MEDIA BUYING DIRECT RESPONSE TELEVISION (DRTV) ARTICLE ..

 

What to Look for When Selecting an Infomercial Media Buyer

By: Peter Koeppel

 

If you're thinking of launching a product or service through an infomercial, it's important that you work with an experienced DRTV infomercial media buyer. The cost of DRTV media is usually your biggest cost in an infomercial campaign, so working with an experienced DRTV infomercial media buyer is essential, if you plan on building a successful infomercial campaign.

A trained DRTV infomercial media buyer will have the media buying expertise to buy the best stations and time periods, at the right price, in order to make sure your direct response tv campaign is profitable. There are close to 2,000 broadcast TV stations and hundreds of cable and satellite networks in the U.S. By working with a knowledgeable infomercial media buyer, they will guide you in selecting the best networks and stations to buy for a particular product or service, that targets a specific audience. A seasoned infomercial media buyer will also know how to optimize your campaign, so that you have the right mix of national cable, satellite networks and local broadcast stations, to deliver the maximum profitability.

Experience Buying Media for Similar Products

A good infomercial media buyer should also have extensive experience buying media for a wide range of products and services. Make sure your infomercial media buyer has bought media for other products similar to the one you plan on marketing. For example, if you are marketing a fitness product, it's important to utilize an infomercial media buyer that has experience and success buying media for other fitness shows.

Research Your Competitors

An experienced infomercial media buyer should also research where other successful competitors have been airing their infomercials. If the competitor is buying media on a particular station and time period on a regular basis, a good infomercial media buyer knows that they should look at buying media on similar stations and times to what the competitor is purchasing, since those time slots will likely pay out for your infomercial also.

Strong Negotiating Skills

A skilled infomercial media buyer should also possess strong negotiating skills, in order to secure infomercial media time at the lowest possible rates. A station may list the price for an infomercial media time slot at a certain price on their rate card, but an experienced infomercial media buyer will know that the media time is only be worth half of the rate card, based on their knowledge of how the station/time slot pays out for other shows they have bought for. A first-class infomercial media buyer should also have the ability to get rate reductions and bonus airings from stations when a particular infomercial media airing doesn't pay out.

Look for an Infomercial Media Buyer that Can Build a Profitable Campaign

In researching infomercial media buyers, also look for someone that has the ability to build a profitable media campaign. It's easier to maintain your media buying performance goals when your spending is low, but it takes a seasoned infomercial media buyer to build up a campaign to budget levels of $250,000, $500,000 or $1 million a week and still deliver the media results your campaign needs to be profitable. With an infomercial media campaign, if you can build up the budget and maintain the media buying performance goals, then you are going to make a larger profit.

Find an Infomercial Media Buyer that Customizes their Media Buys

A successful infomercial media buyer should be buying media for several infomercial campaigns. Buying a large level of infomercial inventory gives an infomercial media buyer the leverage to secure lower rates. It also allows the infomercial media buyer to buy the best time periods for their clients. However, some infomercial media buyers that have a large volume of infomercial media also end up securing some bad infomercial times. They have to get rid of that infomercial media inventory and typically end up dumping it into some of their clients' media buys. With this type of infomercial media buyer, typically the best performing shows, that are spending the most money, are allocated the best inventory and some of the smaller shows that are struggling, end up with more of the infomercial media inventory that isn't performing. To avoid this situation, look for an infomercial media buyer who customizes their infomercial media buys for each client, to insure that everyone is getting the best media time for their respective campaigns.

With media fragmentation and increasing media rates, it's more important than ever to align yourself with a seasoned infomercial media buyer that has a strong reputation in their industry. By doing your homework in advance of selecting an infomercial media buyer, you will help insure that the firm spending your valuable media dollars is an expert at their media buying craft.