Billy Mays is known for hawking products like: Might Putty, Mighty Mendit, OxiClean and Orange Glo to name a few.
It’s safe to say, he is the most popular “single handed” person to represent so many different products using direct response television. Viewers think “trust” and “familiar face” when they see Billy Mays on television.
Billy Mays can sell anything and has been appearing in direct response television commercials for several years. The bottom line is: his pitch is perfect and the products he represents actually work. Sales have been high and most products represented by Billy Mays do very well and hit retail stores fairly quickly.
Chances are if you live in the United States or any part of the world that has television stations, you have watched a drtv commercial/advertisement.
A DRTV commercial is pretty direct and asks the viewer to “do something” in the form of a call-to-action. These advertisements range from 30 seconds to about 1 minute in length. In many cases these ads are 2 minutes in length. Usually, these are known as short form drtv, as they are short messages that range from 30 seconds to about 2 minutes.
The actual video contains a strong/direct message with a solution to the problem that is being addressed, a phone number to call or a website to log on and finish the purchase. There is a price that is a part of the actual video message/commercial and a sense of urgency is created, asking the customer to “call now”.
This is a start for a new blog that is dedicated to drtv, infomercial marketing and everything related to media buying, planning and production of direct response television commercials.
We will discuss topics that cover the following items:
1) What is DRTV
2) How to use DRTV for your brand/message
3) How to get started?
4) Who can help you with your media plan
5) Companies that use direct response television
6) Anatomy of a direct response television commercial (infomercial)