepts TV’s biggest short-form successes over the past year included Miracle Socks, which are compression socks designed for the senior market, and the Sift & Toss cat litter system. The Miracle Socks campaign honed in on phone sales, based on the target demographic, while Sift & Toss capitalized on the Web, social media and mobile, the latter of which increased product sales by 12 percent.

Web and social media have also taken center stage at THOR Associates in New York, where CEO and Founder Fern Lee says all marketing efforts revolve around multichannel platforms.

‚“When developing creative we make sure to have assets that can be culled down to 10 seconds, 15 seconds and 30 seconds,” explains Lee, a member of the Response Advisory Board, ‚“so that the DR can drive to retail and have media assets for all digital use, from social networking to affiliate marketing.”

THOR’s short-form hits for 2011 included Looney Tunes ClickN Read Phonics. That campaign required Lee and her team to shoot a show that included more than 20 children, animation from Looney Tunes and a Spanish-language version.

‚“We were able to integrate digital and traditional direct marketing touch points for a strong ROI,” says Lee, ‚“and a very successful campaign.”

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