VANESSA HALTRECHT – VP of Production

Gone are the days of overproduced testimonials – perfectly lit subjects in their perfect homes with perfect hair.  Gone are testimonials that gloat about their 6-minute workouts that give them miraculous results without breaking a sweat.

The world has changed with the onset of unsolicited online consumer reviews, and infomercial producers are just catching up!  There is a growing number of consumers who will turn to the internet after viewing a television ad. They log on to YouTube and watch unscripted, unsolicited people demonstrating products and giving their opinions prior to making a purchase decision.  

At Kingstar, we noticed this trend a few years ago and started to include home-shot testimonials – similar to the ones you find on YouTube – in our Infomercials and spots. This practice wasn’t common and we moved ahead with trepidation - - - but were relieved to discover that our hunch was right: our consumer response increased.  This quickly became common practice, and we developed systems to acquire these raw testimonials. The added benefits quickly became apparent.  Once you obtain the rights to a home shot testimonial, you can repurpose this footage for multiple channels, allowing a broader and more diverse reach.

Here is the truth: if you are marketing a good product that truly solves a problem; a product that is helping people live easier, healthier or more beautiful lives, the people who benefit will feel great about sharing their stories so that others can experience the same benefits. It’s our job as marketers to understand that if we provide a great product, offer some space and facilitate this process, people will create humorous, beautiful and truthful testimonials.

Duane Andrews – Director of Creative Services

It’s Come a Long Way!

 Whenever you turn on the TV - morning, afternoon, primetime or overnight - you’re sure to see direct response commercials - and plenty of them.  They’ve come a long way from selling slicers and dicers in the middle of the night.  Today, Direct Response Short Form TV is being used by Fortune 500 companies to sell products, generate leads and build their brands.

Why use Short Form?

Save Time: From concept to completion, the entire process of preparing a short form commercial can usually take from 4 to 6 weeks depending on the complexity of the creative. And the results are available for analysis the first day after airing.  There is no doubt that Short Form DRTV can help you reach your marketing goals more quickly.

Save Money: Not only are short form commercials less expensive to produce, they cost less to air. Direct response commercials are also eligible for substantial media discounts compared to ordinary commercials.

Test More Efficiently:  Test different price points, test different offers, test different premiums.  With Short Form DRTV, testing different approaches is cost-efficient, and the results are quickly available. When you’re ready to roll out, you know your commercial is as strong and effective as it can be.

Drive Retail: Nothing whets a retailer’s appetite more than a product that’s successful in short form DRTV.  If the spot campaign is working, then the product will fly off the retail shelves.  Short form DRTV is the best way to sustain retail momentum. Today, Short Form Direct Response Television and retail are inseparable partners. If it’s a winner in Short Form, it’s virtually guaranteed to be a blockbuster in the stores.

To Drive Retail Campaigns: Walk into any Wal-Mart, Target or any big box store and you’ll see many “as seen on TV” products on the best seller’s wall.  The retailers want these products because they know that short form DRTV can create phenomenal sales.

The Best of Both Worlds!

Whether you have a $19.95 product that is demo driven or you’re a Fortune 500 company looking to differentiate your product from the competition, then Short Form Direct Response is a great way to drive sales and build awareness.  It’s the best of both worlds.

Ryan Byrne – Production Manager

Kingstar Direct is privileged to work with many clients in location-rich cities such as Los Angeles, Toronto and New York City. As a production manager, one of my key roles is ensuring a clear communication strategy on the film set. This could mean sharing updated script files with the director and client, utilizing WiFi for video uploading, or monitoring crew and talent from a central location. The best way to stay organized and mobile is to embrace the digital amenities that are available.

 In the past, commercial TV production sets were limited by pen and paper. And while the creative team still uses these tools, they can now expand their vision with scripting on iPads, digital storyboarding on smart phones or even on-site video editing on MacBook Pro’s powerful quad-core processor. Kingstar has always embraced the latest in tech tools, allowing for easy communication with confidence. In fact, the Kingstar Production office is developing a program to streamline project workflow for pre and post production that can be accessed by smart phone, tablet or laptop – the current ‘tools of our trade.’ Once the program is launched there could be secondary applications to assist on the production set as well. Stay tuned…

Rumors about the release of a Bluetooth headset designed for location communication are also sparking interest on the production set. Currently, most large film or TV locations use Comtek headsets for crew to communicate via a specific frequency. This new system ensures there are no interruptions on set if audio is recording and prepares talents to be ‘on deck’. A sexy, smaller upgrade from a Bluetooth tech company could sync to your cell phone for ultimate freedom on set.

These are exciting times for a company on the move.

Vanessa Haltrecht - VP Production

Kingstar Direct Inc. has been producing and shooting long and short form infomercials for over two decades, and has had the privilege of working with some of the top marketing companies around the world, helping them create internationally-recognized brands.

When first reviewing a product for its selling potential, our team always considers its demonstrability. Does the product have strong demo potential and how can we create the most compelling demonstrations that highlight the product’s features and benefits?

Everyone in the company takes home a product sample and the fun begins!  We drive over them, drop them from heights, create stains that seem impossible to remove, set them on fire, crush phones and bricks in blenders, cut through shoes and tin cans.  Our homes and office space become testing labs, and there are no limits to what we’ll try.  

Once we compile our list of the most compelling demos to feature in a show, it is imperative that they are filmed correctly. What does this entail?  First we must select the camera, lens and set elements, and ensure proper lighting conditions to present our demonstration in the most compelling way. 

Second – and most importantly – NEVER cut or reposition the camera!  The most impactful demonstrations are filmed in one well-lit, close-up shot without any edits.   Editors and creative directors might try to convince you otherwise, but it is always more pertinent to see a demonstration from start to finish – in one shot – even if it slows down the pace and isn’t as visually appealing.  The consumer is smart, and as soon as there is an edit mid-demo, they will lose trust in your product.

CHECK OUT THESE LINKS TO SEE A FEW KINGSTAR DEMOS - - -

STORM FORCE VACUUM: http://youtu.be/9VZ29W1RCAw

OCTASPRING MATTRESS: http://youtu.be/1wJafwqJ69c

Check out the Shop.ca site!

https://www.shop.ca/

If you sign up as a member, there are some great rewards. They go live this spring - stay tuned! 

Over 20 years ago as a junior producer at CFTO/Glen Warren, I was asked by a record company to cut 2-minute TV spots for an audio compilation of Elvis Presley’s Greatest Hits. It was essentially a video compilation of “sound hooks” – that one lyric or phrase that identifies a song to a listener. Then we slapped on a pretty crude crawl of all the songs on the compilation that ran over the video footage, and placed a large phone number across the bottom. We handed the spot to a client with a bill for about $8,000 worth of editing and mixing, and moved on to our higher profile shows like “Stars on Ice”, “Circus”, and even the TV adaptation of the Broadway show “The Elephant Man”. Season budgets in the millions. But that phone number spot never left my mind. How did that business work? A few years later after leaving the “mother ship” of CFTO and CTV and hooking up with a partner Duane Andrews, we created half hour music infomercials like “Dance Mix USA” and “The Love Collection”, all under what we referred to as the “Time Life Formula”. These shows, both long and short form, generated millions of dollars in direct sales revenue from TV. We negotiated small royalties by discounting our creative and production fees. We were “making money while we slept”! I never looked back. In 1996, we shot a fitness show “The Power Rider” in the Promenade Mall north of Toronto with the football star Frank Tarkington for about $85,000. The show grossed $150,000,000 in its first year on TV in North America. All direct to consumer sales from TV, credit cards cashed and in the bank 24-48 hrs after the product was shipped. Infomercials were doing billions of dollars of direct consumer sales. About 8-10 years ago, TV marketers started to build relatively crude websites for their TV products where they could provide more information and also transact orders. They added a web address or unique URL below the phone number on the TV screen.  In 2003 –2004, I am going to estimate that web sales accounted for less than 10% of a TV campaigns orders. But of course web sites and micro–order sites got better and web sales nearly doubled every year. Today web sales account for an average of 50% or more of a TV campaign’s orders, and in some cases with younger audiences those numbers can jump to 400%; that’s 4 web orders for 1 TV order. Today we are launching web-only campaigns for some products that are too niche for the mass appeal and cost of TV.

Last year I attended SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas because I wanted to break out of our traditional TV Infomercial seminar and trade show circuit. It blew my mind. Facebook stores, virtual shopping malls, video embedded email campaigns, virtual studios. I knew that our business was facing massive change. I knew I had to find a strategic partner to help my Kingstar Group of companies maximize this opportunity and in the process uncover new ones. Enter “conservative” investment advisor and an introduction to Drew and Trevor and SHOP.CA. I was so impressed with their model that with in about 30 days we had signed strategic partnership agreement/investments with my two companies, Kingstar Media Inc. and Kingstar Direct Inc., and I made a personal investment in the venture… AND… But wait there’s MORE!…I gave them my offices! (one of three). As a standing member of their board of advisors, I have enjoyed watching this story develop. Drew and Trevor have put together a stellar team of online and transactional talent. Their platform and launch strategy is impressive. I encourage everyone to go to SHOP.CA and get involved. This is a true Canadian start-up story that you will be reading about in the business pages and online for years to come. A few weeks ago, SHOP.CA and Kingstar Direct Inc. entered into a JV agreement to launch SHOP.CA Live. With partners Bell Media and Akamai, we plan to have a live portal shopping channel activated in the third quarter of 2012. We are moving into a new space in the Distillery, combining all of our operations and building a new studio to generate this live feed. The opportunities for SHOP.CA product partners to do live presentations on the site, and the opportunity to feature TV products from our long list of TV and Web marketers is significant. We at the Kingstar Group look forward to launch later this year, occupying front row seats as SHOP.CA grows to become Canada’s premier online shopping destination. Go team!