Book Tries to Beef Up Image of DRTV

Doug Garnett, CEO/founder of direct response television agency Atomic Direct , has come out with a new book “Building Brand with Direct Response Television” that tries to inform readers of the medium’s overall effectiveness and evolution from its former stereotypes of “yell and sell.”

But everybody knows you do still see those types of infomercials—especially ones that offer free shipping if you call in the next 10 minutes.

Perhaps the most respectable example of an infomercial, argues Garnett, was then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s prime-time speech on Oct. 29, 2008 when he essentially sold himself to an estimated 33 million viewers across five TV networks. Garnett argues this effort helped seal the election for him.

That and a host of other things helped out Obama, if I remember correctly.

It should also be noted that Obama was not the first political candidate to go this route. In 1992, third party candidate Ross Perot did what was billed as the first political infomercial.

It’s just that Obama’s infomercial was more successful.

The book is divided into chapters covering the “Hidden Power of ‘DRTV,” “Common DRTV Myths,” “Is DRTV Right for You,” “The Shelf Potato,” “How to Succeed in DRTV,” and “Thoughts on New and Social Media.”

In those chapters, Garnett goes into depth to show how DRTV has evolved into a respectable means of building brands, why traditional ad agencies fail with DRTV, the importance of research, and other things to keep in mind about this “misunderstood medium.”

And he does a fairly good job of it.

Just the same, DRTV can still be used for products of dubious value like exercise equipment or real estate ventures.

In some cases, infomercials can be nothing more than an inexpensive way to gather names for later lead-generation campaigns.

While DRTV has come a long way, as Garnett claims, it still does have to overcome a few image problems before it can truly get away from “yell and sell.”