Want an idea for a business reality show that would actually be worth watching?
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Hello, everyone. This is Russell Brunson from DotComSecrets.com, and this is the “Marketing from Your Car” podcast. I’m on my way to the office right now, and I wanted to make you guys a podcast. I guess this is a bit of a rant, a little bit.
Recently I’ve been watching TIVO’d episodes of my favorite shows [laughs], and I’m sure you guys know how it is. You record them all, and when you actually have the time then you watch one and knock it out. I just watched one of the most recent “Celebrity Apprentice” episodes. My first rant is that I wish they’d get rid of Celebrity Apprentice and go back to the real “Apprentice”, because that show was a lot better.
But even with that, this is my real frustration with that show. If you guys ever watch it, each week they have two different teams. The teams get different tasks, and what’s interesting is that the way they choose the winners is, basically Donald Trump – or they’ll get a company, like they had Australian Gold Suntan Lotion on this the last one I was watching. They each get to make a commercial for the company, and then they pick the winner based on whose commercial they like more. As a direct response marketer, that drives me crazy, because it’s not based on what converts more, or what makes you more money, it’s based on one person’s opinion.
It makes me laugh, because we’ve been doing a lot of testing lately in our company, and most of the times, the test that I think is going to win, loses. It’s really interesting. In fact, there’s a site called WhichTestWon.com. It’s really a fascinating site. Every day they give out different tests, and they show the “A” and the “B” – the split tests, and you get to vote on which one you think is going to win. Ninety percent of the time, we pick the wrong one. I’m somebody who’s been in this business for a long time. I’ve had my head in this more than most people, and we still don’t pick it right. What drives me crazy is that they base those tasks not on performance or on anything, it’s based on which one we like better.
If we were going to make a show that was actually legit and actually was a good show, they should do it like “Pitchman”. I don’t know if anybody’s ever seen Pitchman before. I believe Billy Mays passed away. That show was awesome. What they would do at the beginning of the show would be to pick five or six different products that they wanted to make infomercials for, and they’d narrow it down to two or three. They would show the process of making an infomercial and filming it and all that kind of stuff.
Then what they did, and this is the cool part, is they’d actually take that infomercial, and they’d air it live. They’d air all of them. They’d give them a $20,000 test budget, and they’d test all three of them. Then they’d come back afterwards, and they would show the results. They would call each person. It was cool. They would call each person up on the phone and say, “Hey, we ran your show and [pauses] unfortunately the numbers didn’t back it up. It’s not going to be a winner,” or they’d call them up and say, “Hey, just so you know, we went three times over on the front end. You’ve got a winner. Congratulations, you’ll be a millionaire within six months,” that kind of thing. It was, “That’s awesome. That’s exciting.”
That’s something to get motivated by versus, “Hey, Gary Busey made a commercial and he didn’t have a hero shot in it, so he lost.” –“Seriously? Who says a hero shot is going to get anything to convert better or make more money at all?” It just fascinates me, and so I just want all of us to be thinking about that.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m addicted to ads. I’m addicted to watching what’s happening on TV and on the radio. It’s fun for me to watch, not because I care about the creative part of it, but because I care about what’s going to work. What can I pull from that and use in my own advertising? We need to become accountable to our ads. If we’re not, and we want to pull them and make a Donald Trump and just throw crap out there, we have no idea what’s actually going to happen.
I had a chance to go to a Super Conference, one of Dan Kennedy’s Super Conferences, and they had a guy named – I think his name was Lenny Liebermann. He’s one of the owners or the founders or partners – I’m not sure which, in – what’s that company? They have the skincare stuff for night. That’s funny. I’m going to blank out right now. It’s a billion dollar brand. I can't remember what it is now. Anyway, it's all of this skincare. You can wash your face, and you get rid of acne and zits, and all of that kind of stuff, and I respect that company so much. But what's interesting about that is they are $1 billion brand, and he said, “We never will run any type of advertising where we can't track the ROI. Believe me, it's been so tempting at times, where in the playoffs they want you to rent the backboard and things like that, or they want you to buy an ad here and there. If we can't track the results, we will not spend money on it,” and that's why they've grown to a billion-dollar brand.
They're one of the few brands that I actually respect, because they're doing it the right way. They are not like a lot of the brands out there that you see that have, "Here're our advertising budgets. We have $4 million for the year. Blow it on whatever you want," which is how most of these guys’ budgets work. That's how Burger King, McDonald's, all of those are. There's no accountability whatsoever. It's just, "Hey, let's spend some money on ads," and that's just fascinating to me.
I just want us all to realize that as direct response marketers, that's what matters – what converts better or not. It’s not, “What do you like better, or what's prettier, or what does your mom or dad think is cool, or what Donald Trump thinks looks the best?” It's what actually is going to convert better when you put it out there in the marketplace.
I think it would be a lot better show if that's how it ran – where everyone makes their ad. They run it, see who wins, and go from there. In fact, that's a good idea for a reality show. If any of you guys want to do that, that's the game plan – basically make an infomercial. Do the whole concept of getting two teams and having them each build an infomercial, run some media, and see which one wins. That would actually be a fascinating show. It would be fun to watch, because then you could dissect it. –“Why did this one win? Why is this one better?” As opposed to, "Oh, the executives thought this was cooler [laughs].”
Anyway, that's my thoughts on it. If anyone wants to make that reality show, let me know. I'll be part of it. It would be awesome. It would be a lot of fun.
That's it for today, guys. I'm at the office. I hope you guys enjoyed this, and please leave comments down below. We'd love to hear back if you like the show, or if you have any ideas or topics you want me to discuss on my drive in. We'll talk to you all soon.