In discussions I’ve had with DRTV folks, I always ask a variant on this question: Is it good or bad when your infomercials are passed virally through YouTube?
The same process that made Vince Offer and the late Billy Mays household names now has moved to the Neck Slimmer.
The people I’ve spoken to have all taken this process in stride. Tim O’Leary, the CEO of R2C Group, told me about a specific case he thought made the YouTube phenomenon valuable, even though it was a parody of the agency’s work. Dick Wechsler, president and CEO of Lockard & Wechsler Direct pointed out over lunch a while back that this just means more impressions for the response phone number in the ad.
I’ve even heard it mentioned that YouTube might get its own phone number when DRTV agencies put their spots up on the site. This would be a big step forward in measuring the success of online video.
