It’s a Living : Big Game Hunters
People have been cleaning up on TV game shows for years. But today’s shows go well beyond the bedroom sets and refrigerators of earlier eras. CBS’ “The Price Is Right” recently awarded a Nile River cruise and landlubbers have vied on the syndicated “Wheel of Fortune” for a week’s stay at an Irish castle. Cars and computers also turn up regularly as giveaways.
Those programs are not the only source of television bounty. Every weekday, the syndicated “Live With Regis & Kathie Lee” bestows everything from appliances to art pieces upon a home viewer and a studio audience member. Post-game sports shows sometimes offer a camera or other small item to an athlete for taking the time to be interviewed. And awards shows and beauty pageants regularly feature announcements by companies that have provided participants with free air fare and hotel rooms.
These and dozens of other promotional items and services come from a variety of sources, chief among them the 13-year-old Burbank-based Promotional Consideration, Inc. “They call me the godfather of the industry,” says Art Alisi, co-founder with Dan Fox and previously the executive in charge of production for Merrill Heatter/Bob Quigley Productions. He worked on such shows as “Hollywood Squares” and “High Rollers.”
Alisi’s clients include the Sony Game Show Network, the upcoming Family Channel show “Family Challenge” and Dick Clark Productions (for airline and hotel accommodations). He generally obtains two types of products, which he then submits to producers for approval.
There are the high-end prize items such as cars and trips--Hawaii is the most popular destination--and the “fee items”: recliners, music boxes, water softeners, car wax, gum and other consumer products for which manufacturers pay a fee to be mentioned on the show.
In case you didn’t notice, “they use these promotional spots as a form of advertising,” Alisi explains. “It’s an inexpensive way of reaching a lot of people.” A 7- to 10-second announcement might cost just a few thousand dollars, where a 30-second commercial for the same product would command five figures.
Alisi obtains some products through brokers working for more than 30 companies representing all types of items. But, he says, “Anyone can go and just ask a broker, ‘What do you have?’ I like to get into it and make it different. Otherwise, there’s no challenge.”
That Irish castle was his inspiration, for instance. And for the show “Why Didn’t I Think of That?” he flew to the San Francisco headquarters of a company known for its innovative electronics products. There he obtained gift certificates for inventors featured on the show and a promise to consider their inventions in the company catalogue.
It is not only the prize procurers who benefit from such creativity. “You want to give something that’s exciting to the viewer, as well as to the person who’s winning,” says broker Neila Sisskind, co-owner with Sheila Ray of Exposure Unlimited in Encino. “Different programs require different things to fit in with their format.”
“If a sports program calls, we’re not going to offer them an Armani sculpture,” adds Sisskind, whose company focuses on specialty programming rather than game shows. “I’ll tell them what’s appropriate. Cameras, camping equipment, luggage--that’s what lends itself to a male audience.”
Sisskind’s other projects have included some of the daily giveaways on “Live With Regis & Kathie Lee.” Other finds: television sets and watches for a Mother’s Day episode of the defunct “Vicki!” and exercise clothing and equipment for the annual “Miss Fitness” pageant. She has also obtained airline and hotel accommodations, usually as a barter, with free services in exchange for on-air promotional announcements.
One show in a promotional class of its own is “The Price Is Right.” After all, “The prizes on the show are essentially the game,” says Sally Daynes, director of the contestant awards department at CBS Entertainment.
Working on a show where 40 prizes might be featured in one episode keeps a staff of three merchandising representatives busy. They deal with brokers, scour trade publications and attend gift shows, always on the lookout for the new and innovative, such as digital exercise machines and electronic cellular phones.
And, says Daynes, “We have to vary the prizes, because the retail value [to be guessed by contestants] becomes well known, and that affects the game. You’ll see prizes grouped together, or you might see more than one automobile from the same manufacturer, but we make sure the options are different.”
Ironically, no matter how much bigger and better the prizes have become through the years, the most coveted award, say the prize providers, is one that takes no effort or ingenuity at all.
“The most popular thing someone wants to win,” says Alisi, “is cash.”
