The Power of One

For the past 10 years, I've struck out every time I've pitched testing the one-CTA infomercial. But now it's time we destroyed the myth about the absolutist three-CTA infomercial format.

Response Magazine: March 2005
By Timothy R. Hawthorne

It's both flattering and embarrassing. New clients sit in our boardroom discussing how much they learned about DRTV from reading my book "The Complete Guide to Infomercial Marketing." Then, minutes later, as I extol the virtues of the one-CTA (call-to-action) infomercial, they turn to page 68 of their well-thumbed book to show me how I'm wrong.

In it I wrote "[The CTAs] are the commercials within the infomercial, a minimum of two minutes in length inserted three times throughout the program." Somehow they don't care who I am or what my opinion is in the here and now. After all, it's in print.

And because of that, for the past 10 years, I've struck out every time I've pitched testing the one-CTA infomercial. But now it's time we destroyed the myth about the absolutist three-CTA infomercial format.

Some forgotten history: in the early days of infomercial marketing (1984-85), most infomercials were one hour in length and had just one CTA — 59:50 long with a three-to-five minute CTA at the very end. Few people in our industry know or remember this. In 1985, when we started buying some half hours for the first time, the shows were 29:50 long with one three-to-four minute CTA at show's end. From this inauspicious beginning, how did we ever get to three CTAs? And are there truly advantages to this format?

I'm not sure what other producers were thinking in 1985, but I produced one of the first three-CTA infomercials for just one reason: to have it appear more like traditional programming. Not because I believed viewers had a limited attention span, or that viewers who had made up their minds to order after 10 minutes deserved to get the ordering info "right now."

No, it was simply to help our cable network sales brethren open up more and more long-form territory by making our infomercials appear more like regular programs with commercial interruptions at the eight- and 20-minute marks.

Since the three-CTA format began dominating, there have been many other theories to support it, including: people need to see the offer multiple times before they make up their minds; no one can watch a non-stop product pitch uninterrupted for 25 minutes; the human mind is predisposed to be "closed" after 8 minutes, etc. I'm not sure there's any proof to support these theories. Meanwhile, you have hundreds of years of in-person selling success to support the one-CTA approach.

Here's the pitch: the more you tell, the more you sell — not "the more you tell the price, the more you sell." The longer you have someone's attention, the greater the chance they'll become a customer. The longer the car salesman can educate and entice you about his new car features and benefits, before telling you the price, the more sales he'll rack up.

So, if we can construct a riveting, persuasive, compelling sales pitch that's 24 minutes long before we attempt to close the order, we'll have greater success than with a series of three 8-minute pitches. Ask any seasoned State Fair pitchman or woman. If they've got the demos to captivate people for 15 minutes instead of five, they'll hold off on asking for the order until minute 15.

Makes sense, right? Not yet persuaded? I know. It's tough to break the 18 year-old mold. I recently produced a DVD called "Analysis of an Infomercial" that says nothing about the one-CTA format. No one seems to want to hear about it.

Nonetheless, I challenge all the creatives in our industry to at least test the one-CTA format. And remember the basics of selling — AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. If you can present these four steps in a captivating way over 28 minutes and 30 seconds — instead of 10 minutes — I think your results will prove the power of one CTA.