Ready, Set, Rollout!

1 Mar, 2013 By: Bridget McCrea

DRTV producers gain ground with both traditional marketers and brand advertisers in 2012 — and are looking to keep up the momentum in 2013.

DRTV producers stayed pretty busy in 2012 and then rode that wave of momentum right into the New Year as more companies explored their options in the short-form arena. With more brand advertisers taking an interest in direct response, improved production technologies being introduced almost daily, and a slew of complementary channels (like YouTube) standing at the ready, short-form DRTV has truly cemented a place for itself in the advertising world.

Joining the venerable Proactiv Solution in the top 10 Jordan Whitney’s rankings in late 2012 was a mix of products that included branded items like Lowe’s Kobalt screwdriver and the Oreck Vacuum, and DRTV products like the no! no! hair removal device, the Pocket Hose garden hose, and Café Cup reusable coffee pods.

The coffee pods represented just one of the 10 “slam dunk” short-form hits produced by Concepts TV Productions in Boonton, N.J. “We had a stellar year in 2012,” says Collette Liantonio, president. “It was so good, in fact, that I’m a little apprehensive about what’s going to happen this year.” Celebrating her firm’s 30 years in business in 2013, Liantonio says at least some of short-form DRTV’s popularity can be traced to its ability to drive consumer traffic to the Web.

“The younger the target audience, the more apt it is to buy online,” says Liantonio, who no longer leaves any unused footage on the cutting-room floor, thanks to the Web, online video and increased bandwidth. “If we can’t use it on TV, it goes online. No footage is wasted.”

Once online, the snippets replace the non-existent retail clerk and further entrench the product in the consumer’s brain. “With the Web connection we’re able to educate and entertain in a completely different venue,” says Liantonio, “all the while leveraging production dollars to the fullest.”

Going Strong

John Pucci, executive creative director and senior vice president at Hawthorne Direct in Los Angeles, agrees that 2012 was a strong year for short-form DRTV. One of the firm’s most successful spots was a brand-response piece that reintroduced the SanDisk Memory Vault consumer technology product to the masses. According to Pucci, the product had gained minimal traction at retail, and its maker wanted to use the spot to bring it back to life and “build value for a static product with preventative benefits.” The strategy worked, says Pucci, who reports that Wal-Mart’s sales of the SanDisk Memory Vault “increased dramatically” during a three-week TV test period.

To maximize its clients’ short-form campaigns, Pucci says Hawthorne Direct is leveraging techniques like “social listening” — a process that allows the company to truly gauge the customer and decipher how to best connect with him or her. Such strategies help clients overcome some of the challenges that are plaguing marketers in the short-form arena, where traditional, one-step direct sales via DRTV continue to struggle to break even and/or reach profitable levels. “That side of the business is getting marginalized,” says Pucci.

On the flip side, short-form spot producers are continually challenged to give branded clients higher-end production value at comparatively less expensive DR rates. “Inflationary pressures are everywhere,” says Pucci, “yet DRTV clients still expect low budget, great-looking work.”

Branded DRTV clients also have high demands, particularly when it comes to their campaigns’ retail components. Doug Garnett, president at Portland, Ore.-based Atomic Direct, says his firm produced three short-form spots for the Kobalt brand of hand tools (sold by Lowe’s). The 60- and 120-second ads were created to drive retail sales — a strategy that requires a non-traditional production approach.

“Failure isn’t allowed because by the time you test, there’s already product stocked at retail,” says Garnett. “Unlike traditional DRTV methods, this is more about getting it right the first time and less about ‘testing,’ or throwing pitches out there to see which one sticks.”

Driving Sales

Michelle Cardinal, CEO at Portland, Ore.-based R2C Group, says more and more of the firm’s clients are highly dependent on short-form DRTV to drive their businesses. “A lot of them are dot-com firms that need to drive a certain number of leads per day,” says Cardinal, “so the short-form shows are very important to them.”

To accommodate those needs, she says R2C has filled its own portfolio with a diverse range of capabilities and formats — a move that’s become increasingly important in today’s uncertain, ever-changing business environment.

“As it pertains to short-form, we’ve committed to building an arsenal of many different show formats,” says Cardinal. If a particular show is having clearance problems, for example, then a shorter/replacement show can be quickly plugged in to help the marketer achieve its goals. “We just don’t know what’s going to happen in the marketplace,” says Cardinal. “Things are changing constantly and more rapidly than ever.”

With a 2013 business pipeline that includes a “good cache of products,” R2C is also armed with a new online focus group application that allows clients to more efficiently determine target market wants, needs and complaints. Cardinal is optimistic about the remainder of 2013. She points out that media rates and avails could be a challenging point, what with the high number of deep-pocketed, general rate advertisers that are using short-form DRTV.

Such challenges aside, Cardinal sees good things ahead for marketers that test multiple commercial formats and that aren’t afraid to try new techniques and strategies. “What didn’t work a few years ago may definitely work now,” says Cardinal. “Markets and conditions are changing rapidly; you can’t hold your agency accountable for not being innovative if you’re not innovating yourself.”

In the Long Run

Consumers are hungry for useful products that not only help solve their pain points, but that are packaged in an entertaining manner that holds their attention. Sometimes it takes more than a 30-, 60- or 90-second DRTV spot for those selling points to resonate. Infomercial producers hit on these and other key points in 2012 with products like Humana Medicare, the NuWave Precision Induction Cooktop, Insanity exercise DVDs, Meaningful Beauty skincare system, Wen haircare, and the NutriBullet personal blender, all of which have been ranked highly in recent months on the Jordan Whitney charts.

According to Ken Kerry, co-founder and executive creative director at Script to Screen in Santa Ana, Calif., 2012 was the year that more long-form marketers woke up to the value of integrating back-end products into their shows. Going beyond continuity programs, for example, many found ways to associate their main products with other selling opportunities — all without taking the focus off that main item. Content like response-driven FAQs (frequently asked questions) can be created, for example, for the Web, the third screen, E-mail outbound marketing campaigns, and social networks — all of which expand the original campaign’s presence.

“Clients are thinking about the entire campaign — from the front end to the back end — and how to integrate both in the infomercial without pulling away from the main message,” Kerry explains. “It all comes down to the campaign’s bottom line and ROI.”

With an eye on that bottom line, producers are also using technological advancements to work smarter, better and faster out in the field, on set, and in the editing room. Equipped with new broadcast XD cameras that produce high-quality HD images in small packages, for example, Kerry says producers can operate in a more mobile, economical manner. And while the equipment costs themselves haven’t dropped, producers are able to leverage their advanced capabilities to work more quickly and efficiently.

“In the past, with a typical production package, we could only knock out eight or nine shooting days with the allotted budget,” Kerry explains. “Now, we can double the number of shooting days due to the accessibility and quality of cameras in the market.”

Leveraging Success

Garnett has always viewed retail as DRTV’s ultimate end point. Not everyone agrees with him, even though — as he says — nine out of 10 dollars in campaign profitability are made at retail. “The question is, how do you play that into your campaign?” Garnett asks, pointing out that many long-form and short-form shows have retained a philosophy of “see it on TV first” and then slowly work the product into retail. “A lot of traditional DRTV producers haven’t really changed their thinking on this point,” he says.

Expect more of those producers to slowly awaken to retail’s vital role in infomercial success, says Garnett, who adds that long-form presents a large, untapped opportunity for marketers across many different industries. “It’s kind of sad that we aren’t seeing more interesting shows coming out of long-form right now,” says Garnett. “There should be a lot more activity within this powerful marketing medium.”

And unlike their short-form cohorts, long-form DRTV users are operating in a more affable media environment where brand/general rate advertisers have yet to tread in any big numbers. “There are a smaller group of characters using long-form,” says Cardinal. “You have three or four incumbents and that’s about it.” Cardinal says she’d like to see more clients using infomercials, which many companies shy away from due to the high production costs associated with the longer format. “There are definitely some inhibitors when it comes to long-form.”

Ready, Set, Rollout! _ Response Magazine

Infomercial vet reflects on 30 years of

selling Bedazzler, Pajama Jeans and more

Collette Liantonio, CEO of Concepts TV, second form left, likes what she see as she and her crew, produce an infomercial at The Gravity Vault, an indoor rock climbing gym in Chatham.

By Stacy Jones/The Star-Ledger

CHATHAM— Collette Liantonio pulled off her headphones and craned her neck to gaze at the actress who had just scaled a 35-foot rock climbing wall at The Gravity Vault in Chatham.

The stunt woman twisted this way and that, mugging for the camera and practicing lines as she searched for a flattering angle — a challenge when suspended by a harness.

Minutes later she descended and Liantonio’s production crew, Concepts TV of Boonton, broke for lunch. The rock climbing gym had been the set for the team’s shoot as it finished up a 28-minute infomercial for a piece of home exercise equipment.

“We’ve already done eight days of shooting with physical fitness experts who gave testimonials. We did muscle testing in Orange County, California. We shot with people who have been on the program to show their before and after transformations,” she said. “And now we’re shooting at a rock climbing facility to liken the muscle activity you get from this product to climbing.”

Her client asked her not to reveal the name because the ad, which airs in July, is meant to introduce the product to U.S. consumers.

The direct marketing and infomercial veteran has produced and directed ads for the George Foreman Grill, Bedazzler, Ped Egg and hundreds of other products that made their debut on television. Her 30-year career began just as marketers were realizing two things: It takes longer than two minutes to sell someone an expensive product and most television networks had nothing to put on the air at 2 a.m.

In 1984, Kevin Harrington, chairman of TVGoods and As Seen on TV, was looking for someone to produce a 28-minute ad for Arnold Morris’s Ginsu knives. Morris had been demo-ing his products at home shows, doing what most viewers will remember them for: Cutting through soda cans and gliding through tomatoes to produce wafer-thin slices.

“There were no infomercial producers then because it was a new industry, so I researched the people who produced 2-minute spots. Collette’s name kept coming up, so I called her,” he said. “We did a bunch of early projects together. They were some of the first ever infomercials.”

Harrington prides himself on his ability to detect products and people with potential. He discovered Billy Mays, the late OxiClean and Kaboom pitchman, and has appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” which gives entrepreneurs a chance to pitch their inventions to investors. He said he admires Liantonio for her instincts, decisiveness and guts.

“If she doesn’t like it, she’ll say, ‘You know what, I just don’t see it. I don’t think it’ll work’,” he said. “I’d call her sometimes to see if she liked an idea and if she loved it, she’d say, ‘Ok, we’ll shoot it in the next 30 days.’ Four weeks later she’d have it done.”

Liantonio has never been one to envy the multimillion dollar budgets of corporate advertisers. Budgets for 2-minute ads usually start at $40,000 and the 28-minute infomercials start at $250,000.

Her love for the industry spread to her three children. One of her daughters has managed the company’s finances, something Liantonio did for her father’s moving company when she was in high school and college.

Her brother took over the Flatbush Moving Company, but Liantonio couldn’t shake the entrepreneurship bug.

She was a single mother when she founded her company in Wayne. After moving the business to Montville and Mountain Lakes, she eventually settled into an office on Main Street in Boonton for the convenience and family-life balance it provided.

“There’s wonderful houses that I rent here. So I shoot in real settings that show our products to their best advantage,” she said. “So if I’m doing something like a fireplace, I’m not in a studio, I’m in a real home.”

In fact, anyone who’s ever seen the 2-minute spot for Pajama Jeans has seen the inside of Liantonio’s Towaco home. Later this year she’ll open a second office in California, where she does a lot of work with clients.

She’s also cast her own children in spots and Dana Conklin, a producer and assistant director, first worked with Concepts TV as a 3-year-old actress.

Sonia Makurdsik, executive vice president of marketing and new business at Hampton Direct, first met Liantonio about 15 years ago when she was looking for someone to produce an ad for Furniture Fix, a board that stops cushions from sagging on otherwise worn-out couches.

“We had to show the strength of the product and I said, ‘Collette, think of putting together two sumo wrestlers,’ ” she said.

Two 600-pound sumo wrestlers later, they had what Makurdsik calls a channel stopper.

“As long as she’s been doing this, she’s only gotten better with time and I don’t see her stopping at all. I think she’s going to do this until … I don’t know … maybe when she can’t see anymore,” she said. “She loves this, it shows and that’s the reason I really adore working with her.”

By Collette Liantonio

Still Looking for Great Solutions
Consumers who got used to saving during the recession are still
looking for simple value from their housewares products

 
As the economy has steadily improved in
recent months, one thing hasn’t changed —
consumer demand for housewares products
that provide high-quality, simple solutions at
a value price. While this has long been the case, consumers’
desires for the best possible buy ratcheted up during
the Great Recession that began in 2008. And, even
though today they may no longer be facing a job downsizing
or housing foreclosure, they learned that finding that
kind of product is still desirable.
No one is better at defining that kind of value in the
housewares space than DRTV marketers. As a DRTV
production company, we are constantly driven by our
marketer clients — and our own knowledge of what truly
makes consumers buy — to define the true value of each
product. Nothing is more crucial
to getting consumers to pick up the
phone, open their Web browser or
head to their closest big box outlet.
Two of our earliest DRTV hit
products were housewares products
that became industry legends — the
Contour Pillow and the Smart Mop.
Both products were top quality.
They both made life easier around
the house. And both were great values
for the consumer.
Fast forward to today: many consumers
are beginning to find their
checkbooks balancing with a higher
total in the register at the end of
the month. Yet, they’ve also discovered during the rough
times in the recent past that they can get great products
that solve household problems at better prices. There’s
no need to begin spending big dollars for problem-solving
products.

Mr. Lid is one recent DRTV hit in the
housewares space to capitalize on
consumers’ perceived value.

 
Take a product like the recent hit Mr. Lid, a patented kitchen-storage container
with an attached
lid. The product is
featured in 60-second,
two-minute, and fiveminute
spots starring
today’s top DRTV
pitchman, Marc Gill. “The key to the product was illustrating
the unique benefits of having an attached lid
on our container. But a value-based piece count of 20 for
only $19.95 put the sale over the top. The reaction of
consumers to Mr. Lid has been simply tremendous,” says
Chris Rebholz, CEO of Norman Direct.
Another recent winner in the DRTV housewares
space is Café Cup, a reusable coffee cup that takes the
place of single-serve coffee pods for popular coffee making
machines. “We are thrilled with Café Cup’s TV and
retail programs,” says Bob Khubani, vice president of
marketing at Spark Innovators. “It is by far the top item
in Spark Innovators’ history. This success is mostly attributed
to the highly effective TV spot and media campaign
which are driving sales at retail.”
The key selling feature was the
comparison to the expense of the competition
pods. Again, it is the value
proposition that convinced the consumer
to buy.
In the case of both Mr. Lid and Café
Cup, the product was built for DRTV
demonstration. Each was a simple solution
at a great price. While consumers
now have more budget, they know they
can stay on that budget — and perhaps
give themselves a nice night out — by
finding the types of housewares solutions
offered by DRTV marketers.
While each of these products found
a sweet spot on the housewares chain,
the capabilities offered by a top-notch production house
in the direct response space have been crucial to their
success. Any successful DRTV campaign is built around
amazing product demonstrations that cut through the
clutter of a crowded television landscape and turn everskeptical
consumers into customers. But not only must
your production partner understand what works on camera
— they also must have a network of leaders in the
DR space to connect you to other capable vendors.
With the right producer — one that understands your
product, its competitive set and its visual advantages —
your product stands a much better chance finding a home
with those value-conscious consumers. ■

To read the full article, please visit: http://www.response-digital.com/response/201303#pg55

 
Collette Liantonio is president of
Concepts TV Productions, a full-service
production agency based in Boonton, N.J.
She can be reached at (973) 331-1500 or
via E-mail at collette@conceptstv.com.

The Calm After the Storm

Concepts TV meets deadlines in spite of Hurricane Sandy’s destruction

The sky was orange, and the wind howled. Above toppled power lines, neon splashes of color appeared like misplaced fireworks amid torrents of rain. Pop, pop! There goes another transformer.

More than 8.5 million people lost power in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Homes went unheated, and gas stations couldn’t pump gas. Schools closed, and hospitals were evacuated. Businesses were literally in the dark. Early estimates predict $20 billion in lost business between the structural damage, power outages, and interruptions to business. After Katrina, Sandy will likely be the most costly storm in U.S. history.

Once power was restored, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced, the state would rebuild. But area business owners like Collette Liantonio, CEO of Boonton, N.J.-based Concepts TV, couldn’t wait that long. Deadlines had been set; she didn’t want to disappoint clients in the increasingly just-in-time world of infomercial marketing.

With the company modeled after theater production companies, most of Liantonio’s employees were used to working together closely. After establishing that the team was safe, Liantonio offered her home—partially powered by a natural gas generator—as shelter to her extended Concepts family. Spouses, children, and even nannies were welcome to take advantage of the physical and interpersonal warmth so many suddenly lacked.

After Katrina, Sandy will likely be the most costly storm in U.S. history.

With gasoline in short supply, Liantonio asked only a few employees to meet at the office to assess the damage and brainstorm the next steps for the company. The office was structurally sound, but the power was out indefinitely—making the company’s editing suites , phone lines, and servers inoperable. Documents and company emails were inaccessible.

The company contacted clients using backup, hard-copy contact sheets. Then, work was delegated to the rest of the staff via text message. Creatives in makeshift home offices relied on pen and paper, while administrators focused on logistics. Generators were brought in to power up edit suites. Cell-phone hotspots were created for Wi-Fi access. Battery-powered laptops were set up. And the company conference room was transformed temporarily into a roundtable workstation, similar to a newsroom bullpen.

In one week’s time, most of the Concepts staff was able to return to the office, with multiple Plan Bs in hand. They contacted clients again, this time with revised production schedules, adjusted office hours, and rescheduled shoots. Editing schedules changed, but deadlines did not. And to the surprise and delight of clients across the country, projects stayed on course.

Liantonio credits her staff’s ingenuity, tireless work ethic, and unfaltering teamwork with saving the day. She’s quick to point out that the sense of camaraderie also extends to her clients, who were gracious and understanding. One Wisconsin-based client remarked, “We’re with you for the long haul. If you need anything, let us know.”

As Helen Keller said, “Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.” In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the Concepts TV family—staff, clients, and vendors—found out how true those words can be.

To read more about this article, please visit: http://www.electronicretailermag.com/2013/03/the-calm-after-the-storm/

Concepts TV Ranked One of the Top Entrepreneurial Businesses in the Nation

For Immediate Release

BOONTON, N.J. (February 27, 2013) – NJ DRTV agency, Concepts TV Productions, was recently acknowledged as one of the nation’s leading entrepreneurs, selected as a 2013 “Top Business” recipient by DiversityBusiness.com.

Based on annual gross revenues and business profiles, over 1.3 million businesses competed for this prestigious honor.  Five hundred were chosen and Concepts ranked #403.

The award cinches a spot for Concepts on DiversityBusiness.com’s “Top Business List”, a list viewed by over 20 million annually.  The “Top Business List” is a compilation of the strongest and most successful privately-held companies in America.  These widely respected and recognized companies differentiate themselves in an indeterminate market place through quality, productivity and profitability.

Award-winning “Top Businesses” will join the “Top Fortune 500s” at the 13^th Annual National Business Awards Ceremony and Conference in Las Vegas at the end of April.  The event not only honors the award recipients, it promotes business opportunities.

Concepts TV Productions, based in Boonton, N.J., is one of the world’s most experienced producers of DRTV commercials and infomercials.  Its direct marketing expertise has helped our clients achieve billions of dollars in sales.  Many infomercials have become direct response television legends as a result of outstanding sales success.

# # #

CONTACT:           Concepts TV Productions

Kristy Pinand-Dumpert

(973) 331-1500

Collette was featured on NJ.Com by Melissa Gasnick-Cloeter.

To read the full article, please click the link below.

http://blog.nj.com/new_jersey_women_in_business/2013/02/decades_of_commercial_success_available_in_new_jersey.html