Old tourism TV commercials with toll free numbers(direct response marketing)

[CurtisNEPA]

I came across an old tourism commercial on Youtube for Myrtle Beach,SC from 2009-ish. There were three versions of the commercial, all of whom were showing different numbers. Each of the commercials had an annoying male voiceover telling viewers to call the respective toll free numbers to request for a free vacation guide dubbed in the middle and towards the end of each ad. This voiceover was also heard on almost most of direct response TV ads such as the products that are sold on B-B-B-B-BULBHEAD!, AARP, etc. When calling the numbers shown on the screen, I believe it connects to the whoever direct marketing agency who is contracted with Myrtle Beach, rather than their tourism bureau. I don't know if it's legal to run these commercials with several toll free numbers not related to their tourism bureau. I personally don't remember seeing other tourism related videos other than Myrtle Beach that has different numbers as part of the direct response marketing strategy. Recently, newer versions of the Myrtle Beach videos only features a website telling viewers to visitmyrtlebeach.com. No toll-free number was shown at all.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I don't know if it's legal to run these commercials with several toll free numbers not related to their tourism bureau.

I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't be legal.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

<snip> When calling the numbers shown on the screen, I believe it connects to the whoever direct marketing agency who is contracted with Myrtle Beach, rather than their tourism bureau. I don't know if it's legal to run these commercials with several toll free numbers not related to their tourism bureau. I personally don't remember seeing other tourism related videos other than Myrtle Beach that has different numbers as part of the direct response marketing strategy. Recently, newer versions of the Myrtle Beach videos only features a website telling viewers to visitmyrtlebeach.com. No toll-free number was shown at all.

Thats one of the sillier things ive heard this weekend.. why wouldnt it be legal for the marketing company hired by the city or visitors bureau or chamber of commerce to handle the calls?

 

[RadioDaze]

I used to work for a Visitors Bureau, and we had several unique toll free numbers we used exclusively in advertisements--usually print. The calls all came directly to the Bureau, but we monitored the phone bill to gauge the effectiveness of the ad campaign.

 

[gr8oldies]

The different toll-free numbers are for tracking where the phone calls came from so the agency knows where its advertising dollars are being most effective. Didn't everybody know that?

 

[kevtronics]

I love the informercials which have separate numbers for each time zone, to make people think there is so much demand for their crappy product that they had to set up multiple numbers to handle the call volume.

And of course, call in the next 10 minutes for a special discount, that never actually expires.

 

[gr8oldies]

I love the informercials which have separate numbers for each time zone, to make people think there is so much demand for their crappy product that they had to set up multiple numbers to handle the call volume.

And of course, call in the next 10 minutes for a special discount, that never actually expires.

It really should be for each station, I would think