The Top DRTV Brands of the New Year

Plus: Remembering when DRTV was a profit center & sonic branding circa 1995

Happy New Year, everyone! I entered the industry around this time in 2003, so I am now officially a 20-year veteran. Of course, many things have changed since those early days. One example I thought about recently: Online sales were only about 5% of direct sales when I started and were less than mail-order sales, which were still a thing. That’s right: There were more people in America writing down our PO Box address and sending in a check or money order (remember those?) than going online and ordering from our web page, which was actually just a sub-page on a “web mall” style website (remember those?) hosted by a third-party vendor.

For any youngsters reading this: Yes, that means 80-90% of our sales came from people calling a phone number. Plus —check this out — they actually placed their orders with real people! Perhaps the craziest part of the whole thing was that for us advertising wasn’t an expense. It was a profit center. Back then, a campaign was profitable for months, and then we hit retail and made tons more off the pent-up demand our advertising had created. It was truly a thing of beauty.

Obviously, a lot has changed. Yet despite all the significant upheavals since then and the major changes impacting our industry right now, I’m still optimistic about how we go to market and excited to learn and write about how our best minds are evolving this business model yet again.

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Fun Fact

I recently posted about the concept of sonic branding and linked to a fascinating blog post on the clever composing that went into the new YouTube startup sound. Well, did you know British musician Brian Eno composed the iconic Windows 95 startup sound? (Eno is brilliant musician. If you haven’t heard his stuff, listen to An Arc of Doves. It’s what I imagine a Monet would sound like.) Funny fact: Eno used a Mac! Click here to read all about it.

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Chart Watch

There’s nothing new to talk about yet, so how about we start the year with a quick look at the top brands on the DRMetrix¹ chart? (by frequency and rank)

1. IdeaVillage’s Copper Fit: Copper Fit Energy Socks, Copper Fit Arch Relief Plus, Copper Fit Core Shaper, Copper Fit Compression Gloves, Copper Fit Advanced Back Pro, Copper Fit Ice Knee Sleeves

2. Emson’s Bionic: Bionic Spotlight, Bionic Floodlight, Bionic Spotlight Extreme 360, Bionic Spotlight Duo, Bionic Flex Pro

3. Emson’s Gotham Steel: Gotham Steel Hammered Design, Gotham Steel Aqua Blue, Gotham Steel Cookware Set, Gotham Steel Hard Anodized, Gotham Steel Pan

4. Emson’s GraniteStone: GraniteStone NutriBlade Knives, GraniteStone Pan, GraniteStone Blue, GraniteStone Stackmaster

5. Spectrum’s Emeril Lagasse: Emeril Lagasse French Door Air Fryer 360, Emeril Lagasse Forever Pans, Emeril Lagasse Power AirFryer 360, Emeril Lagasse Southern Cooker

6. IdeaVillage’s MicroTouch: MicroTouch Titanium Trim, MicroTouch Titanium Max, MicroTouch Solo Titanium

7. BulbHead’s Hempvana: Hempvana Straight 8, Hempvana Gold Pain Relief Cream, Hempvana ENDtag

8. BulbHead’s Ruby: Ruby Sliders, Ruby Space Triangles

9. Emson’s Alien: Alien Tape, Alien Draft Seal

10. Allstar’s Calming: Calming Heat Knee Wrap, Calming Heat

11. Emson’s Tac: TacLight Max, TacLight Lantern

12. Thane’s H2O: H2O Steam Mop X5, H2OSteamFX Pro

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For Paying Subscribers🔒

• During the break, both Allstar and Ontel tested new projects. Click here to watch the commercials and read my analysis.

• Our scouts used the extra time to find a few new promising products. Click here to check them out. Maybe one of them is your next hit?

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1. Source: DRMetrix AdSphere™ Weekly Marketer report, Week 1, 12/26/2022 thru 01/01/2023