Seven Castles

Infomercial

                                      

August 18, 2006

 

An infomercial (information + commercial) is a short or regular-length television program that combines information presentation with an integrated suggestion to buy a particular product or service. It is very similar in appearance to a news program, talk show, or other non-advertising program content. It often feature celebrities talking about their successful experiences with a given product. As in any other form of advertisement, the content is a commercial message designed to represent the viewpoints and serve the interest of the sponsor. Infomercial is often used when presenting a new product to the marketplace and the primary objective is to build consumer awareness of the product. It may make use of flashy catchphrases and repeat basic ideas with the help of scientist-like characters or celebrities. On occasion infomercials have been used for election campaigns.

 

In the print media, the equivalent to an infomercial is the multi-page "advertising supplement" that is formatted to look like the news part of the medium and contains real information content.

 

The Internet analog of the infomercial appears to be what advertisers generally refer to as "rich media", including interactive banner ads that sometimes include Flash animations.

 

"Documercial" as some refer to is different. It combines the appearance of a documentary movie with the objectives of a commercial. The documentary-like show sells a product, service or lifestyle, but in an informative, classy and soft sell way. Unlike the ubiquitous infomercial format, there is no hard sell "slicing" or "dicing" here. However, to effectively move an audience to action, long form commercials must possess a strong storyline, top-level talent and production quality.

 

【作者: zhangliping】【访问统计:】【2006年08月18日 星期五 06:35】【 加入博采】【打印】