Direct Response TV (DRTV) and Infomercial Marketing

Choosing a DRTV Advertising Agency Partner

The best way to get started with DRTV is to choose an experienced, honest DRTV agency. Successful DRTV campaigns require the coordination of several specialized disciplines for which experience is key. Any business venture involves risk, and DRTV is no exception. An honest agency will tell you up front if your product is right for DRTV and will help you at each step to maximize opportunity and minimize risk.

Key Questions to Ask Your Prospective DRTV Advertising Agency

• Please provide a brief history of your agency.
• What services does your agency provide?
• What is your mission statement/business philosophy?
• What is your related experience in our category?
• Do you have any tools that you might suggest to help us to determine whether our product is a good product to market via DRTV?
• Can you handle all aspects of our campaign from start to finish?
• What is your creative process?
• Since there is always risk associated with DRTV (many tests and few rollouts/ successes), what will you do to help make our commercial as successful as possible?
• What is your agency’s incentive to make our campaign successful?
• Are your services (production, editing, etc.) provided in-house or outsourced?
• Do you have a tape duplication facility in house?
• What makes your agency special?  (how can your agency save us money, create less work for us and what do you have that other agencies do not?)
• Who are your clients? Who are the long term clients?
• Do you have a reference list of clients who we could speak with about your services?
• What is your agency structure for managing accounts?  Who will be my point of contact?
• Do small accounts get the same service and attention as large companies?
• What makes your media buying and management unique?
• How do you evaluate media?
• Since DRTV media is a commodity, how do you work with stations to make sure you are getting good media at good rates?
• Can you create custom media reports?
• How do you work with stations to ensure that the media is airing correctly?
• Is your agency a full disclosure agency?
• Are your media buyers evaluated based on results (profitability) for the campaigns they are working with?
• Since DRTV campaigns can “burn out” after a few months, what do you do to help keep campaigns on the air profitably for as long as possible?
• What services do you offer to help manage telemarketing and fulfillment?
• How do you make sure orders are tracked correctly?
• What tools and resources will you provide our company with in order to work with your agency and understand our campaign?