TV Commercials That Sell

Posted by Carroll Trosclair Jul 23, 2008

Are your television commercials really trying to sell your products? Ron Bliwas, the president and CEO of A. Eicoff & Co., a Chicago subsidiary of Ogilvy & Mather, thinks that most commercials are not trying hard enough and some aren’t trying at all.

"By and large, most commercials are unable or unwilling to make the cash register ring," he wrote recently in an AdWeek article. There is too much emphasis on being clever, emotional, provocative or funny, instead of providing reasons to buy, he added.

Bliwas was inducted recently into the Direct Marketing Association Hall of Fame

and admits he is biased towards direct response advertising. But he expressed concern that "commercials today seem almost embarrassed to ask for the order, as if doing so might offend viewers' sensibilities."

He said agencies are "perfectly capable" of producing spots that sell, but added that they won’t do it unless they are directed to do so.

Commercials Can Qualify Viewers as Buyers

Bliwas said it may be difficult for a commercial to get the viewer to actually buy, but it can move him or her to take a "no-commitment" first step toward buying, like going to a website, making a phone call or visiting a store. That at least qualifies him or her as a worthy prospect.

Commercials should also include a reason or incentive for the viewer to act immediately, he said. To do all this, Bliwas said, advertisers may have to produce commercials longer than the standard 30-second spot.

He recalled some commercials being five or 10 minutes long in the early days of television.

Reference: AdWeek July 21, 2008

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