Response Magazine - September 2010

example, we held a Snuggie Fashion
Show during New York Fashion Week
last year that created a lot of buzz. This
year we just launched the Snuggie Choice
Film Awards, a contest to celebrate the
fans and their creativity when it comes to
the brand.”
Fans are invited to submit their best
three-minute video homage for a chance
to win the $5,000 grand prize and a trip
to New York in October, where the
first Snuggie Choice Film Awards will
be hosted. This contest was launched
simultaneously with a sneak preview
of the new fall 2010 Snuggie campaign
featuring groups of Snuggie-clad dancers
doing the “Macarena” song. Also, com-
ing in September, a book called “The
Snuggie Sutra” which promises more than

100 Snuggie-wearing bedtime positions along with the disclaimer, “Not affiliated with the Snuggie corporation, but highly aroused by it” will be available at the local Barnes & Noble.

DR marketer Allstar Products Group uses viral-geared sites like You Tube to create buzz for its products and events.

“Our brands are very active on social media channels,” says Boilen. “We use our brand presence on these forums to monitor the conversation to see what our fans are saying; likes, dislikes, etc. Forums such as Facebook and Twitter are such a great way for us to communicate with our fans on a daily basis in order to best understand their wants and needs.”

Harnessing Third-Party Power

Viral-geared sites like You Tube can be among the most powerful resources for DR marketers to build up consumer engagement and practical knowledge about how to use and why to buy a product.

Savvy marketers will often publish their television spots, or portions of them, on You Tube so that users can easily find video demonstrations and purchasing information, such as an official Web site, when they search for a product online. (Response hosts AsSeenonResponse TV. com, which is connected directly to

You TubeDirect.com, the only DRTV branded You Tube channel). In order to create awareness around a marketing campaign, however, the goal of posting content on a video-sharing site is to entice people to have fun with it and ultimately share it.

The Flavor Wave Turbo Oven, for example, has a strong presence on You Tube. The infomercial features pop culture icon

By posting the Flavor Wave Turbo Oven infomercial featuring Mr. T on You Tube, marketers have found an additional way to interact and have fun with consumers.

Mr. T scoffing at the assertion that his frozen beef cutlets could be de-thawed and cooked in minutes.

“We’ve found that a lot of viral videos of our Flavor Wave Turbo commercial have been mixed and re-cut by third parties and edited to music then placed on You Tube,” says Paul Greenberg, Santa Monica, Calif.-based chief creative officer at Thane Direct.