Katie Williams - Wordwide Informerical Guru

Katie Williams - Wordwide Informerical Guru & Co-founder of Sylmark LLC.

Katie Williams: Beating the high cost of Media

Katie Williams: Beating the high cost of Media
By David E. Kopf

When you’ve been in the DRTV game as long as Williams Television Time CEO Katie Williams, you don’t really expect the rules or size of the playing field to change drastically. But DRTV isn’t a game, and veteran media buyers like Katie Williams have seen DRTV grow from a simple, untried marketing concept to a $4.5 billion industry.

In fact, Williams portrays perfectly the entrepreneurship-to—corporation theme that colors the history of DRTV. Williams started WTT in 1987 with $2,000 and a couple credit cards. In 1995, Williams Television Time recorded billings of approximately $70 million. Besides buying airtime, WTT now offers creative and production services, as well as consulting and marketing program management for a client list that includes Fortune 500 companies and the entrepreneurs that are DRTV’s mainstay.

Since its inception, DRTV`s rapid evolution could be likened to mankind growing from a tree shrew to Homo sapien in roughly a decade. That rapid growth has been a bumpy ride filled with much change.

For media buyers like herself Williams says one of the major growing pains the DRTV industry has felt is the jump media rates have taken in the past few years.
Williams says that most DRTV marketers cite an increase in rates during the past two years, but that Williams Television Time (WWT) has perceived a steady rise in rates that has been building steam for the past Eve years for an overall growth of 40 percent.

But for any research in media rates that Williams Television Time has recorded, Williams says that rates vary from market to market and station to station, and figures that completely and accurately survey the media buying landscape for a given period are very hard to arrive at. However, the causes of any growth in airtime costs are easier to trace.

One of the reasons for a five-year increase in media rates is the growing number of channels and even networks, Katie Williams says.
“There are more channels than ever before,” she says. "Now we have four serious networks [Fox, CBS,
ABC and NBC] and a couple of wannabes [UPN and Warner]."

The result for media buyers, according to Katie Williams, is less audience (market) share, and hence, response, on a given cable channel or network. “The audience is diluted,” she says.

Greed also factors into the modem media buying equation. In the past, infomercial revenue was never a sizeable part of station and network budgets, because it was a relatively new and untested advertising medium.
"But now it’s been recognized as a good contributor," Williams says.

The result, according to Williams, is that stations Williams Television Time dealt with almost arbitrarily added 15 percent or so to their rates when they finally I realized DRTV’s potential.
All the factors contributing to rising media rates came to a head this past year, which many DRTV marketers felt was rough all around.

The past year was “a tough year for most people in the industry,” according to Katie Williams.
"Luckily some of our clients have been exceptions."

But 1996 has been rung in, and with the upcoming elections and Olympics many television marketers are afraid that 1996 may signify even higher media rates.

The discussion among media buyers has focused on whether the squeeze on airtime caused by 1996’s large—and long—media events will create more valuable time by putting ads up against great programming or create incredible price barriers for precious time.

Katie Williams says that she thinks the overall influence of the elections and Olympics and their resulting airtime crunch will fare poorly for direct marketers.

“It’s an obstacle,” she says. "We’ll see upward pressures on rates due to the Olympics and elections.”

What makes the actual rate increases hard to predict is that although the Olympics follow a set schedule and consume a specific amount of time, the elections will be a wild card time wise.
“The elections will have a broader impact [on media rates],” she says. “They spend a longer time on air."

Profits versus cost
But for all the gloom-and-doom predictions anyone may make for the coming year, there is still money to be made. Katie Williams says that as tight as things may get, there are several steps direct marketers can take to beat the high cost of media. The main thing is to perfect a DRTV plan and get it down to a science so that however expensive time may be the dollars spent for that vital half—hour or 30 to 120 seconds will be tuned for maximum pay off. To do that, Williams says there are four key considerations marketers should examine:

• Look at different formats
Katie Williams says that direct marketers shouldn’t stick with just long-format infomercials or short—form spots. They shouldn't even limit themselves to a particular medium, as enticing as one might be.
In fact, print campaigns, other electronic media like radio and other forms of televised direct marketing like home shopping channels may be a better approach depending on the product and the marketing strategy.

• Ensure an agency specializes in DRTV
Katie Williams says prospective Direct Marketers should shop around when looking for an agency to ensure that the organization they finally end up with will know how to create and execute a successful direct marketing effort on television.

• Test things out. Williams says that once marketers form the basic framework of a DRTVeffort, they should tweak everything from the creative to the length, from the telemarketing scripts to fulfillment. From back end to front end, marketers should test different theories to maximize the money they spend on time.
"Look at the variables that can be tested to End the best combination," Katie Williams says.
To illustrate, Katie Williams recalls one Williams Television Time client that made an additional $1 million by simply adding a dollar to shipping and handling.

• Explore international markets. Katie Williams says she is "shocked” by the number of people who ignore foreign markets due to some kind of geographic myopia.
Katie Williams uses Canada as the perfect example of how U.S.-grown DRTV efforts blindly blunder past our neighbours to the north, despite the fact that their culture and media are similar and that the overwhelming majority of Canadians speak and understand English fluently.

Thinking globally
Where the global DRTV market is concerned, there are several regions that are very receptive to infomercials, and their numbers will continue to grow.
“We’ll see in five years a situation where many countries will be as interested in infomercials as the [United
States],” she says.

Currently, Katie Williams says, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Japan, Indonesia and Spain are the main countries outside the Americas that are proving to be fertile territory for international DRTV efforts.

Regions and countries with much DRTV potential, but many barriers to overcome before marketers can realize that potential, are Latin America, India, China and Russia. If and when these nations evolve past their barriers, DRTV marketers could have a heyday
“People who crack them will do quite well," she says.

But before this happens, these nations will need to develop reliable telecommunications infrastructures, adequate distribution systems and effective payment collection. Other problems
Williams says these regions must overcome before DRTV can enter are currency disparities, crime and graft.

But any and all problems one nation faces certainly do not apply to other countries, according to Katie Williams. One thing is for certain: It is not a world market—yet. "Each country has to be judged on a case-by-case basis," she says.

For instance, Katie Williams says approximately 80 percent of viewers in the United Kingdom only watch four channels, leaving fewer than 20 percent who receive their television signals via satellite dish. France offers marketers a similar situation to contend with, but other countries in the European Union do riot. Telecommunication regulations are still left to the sovereign member states to regulate.
Then again, Williams says that direct marketers can access pan European channels or CNN International but still have to contend with a plethora of laws and regulations for each country they want to reach. Katie Williams used advice a friend once told her to describe the complexities of inter national DRTV: "This business sounds simple but has millions of nuances."

Katie Williams Muscles Way into S. Korea with the AbSlide

Katie Williams Muscles Way into S. Korea with the AbSlide
By Will Cruz
DM News, July 23, 2001

Katie Williams Worldwide Television saw an increase of nearly sixty fold in AbSlide sales in South Korea midway through a DRTV campaign after it increased brand awareness around the product and partnered with two major Korean shopping channels. Williams, Santa Monica, CA, began marketing the AbSlide in South Korea in February. The company sold 600,000 units before the campaign concluded this month.

A few months into the campaign, however, Katie Williams was seeing a 0.5 percent response rate, said Priya Ghai, co-president of Williams.

‘Williams was selling 2,000 units per month through March through local media outlets, Ghai said. Halfway through the campaign, Williams decided to build more awareness for it by partnering with two undisclosed cable shopping channels, she said.

In 2000, there were 2 million households with televisions, and 13.9 percent of them were cable subscribers. A In addition to the cable partnerships, Williams began branding the product, Ghai said. Co-president Anthony Lujan began appearing on the 18-minute spots t ' and familiarizing the audience with the ' product by taking it apart to prove its authenticity, she said.

“We made consumers trust our products by literally dissecting them on air. 'There are a lot of copycats in the international market, so we needed to endorse our products to gain a level of trust with our audience" Ghai said. "In fact., that's one of the reasons why we stopped the campaign. There’s just no way around it." After the partnerships and branding efforts. Williams began selling 120,000 units per month. Ghai said.

By comparison, Sylmark, with which Williams has an exclusive international agreement, sold about 3 million products in the United States last year. Ghai said.

Interview with Katie Kathleen Williams of Sylmark

If your not all that familiar with direct-response television - DRTV or infomercials, for short -you soon will he.

Meet Kathleen “Katie" Williams, one of the founders of DRTV and chief executive officer of Williams Worldwide, Inc., one of the world's leading global direct response television and marketing agencies.

In this interview, Katie Williams, who founded her own company 10 years ago with $2000 and a few credit cards, explains why DRTV has become the advertising vehicle of choice for companies all over the world. "The informercial format allows you the time and luxury to come into consumers' living rooms and and bond.

Founded in 1987 by Kathleen "Katie" Williams and based in Santa Monica, California, with offices in New York, London, Tokyo, Mexio City, Sao Paulo and Ogden, UTAH, Williams Worldwide Inc.specializes in global direct-response televsion advertising and is currently marketing products internationally on television in more than 60 countries. In 1996, billings exceeded $100 Million.

Your biography says: "Katie Williams likes to compare direct-response television media buying to trading on Wall Street." Why this comparison?

For several reasons. One is the pace. The pace is just incredible, and it is very different from the normal advertising world. This is accountable advertising; you are always looking at your bottom line just as someone on Wall Street manages a portfolio for a client, we have to manage a media portfolio. We are also always looking at results: What happened yesterday? What’s the market doing? What will the trend be? Everyday we make changes to our media portfolio. It‘s not static at all, it is constantlychanging.

Williams Worldwide is one of the largest infomercial advertising agencies in the world. It’s been written that you started your business in 1987 with only $2,000 in cash and a handful of credit cards. Is that true, and what was your vision back then?

It is true. l had a couple of thousand dollars, some money from my folks, and some money I had put aside from a previous job. For the first few months, I just used my credit cards to the max.

I had started working with infomercials in 1984 when the FCC first deregulated advertising time. So I came in on the ground floor, and I saw the power they had. I think infomercials and direct-response advertising are the most powerful marketing tools that exist. Of course, they can’t be applied to every product, but they are extremely powerful.

At that time, and still today, the only people utilizing those tools were traditional direct marketers, entrepreneurs - really, a lot of cowboys. No large corporations were using them. I thought there was incredible potential for direct response to become part of an integrated marketing approach and to be the most powerful marketing tool within a company's array of marketing tools.

How can CEOs and corporations benefit from the services Williams Worldwide provides?

There are myriad ways that direct-response advertising can help a client. We are talking about television and, rather than just advertising, accountable advertising, So it is extremely visible. We can tell clients exactly what every dollar they’re spending generates.

l’m amazed at the number of companies I visit with 55-million or 510-million budgets, where when I ask, "What types of sales do you expect to see coming fromyour budget?" the marketing managers and brand managers don’t have an answer. They don’t know. Whereas with direct-response advertising, if we sit down and put together a plan, we can say, "OK, a 55-million ad budget will create x, y and z. We can measure it. And if it doesn’t create that, we will stop spending the money before we spend it all. That's the first thing, it’s accountable advertising. Second, the infomercial format allows you the time and luxury to come into consumers’ living rooms and bond with them at a cost-effective price. lt lets you give detailed information about your product and tell a story of magic about it. That’s extremely powerful.

Williams Worldwide says its bottom line is summed up by this question: "Did we move product?" Can you provide a few examples of corporations whose sales shot up dramatically as a result of direct-response advertising you initiated? Direct-response television can create tremendous brand awareness and increase distribution. lf you have a product with limited distribution, it can create distribution by creating cousumer demand. lt can launch new products. One of our clients has a new product called Ab Flex. In its first year in the United States, AbFlex did about $120 million in sales. We took Ab Flex internationally aswell. ln the last 12 months, it sold one-million units worldwide.

There is a large, privately held company that has a packaged·goods product in the pet-food arena. Within 10 weeks of running their infomercial campaign, their sales increased about 240 percent. Over a period of six months, their distribution increased 200 percent. Hoover is another company we’veworked with. We‘ve done several infomercials and short-form direct-response campaigns for them. In every single case, we have seen significantly increased con-sumer demand at retail for their product, usually in the range of 20 to 50 percent. Every campaign is a little bit different, but with Hoover we actually send the product directly over TV, while also targeting it regionally.

So Hoover is not only getting TV sales, but retail sales as well.

Are there any companies you consider competitors and, if so, what makes Williams Worldwide unique?

There are several companies that do facets of what we do, but none we consider competitors. Outside the United States, our bigest competitor would probably be Quantum National Media. How are we different from them? Our goal is to go deep into markets and take the brand awareness we create from TV, which is very strong, and maximize it. Not just sell things off TV, but integrate TV with print campaigns, catalog sales, direct mail and retail sales. Quantum National Media has a broader approach. Their main interest is TV, and they typically don’t integrate it. Domestically, ad agencies like Wunderman or Eicoff would be competitors. Eicoff is strong in short-fund direct response, but does nothing with infomercials.Wunderman does much more mail and database marketing. They do no infomercials and relatively little DRTV. One of the services you offer is called "i.M.A.P.," which stands for"Infomercial Marketing Action Plan." Can you describe that service? First of all, we turn down a lot of business, because this is an accountable form of advertising, and we want to have successes. We know immediately after the test period what products will fail. Part of that test process involves doing an "i.M.A.P.," where the client comes in and we look at its marketing objectives. Is it a new product launch? Is it increasing distribution? Increasing retail sales? Is it generating leads and building customer relations? We consider the objectives and look at how they should be integrated into other marketing areas, and how television or DRTV should be integrated. Then we put together a pro forma idea of what can be achieved: a worst-case and a best-case scenario. We put together a creative strategy, with all the nuts and bolts, so we have a road map. After that, we sit down with the client and say "Here’s what we think is the best strategy," and they give it ago or a no go. It reduces their risk, because now they know what will be involved. It also helps us, because it gets us really oriented toward the client’s objectives.

One of your stated goals is to strengthen Williams Worldwide Television, Ltd. (WWT), your overseas direct responsc agency, in international markets. What are your long-term strategies worldwide?

Obviously, international is a big part of our growth, and we are committed to it. We are already marketing products or sublicensing them to subdistributors in over 60 countries. Our goals are to apply the knowledge we have learned in the States about integrating, and to unleash the power of a direct marketing campaign.

When I look at how we do business in a lot of these countries, as compared to the United States, we still have much to learn. In many cases, the local infrastructure isn’t developed enough, there are media restrictions, etc. lt is a question of time, work, money and patience. We will be able to duplicate what we have here abroad, but it’s going to take awhile.

You are especially interested in European markets, the former Soviet Union and certain Latin Americanmarkets. Why are you concentrating on those in particular?

There are burgeoning economies in many of those markets, and there is tremendous consumer demand, a lot of it for American products. Even in markets where the econony has been unstable, such as Mexico, we have had tremendous success. In many cases, the challenges are the same as in more developed countries. There is a lot of potential there.

You’ve talked about securing what you call “unique partnerships" in international markets. What type of partner do you look for, and how do you see those partnerships evolving in years to come?

We feel it is extremely important to have local partners. Our strengths are in understanding media, how to value and negotiate media, direct response and marketing. We do not have indept knowledge of each international market, or of how to work with customers in different markets, or of the infrastructure in each country. So we look for partners that have strengths it those areas.

Primarily our partners are been companies in the direct marketing business on the support-services side, although that isn't always the case. Sometimes they are direct marketers themselves, but they have telemarketing, they know how to handle transactions with consumers. That’s always been a big problem overseas - getting people’s products to them reliably. Processing orders and delivering products is probably the biggest challenge. We are and have to be strong in that area.

You are astute about what prod-ucts to take on. After your infomercials for Brooke Shields Pantyhose ranon TV in Spain, the company receivedmore than 4,500 orders per day. How do you know what’s going to work?

Actually, certain products have universal appeal. People all around the world want to look good. In many cases, that means fitness and apparel products. They also want to be healthy, to experiment with different types of cooking and different houseware products.

So, first, we look for products that have universal appeal. Then we look for things that will make our lives easier. Products that are more diflicult to handle overseas are typically hard to market, electrical products for one. We will handle them, we just have to go through each regulatory authority to get approval for the electrical units in each country. We also might have to do local manufacturing. In most cases, we look for things that aren’t too expensive, although cost varies by market. If we are working in japan or Europe, we look for things that aren't too big. In the United Kingdom and japan, especially, people have smaller homes and don’t have the space to put a Nordic Track, for instance.

We look at the universal appeal and the local market attributes. We try to find things that don’t have too much of an American orientation. We rarely take on relationship products, for instance, like how to have a better relationship, because they `just won’t translate to other countries.

How will the industry be different 10 or 20 years from now?

That depends what country we’re talking about, but I think it will be vastly different everywhere. We are going to see very different media landscapes.

ln a mature market like the United States, that’s going to mean eroding market shares, viewing shares, for all the different TV stations. That also will apply in many countries.

We are going to see a lot of deregulation, a lot of media competition. There will be much more available time, which can only help us. One of the biggest restrictions is media availability. We are going to see that really loosen up.

We are also going to see a lot more growth in other forms of media, such as the interactive environment. The lessons we have learned from television, direct mail and print are applicable to the Internet or the interactive environment, because they’re about getting someone to respond.

We are in the interactive environment already. We are also on the Internet, constantly creating new features and services, We are responding to what we hear people and clients want - that’s how we manage to build and maintain such strong synergetic relationships. And that’s what will take us into the future.

Why choose Williams Worldwide Television?

Katie Williams Worldwide Television

The international business is not a sideline to a U.S. based business for us. WWT has been solely dedicated to international DR for 1O years. We live and breathe international DR. We have run our own local operations in Japan, Australia, Brazil, Benelux, Germany, UK, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, and Mexico. We know the media rates and typical response rates on media from Italy to Brazil to Mexico, to Canada. We know every distributor, what media they own (and if it is really as powerful as they will claim), what fulfilment companies they work with, whether they have retail capability, the challenges they face, the types of productsthey excel with, etc. We know who can be trusted, and who will do parallel imports. Wehave had great success with a diverse range of product- housewares, fitness, beauty,religious tapes, jewellery, and music. Here’s what we can do for you.

• Why does Williams Worldwide Television remain an international only company?

Unfortunately, there are a number of American companies that simply start a backyard international arm and believe they can create sales. This strategy is implemented primarily because our industry is highly competitive and most international DRTV markets have amaximum of one or two players, therefore it is pretty simple to know whom to contact. However, not only are relationships key, but also in depth market knowledge is a necessity.International reporting is weak with analysis such as “ok, good or not good". We have effective ways and means to extrapolate the correct information to move the campaign further because we have worked directly with the TV stations, local service providers. We are purely an international company with a team of 1O people who collectively speak 9 languages (apart from English). Cultural and socio economic factors play an immeasurable part to the success of a product. I truly believe an international team of staff is veryimportant.

• We define ourselves as guerrilla marketers armed with killer applications:

The Media UNO Program
We created Media UNO because Latin America has traditionally been an extremely hardmarket to penetrate due to local distributors having an excess of product to choose from and unstable economies. Williams Worldwide Television is the only DRTV company that creates effective ways of surpassing these challenges and jump-starting product sales. This is accomplished throughthe Media UNO program, which is also heavily endorsed by the distributors. Results on panregional media strongly determine if a local distributor will invest in terrestrial media. Media UNO is a “virtual” infomercial network with coverage on all the major US cablechannels with a 15 million household reach. One major challenge in international DRTV is the excess supply of infomercial product available to the local distributor. In order to maximise sales, speed — to — market is critical. As a solution, we created the Media UNOprogram because direct access to the most sought after media allows us to test products.

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