From the maker of the ‘miraculous’ cleaning cloth, the ShamWow, comes another direct-response campaign for a manual food chopping tool, the Slap Chop. Produced and designed by Square One Entertainment (a company owned by Vince Offer, perhaps better known as the enthusiastic ‘ShamWow Guy’), the 120-second infomercial began its run in Canada this week.

With a media buy handled by Toronto-based direct-response specialist Kingstar Media, the spots are initially airing on specialty channels like CTV Newsnet, Outdoor Life Network, Biography, Showcase Diva and the Food Network, says Jake Willitts, general manager, Kingstar Media. ‘At this point, I’m going to assume and expect that we’ll be running this campaign for the course of 2009 and into 2010 as well,’ he says, adding that the strategy is to introduce the shopper to a broad media base, and eventually move to conventional networks.

The popularity of the ShamWow continues into 2009 with commercials still airing in the product’s peak or ‘mature’ phase. A success like that is a combination of a great offer and a skilled media buy, says Willitts. ‘We understand where we can get the return on investment that Square One is looking for. It’s a collaborative effort,’ he says.