Why That Worked #29: Infomercials—What OxiClean & Shamwow Can Teach Us About Messaging That Sells

Summary

Marketing Made Simple Podcast Summary

Episode: Why That Worked #29: Infomercials—What OxiClean & ShamWow Can Teach Us About Messaging That Sells
Release Date: July 23, 2025
Host: Powered by StoryBrand
Summary By: [Your Name]

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Introduction

In episode #29 of Why That Worked, hosted by Donald Miller and Kyle Reed, listeners delve into the art of infomercial messaging by examining two iconic brands: OxiClean and ShamWow. The hosts dissect the elements that made these infomercials exceptionally successful, providing actionable insights for marketers aiming to enhance their own messaging strategies.

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Analyzing the OxiClean Infomercial

1. Over-the-Top Presentation

Donald Miller begins the discussion by highlighting the dramatic and energetic delivery of Billy Mays in the OxiClean infomercial.

[02:00] Donald Miller: "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to watch these, okay? We're going to watch them all the way through so people will be able to see them on the screen."

Kyle Reed complements this by emphasizing the importance of not shying away from a dynamic presentation:

[04:09] Kyle Reed: "He's yelling. And the thing is, we know it's an infomercial and we know he's yelling, but you're not rolling your eyes going, gosh, this guy's yelling at me. He's really annoying. He's getting your freaking attention."

2. Soundbite Stacking

The hosts note Billy Mays' rapid succession of key points, a technique they refer to as "soundbite stacking".

[04:48] Kyle Reed: "He's moving so fast from sound bite to sound bite to sound bite to sound bite."

This method ensures that multiple benefits and features are communicated efficiently, keeping viewers engaged.

3. Targeted Messaging

OxiClean's pitch is praised for its specific targeting. Mays mentions distinct use cases like "pet messes" and "baby's clothes," making the product relevant to a broad yet specific audience.

[06:22] Donald Miller: "They knew who they were talking to, so they had a pretty targeted audience."

4. Addressing Objections Upfront

A significant strength of the OxiClean pitch is its proactive handling of potential objections, such as the damaging effects of chlorine bleach.

[08:17] Kyle Reed: "He's price comparing it. So, $10 saves you $60 on jeans. He's not just selling OxiClean; he's selling money."

By addressing concerns before they arise, the pitch builds trust and mitigates hesitation.

5. Demonstrating Product Use

Miller and Reed applaud how the infomercial visually demonstrates the product’s ease of use, thereby reducing cognitive dissonance.

[10:23] Kyle Reed: "He literally did not trust what he's doing. There is cognitive dissonance. So if you say Oxiclean, it'll get your clothes clean... he's removing cognitive dissonance."

6. Emotional Connection

The phrase “the stain remover for the things that you love” is highlighted as a strategic move to tap into the audience's emotional investments.

[09:57] Donald Miller: "He mentioned the things you love. That's such a powerful way to tug on a little heart space."

7. Effective Call to Action (CTA)

The CTA in OxiClean’s pitch is direct and financially appealing, urging viewers to see the product as a cost-saving investment.

[08:17] Kyle Reed: "If you save one pair of jeans, then OxiClean has paid for itself."

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Dissecting the ShamWow Infomercial

1. High-Energy Delivery and Soundbite Stacking

Vince Offer’s ShamWow pitch mirrors OxiClean’s energy but amplifies it with an even faster delivery of benefits.

[17:04] Donald Miller: "I can’t live without it. I just love it."

Kyle Reed notes the barrage of features presented in quick succession:

[19:00] Kyle Reed: "He has stacked value upon value upon value, demonstration upon demonstration, and demographic on demographic."

2. "Same but Different" Strategy

ShamWow effectively employs the "same but different" approach, positioning itself as superior to regular towels by highlighting unique features.

[25:06] Donald Miller: "Same but different. Talk about how it's like that but better."

3. Specific Targeting and Demographics

The infomercial targets diverse user groups by specifying use cases for the house, car, boat, and RV, thus broadening its appeal.

[19:57] Kyle Reed: "If I have an RV, I assume this is the only towel I can use because it's the RV."

4. Building Credibility Through Authority

By mentioning that ShamWow is "Made in Germany" and used by Olympic divers, the pitch leverages authority to enhance credibility.

[23:41] Kyle Reed: "Olympic divers use it as a towel. It must be great then."

5. Visual Demonstrations

Offer’s demonstration of ShamWow absorbing liquids showcases the product’s effectiveness in real-time, reinforcing claims visually.

[25:55] Donald Miller: "That's exactly right. But I love that he did that where he takes a soda spilling on the carpet and shows it being absorbed."

6. Urgent and Direct CTA

The ShamWow pitch incorporates urgency and limited-time offers to prompt immediate action.

[26:43] Kyle Reed: "You're spending $20 every month on paper towels anyway. Get your ShamWows."

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Key Insights and Conclusions

Donald Miller and Kyle Reed extract several key lessons from the OxiClean and ShamWow infomercials:

1. Embrace Energy and Drama: A high-energy presentation captures attention and keeps the audience engaged.
2. Soundbite Stacking: Rapid delivery of concise, impactful points ensures that multiple benefits are communicated effectively.
3. Targeted Messaging: Clearly defining and addressing the specific needs of your audience enhances relevance and appeal.
4. Preemptive Objection Handling: Addressing potential concerns within the pitch builds trust and reduces hesitation.
5. Clear Demonstrations: Visually showcasing product use eliminates confusion and builds confidence in the product’s efficacy.
6. Emotional Connection: Tying the product to the audience’s emotional interests can significantly enhance engagement.
7. Effective CTAs: Direct, compelling calls to action that emphasize urgency and value can drive conversions.

The episode underscores that clear, confident, and targeted messaging, combined with dynamic delivery and strategic demonstrations, are pivotal in creating marketing content that sells.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Kyle Reed: "If you have a business to business and you can save somebody $50,000 a year, you're selling them $50,000. You're not selling them... you're selling them $50,000."
  [08:19]

• Donald Miller: "When you get your pitch right, the success follows."
  [12:51]

• Kyle Reed: "That's not dumb, it's actually really smart. It's removing subconscious cognitive dissonance which is getting in between them making the purchase."
  [11:18]

• Donald Miller: "Do you think the technology of OxiClean is better than Tide?"
  [13:43]

• Kyle Reed: "You can't just... you have to say it like they don't know anything."
  [12:58]

• Donald Miller: "If you don't communicate clearly, all your emails, your website, social media posts... will be ignored."
  [14:00]

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Conclusion

This episode of Why That Worked offers a comprehensive analysis of what makes infomercials for products like OxiClean and ShamWow so effective. By breaking down the strategies employed in these pitches—ranging from energetic delivery and soundbite stacking to targeted messaging and compelling CTAs—Donald Miller and Kyle Reed provide valuable lessons for marketers aiming to refine their own messaging techniques. The insights gleaned emphasize the importance of clarity, emotional connection, and strategic communication in driving sales and achieving marketing success.

Transcript

[Bobby Richards]

Hey, hero makers, it's podcast producer Bobby Richards. I'm jumping in to share with you a new episode of our brand new podcast, why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI with Donald Miller back in the host seat. Now, since we launched Marketing Made simple, we've been so grateful to have everybody tune in each week to learn how to make your marketing easy and make it work. Which is exactly why we're sharing new episodes of the why that Worked podcast here. In the old Marketing Made simple feed, each episode of the new show is going to deliver actionable insights and key takeaways that are all designed so you can implement them to help make whatever you're working on work. If you want to catch new episodes early, you can watch or listen every Monday. To watch the show, just go subscribe to the StoryBrand YouTube channel. And to listen, go follow why that worked presented by StoryBrand AI wherever you enjoy your podcasts. All right, that's it from me. So grateful you're here and enjoy this week's episode of why that worked presented by StoryBrand AI.

[Kyle Reed]

Foreign.

[Bobby Richards]

You're listening to the why that Work podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you've ever wondered why certain brands, trends or cultural phenomena find success while others don't, you're in the right place. Every week we unpack why something worked, then give you actionable insights that you can use in your own life. Now let's dive in with your hosts, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed.

[Donald Miller]

Don, do you remember this guy?

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

Here's my favorite thing about this guy. His name, you can't make it up is Vince Offer.

[Kyle Reed]

There's no way that's his real name.

[Donald Miller]

I really hope it is, but I.

[Kyle Reed]

Agree with you, that's amazing.

[Donald Miller]

But today I want to talk about the brilliance of crazy pitch. Guys, I've got an ad for Billy May's OxiClean. And then our man Vince offer the ShamWow.

[Kyle Reed]

Are we gonna. Are we gonna. We're gonna look at this.

[Donald Miller]

So here's what I wanna do. I wanna. I've got both of these and here's what I. The premise of this episode is I both of these offers these pitches.

[Kyle Reed]

One's shamwell. What's the other one?

[Donald Miller]

Oxiclean.

[Kyle Reed]

So that's Billy Mays is oxiclean.

[Donald Miller]

Here's what we're going to do. We're going to watch these, okay? We're going to watch them all the way through so people will be able to see them on the screen. And then I want to talk about what they got. Right?

[Kyle Reed]

Okay.

[Donald Miller]

Okay. Sound good? All right, so first one is Oxiclean. So let me get this going. This is our friend Billy Mays.

[Kyle Reed]

I used Oxiclean like yesterday.

[Donald Miller]

It works.

[Kyle Reed]

It does work.

[Donald Miller]

It does work. Okay, here we go.

[Billy Mays]

It's amazing. Watch how Oxiclean unleashes the power of oxygen, making tough stains disappear like magic, without fading or bleeding. The colors for pet messes Oxiclean is a must. It goes deep down below the surface to get rid of the stain and the odor. Have you ever spilled chlorine bleach on your colored clothes? Well, Oxiclean is tough on stains without the damaging effects of chlorine bleach. If you save one pair of jeans, then Oxiclean has paid for itself. Some clothes say no chlorine bleach, but Oxiclean safely removes the stain, even on baby's clothes. It's the stain remover for the things that you love. Add a scoop of Oxiclean to every load of laundry. It'll boost the stain removing power of your detergent. Don't just clean it.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, so what's the first thing you wrote down?

[Kyle Reed]

Okay, here's what. First of all, amazing, right? Not just like effective. I mean, it's over the top. He's yelling. And the thing is, we know it's an infomercial and we know he's yelling, but you're not rolling your eyes going, gosh, this guy's yelling at me. He's really annoying. He's getting your freaking attention. And we deal with this all the time with our clients and they won't be dramatic because they don't want to be the infomercial person. But you actually don't look at Billy Mays and go, that guy's really dramatic. And over the top. Because television as a media or radio or Instagram or whatever, or visuals, if you don't just dramatize and over project and really exaggerate your tone of voice and your presentation, you just, it deludes when you actually do it. So what I mean by that is like if I say, hey everybody, thanks for following me on social media today. I want to talk about such and such in person. Like, if we were having lunch, you'd be like, this dude is nuts. But on Instagram, nobody notices, right? And so what you're making the mistake of doing is acting like you're having lunch with somebody and not being loud enough in your media presentation. So that's the first thing I noticed. Then the power of oxycam.

[Donald Miller]

I wrote that down too. The power of oxygen A power of oxygen. So that was the first thing.

[Kyle Reed]

I only got ox.

[Donald Miller]

Well, he's moving so fast, it was hard to keep up.

[Kyle Reed]

That's another thing. Yeah, well, we could talk about that too. How fast he's moving from sound bite to sound bite to sound bite to sound bite.

[Donald Miller]

But did in my eyes, did that open a little bit of a story loop for you of like, right away, like, what's he power of oxygen.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

What he did.

[Kyle Reed]

First of all, what the heck is the power of oxygen?

[Donald Miller]

Exactly.

[Kyle Reed]

But nobody sits there and goes, well, what the heck is the power of oxygen? This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. We assume oxygen has power instantly and that lends credibility to the product, even though we have no idea how this actually works.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

By the way, when you wash your clothes, do you know how much oxygen is in that washing machine? It's like a whole tank of it.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Because it's the air, but it's powerful. By the way, the water that you're using is called H2O. So we should all be just rolling our eyes. Oh, they added oxygen.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. But it works. But it works. Well, to your point about that opening line. Line. It's amazing. The power of oxygen.

[Kyle Reed]

He used the word magic. Did you catch that?

[Donald Miller]

I didn't.

[Kyle Reed]

He used the word magic. It works like magic, which we talk.

[Donald Miller]

About a lot on this podcast, is using those dramatic over emphasized words.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

To describe what you're doing.

[Kyle Reed]

It's all drawn. It's theater.

[Donald Miller]

A lot of people probably listening is. Hear that? You know, you got to have a hook on your video. You know, you need to have some kind of hook. That's he. Well, but he's showing that. Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

To your point, there is a hook.

[Donald Miller]

That is the hook.

[Kyle Reed]

But I think, I think the bigger hook is frickin blasted with energy.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, exactly. But that's a, that's a hook. And I actually, like. I don't want to skip that point what you just said. Most people shoot content or make content like they're talking to a friend over coffee. And that's a mistake.

[Kyle Reed]

Right?

[Donald Miller]

That's a mistake. That's a really. That's a good catch. The other thing I loved that he did was they knew who they were talking to, so they had a pretty targeted audience. There was a couple things they said, like baby clothes and pet messes jeans, things like that. They're targeting a.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, he did a couple things there. One, he identified pet messes. So he got specific. Now, the difference between a pet stain And a backyard playground stain is precisely nothing. However, in terms of, like, getting it clean. Right. However, when people hear their. I call it hearing their name. When people hear their name, they tune in. And so if you have a dog and the dog tracks in mud or whatever, or poops on the. I don't know how you're getting a pet stain in the washing machine. Like it's pooped on your clothes. Whatever. Yeah. Dog poop on your suit. I don't know. Whatever. But when you hear, when you're like, I have a pet. Yes, you listen.

[Donald Miller]

That's right.

[Kyle Reed]

So he's being specific and not general. Yes, I guess that would be the idea. The other thing is stain and odor.

[Donald Miller]

Oh, did you hear that? I didn't. No.

[Kyle Reed]

Here's the other thing that I want everybody to notice about this. He's moving so fast. He's doing what I call sound bite stacking.

[Donald Miller]

Yep.

[Kyle Reed]

This is not a paragraph that he's reading. It's sound bite stacking. So every word is a sound bite. Sound bite. Sound bite, sound bite. Pet stains. Stain and odor. Bleach. Look what bleach will do to your clothes. Bleach. This will get it clean without ruining your clothes. Jeans. He's almost down to one word. Jeans, Pets, Fur, Hair, Oxygen.

[Donald Miller]

So true.

[Kyle Reed]

He's not elaborating on anything.

[Donald Miller]

No, no. But he's stacking them. Exactly.

[Kyle Reed]

He's stacking it. Soundbite. Stacking.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, here's a question for you. How effective? I thought this line was super effective, but how effective is this as a CTA where it's like you put your jeans in, it pays for itself by fixing.

[Kyle Reed]

There you go. Well, what he's doing is he's price comparing it.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

So, you know, okay, if this thing is 10 bucks, but your jeans were 60. Right. And you save one pair of jeans, you just save 60 bucks. He's, he's, he's comparing it to what he's saying is $10 saves you money. So now he's not just selling oxiclean, he's selling money. And this is really, really important with a lot of items that our listeners are selling. I always say, look, sell money. It needs to be part of your pitch. It's not obviously what you're selling, but it's part of your pitch. If you have a business to business and you can save somebody $50,000 a year, you're selling them $50,000. You're not selling them. Whatever you're selling them, you're selling them $50,000. So $5,000 is a good investment to get $50,000 back. And so that's what he just did there. And I think every pitch needs to include that. If you're selling it for money, you just say, by the way, this will sell you. What? Even if you save one pair of jeans, you've paid for this 10 times over. I mean, what a great fricking line.

[Donald Miller]

I think the other thing he did amazing was they answered all the objections right away. So the things that you would immediately start asking yourself, but does it do this? But what about this? He just. He nailed those right away. The bleach you referenced.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Bleach is gonna ruin your clothes.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. He just kept going through. So as soon as you would.

[Kyle Reed]

It's like bleach, but it won't ruin your clothes.

[Donald Miller]

As soon as you go to. I'm interested. But what about. He already answered it.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

So you're already moving through. So he's nailing that right away.

[Kyle Reed]

Lot of research on this. A lot. Like, this was not a script that they wrote down on a napkin. They probably were passing this back and forth with a team of writer knew what they're doing for about a week. And they got so much right.

[Donald Miller]

The last thing I picked up was he mentioned it. I don't remember the exact way he said it, but the things you love. And again, that's such a powerful way.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Tugging on a little heart space just.

[Donald Miller]

To grab that in and go, oh, I can save the things I love.

[Kyle Reed]

Did you notice that? They showed him that. Now, if you bought a thing of Oxiclean, how do you think you use it? Walk me through, like, walk me through, like, how you're gonna get this into the washing machine.

[Donald Miller]

I didn't even notice that.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, add a scoop.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

He literally. He literally did not trust what he's doing. There is. He's removing cognitive dissonance. So if you say Oxiclean, it'll get your clothes clean. There's a subconscious part of your brain that goes, I don't know how to use oxy. Right. And you don't even know that it's happening. But you're like, well, once I know how to use it, I'll buy it. Like, I don't know. Do you light it on fire? Do you mix it with dishwashing soap?

[Donald Miller]

Exactly.

[Kyle Reed]

Do you have to get in the washing machine with the Oxiclean and run it while you're in it? Cause I could drown. That's what your stupid subconscious is doing. And he just actually goes, add a scoop. And then he literally shows you like this. And what you do is you turn your wrist and the powder goes into the wash. Oh, mom, we need this. I can do that. So that's a great. You've got to show them. I can do that.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

And I don't care what product, especially those of you who are selling like software business to business products. You know, I went, I was on a phone with a big billion dollar firm yesterday, I was on a zoom call for like an hour with this big billion dollar firm and I'm looking over their website and I'm like, I don't know how to use this software. I don't, I actually don't know. There's so much cognitive dissonance. And they told me, they said, you know, when we're in person and we do a demo, we show them how it works, we close 100% of the deals. And so why. Because they're showing you how it works. And if you can do that on a website or in a, in a tutorial video or on YouTube or something like that, do it, actually scoop it and show them how you're scooping it in because you know your product really, really well, they don't know it at all. So you got all the inside knowledge about how this thing actually works and you're projecting it onto your customer. So instead just say, our software is going to help you with X. It works super easy. You just go to this website, you start using it and this is the result that you're going to see. Or you sit down with your customer service team, you explain to them here's how customer service is going to work. You show them how to use the product and your whatever success scores are going to go through the roof. You want to actually walk them, baby step, baby step, baby step through how to use our product. Even when it gets stupid visually, you're showing them how to turn the wrist and you just go, well, that's dumb. It's not dumb, it's actually really smart. It's removing subconscious cognitive dissonance which is getting in between them making the purchase.

[Donald Miller]

And not making the assumption they get it. When you get your pitch right, the success follows.

[Kyle Reed]

Listen, I used OxiClean yesterday.

[Donald Miller]

Let me walk you through.

[Kyle Reed]

I realize I did. Now it sounds like I'm lying. While I was talking to the software company, I used Oxiclean. I actually really did both do those things.

[Donald Miller]

I believe you. So here's. Okay, so in 1997, OxiClean was introduced early 2000s when Billy Mace came On for the infomercial, they started to get rapid growth as of today, 2024. So we're 2025. But as the last numbers came in, $6.1 billion in sales.

[Kyle Reed]

Wow.

[Donald Miller]

From OxiClean.

[Kyle Reed]

So I think everybody just went. They just. Everybody listens to podcasts. Just went, oh, maybe I should listen to them. Break this down again.

[Donald Miller]

Yes, I. The pitch.

[Kyle Reed]

You're talking about soap.

[Donald Miller]

Yes. So it's the number.

[Kyle Reed]

It's not. Listen to me. It's not that different than Tide. It's how they sold it.

[Donald Miller]

Exactly.

[Kyle Reed]

Do you think the technology of OxiClean is better than Tide?

[Donald Miller]

No.

[Kyle Reed]

Give me a break. They got all the money in the world. No, it's not better. I mean, listen, I don't want to get into trouble here, but my guess is whatever technology they have that's making their clothes, Tide has caught up to them by now.

[Donald Miller]

Of course.

[Kyle Reed]

But literally, when I saw oxiclean on the shelf, I had a white pair of pants that had like a little grease stain on it. I sprayed some stain on it and I got the OxiClean and I dumped it right on top of that stain removal so it would like, stick there. But when I saw the word oxiclean, I assumed it was superior.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

And I don't even know why. And now I know why. Because they planted it in my brain. All right, so it's the power of oxygen.

[Donald Miller]

The power of oxygen works wonders.

[Bobby Richards]

If you don't communicate clearly, all your emails, your website, social media posts, everything you're communicating will be ignored. Storybrand AI is like the world's best communication expert writing it for you. Imagine having the world's best communicator writing your tagline. Just type in the name of your company, answer a few prompts.

[Billy Mays]

And voila.

[Bobby Richards]

Hey, that's a good one. Use it to write your social media posts, website, wireframe emails, lead generating PDF, product or service descriptions, anything you need for your business. What would happen to your revenue if every word that left your business was crystal clear and worth paying attention to? StoryBrand AI is your competitive advantage. So you'll know, you'll say it clearly. Try it right now and let us write your custom tagline for free at storybrand AI. And now back to the show.

[Donald Miller]

Here's another one from our man, Mr. Vince Offer.

[Kyle Reed]

Mr. Vince Offer. Now we got to rate who we like better. Billy Mays or Vince Offer.

[Donald Miller]

I mean, he's got a big Vince Offer.

[Kyle Reed]

Seems like a character.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

Like if your daughter. You and I both have daughters.

[Donald Miller]

Vince Offer.

[Kyle Reed]

Your Daughter was like, hey, I'm going to Vegas with a friend.

[Donald Miller]

Like, oh, really?

[Kyle Reed]

Are you guys going to see a show? Yeah, we're going to see a show. Probably going to hang out a little bit. Who's your friend? Vince? Offer. Ban. You cannot leave the house. No. 0 chance you're getting out of this house and hanging out in Vegas with Vince. Offer. Vince.

[Donald Miller]

Offer.

[Kyle Reed]

No.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, so this one's a minute 47. That last one's a minute, but this is a minute 47. We're gonna watch the whole thing, take notes, break it down. Here we go.

[Vince Offer]

Hi, It's Vince with ShamWow. You'll be saying wow every time you use this towel. It's like a shammy. It's like a towel. It's like a sponge. A regular towel doesn't work wet. This works wet or dry. This is for the house, the car, the boat, the RV. Shamwow holds 20 times its weight in liquid. Look at this. It just does the work. Why do you want to work twice as hard? Doesn't trip, doesn't make a mess. Wring it out. You wash it in the washing machine. Made in Germany. You know, the Germans always make good stuff. You can cut it in half. Use one as a bath mat. Drain your dishes with the other one. Use one as a towel. Olympic divers, they use it as a towel. Look at that. Completely dry. Put a wet sweater, roll it up, it dries your sweaters. Here's some cola. Wine, coffee, cola, Pet stains. Not only is the damage going to be on top, there's your mildew that is going to smell. See that? The most absorbed. We're going to do this in real time. Look at this. Put on the spill, turn it over without even putting any pressure. 50% of the cola right there. You following me, camera guy? The other 50%, the color starts to come up. No other towel is going to do that. It acts like a vacuum. And look at this. Virtually dry on the bottom. See what I'm telling you? Sham. Wow. You'll be saying wow every time.

[Donald Miller]

I can't live without it. I just love it.

[Vince Offer]

Oh, my gosh. I don't even buy paper towels anymore.

[Donald Miller]

If you're going to wash your cars or any kind of vehicle, you'd be out of your mind not to own one of these.

[Bobby Richards]

All I can say is sham.

[Kyle Reed]

Wow.

[Vince Offer]

You're gonna spend $20 every month on paper towels anyway. You're throwing your money away. The mini Shamwows are for everything, for everyday use. This lasts 10 years. This lasts a week. I Don't know. It sells itself. The Shamwow sells for $19.95, but you get one for the house, one for the car, two for the kitchen and bathroom. But if you call now within the next 20 minutes, because we can't do this all day, we'll give you a second set absolutely free. So that's eight ShamWows for 1995. Comes with a 10 year warranty.

[Donald Miller]

ShamWOW. That's all I gotta say.

[Kyle Reed]

I'm still writing. I can't write fast enough. Wait, hold on. Can't do this for long. I love that. We're running out. We're running out of time. We can't do that. We can't offer this for very long. Hold on. This guy was. Talk about soundbite stacking, by the way, how quickly he was going through stuff. But it shows you that he's working at the speed the brain can think of. Think, which is much faster than you and I would write, especially when it's a visual medium. But let me just. I've got the transcript of that. Hi, It's Vince from ShamWow. You'll be saying wow every time. Okay, stop. If somebody sent you an email and said, hey, It's Vince from ShamWow, you'll be saying wow every time. You're like, this dude's nuts, right? This dude is like, he has a third grade education. You'll be saying wow. Like, he hasn't even told me what ShamWow is. And he started out with, you'll be saying wow every time. Imagine being at a cocktail party. I'm like, hey, I'm Don. Wow. You're gonna say wow every time. You're like, give me away from this guy. This guy's gonna kill me. All right. This is brilliant. It's like a chamois. It's like a towel. It's like a sponge. Now this is what I call. And screenwriters call it the same but different. So whenever screenwriters go to sell their screenplay, a lot of times they'll say, it's like Harry Met Sally, but it's animated squirrels.

[Donald Miller]

Can't believe we haven't seen that. Mov.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, it's like James Bond, but it's a comedy and the guy's an idiot. And producers go, got it. It's a way of getting something into somebody's brain and explaining it by saying, it's the same, but it's different. So he opens up with the same but different. It's something we can all use. It's like a chamois it's like a towel. It's like a sponge. A regular towel doesn't work wet. I mean, who the heck cares, right? Okay. A regular towel doesn't work wet is not a problem any human being because you just get another towel.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

But when he says it, it's like, he's right. It doesn't work wet. And I can't think fast enough to go, who cares?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

I just go, oh, this will work wet. I don't have to dry it. This works wet or dry. Now this is brilliant. This is for the house, the car, the boat, the rv, shamwow. The RV shamwow.

[Donald Miller]

RV Shamwow.

[Kyle Reed]

Now, if I have an rv, I assume this is the only towel I can use because it's the rv. You see what I'm saying? And you don't have time to sort of common sense check because he's moving so fricking quick, holds 12 times its weight in liquid. You know what that means? That means the Shamwow is really light.

[Donald Miller]

But you're right, he's moving so fast because we're reading it and parsing it. But he's moving so fast. You can't. You just.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, it's true. Also, do you believe right now that that chamois holds a lot more water than a towel?

[Donald Miller]

No, not now.

[Kyle Reed]

But you did when he said it.

[Donald Miller]

When he was saying it, I was like, where do I get one?

[Kyle Reed]

What I would like to do is weigh a towel and then fill it up with water and weigh it again. My guess is going to be about 12 times the weight of the towel.

[Donald Miller]

Exactly just how water works.

[Kyle Reed]

The car, the boat, the RV. The Shamwow holds 12 times its weight in liquid. Look at this. It just does the work. He's visually showing you. Why do you want to work twice as hard now? He's saving you from working twice. We are about five sentences in and he has stacked value upon value upon value, demonstration upon demonstration, and demographic on demographic, the car, the boat, the whatever, and it just goes on from there.

[Donald Miller]

But again, to your point, but that.

[Kyle Reed]

Is not the kind of copy.

[Donald Miller]

No anybody would write. It wouldn't work in your original thing of like just reading that, you know.

[Kyle Reed]

You can do go to storybrand AI and just say, here's everything about the product that I sell. Will you write me a Vince offer style infomercial script?

[Donald Miller]

It would be really. I would be really curious to see.

[Kyle Reed]

What very curious about it. And of course you're not, you know, you don't have an infomercial but what you're going to get are some nuggets.

[Donald Miller]

Well, you're going to get the sound bites.

[Kyle Reed]

It's going to start stacking sound bites.

[Donald Miller]

Which you talk about that all the time of having your sound bites ready to go. And I actually think though you might not use it in copy in regular dialogue. That could be really powerful for anyone you're talking to. Yeah. There's something I picked up too. He said wow a lot. Did you notice that?

[Kyle Reed]

And also what a great name for the product. Right?

[Donald Miller]

Great name. Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

It's similar to what Billy Mays did. Amazing. Except now it's wow.

[Donald Miller]

That's right. The other thing I thought he did a good job was contrasting with regular towels. We talked about that. But paper towels.

[Kyle Reed]

He literally says regular towels.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

His words.

[Donald Miller]

Yep. And again he's moving so fast you don't even think they do.

[Kyle Reed]

You don't even think. Well of course they do because we use them. I've been using them for years. You know what? I'm not right now Wet.

[Donald Miller]

Well I also think too he took the. What I love too is he took the, you know, paper towels. You use them like it drives me crazy how I don't think she'll listen to this. My mother in law. How many paper towels she uses when she's in my house. She's totally listening to this. It drives me nuts.

[Kyle Reed]

Get her a shamrock. It bothers me for 20 bucks. By the way, did you see him anchor the price?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

You're spending 20 bucks a month on this. You can just have. But can you imagine walking into somebody's house and they've got no paper towels. It's just ShamWows.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. I wouldn't be okay like if you.

[Kyle Reed]

Had dinner guest you like roll up a shamwow.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, that would be a. Hey, it works on the commercials.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, it works really great. We've been using this for dinner for 25 years. You're the 700th person and we haven't.

[Donald Miller]

Watched it since because you can just wring it out.

[Kyle Reed]

Holds 12 times its weight in beef jerky. Beef jerky juice.

[Donald Miller]

But I love that he did that where you take a paper towel and you throw it away. ShamWow. You don't.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep. And by the way did you notice his. Where the science and expertise and the reason you should trust us come from it's this line. Germans make good stuff.

[Donald Miller]

But you know also he anchored it to you with the divers thing I thought was interesting. What was that? I don't know if I caught it. When he said that Olympic divers use this. Olympic divers use this. So again, my brain goes. Goes, oh, it must be great then.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Because they have to tile off or they have to.

[Kyle Reed]

They're the best in the world. It's something.

[Donald Miller]

And we've all watched the Olympics and we've seen those high divers have that and they throw it down. We've all seen that moment. And you're like, well, there must be something there.

[Kyle Reed]

You know what's interesting about this? It basically, the shamwow is. Is a shammy.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

And it's what people who detail cars have been using for decades. And somebody went, I could sell this to housewives. That's what they did.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

I could just literally make an infomercial and sell this thing to a whole different demographic of people and make a lot, a lot more money. Like hundreds of millions of dollars more money selling a car detail product to housewives.

[Donald Miller]

I just looked it up. 50 million chamois sold worldwide.

[Kyle Reed]

And where they're 20 bucks a piece. No. Well, I wonder if they're counting, like, all four.

[Donald Miller]

Depends on when you called. Now.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Because if you didn't call now, they can't do it all day.

[Kyle Reed]

It's hundreds of millions of dollars. Hundreds and hundreds of millions.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. In their first few years of introducing this, they made $100 million in revenue.

[Kyle Reed]

Did you notice the other thing he said acts like a vacuum?

[Donald Miller]

I did. I wrote.

[Kyle Reed]

So that's another. Same, but different.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

If there's a big controlling idea with. With Vince offer, he does a lot of same, but different.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

Which is a really important tip for everybody listening to this. Same but different. Talk about how it's like that but better.

[Donald Miller]

You know, the. The other thing he did, there's two things. They showed B roll of people using it. Right. So when they talked about the rv, they showed someone doing it. They did the testimonials with the people on mainland street testimonials was huge. The other one.

[Kyle Reed]

And also, did you notice how short the testimonials were? Yes. All the people listening to this, to my voice right now. Your testimonies are too long.

[Donald Miller]

Oh, that's that.

[Kyle Reed]

They're just too long.

[Donald Miller]

Yep. The paragraph doesn't.

[Kyle Reed]

It was amazing.

[Donald Miller]

And that's all you need.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Well, the other thing that actually sold it to me the most was when he showed that soda spilling on the carpet. And then he lifted it up, you see all the soda. And then he just lightly patted it and then rolled it and ringed it out.

[Kyle Reed]

Came out.

[Donald Miller]

Oh, my goodness. That's amazing because that's happened. We have kids. That's happened before.

[Kyle Reed]

He visually showed you figure out a way to visually demonstrate how this thing works, how your product actually works. And he also said cola, wine, pet stains. So he's list, of course, of course it cleans all that stuff. Right, of course. But you can't just. Of course, your audience, you have to say it. You have to say it like they don't know anything. You have to say it like they were born that morning and they know nothing about the world and how the world works.

[Donald Miller]

So wrap it up at the end here where he walks into the offer. How important was it, him putting that for long? Well, but also like saying it's 1999, but if you order now, you get a next set. How important that is. And when you're kind of asking for the money.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

What does that do for people?

[Kyle Reed]

Well, first of all, ask for the money.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

You know, put packet. Yeah, yeah, ask for the money. A lot of people listen to my voice. Don't ask for the money. Just go, if you're interested, let me know. That's not. That's, that's passive aggressive. Imagine asking a girl out, hey, I'd love to see you sometime. If you're interested, let me know.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, let me know.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. That's going nowhere. So you, you have to actually say, buy this for this amount of money. Now then he does a ticking time bomb. If you, if you go to a movie, most movies, all thrillers, all action movies, are gonna have some sort of time limit. Tom Cruise's oxygen, he only has 20 minutes worth of oxygen. Right. To get to the bottom of the submarine and get the whatever that's going to destroy the whole world. What that does is it creates a sense of urgency and interest in the movie itself. You're leaning and going, okay, he did the exact same thing.

[Donald Miller]

And they visually show it when he's doing that because you can see it in the breathing apparatus. It's counting down.

[Kyle Reed]

That's right. They're always showing you that clock. And so if you order in the next hour, sales go way up. And also, we don't have a lot of these. We can't do these. We can't do this for long.

[Donald Miller]

It's why we never use Learn more as a cta.

[Kyle Reed]

No.

[Donald Miller]

Right. I actually came across a little infographic the other day, and if you look at the top companies with their, with their CTA is like Airbnb, Find a rental. Spotify, try free for one month. Netflix, watch free for 30 days. Notion. Try Notion for free. Shopify. Start selling. It's all.

[Kyle Reed]

None of it's passive.

[Donald Miller]

None of it's passive.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, it's all. It's all. And I think when we as small business owners create content, we don't want to be pushy or aggressive. But what you have to realize is it's never perceived that way. Like, you wouldn't. Nobody would actually watch that infomercial and say, Vince offers really pushy, and that would be a hard guy to spend time. Nobody's saying it. What they're actually saying is, that's a lot of coke in that shamwow.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

He squeezed a lot of wine out of that thing.

[Donald Miller]

That's exactly right.

[Kyle Reed]

Does it? Let me be brutally honest with him.

[Donald Miller]

Right.

[Kyle Reed]

Don't you want one?

[Donald Miller]

I do. After seeing that squeeze out the coke.

[Kyle Reed]

I want one too. I'm gonna have one. I'm gonna order one. I wonder if you can get it on Amazon.

[Donald Miller]

I'm doing it right now.

[Kyle Reed]

You do it on Amazon?

[Donald Miller]

No, I'm not. I'm just telling someone we're on our way to a meeting because we're running late.

[Kyle Reed]

Just trying to get me to shut up.

[Donald Miller]

But no, but I think that the. The wrap of this is. Is because we actually have a really exciting meeting to go to.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, we don't have time. We don't. Yeah, we got to keep talking.

[Donald Miller]

We got to go. We can't do it. I think that the most important thing is to wrap this up is listen.

[Kyle Reed]

Quick, because we don't have long left.

[Donald Miller]

Nailing that pitch. When you nail your pitch with these learning from this words matter, the revenue follows.

[Bobby Richards]

Thanks for listening to the why that Worked podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you like the the show, follow wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're Enjoying this on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and leave a comment letting us know what you think and what you want the guys to talk about in a future episode. Curious about how StoryBrand AI can help you create clear, effective messaging? Well, you can try it out right now and create a free customized tagline for your business. Just go to storybrand AI. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.