December 04, 2014

Card Lock

Description: An RFID-blocking sleeve
Main Pitch: "Like a portable bank vault for your credit cards"
Main Offer: $10 for two in solid or paisley
Bonus: Two more plus free S&H
Starring: Craig Burnett
Marketer: Telebrands
Producer: Kerrmercials
Watch the spot

This is similar to an item Telebrands recently did with Akos called Security Sleeves (see my October column in Response for an analysis of the project). This is also now the third time someone has tried this pitch on DRTV. In DR, the third time is seldom the charm.*

S7 Analysis: As I've explained before, the big challenge with RFID-blocking technology is people don't know that it is needed. Even if everyone were aware of the problem, this would still be a prevention pitch with the 'selling the invisible' problem mixed in. (On the former point: Imagine trying to sell someone a gizmo that prevents physical pick-pocketing, and you'll see what I mean.) As for the commercial, it struggles to be engaging because the product is not demonstrable and thus not very exciting.

* Formerly "the third time is never the charm," this catch-phrase has been modified based on several recent counter-examples.