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According to the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC),
infomercial is any commercial program that has
a running time of 14 minutes and 30 seconds or longer. A
commercial program (infomercial) is one in which the producer and the
sponsor are one and the same.
In the advertisement industry, `Infomercial' is an effective form
of television advertisement which is lengthy, compared to
other commercials. Usually, the length of any advertisement is limited to
less than five minutes, but infomercials are five minutes or longer.
These types of advertisements offer products for direct sale to
consumers on the basis of orders placed by them through the mail, phone or
website. In these kind of commercials, the product which is to be sold
is displayed, described and demonstrated. Information like
the name of the product, its brand, quality, quantity, price, its uses
and how that product could potentially benefit the consumer is
also provided. Apart from this information, the commercial
also shows some positive customer comments and success stories
about the product.
Infomercials present multiple products each in a detailed
manner without any interruptions. This holds the viewers' attention
and urges them to place an order for the product immediately through
the advertised toll-free phone number and website. The overall
objective of these type of advertisements is to attract millions of customers to
buy the product or services. These ads aim to follow different
strategies, create new ideas and gain both new customers and retain the
current ones. Infomercials are called `Paid programming',
`admags' (Teleshopping in Europe). According to Ron
Perlstein, President of InfoWorx, a company that designs informercials, "It's
a great time to be in the direct response industry, in which
contact with customers is immediate through a toll-free
number operators are standing byor website. If you have the right
product for the time, and the right pitch, you can make the phone ring." |
