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Infomercial
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Infomercials are long-format television commercials, typically five minutes or longer..
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Infomercials are long-format television commercials, typically five minutes or longer.. Infomercials are also known as paid programming (or teleshopping in Europe). Originally, they were a phenomenon that started in the United States where they were typically shown overnight (usually 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.) --- outside of peak hours. Some television stations chose to air such programming as an alternative to the former practice of sign-off. By 2009, most US infomercial spending is during early morning, daytime, and evening hours. Stations in most countries around the world have instituted similar media structures.
The term "infomercial" is sometimes mis-applied and used to refer to direct response television advertisements (DRTV) of :60 to :120 seconds in length. However, the term describes program length advertisements which, in the US, are typically 28 minutes and 30 seconds in length (see above references). In the US, DRTV advertisements of :30 seconds to 2 minutes in length are typically called "short form" or "DRTV spots" and not included in the advertising industry's use of the term "infomercial". Note that in the US market, a small amount of media can be purchased for 5 minute length advertisements however this time is quite limited. Outside of the US market, lengths depend on the lengths allowed by television stations and government regulators.
While the term "infomercial" was originally applied only to television advertising, it is now sometimes used to refer to any presentation (often on video) which presents a significant amount of information in an actual, or perceived, attempt to persuade to a point of view. Often, it is unclear whether the actual presentation fits this definition because the term is used hoping to dis-credit the presentation. In this way, political speeches may be derogatorily referred to as "infomercials" for a specific point of view.
Format
The word "infomercial" is a portmanteau of the words "information" and "commercial". As in any other form of advertisement, the content is a commercial message designed to represent the viewpoints and to serve the interest of the sponsor. Infomercials are often made to closely resemble actual television programming. Some imitate talk shows and try to downplay the fact that the program is actually an advertisement. A few are developed around storylines and have been called "storymercials". However most do not have specific formats but craft different elements to create what they hope is a compelling story about the product offered.
Infomercials are designed to solicit a direct response which is specific and quantifiable and are, therefore, a form of direct response marketing (not to be confused with direct marketing). For this reason, infomercials generally feature between 2 and 4 internal commercials of :30 to :120 seconds in length which invite the consumer to call or take other direct action. Despite the overt request for direct action, many consumers respond to the messages in an infomercial with purchases at retail outlets. For many infomercials, the largest portion of positive response they aim for is retail sales. These retail sales make infomercials similar in impact to traditional commercials where advertisers do not solicit a direct response from viewers, but create the commercials with a goal to leave behind messages and brand that the advertisers hope will lead people to purchase their product or increase acceptance of the product.
Many traditional Infomercial producers make use of flashy catchphrases, repeat basic ideas, and/or employ scientist-like characters or celebrities as guests or hosts in their ad. The book As Seen on TV (Quirk Books) by Lou Harry and Sam Stall highlights the history of such memorable products as the Flowbee, the Chia Pet, and Ginsu knives. Sometimes traditional infomercials use limited time offers and/or claim one can only purchase the wares from television to add pressure for viewers to buy their products.
Major brands (e.g. Apple, Microsoft, Evinrude, Rubbermaid, Sears) have begun using infomercials for their ability to communicate more complicated and in-depth product stories. This practice started in the early 1990s and has increased since. Brands generally eschew the "cheesy" trappings of the traditional infomercial business in order to create communication they believe creates a better image of their products, their brands, and their consumers. Some other programs also touch on other issues which aren't selling anything, such as a paid program for a law firm dealing in recruiting mesothelioma patients for lawsuits which began to air in October 2008.
History
During the early days of television, many TV shows were specifically created by sponsors with the main goal of selling their product, with the entertainment value secondary. A good example of this is the early children's show The Magic Clown on NBC, which was created essentially as an advertisement for Bonomo's Turkish Taffy. Eventually, FCC limits on the amount of advertising that could appear during an hour of television did away with these programs, forcing sponsors into the background.
It is quite possible that the first modern infomercial series which ran in North America was on San Diego-area television station XETV, which during the 1970s ran a one-hour television program every Sunday consisting of advertisements for local homes for sale. As the station was actually licensed by the Mexican government to the city of Tijuana, (but the station broadcasts all of its programs in English for the U.S. market), the FCC limit at that time of a maximum of 18 minutes of commercials in an hour did not apply to the station.
Infomercials proliferated in the United States after 1984 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) eliminated regulations that were established in the 1950s and 1960s to govern the commercial content of television. Much of their early development can be attributed to business partners Edward Valenti and Barry Beecher, who developed the format to sell the Ginsu Knife.
The longest continuously running infomercial is for "Barefoot," a general use arch support, created by Rosalinda Johnson and Andrew Hecker, which first aired in 1993. The success of the Infomercial spawned the Good Feet Store that grew to 160 franchised locations based on the television markets the informercial airs in.
In Britain, teleshopping was pioneered in 1979 by Michael Aldrich who demonstrated real-time transaction processing from a domestic television and subsequently installed many systems throughout the UK in the 1980s..
Some televangelists such as Robert Tilton and Peter Popoff buy television time from infomercial brokers representing TV stations around the U.S. and even some mass-distributed cable networks that are not averse to carrying religious programming. A block of such programming appears weekdays on BET under the umbrella title BET Inspiration. Politicians are also known to buy infomercial-length time blocks. See discussion below.
When they first appeared, infomercials were most often screened in the United States and Canada during late-night/early morning hours. As stations have found value in airing at other times, by 2008 a large portion of infomercial spending is early morning, daytime, early prime and even prime time. There are also entire networks devoted to just airing infomercials all day and night for the sole purpose of cable/satellite providers receiving revenue from the channel operator from any sales for their area, or to fill empty time on local programming channels. CNBC, which airs only one hour of infomercials nightly during the business week, airs up to 28 hours of infomercials on Saturdays and Sundays during the time where the network's business news coverage otherwise airs. A comparison of television listings from 2007 with 1987 verifies that many broadcasters in North America now air infomercials in lieu of syndicated TV series reruns and movies, which were formerly staples during the more common hours infomercials are broadcast (i.e., the overnight hours). Infomercials are a near-permanent staple of ION Television's daytime and overnight schedules; multichannel providers such as DirecTV have objected in the past to carrying ION feeds which consist largely of paid programming.
(in this case, an infomercial about colon detox on The Travel Channel, from Charter Communications); guidelines which previously excluded specific program information for an infomercial have been relaxed by guide providers in the last few years]]
The first feature length documentary to chronicle the history of the infomercial was Pitch People.
In 2008, Tribune Media Services and Gemstar-TV Guide began to relax the guidelines for listing infomercials within their electronic program guide listings. Previously all infomercials were listed under the title "Paid Programming" (except for exceptions listed below), but now infomercial producers are allowed to submit a title and limited synopsis (phone numbers/websites to order a product/service seem to be disallowed) of the program's content to the listings providers.
The Fox Broadcasting Company announced that beginning in January 2009, all of its Saturday morning cartoon programming would be cancelled due to a compensation/distribution dispute with provider 4Kids Entertainment, which was replaced by a two-hour block of infomercials, Weekend Marketplace. This made Fox the first major network (excluding borderline Ion Television) to carry a schedule of paid programming. However, many local stations already utilize Saturday morning slots to air locally-programmed paid programming or programs such as Video Car Lot, which features one dealer presenting their current selection of pre-owned vehicles to encourage customers to visit their lot. Some stations opted to use the extra time on Saturday morning for E/I programming, with infomercials relegated to before or after the block, or even limited to afternoons, if local newscasts are shown earlier.
Criticism and legal issues
Because of the sometimes sensational nature of the ad form and the questionable nature of some products, consumer advocates recommend careful investigation of the infomercial's sponsor, the product being advertised, and the claims being made before making a purchase. At the beginning of an infomercial, stations and/or sponsors normally run disclaimers warning that "the following program is a paid advertisement," and that the station does not necessarily support the sponsor's claims. (See "External Links" for two such examples.) A few stations take the warning further, encouraging viewers to contact their local Better Business Bureau or state or local consumer protection agency to report any questionable products or claims that air on such infomercials.
The FTC requires that any infomercial 15 minutes or longer must disclose to viewers that it is a paid advertisement. An infomercial is required to be "clearly and conspicuously" marked as a "paid advertisement for [particular product or service], sponsored by [sponsor]" at the beginning and end of the advertisement and before ordering instructions are displayed.
Widely used pitches
There are many types of infomercials executed with a wide variety of creative approaches. One of these creative approaches is the one used by marketers whose primary goal is to drive phone sales and who pull from a collection of common pitch lines in crafting their infomercials. These include:
- "Would you pay..." (lists large and outrageous amounts that quickly decline before the announcer rejects the past prices and hypes the lowest price possible)
- "This product usually costs..." (show retail ad with very high price) "...but right now you won't pay that much...". (Note that it is not clear if the ads shown exhibit common retail prices or are ads placed once to establish the ability to state the high price.)
- "A (amount) dollar value, absolutely free (if you call now/within the next (number) minutes)!"
- "This revolutionary product..."/"Introducing the revolutionary (product)"/"It's truly revolutionary!"
- "Ordinary (product type) (announcer lists faults), but (product)..."
- "Oh, no/Uh oh! That..." (announcer goes into exaggerated description of a problem that is solved by the product or service being advertised)
- "Are you tired of..." (announcer goes into list of faults of other similar products, which are avoided or solved by their product)
- "But wait!", "But wait there's more!", or "But that's not all!" (after pitching one deal and before pitching another, better deal. For example: "But Wait! Call in now and we'll knock off one payment/make first payment for you and add (product)"
- "For (number) easy payments/installments of (price), (product) can be yours!
- "And if you aren't satisfied, you can try (product) risk free for (number) days"
- "Not available in stores!" (although the products often are, with a "Seen on TV" label)
- "If you were to purchase all of these songs in (stores/digital retailers), you would pay (high dollar amount) and receive songs you don't want!" (used for pitching a music compilation collection)
- "These are the original master recordings featuring the original artists." (for music compliations)
- "If you call within the next (number) minutes, you'll also get..." Variations include:
- "call within the next (number,very commonly 10) minutes and we'll double your order! That's (number of product) for just (price they try to make sound low)"
- "If you call within the next (number) minutes, we'll cut (amount) dollars off the price!"
- "If you're one of the first (number) callers, you'll also get..."
- "If you're one of the first (number) callers, we'll cut (amount) dollars off the price!"
- "If you pay by credit card, you'll also get..."
- "If you pay by credit card, we'll cut (amount) dollars off the price!"
- "Supplies are limited, and this deal is available for only (number of minutes before end of program)..."
- "I am so convinced that you'll love this product that I am offering..."/"We guarantee that if you don't lose up to (any number of) pounds in (any number of) days..."
- "(number) million sold, and why not get your own (product)?"
- "Call (telephone number) toll-free. (telephone number repeated) That's (telephone number). Call now!"
- "Free Trial" (A certain period of time where the product can be tried without a charge to the given credit card; the product must be sent back before the trial's end to prevent the charge)
- "(Dollar amount) Trial" (Same as the free trial, but with only a nominal amount or the shipping and handling charged on the card at the start of the trial period. Some marketers use the cost of a first class postage stamp for the charge to make it appealing to the customer)
Parodies
The Infomercial format has been widely parodied. One example was a skit in the cartoon series Tiny Toon Adventures in which an infomercial hostess is trying to sell a clothesline for $39.95, but has to include additional offers to try and justify the high price. Another example could be found in the Garfield and Friends episode, "Dream Giveaway", in which Garfield dreams of attempting to give away Nermal in an infomercial, but no one wants to take him. In the 2003 live-action film The Cat in the Hat, the cat performs an entire talkshow-style infomercial spoof for a magical (but disastrous) cupcake maker. In the spoof, the Cat plays the roles of host and guest/expert. Yet another example can be found in The Lion King 1 1/2 when Pumbaa sits on the remote in mid-movie and the screen switches to a jewelry infomercial (QVC). Quebec-based Têtes à Claques has produced several Informercial parodies in French.
Additional notes
Political Infomercials
In the United States the strategy of buying prime-time programming slots on major networks has been utilized by political candidates for both presidential and state office to present infomercial-like programs to sell a candidate's merits to the public. Fringe presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche regularly bought time on CBS and local stations in the 1980s. In the 1990s Ross Perot also bought network time in 1992 and 1996 to present his presidential policies to the public.
2008 Presidential Campaign Use
Hillary Clinton bought an hour of primetime on the Hallmark Channel in 2008 before Super Tuesday, and on cable sports network FSN Southwest in Texas before that state's primary to present a town hall-like program. Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign has used infomercials extensively. His campaign established the Obama channel on satellite TV networks throughout the campaign season. And, 1 week before the 2008 general election presidential candidate Barack Obama bought a 30 minute slot at 8 PM ET/PT during primetime on 7 major networks (NBC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox, BET, TV One and Univision (with Spanish subtitles)) to present a "closing argument" to his campaign. The combination of these 7 networks reportedly drew a peak audience of over 33 million viewers of this half hour program.
Children's programming
Although not meeting the definition of an infomercial per se, animated children's programming in the 1980s and early 1990s, which included half-hour animated series for franchises such as Transformers, My Little Pony, Go-Bots and Bravestarr were often described by media experts and parents derisive of these types of series as the equivalent of infomercials, as they also sold the tie-in toy lines and food products for the shows within commercials. The Children's Television Act of 1990 was instrumental in ending this practice and setting commercial limits. Currently, any advertisement for a tie-in product within the show is considered a violation of the FCC rules and is considered a "program length commercial" by their standards, putting the station at risk of paying large fines for violations. These regulations do not apply to cable networks.
Infomercial companies
Some well known traditional infomercial marketers include Guthy-Renker, Ronco, K-tel, Time-Life Music, International Shopping Network, Sylmark, Telebrands, TriStar, and others. These companies source the products, pay to develop the infomercials, pay for the media, and are responsible for all sales of the product. Sometimes, they sell products they source from inventors.
There is also a well developed network of suppliers to the infomercial industry. These suppliers generally choose to focus on either traditional infomercials (hard sell approaches) or on using infomercials as advertising/sales channels for brand companies (branded approaches). In the traditional business, services are usually supplied by infomercial producers or by media buying companies. In the brand infomercial business, services are often provided by full service agencies who deliver strategy, creative, production, media, and campaign services.
Use of Infomercials Around the World
The infomercial industry was started in the United States and that has led to the specific definitions of infomercials as direct response television commercials of specific lengths (:30, :60, :120 seconds; 5 minutes; or 28 minutes and 30 seconds). Infomercials have spread to other countries from the US. However, the term "infomercial" needs to be defined more universally to discuss use in all countries. In general, worldwide use of the term refers to a television commercial (paid programming) that offers product for direct sale to consumer via response through the web, by phone, or by mail.
There are few structures that apply everywhere in the international infomercial business. The regulatory environment in each country as well as that country's television traditions have led to variations in format, lengths, and rules for long form commercials and television commercials selling direct to consumer. For example, in the early 1990s long form paid programming in Canada was required to consist only of photographs without moving video. (This restriction no longer exists).
Many products which started in the US have been taken into international distribution on television. And, each country has local entrepreneurs and marketers using the medium for local businesses. What may be called infomercials are most commonly found in North and South America, Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
In many countries, the infrastructure of direct response television distributors, telemarketing companies and product fulfillment companies (shipping, customer service) are more difficult and these missing pieces have limited the spread of the infomercial.
See also
External links
- The Direct Marketing Association has a broadcast council focusing on issues in DRTV.
- Independent Magazine Reporting on DRTV
- Weekly news magazine covering all direct marketing issues.
- The Jordan-Whitney DRTV monitoring website with rankings and copies of commercials.
- Infomercial Monitoring Service. Another DRTV monitoring service with rankings and copies of commercials.
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