Double Grand Slam for Concepts TV at the Moxies

Boonton, NJ – The biggest convention of the year for direct response marketers and production companies, the Electronic Retailer Association Direct to Consumer Convention, may have come to a close but Concepts TV Productions is still celebrating after winning two major Moxie Awards. Concepts TV won the Best Long Form of the Year under $250K for “The Amish Heat Surge Fireplace” from Heat Surge LLC and the Best Short Form Variety Commercial for “Emery Cat” from All Star Marketing. “Two major wins in one night is incredible!” exclaimed Founder and President of Concepts TV Productions, Collette Liantonio. “Working with these products and these marketers was a pleasure, and I’m so proud that these productions were recognized by a jury of our peers. We look forward to producing many more award-winning productions for our clients.” Concepts TV Productions is well known in the direct response industry for making exceptional short-form spots, but their long-form capabilities are finally being recognized. The 30 minute Amish Heat Surge Fireplace, which already won two Aurora awards, was filmed all over the country. However, the most memorable shooting days took place in Winesburg, Ohio, home to the largest Amish community in America. There, Concepts filmed the Amish carpenters and the community working together in Amish barns to handcraft the authentic mantles. “I love it when a project takes you on a breathtaking journey,” says Dana Conklin, assistant director and producer at Concepts TV. “The Amish Heat Surge Fireplace is a product that people all across America really do love, and that’s obvious in the heartfelt testimonials portrayed in the infomercial.” Emery Cat, a cat scratching platform that enables cats to trim their own nails, was shot and produced in the Concepts TV studio and various homes in New Jersey. “That was an out of the ordinary shoot,” Ms. Liantonio recalls with a laugh. “Most cats don’t follow direction. When your featured talents aren’t people, it really forces you to think outside of the box. And because of that…we were able to produce a fun and creative spot. It’s the unique variety of projects that come our way that really make me love this business!” For more information on Concepts TV Productions, please call us at (973) 331 – 1500 or e-mail us at collette@conceptstv.com.

Concepts TV wins “Lucky 13″ Telly Award for “Bottle Top”

Boonton, NJ – Concepts TV Productions is thrilled to announce they have won their thirteenth Telly Award for the direct response production of “Bottle Top” on behalf of their client, Telebrands. “Bottle Top” is a device that turns any can into a bottle. This wildly successful 2009 TV campaign is currently a best seller in retail stores nationwide.

“I’m absolutely delighted with the award,” says Concepts TV President and Founder Collette Liantonio. “Bottle Top is a great product…and coupled with a great commercial and strong offer, we were able to create a real demand from the consumer.”

AJ Khubani, CEO of Telebrands, has worked with Concepts TV Productions for 25 years producing some of their biggest hits, such as Perfect Fit Button, Ambervision Sunglasses, Ped Egg, and EZ Combs. Khubani enthusiastically praised Concepts TV: “Concepts TV has a great creative team and they continue to produce hits for Telebrands year after year.”

“Bottle Top” was produced and shot at Concepts TV’s studio in Boonton, New Jersey, just 45 minutes away from New York City. For more information on Concepts TV Productions, please call us at (973) 331 – 1500 or e-mail us at collette@conceptstv.com.

Collette Liantonio, President of Concepts TV Productions, was quoted in the March 2011 issue of Response Magazine, in the article “A Winning Combination,” about how DRTV Producers balance the needs of their clients with end-user demands.

The article focuses on one of Concepts TV’s latest hits, Pajama Jeans, and the strategy behind marketing it to a wide audience.

A Winning Combination
Bridget Mccrea

What do you get when you cross a successful DRTV marketer of products like Wonder Hanger with venerable toy maker Vermont Teddy Bear? The end result is PajamaJeans, an invention that the latter developed for its PajamaGram mail order firm. The product, which is pajama-soft but looks enough like real jeans to be worn in public, sold so well during the 2009 holiday season that Vermont Teddy Bear decided to market them to the masses.

To gain exposure for the product, the manufacturer began working with Williston, VT based Hampton Direct, whose “As Seen on TV” hits include Furniture Fix and Total Pillow. Also on board was Boonton, NJ based Concepts TV Productions, where President Collette Liantonio and her team came up with a short-form campaign for the $39.95 product.

Liantonio took a grassroots approach to the PajamaJeans show, which she knew would reach a broader audience if a wide range of female shapes and sizes were shown wearing the pants. “We didn’t want to just feature emaciated girls; a good booty is really important,” says Liantonio, laughing. “We cast people who had ‘real’ bodies. That’s the beauty of the spot.”

By acknowledging the fact that the world is made up of more than just “skinny minny” models, Liantonio says the marketer has been able to reach a wider audience of DRTV viewers who either order directly from TV, or who visit the PajamaJeans website for more information before buying.

“I ususally warn clients against selling garments on TV that come in different sizes because those items are so personalized,” says Liantonio. “But in this case, the clients hit a home run, thanks to the universal appeal of the spot and the fact that it was directed at ‘real’ women.”

The entire article can be read by clicking here.

President of Concepts TV, Collette Liantonio, was interviewed for Electronic Retailer’s retrospective on the 25th anniversary of the informercial.

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

Collette Liantonio: I have a Masters degree in theater education, with concentration in directing from New York University. I always wanted to direct a three-act play, but a three-act infomercial is equally exciting. I’ve taught The Art of Writing, Film Study and Spanish at a New Jersey high school. I worked as a director of public relations at a Fortune 500 company, but my first job in DRTV was as a director of production for Urban General Corp. In 1979, my first spot was “The Exterminator,” an insect zapper…it was a hit! I produced approximately 30 DRTV spots my first year and my boss was so cheap, he made me cook the food myself for every food shoot—no prop stylist, just me. I started Concepts TV in 1983 and had a difficult time convincing my clients that DRTV doesn’t compete with the retail industry, but drives it! Now, every retailer in America demands an “As Seen on TV” campaign for its new products. One of my first hits was Ambervision Sunglasses in 1984 and I worked with A.J. Khubani.

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

Liantonio: In 1987, Kevin Harrington and Jim Caldwell of Quantum Marketing invited me to make an infomercial for “The Blade.” I couldn’t believe that I actually had the luxury of an entire half hour to tell the story. It was a smash hit! Rob Woodrooffe of Interwood Direct had me produce a half hour for “DiDi 7,” a phenomenal success that was a hit internationally.

My Spanish-language skills came in handy and I created dozens of spots for audiences decades before the Hispanic audience was discovered. I wrote and produced “The Abdomenizer” for Fitness Quest—one of the first AB shows ever produced. I wrote and produced “The Bedazzler,” “Topsy Tail” and “Harigami,” known by every girl in America. The George Foreman Grill…Smart Mop…The Heat Surge Fireplace…so many memories.

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

Liantonio: In 1994, we captured two ERA awards for both short form, “The Contour Pillow” and long form, “The Smart Mop.” I remember numerous presentations I made to the big New York City Madison Avenue agencies. They were anxious to emulate our sales success, but disdainful of our “primitive” direct approach. These same agencies now attempt to recreate these magic demonstrations in their “mainstream” image commercials. The difference is their spots cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. In my next life, I’m going to do image ads.

 

Collette Liantonio, President of Concepts TV Productions, was quoted in the July issue of Response Magazine, in the article “Long- Form Bounces Back,” about the return of infomercials after a rocky 2009 due to the recession. Collette spoke about seeing more brand advertisers turning to infomercials since mainstream adverting suffered their own hits during the recession: “Brands are looking at an affordable intelligent return on investment and infomercials can produce an ROI that any brand company would appreciate. Once they discover infomercials, there is no going back.” The infomercial industry is always evolving, and the recession has offset yet another change in the field. Now marketers who normally produce half-hour shows are turning to companies like Concepts TV for their short-form infomercials, and brand companies are turning away from $20 to $30 million in advertising to the financially feasible and investing in the successes of the infomercial. To read the full article, click the link below. http://www.response-digital.com/response/201007/#pg36

The April/May 2010 issue of NJ Savvy Living featured Collette as the “Infomercial Queen.”

By Patricia Herold

A mere four words describe the influence Collette Liantonio wields in America’s vast billion dollar commercial marketplace: “Queen of the Infomercial.”

She didn’t invent the form, but she’s sure perfected it – selling Hooked on Phonics, Topsy Tail, Perfect Pasta Pot, George Foreman Grills and countless other legendary products, over and over again to millions of consumers.

People magazine once dubbed George Foreman “The Marketing Champ of the World,” announcing that, “Almost everything George Foreman touches seems to sell.”

Truth is, almost everything Liantonio touches seems to sell.  This petite, Montville resident with bright blue eyes, blonde hair and stylish Chanel glasses is a heavyweight in the intensely competitive world of TV direct response, a star marketer with a gift for turning ordinary products into household names and getting us to drop the remote, grab the phone, and say: “I want one!”

She’s marketed a host of hits, chalked up more than 25 years in a male-dominated business and become an industry expert on what makes us want to buy.  Her secret?  There are many, but it all begins with the right words.

“I have a nice ability to turn a phrase that people like,” says Liantonio, something she dubs “metaphors for the masses,” wording that makes consumers respond to the announcer, urging them to “call now.”

When a client shows her a product, whether Bedazzled, “the hottest craft item in America today,” (for adding rhinestones to clothes) or the $19.99 limited edition “piece of history” plate celebrating Barack Obama’s inauguration, her instincts tell her exactly how to make us “get it.”

“I recognize a magic moment in a demonstration,” Liantonio says, sitting in the sleek, spotless kitchen that adjoins her office at the cozy Boonton headquarters of her company, Concepts TV Productions Inc.

THE COMMON TOUCH

“A magic moment is the ‘ah hah’ moment in a commercial that makes you want to buy a product, she says. And  although Liantonio has been called the “queen,” her tremendous success probably has more to do with her kitchen table instincts than royal ways. She seems to have the common touch, a knack for knowing just what words and images will make the average consumer buy the product, “as seen on TV.”

Born in Brooklyn, Liantonio knew early on she would not be going into the family moving business her grandfather started.  .It was successful and, she explains, “It was for men. My father and his brother wanted to give the business to the boys … It was like ‘and Sons.’  That’s how it used to be.”

Besides, her interest lay in theater and directing, not trucking. (Her father had been a journalism major who went into the family business after the war, but dabbled in writing, penning articles for Movers News.) In high school, Liantonio was an actress who wrote poetry. Her career plan was to run a college theater. But at 22, she ended up with a job at Rutherford High School, teaching classes in film, writing and Spanish. She wasn’t much older than her students, and the closeness in age made her uncomfortable.

After three years, Liantonio decided to put her writing to work, doing brochures for people in her Clifton neighborhood and getting a job on the local paper on the bottom rung: covering night municipal meetings. Eventually, she moved on to work at a direct response business, later taking a position as an account supervisor for an ad agency. By this time, her first marriage had broken up, and she was on her own, so full-time work was a necessity. She remembers chain smoking at night, working only after her children had gone to bed. “I had two kids; I had no options,” she recalls.

The ad agency work focused on client relations, and she missed what she calls “executing” … seeing something through from beginning to end.” Eventually, she went out on her own.

These days, Liantonio still gets to “execute,” whether writing a script, attending a product demonstration or traveling to Mexico City to collect and shoot testimonials from native Spanish speakers for a “Hooked on English” commercial.

BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY

She acknowledges that she’s well known and has a history of success, but Liantonio takes nothing for granted. “As an entrepreneur, I don’t think anybody ever knows. I’m insecure always; there’s an ebb and flow to business.” And although she’s made it in a risky field (she’s a member of the Women Presidents Organization, reserved for women with multimillion dollar businesses) and has won numerous industry awards, Liantonio describes her company philosophy as conservative.

Her core principles: “I don’t believe in overhiring (she employs 10 people); I don’t believe in debt … I’m old school that way.  I don’t leverage; that’s my comfort.  I hire generalists.  I hire people who can grow. People who are smart … eager.”

She also has been delighted to hire family members and friends from time to time.  Her daughter, Eve Fusco, now director of creative services, once managed Concept TV’s finances.  (Liantonio’s office, located in a cozy renovated frame house is barely a mile from Eve and two little grandsons’ doorstep.) And daughter, Collette DeBenedetto, currently working for Creative Artists in Los Angeles, once expressed an interest in making her mother’s family business a two-generation affair.

Liantonio also draws in members of her community.  Residents of Mountain Lakes, where she and husband Jan DeBenedetto once lived in a imposing lakeside home, aren’t surprised to spot neighbors as models in Concepts ads or learn an acquaintance is working for – or has interned with – the company. One of Liantonio’s daughter’s good friends, Dana Conklin, is a prized producer.

ON LOCATION

In fact, it’s Conklin’s mother who provided the set for a recent Concepts TV shoot, her well-furnished suburban colonial near the Morristown/Mendham border. A make-up artist and model have taken over one end of Conklin’s long dining room table, while in the upstairs master suite, Liantonio is directing.Wearing comfortable black shoes, she’s surrounded by production assistants, her favorite three-man camera crew and a Montclair State intern, one of many interns she’s welcomed over the years.

“Animating” an inanimate product made of plastic or steel – making it live in the consumer’s mind – is a Liantonio specialty, something she describes as, “Here’s what it is; here’s what it does.” The pace is relaxed.

“Are we comfy?” she asks the group circled around the whirlpool tub, on whose edge is poised the object of their attention: a graceful foot demonstrating a nail invention. “Camera is rolling … and action!” The camera stays fixed on the foot and the model’s hand, daintily painting her toenails. Collette stands face to face with the screen that frames the camera’s shot, seemingly scrutinizing every pixel, studying the effect.

Spontaneously, the model lifts her foot gently, her toes delicately poised on the tub. “That’s great! I like the arch,” Collette says. “Now model it… we love your feet, Jen!  Angle your toes a little bit … Nice, that’s good on the light, Pete … Excellent.” They’ve shot this sequence a couple of times, but for now, the Queen of the Infomercial finds it just right.

“The beauty of this business is you put it up on the air and it either sells or it’s a bomb,” she notes.  In a few months, if those perfect nails set off by that perfect arching foot and a few perfect words get TV watchers to reach for their credit cards and pick up their phones, Collette Liantonio will once again have had her say.

To read the entire article, click here.