Response articles from October 2006

Response archives from October 2006

NBC fires another warning shot across the industry's bow.(Editor's Note)(National Broadcasting Company Inc.)
October 1, 2006... On Sept. 15, NBC aired a special one-hour edition of its TV newsmagazine Dateline. Titled "From the Inside Out," the program exposed the darkest side of the direct response business. In it, unscrupulous infomercial creators took an NBC...

Francis pleads guilty in federal 'Girls Gone Wild' case; will pay $2.1M in fines.(Field Reports)(cases on violating federal child sexual exploitation )
October 1, 2006... LOS ANGELES and PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis and his company, Mantra Films Inc., reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in separate cases in California and Florida that resulted in a series of guilty...

Response Expo set to return in San Diego next June: more than 40 percent of tradeshow floor space is sold within three days of the initial announcement.(Field Reports)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... SANTA ANA, Calif. -- On Sept. 10, Response Magazine and the Direct Response Marketing Alliance (DRMA) announced the return of Response Expo, a three-day convention and expo scheduled for June 6-8, 2007 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San...

Internet ad spending on rise.(Field Reports)
October 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- The amount of money spent by companies advertising on the Internet accounted for approximately 6.4 percent of overall U.S. ad spending during the first half of 2006. In a report compiled by TNS Media Intelligence (which supplies...

Kennedy joins Response's Editorial Advisory Board.(Field Reports)(Maria Kennedy appointed)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Response Magazine, the only independent source of news and information for direct response marketers, welcomes Maria Kennedy of Discovery Communications Inc. to its Editorial Advisory Board. Kennedy is vice president,...

C Spot Run Productions.(NewsCorner)
October 1, 2006... C Spot Run Productions has completed the re-branding of Invent Help with eight new short-form commercials that began testing Sept. 18 with Mercury Media. C Spot Run wrote and produced the commercials to reach out and touch a clearly diversified...

Digicorp Inc.(NewsCorner)
October 1, 2006... Digicorp Inc. has signed an agreement with Studio Store Direct to distribute successful DRTV commercial spots on DVD. The DVDs are expected to hit retail shelves this month, and will feature products like the Blue Hippo and Nu-Wave Oven. ...

Northern Response Intl. Ltd.(NewsCorner)(Northern Response International Ltd. distributes LEBrands' Owl Wallet Optical-Light )(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Northern Response Intl. Ltd. is rolling out TELEBrands' Owl Wallet Optical-Light to all major retailers across Canada. The Owl has been supported by a DRTV spot featuring a credit card-size magnifier and light that allows the user to clearly...

Upsellit.com.(NewsCorner)
October 1, 2006... Upsellit.com introduced its new SMARTagent at the ERA conference in Las Vegas. The SMARTagent is a new way to create a personalized, no pressure experience by engaging Web site consumes into a chat, saving sales after shopping carts are...

TiVo posted a quarterly loss.(NewsCorner)
October 1, 2006... TiVo posted a quarterly loss that totals $6.5 million, or seven cents per share, for the second quarter ending July 31. The company blames its loss on hefty legal fees associated with an intellectual property patent dispute. By Courtney...

Cover shots draw a crowd to Response booth.(Field Reports)(exhibitions)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... LAS VEGAS -- The Response Magazine booth was a hot spot on the Electronic Retailing Association's (ERA) annual convention show floor on Sept. 11-12, as visitors flocked to have their photos taken for a mock Response cover. Visitors overwhelmed...

Hill helps OLM to new heights in Japan.(Response Q&A)(Harry Hill of Oak Lawn Marketing )(Interview)
October 1, 2006... Harry Hill, president of Oak Lawn Marketing (OLM) in Nagoya, Japan, joined the company in 1999. OLM was founded in Japan in 1991 by Tadashi Nakamura and Robert Roche, a long-time friend and business associate. The company does business in Japan...

Research Jordan Whitney's program rankings.
October 1, 2006... Research Jordan Whitney's Program Rankings TOP 10 INFOMERCIALS Rank Last Program Host Product Price Month 1 NR Slim in Six Julie Weight-loss $59.85 ...

Research the IMS top DRTV National cable rankings.(Infomercial Monitoring Service )(direct response television )(Industry ranking)(Table)
October 1, 2006... Research The IMS Top DRTV National Cable Rankings TOP 5 VERTICAL MARKETS NATIONAL CABLE INFOMERCIAL RANKINGS RANK PRODUCT NAME MARKETING PRICE OFFERED AIRS COMPANY HEALTH & FITNESS 1 ...

Research TMP search engine Internet popularity report.(Table)
October 1, 2006... Research TMP Search Engine Internet Popularity Report RANK TITLE NUMBER OF SEARCHES DISTRIBUTOR 1 Girls Gone Wild 2,407,802 Mantra Entertainment 2 Proactiv Solution 479,891 ...

Does it make 'cents' to shoot your infomercial in hi-def?(Research From the Lab)
October 1, 2006... With the exception of a few well-known shows in the industry, infomercials have always been considered low-budget productions produced by companies that, in general, could not care less about shooting on film or high-definition (HD) video....

Long-form sets another new record--$341 million in 2Q billings: billings surpass $300 million for the third consecutive quarter, while the total number of timeslots exceeds 400,000 for fourth straight quarter.(Research 2Q Long-Form 2006 Media Billings)(Statistical data)
October 1, 2006... The ceiling on media spending continues to get higher and higher, as total quarterly billings rapidly approach the $350 million mark. The frenzy began with fourth-quarter 2005's $309 million result, and then first-quarter 2006 upped the ante to...

Mapping local search ... one burger joint at a time: Citysearch's Scott Morrow cites DR on the Web--and soon, in mobile marketing--as an integral factor in past and future growth.(CitySearch Inc.-Scott Morrow)(Cover story)
October 1, 2006... Everyone who works in marketing is on a mission. But Scott Morrow, executive vice president of product and marketing at Los Angeles-based Citysearch.com, is a man driven by a mission statement. Morrow wants the world, starting with his several...

Anchors aweigh! Royal Caribbean leads the growing cruise market toward the benefits of DR across various media.(Travel Market)
October 1, 2006... Imagine having the opportunity to experience and see different destinations--and only having to unpack one time. Envision waking up every morning during a vacation with the chance to spend all day exploring brand new locations only familiar to...

Holding on, buying time: after enduring a tough year, DRTV media buyers look forward to a more manageable fourth quarter.(Media Buying & Planning)
October 1, 2006... Times have been tough for DRTV media buyers in 2006, a year that has seen mortgage interest rates climb, gasoline costs soar and consumer sentiment wane after a multi-year boom in home-buying and consumer confidence. Despite record results in...

Absolutely few absolutes: targeting, testing and timing are the only ways to overcome the shades of gray when taking your DRTV product into the print realm.(DR Print Strategies)
October 1, 2006... Ah, if only advertising came in absolutes--no shades of gray; only blacks as dark as ink and whites as ivory as the paper on which the ink is pressed. Instead, the science of advertising appears to be balanced against the art of...

The many faces of fulfillment: fulfillment companies are shedding the image of just being the folks who ship orders. Today, the best have reinvented themselves with high-end tracking software and other impressive tools that dovetail nicely into DR campaigns to ensure operations run smoothly, return rates are reduced and bottom lines are boosted.(Fulfillment & ROI)(Industry overview)
October 1, 2006... The way Joel Crannell sees it, something happened in the 1990s--something that put fulfillment houses on a slow but sure path to being more than just the folks who ship products. "I think that was when the seed marketers became...

General advertisers create a new type of DRTV.(Media Zone)
October 1, 2006... The rapidly changing world of communications and advertising is beginning to fit the paradigms of exponential transition defined socially by Alan Toffler in "Future Shock" and technologically by Nicholas Negroponte in "Being Digital." Simply...

Throwing caution to the wind.(Support Services)
October 1, 2006... The world of direct response marketing has never been tougher. Media prices have increased rapidly, and competition from both conventional DR circles and brand advertising has risen. Once a marketer has made the decision to outsource many...

How direct Response radio intelligently enhances DRTV campaigns.(Radio Waves)
October 1, 2006... For many direct marketing businesses, radio advertising provides the primary engine for new customer acquisition. For the scores of others that primarily use DRTV advertising, radio can play a surprisingly vital, and often overlooked, role in...

Five keys to negotiating with the Chinese.(Global Perspective)
October 1, 2006... Chinese business practices are changing to match American ones, but the influence of 5,000 years of Chinese culture and history should never be underestimated. The key to successfully negotiating with the Chinese is to understand their common...

Response ... on the road.(But Wait, There's More!)
October 1, 2006... The Response team had the Electronic Retailing Association's (ERA) annual Las Vegas event covered. From a bevy of key meetings during the day, to every cocktail event at night, Response's staff greeted literally hundreds of DR professionals in...

Succeeding with half-hour brand infomercials: part two of two.(Guest Opinion)
October 1, 2006... In the September issue of Response, I wrote about the power that half-hour infomercials offer brands. Now for a harsh reality: brands regularly fail using half-hour shows. To be clear, most brand half-hours don't fail because the format is...