February 04, 2019

New & True: Legacy Leg Pillow

Description: A knee pillow
Pitch: "Instantly align your spine and help alleviate pain"
Offer: $19.99 for one
Bonus: Head pillow (just pay P&H)
Brand: Contour
Marketer: Contour Products
DRMetrix Rank: No. 14*
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This is Old Gold. The original hit was the Contour Leg Pillow, which was on the JW Annual from 1999 to 2002, peaking at No. 1 in 2000.


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* Based on weekly monitoring by AdSphere.™ To learn more or to try it for free, click here.

New & True: Copper Fit Compression Gloves

Description: Copper-infused compression gloves
Pitch: "Support muscles and joints in your wrist, palm and fingers"
Offer: $19.99 with free shipping
Bonus: None
Brand: Copper Fit
Marketer: IdeaVillage
Producer: Blue Reef
DRMetrix Rank: No. 5*
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This is a relaunch of this campaign. The original campaign, which rolled out in the summer of last year, featured Jerry Rice.

Telebrands tried a non-sports version of this particular product in March 2014 under the name Copper Hands.


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* Based on weekly monitoring by AdSphere.™ To learn more or to try it for free, click here.

January 16, 2019

Lester Wunderman, RIP

Ad Age reports that the "father of direct marketing," Lester Wunderman, died last Wednesday at the ripe old age of 98. He is in the DMA Hall of Fame and the Advertising Hall of Fame.

"Wunderman, who was chairman emeritus and founder of his namesake agency, is credited with innovations like the 1-800 toll-free number and the magazine-subscription card," writes Megan Graham. "[He] was so widely admired and beloved in the direct marketing world that Howard Draft, a famed name in the discipline, says Wunderman was 'the only guy I'd go to work for. One of the great teachers of all time. There was nobody better.'"

Graham's full article features other interesting information and amusing anecdotes about Wunderman. He also wrote a book, updated in 2010, called Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay.

December 17, 2018

New & True: Fast Ball

Description: A magnetic dash mount
Pitch: "Easily adjust your phone 360-degrees to any angle"
Offer: $19.99 for one
Bonus: 2nd one (free)
Marketer: BulbHead (Telebrands)
Producer: Kerrmercials
DRMetrix Rank: No. 10*
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This first tested in April with a slightly different design, and then re-tested in September with the current design.

Phone mounts have a good track record on DRTV. The last success was Emson's Clever Grip, a 2015 True Top Spender. Two years before that, Allstar had a hit with GripGo, a 2013 True Top Spender.


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* Based on weekly monitoring by AdSphere.™ To learn more or to try it for free, click here.

New & True: Ice Genie

Description: An ice cube maker
Pitch: "Replace as many as seven traditional ice cube trays""
Offer: $19.99 for one with anti-slip tongs
Bonus: 2nd one with tongs (just pay a separate fee), free shipping
Marketer: Allstar
DRMetrix Rank: No. 25*
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This first tested in March and represents Allstar's second attempt at launching a new kind of ice maker. The first attempt was No Spill Chill in 2014.


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* Based on weekly monitoring by AdSphere.™ To learn more or to try it for free, click here.