Tim Hawthorne

It's hard to imagine, but there was a time in the not-so-distant past when the DRTV industry was deathly afraid of the Internet. How dare this new direct medium come in and invade a turf that was held sacred for decades? Sales cannibalization was just one of many different fears swirling around in the average DRTV company's head as E-commerce grew by leaps and bounds in the late 1990s.

I'm hardly the first to call infomercials the Rodney Dangerfield of advertising, but 25 years after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) eliminated restrictions on how much advertising TV stations could air in an hour, I feel oddly compelled to tug on my necktie and give my head a quick shake.

Companies turn to social networking sites to find out what their customers want

Online social networking may have started out as a great way to connect with old friends or find a date, but it has since morphed into a valuable business tool that finds companies of all sizes and across all industries using it to find customers, communicate with existing clients and gain market share.

Direct response marketers and their service providers work through the effects of the global recession

Economic times are tough, but the Direct Response TV (DRTV) industry appears to be weathering the storm well, despite the fact that retailers and manufacturers alike are suffering under the effects of the recession. Maybe it's because when times get tight, consumers start comparison shopping. Free premiums and discounts become even more important than ever, and DRTV offers are famous for such deals.

The direct response television industry has become more popular than ever, and the Discovery channel is capitalizing on it with its new show “Pitchmen.” The show takes you behind the scenes of the infomercial world by shadowing the best in the business - Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan. For Tim Hawthorne, father of the modern infomercial, it reveals a world that he already knows very well. But he also sees it as a revolutionary way to blur the lines between entertainment and advertising.

Advertisers who expect to throw their already-used commercials on You Tube and expect real results are sadly mistaken.  DRTV expert Tim Hawthorne offers advice on what is the best way for advertisers to use YouTube to their advantage.

Why traditional advertising methods don't work in the online viral video space

Depressed that your TV commercial on YouTube has garnered just 79 views after weeks online? You're not alone. If you look at YouTube as a great place to repurpose your TV advertising into shorter bites for everyone to enjoy and respond to, then you're coming at the online video trend from the wrong angle. In fact, marketers who use this approach will quickly find themselves scratching their heads over why no one is watching and/or sharing their video clips.

In their never-ending quest to figure out the best ways to get search engine attention for their Web sites, inventive marketers stumbled upon a virtual goldmine: search engines like Google frequently rank videos very high on the first page of a search's results. Key the words "Shamwow demo" into the search engine and the first result that comes up is a link to an online AOL video, followed by two more blogTV links that put the product to the test.

As online video matures, marketers will have to tweak their strategies to maximize the medium

There was a time when watching moving pictures required a television or a trip to the movie theatre. Even when the Internet went mainstream the opportunities to share videos was limited by bandwidth and the capabilities of individual computers.

Fast forward to 2009 and the landscape has changed dramatically. With the total value of pay and ad-supported online video expected to surpass $15 billion by 2012 (ABI Research, New York), the medium has become an important component for marketers looking to add new dimensions to their online strategies.

With the total value of pay and ad-supported online video expected to surpass $15 billion by 2012 (ABI Research, New York), the medium has become an important component for marketers looking to add new dimensions to their online strategies.