Infomercial budget questions? Are you trying to understand the costs of producing an infomercial? My name is Ron Perlstein, and I started producing infomercials in the early 1990’s and run a very successful Direct Response Infomercial Production and Media Agency called InfoWorx Direct. Part of our client base includes many marketers and product developers who are new to this unique and profitable form of Direct Marketing. Please bookmark or subscribe or follow me on Twitter.
TV Infomercial Production Costs:
Short Form TV Infomercials run in 5 minute; 2 minute; and 1 minute lengths depending on your product, goals and TV media availability. Many producers charge a fee plus a royalty on the back end based on performance. There are a few DRTV Agencies (like InfoWorx) that not only produce winners, but provide media buying services. TV Production costs for these short form TV infomercials or DRTV commercials range from $5,000 to $75,000 depending on many factors.
Long form TV infomercials are about 30 minutes (most are 28:30 minutes). Again here costs can vary greatly. Do you want a production with a spokesperson sitting at a table with a black curtain or do you want to produce a TV show that is convincing with great talent, custom sets, animations and high end graphics? Take a look at these TV Infomercial production packages to get a better idea of production values.
TV Infomercial Campaign Costs:
In addition to production costs a TV campaign must include media. I recommend that a marketer test their offer or several offers. A media test on a limited national basis costs about $15k to $20k per test. These tests produce sufficient data to determine if you have a winner, moderate success, or …..ugh….a loser. The backend of a campaign or test is also imperative. Inbound telemarketing in the form of an IVR or live agent call center has setup fees ($1,000 and up) and ongoing transactional fees. A non swipe merchant account is required and nowadays a landing page e-commerce site is recommended. Also a DRTV friendly fulfillment shop is recommended to handle inventory management, pick and pack services, payment processing, and returns and exchanges. Like inbound telemarketing, there are setup fees and ongoing transactional costs associated with this aspect and having a world class fulfillment partner helps.
Check back here often. Also check my DRTV Media blog. We’re working on one now regarding rollout media budgets.
DRTV AND INFOMERCIALS 