A Short History of PCH TV Commercials
Greetings, fans and friends!
Have you seen the new PCH TV commercials? The ones promoting the new $5,000 A Week “Forever” prize event? There’s nothing that makes me more happy than seeing the ecstatic faces of PCH winners!
[tube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA37Og1vN9w#t=17[/tube]
But did you ever wonder about how those exciting PCH TV commercials came about? Well, PCH Prize Patrol Elite member Todd Sloane gave me the entire “411” – and it sure is fascinating!
The story of the first “winning moment” PCH TV commercial is part of the story of the first on-site recorded PCH Prize Patrol delivery to John and Julie Yancy in 1988. Because of Todd’s quick thinking to purchase a camcorder in order to record the first “winning moment,” the first TV commercial featuring a surprised PCH winner was born.
“The commercials prior to this were of the winners sitting on a stage set and saying scripted lines of ‘I won a million dollars’ or ‘send in your entry,’ months after they had won the sweepstakes,” explains Todd. “People thought the winners were fake (PS they’re not fake) and the commercials were pretty bad.”
Todd continues, “When we told our advertising agency that we wanted to use the Yancy ‘moment of winning’ footage I had shot for TV commercials, they basically laughed us out of the room and said it wasn’t shot professionally so they wouldn’t do it. That’s when I went off on my own and edited the footage into 4 test commercials.”
Todd and Prize Patrol Elite member Dave Sayer then showed the test commercials to lots of people at PCH headquarters, who thought they were great. With that in mind, Todd and Dave went out and surprised some more smaller value PCH prize winners all across the country (with Todd working the camcorder again). Then he edited more test commercial with that footage.
After testing the “real winning moments” ad campaign versus the old advertising campaign, the PCH “winning moments” TV commercials proved to be very effective. “With that,” says Todd, “we realized we needed lots more PCH winners and PCH winning moments, so we could roll out the new campaign.”
Thus, the Prize Patrol was born (along with a professional cameraman to shoot the winners!) And you can watch the latest PCH TV commercials here.
So, how would YOU react if you were the star of a PCH TV commercial? What would YOUR PCH winning moment be like? One thing’s clear – you’ll never know if you don’t enter now!
Debbie K.
PCH Creative
P.S. Speaking of TV commercials, do you eat while you watch TV? I know I do! That’s why I can’t wait to try out my colleague Victoria’s July recipes on today’s PCHSearch&Win Blog.
