Pop It In, Turn It On: Video Pitches Are Here

Steve Banks knows where a lot of advertising executives place their morning mail. It doesn’t all get plopped in the wastebasket. Some gets popped in the VCR.

Some of the mail, after all, consists of videotapes of TV commercials. So, if the best way to speak to advertising executives is in their own language, why not talk to them on tape?

That is precisely what Banks intends to do. The Los Angeles producer has created a sort of video magazine, LA-LA, a monthly that will cover the commercial production business in Los Angeles. When the first tapes are shipped in the fall, they will feature interviews with top directors and be targeted toward out-of-state and foreign ad agencies hunting for trends in Los Angeles ad production.

“The time is coming,” said Banks, “when these kinds of video venues will be the norm.”

Perhaps that time is already here. Since 1976, when most experts say the home video era got under way in the United States, thousands of American companies--from car makers to travel agencies--have tried some form of video marketing. That is, they are sending out videotapes to targeted groups of people with messages recorded specifically for them.

In some cases, the tapes sell products, such as Toyota cars. Other tapes sell services--for example, helping an ad executive in England pick a production firm in Los Angeles to film an ad.

“It’s an explosive market,” said Alan Kruegshauser, director of marketing at Vidmar Communications, which publishes several newsletters on the video industry. “There are more segments than we can count.” However, the company is carefully counting the number of homes that have videocassette recorders. In 1975, there were about 33,000 VCRs in the United States. This year, there are nearly 81 million. By 1993, there will be upwards of 121 million.

That is why a growing number of companies are at least considering video marketing. “This is not just some bumpkin thing we’re doing,” said Banks, who has been in the commercial film production business for 25 years and now owns the Hollywood film production company Wright-Banks Productions. “Until the day they start filming, many ad agency people never even meet the people from the production company. This video will give agency people a chance to know who they’ll do business with--before the cameras roll.”

Increasingly, consumers also want to know more about what they’re getting before they get it--especially upscale customers who are buying high-ticket items but don’t have a lot of free time to shop for them. That is why car makers, especially Japanese firms, are spending many thousands of dollars to reach potential customers on videotape. But they are doing it so selectively that it has almost become a science.

In a few months, for example, Toyota’s new luxury car division, Lexus, will send out nearly 30,000 videotapes that show the features of several new models. The tape will include recommendations from a handful of specialists--from orthopedic doctors to sound engineers--who boast about everything from how the seats feel to how the stereo sounds.

But not just anyone will get this tape. Lexus began corresponding through direct mail nearly a year ago with 750,000 luxury-car owners. Some consumers have received five separate letters by now, and about 30,000 have specifically requested the yet-to-be-edited video.

“That videotape will be the culmination of the long-term relationship,” said Bob Neuman, marketing operations manager at Lexus. But the key to successful video marketing is sending videos only to people who ask. “If you just sent them out to anyone,” said David Illingworth, general manager of the Lexus division, “people wouldn’t watch them.”

Last year, in an even more ambitious attempt at video marketing, Toyota sent 10-minute video ads for its luxury Cressida model to about 150,000 owners of its Cressida and Camry models. Some 7,300 people actually came in and tried the cars out as a result of receiving the video.

“Every dealership got a listing of the people in their area who received the video,” said David Pelliccioni, Toyota’s national ad manager. “The dealers followed up by calling the people and asking them to come by.”

A number of travel agents--particularly those who specialize in exotic travel--have taken to video marketing. “If someone is going on a six-week tour of Africa, they want to see more than a brochure,” said Trevor Saxty, who books tours for Adventure Center Inc., a travel agency in Emeryville, Calif., that specializes in exotic trips.

But even though the majority of people who request videos eventually do sign up for the tours, the company isn’t eager to mail them. “It costs us at least $5 every time we put one of these in the mail,” Saxty said. You don’t have to go on an African safari to get a video advertisement. This Christmas, you’ll be able to pick one up at your local mall. That’s when one company plans to hand out 1.5 million video ads to Christmas shoppers at 200 malls nationwide. The catch is that the video will only be handed to families with young children.

After all, the 30-minute video will be jammed with up to 60 toy commercials. Vision Marketing, the Fort Lee, N.J., company that is putting this video together, has dubbed it the “Video Toy Chest.”

“We don’t look at it as a 30-minute commercial,” said Paul Auerbach, senior vice president of marketing. “It’s a catalogue that will help kids communicate to their parents what they want for Christmas.”

As if that’s not enough, the company already has a follow-up in mind: a free video cassette crammed with commercials for teen-agers. What would this one be filled with? Ads for records, tapes and clothing, of course.

Beer Pitchman Piscopo Now Plugs Fitness

How credible is a celebrity pitchman who sells beer for one company and body building for another?

Well, if that pitchman is former “Saturday Night Live” comedian Joe Piscopo, maybe it doesn’t matter. For several years, Piscopo has starred in a series of off-the-wall commercials for Miller Lite, including one in which he uses karate skills to slice a pizza with his hands.

This week, however, he began appearing in print and TV ads for Los Angeles-based Health & Tennis Corp. of America, which operates Holiday Health Spas in Southern California. In the TV commercial, which takes place in a nightclub setting, Piscopo says, “If you start working out, you’ll have the last laugh.”

In fact, Piscopo is a serious body builder who spends several hours each day exercising. And he has even appeared on the cover of Muscle & Fitness, a magazine for enthusiasts. But he is probably best known as the funny man who pitches beer.

Do beer drinking and muscle pumping mix? “I don’t think there’s an inherent contradiction,” said David Church, public relations manager for Health & Tennis. “What was paramount in our minds was, ‘Here’s a guy who is in terrific shape. Here’s a guy with credibility.’ ”

Giorgio’s Agency Adds Gas Company Account

It is one thing to create ads for Giorgio. It is another, however, to create ads for the gas company. But one Los Angeles ad firm will soon do both.

Eisaman, Johns & Laws Advertising, which creates the advertising image for Giorgio perfumes and toiletries, has picked up the estimated $2-million Southern California Gas Co. account. “It may strike people as kind of strange,” said Dennis R. Coe, president of the firm’s Los Angeles office. “But it’s one of the anomalies of the ad business to have such diverse clients.”

Tracy-Locke Keeps Ads for Taco Franchisees

Taco Bell didn’t take the whole enchilada away from its Los Angeles ad firm after all.

Although the Mexican fast-food chain several weeks ago decided to withdraw its national ad business from Tracy-Locke, the ad firm said last week that it will continue to create ads for the $40-million Taco Bell Franchisee Assn.

In fact, losing the franchisees “has never even been an issue,” said Phil Slott, chairman of the Los Angeles office. In California, the franchisee advertisements run in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and Salinas.

Slott said only seven employees were laid off after losing the national account; others were reassigned to jobs at sister agencies also owned by the giant holding company Omnicom. “We want people to know we’re viable,” said Slott, “and committed to being here.”

Teleflora Hires Shalek for ‘Riskier’ Approach

The Shalek Agency was sent something better than flowers last week--it won the $3-million Teleflora ad business.

“We want a new approach to our advertising,” said Cynthia Cleveland, president of Los Angeles-based Teleflora. The ads had been handled for four years by the ad firm Dailey & Associates. “We want something a little bit riskier,” said Cleveland, who noted that Teleflora, which has seen its business generally stagnate for the past few years, is looking for an ad campaign that will generate new business.

Nancy Shalek, president of the agency, declined to comment on plans for the campaign. But she said she expects to rely less on TV ads and more on print and billboards. How did they celebrate the win at the agency? “We had a big cake,” said Shalek, “with flowers on it.”