More Than a Decade Later, This Pitchman's Product May Finally Be Having Its Moment
Can an unknown marketer turn 'Old Silver' into new gold?
“Wipe your feet!” has been the constant cry of mothers everywhere for generations. But I once met a man who went well beyond merely heeding dear mother’s advice: He went out and found a doormat so good, you didn’t even need to wipe your feet! Merely stepping on its magical fibers caused it to pick up dirt and debris “like a magnet,” he said.
That man was a pitchman, so I knew his story was typical pitch-market hyperbole — which made it perfect for DRTV. During our conversation, I listened patiently until I heard him say the phrase that pays: “It’s taking big money.” Cha-ching!
Unfortunately, this part of the story ends with the pitchman taking my money. Thankfully, it wasn’t big money, but only a small loan. (I wrote him a check and then never heard from him again.) On the other hand, he wasn’t lying. It turned out his doormat was a top seller at fairs and home shows, and other folks more wired into that world soon brought it to TV.
In fact, one of them was a pitchman himself.
From Sully’s commercial, you can see how the pitch market was selling the item and why it was doing so well. Incidentally, the end of his part of the story was a competition with a client who also happened to be pursuing the project. In such situations, there can be only one — and it wasn’t going to be the One Step.
And that’s why it was ultimately the doormat below that made it onto the 2011 Jordan Whitney Top 100.
Campaign: Clean Step Mat
Marketer: Ontel Products Corp.
Producer: Concepts TV
The story continues. At retail, the Clean Step was less of a success than the pitch-market hype would have suggested. Besides not having a live pitchman in every Walmart, the marketer faced margin requirements and end-cap constraints that forced it to sell a smaller version of the original product, rolled up and shoved into a box. Magicians can make people believe that it’s possible to pull a big, fluffy rabbit out of a top hat, but apparently DR marketers cannot make people believe it’s possible to pull a big, fluffy doormat out of a small, rectangular box.
In subsequent years, several marketers have attempted to solve the problems that had limited the Clean Step’s selling potential and bring back the concept. There was Allstar’s Vac-Mat in 2016, Telebrands’ Hurricane Mud Mat in 2018 and Tristar’s Tidy Paw Mat in 2020. As its name suggests, the latter campaign reversed the pitch and focused primarily on pets.
Although that smart idea didn’t work out then, it is apparently working out now — which brings us to the latest campaign to break into the Top 25 of the DRMetrix report.1
Campaign: Muddy Mat
Marketer: Catch Creation
I’m not familiar with this marketer, but they also have another rollout on the DRMetrix chart called Inscents Waterfall (so-named because of its visually stunning ‘magic demo’). Both campaigns have been hanging around the Top 50 since last quarter, steadily gaining momentum.
I write often about Old Gold — known hits from the past that savvy marketers dig up and turn into hits once again. But what about campaigns that never reached their full potential? Call them “Old Silver.” Assuming one could find and fix whatever was flawed, can this lesser metal be turned into gold the second time around?
I’m not sure, but we’re about to see if this unknown marketer can pull off that kind of alchemy.
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“Weekly Spend Index Report for ASONTV Brands,” Week 7, 02/06/2023 thru 02/12/2023