When does direct response television advertising work? Who are the best agencies?

DRTV works in a far wider range of circumstances than you read about. But most critically, it works best when you have a product that consumers believe brings them tremendously unique value and where you can demonstrate that value visually through TV. Note this doesn't mean all the products have to be mechanically demonstrable (just look at the skin care successes) but that there must be a powerful video based story to tell. Also note that the consumer believing a product is unique is not the same as it being entirely new & innovative. Many products live beneath the consumer radar - meaning the consumer doesn't know about them. For example, the Kobalt MultiDrive dogbone wrench. These had been out there for abour 40 or 50 years before we did our highly successful DRTV campaign for the product. Or ProActive which is essentially the same as products on the shelf - but Guthy-Renker told the story through DRTV and consumers bought a lot. The old DRTV model was that each product had to succeed based on phone sales and that DRTV couldn't be used with a product already at retail. But that is not longer the norm. Today, products often don't hit DRTV until they are already at retail. And the smartest DRTV agencies recognize that in addition to phone/web sales, DRTV is merely...TV advertising. So we leverage all the advantages of the medium. There are quite a few excellent agencies. But first you need to consider the type of DRTV you need. Are you looking for a traditional yell & sell or profit by phone campaign? Or are you looking for that richer more complex "omnichannel" campaign or a continuity campaign? These require very different approaches - and don't make the mistake of trying to get an effective "omnichannel" campaigns from a traditional old school DRTV agency or production company. My agency (Atomic Direct) specializes in DRTV for products that are at retail - usually with major brands. We also have entirely unique experience in home and hardware products. Our most recent work is for Kobalt brand tools sold at Lowe's and the Enduracool towels from Mission AtheleteCare. Past clients include DuPont, Rubbermaid, and many more.

It "works" when the revenue received and (not returned) directly from (to) consumers is greater than the sum of the media costs plus the ad creative costs plus the agency fees plus the trafficking fees...and this doesn't include covering costs for inventory, SGA, and the whole rest of the operation.  There are agencies that do media buying, creative production, or both - one would be hard pressed to not be biased in giving an answer as to who is "the best" - especially since the answer for long form (infomercial) versus short form (30-60 spots) is probably different and is entirely subjective anyway.

We at Eicoff are certainly leaders in the space, for over 50 years we've driven measurable and optimized branding efforts and direct to consumer response for companies like Sears, The UFC, Quicken Loans, Chase and Reynolds to name a few. DRTV is simply an efficient way to market products and services to the masses. Whether it's a widget without retail distribution, a service company driving new leads, a CPG company launching a new product or driving retail traffic for an existing one or simply a brand looking to take advantage of the flexible, measurable and economical traits of DRTV, the medium works. Could talk forever about the usefulness of DRTV, if you'd like to discuss further give me a ring 312-396-0309