Infomercials Step into TV Prime Time

With advertisers like automobiles and banks buying less TV time, the broadcast networks have been left with last-minute ad space that has not been easy to fill. More and more, those slots are being sold to direct marketers for infomercials, even during the earlier part of evenings, when infomercials tend not to run.

“When someone pulls off the air, like a pharmaceutical or medical company or a sports company, the networks sometimes find themselves with last-minute dead space,” says Pat Boos, svp for broadcast acquisition and marketing at Direct Holdings Americas, which licenses the Time Life brand. “We can come in and say, we’ve got a tape ready, we’ve got the product ready.”

Time Life is one company that has been running more infomercials - double the number of prime time spots than it did a year ago. Two-minute Time Life ads, for a DVD set of The World at War and a CD of classical music, ran during almost every show on CBS’s recent Saturday nights, according to The New York Times.

Direct response ads qualify for cheaper rates than regular ads - sometimes as low as 5% of full-price ads. Cable is also airing more infomercials during prime time. When a network begins to air more infomercials, it suggests that regular advertisers are deciding not to advertise.

According to one buyer, an ad slot on CNN during the 2004 presidential election campaign cost $100,000; this year, some CNN prime time spots could be had for just $9,000.

CNN evp of ad sales, however, said that an increase in direct response ads does not necessarily mean the network is ready to sell cheap ads. “It’s true in general when it comes to other mediums, other networks, but it’s not necessarily true with CNN,” he is quoted as saying.

NBC says the number of direct-response ads is common at this time of year, and consistent with past years. CBS says that, because it had put aside a number of spots for makegoods, which were ultimately not needed, they were able to sell “a variety of new inventory.” Fox said much the same thing, but also admitted that financial, automotive and pharma advertisers had reduced their spending.

One direct response advertiser, Allstar Marketing Group, has been running direct response ads since October. The product, a blanket with sleeves called the Snuggie, has sold more than 4 million units for just under $40 million in retail sales, writes AdAge. The ad has become a pop-culture phenomenon, with more than 200 parody videos running on YouTube and a Facebook fan club with more than 4,000 members.

Late last year, Fox announced that it was filling two hours of its Saturday morning programming with infomercials.

Children’s producer 4Kids had been programming the network’s kids block, but the two entities terminated their agreement. With no other programmer immediately available - or willing to pay the $20 million fee - to fill the slot, Fox decided to air a “Weekend Marketplace” from 10am until noon.

TV ad spend declined 7.5% on network TV in 2008, from the previous year, while cable ad spend slipped 5.5%, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Print and radio are also filling otherwise unused space with direct response ads. For exampel, a full-page ad for an Amish room heater has been running in USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.