Digital Hit Makers

Spot or Half-Hour Infomercial? Written by Elisabeth D'Orazio Pritchett, CEO and Founder of IntelliVision, Inc. Once you’ve decided to use the power of direct response television advertising (infomercials) to increase sales and promote your product one of the first questions that come up is: "Do I need a full half hour infomercial or should we consider a short form commercial?" First, a short form spot is generally anything under 120 seconds and a “half-hour” infomercial is 28 minutes and 30 seconds. There are many factors that go into deciding which format is best suited to each product. However, there are a number of basic questions we ask that can give us a general idea of which format is best suited to your product. What’s the TV price of the product?  Does the product require an explanation or can it be demonstrated quickly and clearly?  Are you trying to directly sell on TV (oxy clean for $19.95) or are you generating leads (mortgage company, health insur...

Do You have the Next Big Thing? Written by Elisabeth D'Orazio Pritchett, CEO and Founder of IntelliVision, Inc. Since the Magic 8 Ball on my desk has proven itself to be somewhat unreliable in determining the success and failure of products, we asked our expert product evaluation team to create specific criteria to evaluate a product’s potential success. Here at IntelliVision, we have the privilege of seeing literally dozens of new and exciting products every month, brought to us by everyone from small inventors to large corporations, and from every product category imaginable. So we have had to develop a systematic way to evaluate each product. Our team sits down together and reviews each product for it’s features, benefits, uniqueness, cost of goods, strength of offer (price), and much more. Inevitably we see products and services that are perfect for infomercial advertising and those that simply don’t fit the direct response television model for one reason or another. Thi...

Top 10 Reasons Infomercials Fail Written By Elisabeth Pritchett, CEO and Founder of IntelliVision, Inc. Let me start by saying there are more than 10 reasons infomercials and short form spots fail. However, I wanted to outline some of the clearly avoidable (and- not-always-so-obvious) pitfalls where we see many product owners and companies stumble through this processes. So, even if you’re already a savvy marketer, this article will serve to reinforce your genius or surprise even you. # 10 Dentists Performing Brain Surgery Mistake: Not hiring infomercial expert & underestimating the need and value of a specialist. Now that sounds ridiculous! Who in their right mind would let a dentist perform brain surgery? But, they’re both doctors. They both went to medical school. They both have some of the same equipment. And even though you might save a little money if you let the dentist do it… it’s just not worth it. Why? Because they have totally different specialties! And the s...