Facial rejuvenation firm Lifestyle Lift debuted a new long-form DRTV spot this month featuring 1970's pop icon Debby Boone.
Lifestyle Lift's core demographic – women in their mid-50s through mid-60s – influenced the choice of Boone as spokesperson. "We wanted someone with a wholesome image who was relevant to our target audience," says Lifestyle Lift CMO Steve Hanson. That audience would have been in its 20s and 30s during the time of her biggest hit "You Light Up My Life," the summer of 1977.
"That was a key part of their lives," Hanson adds. "They were starting a family. [The song is] associated with a good time in their lives."
The 30-minute infomerical will initially appear on channels that serve Lifestyle Lift's core clientele, including the Hallmark and Ion networks.
"Long form on some women's cable networks works well for us," says Hanson. Similarly, the Food Network has been "gangbusters," and channels such as TNT and Lifetime Movie have done well, he adds.
Near-future plans call for releasing a five-minute version of the Debby Boone spot, which would be slotted for news networks such as CNN, CNBC and Fox News. "I don't know if it is the consumer being in the mood to take in information, but [the viability of news channels] has been a surprise," Hanson says.
Lifestyle Lift has used direct response TV since its inception in 2001. Initially it focused on short-form spots – 30-, 60- and 120-second spots, as well as occasional five-minute efforts. These were placed in local markets. The current campaign will consist of 75% national buys.
The company started using half hour (actually 28:30) infomercials in 2006, when founder David Kent met marketing executives at Hair Club For Men who touted the format, according Hanson.
"David got interested and got us into long form," Hanson says. "And it was successful immediately."
Lifestyle Lift's media budget reflects that success. The company currently allocates 40% of its total spend in long-form advertising, with another 20% set aside for short-form spots. The remainder is tied up in online advertising and print ads, which run in places like Parade magazine and USA Weekend. It has also tested prospecting direct mail, and will do so again in 2012, but that channel is not a big part of the company's media mix.
The Debby Boone spot features chats with patients, a psychologist, a beauty expert and King, the company’s founder. What it does not feature is a website URL.
"We don't need to put the website on there to get people to go to the site," says Hanson, adding that the company is easily found through search engines. "For every call we get into the call center from our short-form spots, we get two web visits—and that's without the website." On the long-form infomercials, the ratio of calls to clicks is closer to one-to-one, he adds.
"A URL can hurt TV response," Hanson says. "You don't get much more traffic for it." Hanson believes the reason adding a Web address damps response is that the more options a prospect is given, the less likely the prospect is to take any action.
"If we give them a URL, they may say 'I'll go to the URL later,'" Hanson theorizes. "We're getting web traffic from those who would go to the web anyway. We have tested it to death, and that is what we have found."
The infomercial's main response channel is a toll-free number. Actually, it's about a thousand toll-free numbers, which the company uses to track the effectiveness of various networks, times and mediums.
Once a prospect calls in, the goal is to set up a consultative appointment at one of Lifestyle Lift's centers. Tracking and evaluating the effectiveness in generating visits – a metric Hanson calls cost per show – is as important as the cost per call generated.
"The short form ads get the phones to ring and generate web traffic," he says. "The long form gets people into the centers." Ultimately, despite the difference in response volumes, the cost per show each channel generates is about the same.
Boone's role as spokesperson won't be limited to the television spots. Hanson hopes to have her make personal appearances at the four new facilities Lifestyle Lift is opening in 2012.
But the mere presence of a music star as spokesperson may lead the company to test new venues, such as music channels. It might even allow the company to test radio ads, although as Hanson notes, "Our benefit is very visual. We haven't been able to get it work, but with Debby as a spokesperson, we may test it."
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