Infomercials in Britain and other countries

Here in the UK most of the infomercials will be on Sky and the dedicated shopping channels. Go to Google and type in 'Zestify commercials UK' for example Joe.

On the mainstream TV channels, the BBC, that is BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, and BBC4 there is no advertising / commercials at all. We all pay for the service via a mandatory license fee, if you've got a television which is pretty much every home in the country.

On ITV and Channel 4, Channel 5 etc there are commercials - we don't really call them infomercials over here, not as such.

Some of these commercials are extremely clever. Comparing these TV ads to the one's I saw on every channel in the western States, the difference is most telling. I'm sorry but yours just don't compare. I don't know maybe we're just more sophisticated this side of the Atlantic. No offense. TV advertising isn't so much in your face as it is on your side of the pond. A lot of the advertising is a lot more subtle and some of the ads, they're absolutely brilliant.

This has long been a favourite of mine. It was titled Ice Skating Priests for Stella Artois created by Lowe, London...


Warmest regards,


Mark Andrews

Aye, both great infomercials. Seen them both. Know exactly which one's you mean Andrew.

Another excellent British infomercial was for The Bricky...

Exactly.

I've spent quite a lot of time in the USA (many states) and the TV advertising over there for the most part was absolutely awful, well, at least to my British eyes anyway. Some may disagree. That's up to you.

Suffice to say, a lot of the American TV advertising, you don't see a great deal of it over here in the UK Joe. It's the exception rather than the rule. Usually, it just makes us cringe. It's so in your face and often about as subtle as a brick. Certainly this style of advertising will put off the majority of potential buyers this side of the pond.

Many Americans seem to believe that essentially the British are just like them. Which is about as far removed from the truth as it's possible to be. We're actually nothing like one another on almost every imaginable level. Not picking fault at one culture or another - we're just very, very different. Same language yes but that's about as far as the similarities go.

You can have the same language in common and to a greater or lesser extent the same morals but your thinking and our thinking, our psychological makeup, what makes us tick, is uniquely different and for the most part we're damn proud of it too.

Hey! Just like you, no disrespect, this is our country and on a collective consciousness level, just like you, we're bound to hold on to the traditional values which we hold most dear. Which we also respect about our American friends over there and their unique culture vice versa.

This of course does have a bearing on how one would put together an infomercial / commercial for a British audience. Since we'll pick up on completely different signals (semiotics and linguistics), in order to get into our collective consciousness - you're going to have to think a little differently. What works well for one audience in one part of the world may not necessarily work well in another part of the world even if one does share the same language.

If one lacks understanding, what makes a particular culture 'tick', you'll obviously have a rather difficult task in front of you trying to convince said market to take the direct call to action desired.

If you'd like me to Joe, I can send you privately a list of some of the top agencies in London, if you feel this would help you out?

Top of the day to you.

Warmest regards,


Mark Andrews