With the spirit of the state of Missouri in mind, buyers of your helpful product or cool innovation will often bring a simple demand: show me! Thus, as much as powerful language and nice imagery can enhance your product’s personality and its brand, you cannot underestimate the power of THE DEMO in your television spot.

This is especially important if you’re creating a direct response television commercial.

Over the years at Eicoff, we’ve put numerous products to that task in our DRTV commercials. Craftsman tools, Kenmore vacuums, beauty products, automotive… we’ve demoed it all.  Along the way, we’ve learned quite a few things. Here are some.

Demos don’t need to be boring. Whether it’s the angle you shoot it at, the art direction or the sound effects, demos can and should be dynamic.

Think visual. Some demonstrations are made for television, others not so much. Make sure what you’re demonstrating is something that can be told visually. For example, you cannot show how a product smells.

Take your time. Longer format television spots help you help the viewer see your product’s value. Unless you have something that does one thing and one thing only, it’s beneficial to have extra time to give viewers a more complete picture and better understanding of your product. “Wow, it does that and that and that… sold!”

Run a test. It may seem like a total no brainer, but it’s always a good idea to try the demos before you film the demos.  This ensures no hangs up on the shoot day and may actually create a thought or two on how to improve the demo.

Here are 3 examples of Eicoff DRTV commercials that work hard to tell a product’s story by utilizing the almighty demo.

Craftsman 2-in-1 Trimmer/Blower

Craftsman Clean ‘N Carry Powerwasher

Craftsman CompuCarve

Tim Burke is a Senior Vice-President, Group Creative Director at A. Eicoff & Co., one of North America’s largest DRTV agencies.

Tags: advertising, direct response television, DRTV, DRTV commercial, DRTV Demo, DRTV Direct Response TV, short-form infomercial, short-form TV commercials

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 4:17 pm and is filed under DRTV Best Practices, DRTV Creative, DRTV Demo, DRTV Messaging, DRTV Production. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.