HFC Television

Reaching the consumer like never before.

How would you elect to reach one to two million consumers each and every week? Let me make it harder. How would you elect to reach one to two million female consumers between the ages of 18 and 54 each week?

Some monthly magazines do a great job of reaching that number of people over a 30 day period.

Major newspapers will definitely reach that many people in a week, but you would have to advertise two or more times.

The only medium that can reach that many people with a single impression at the same time is commercial television.

Now, why do we, as an industry need to reach that many people? Because our industry has rarely reached a mass audience consistently. We make a hit here and there but rarely do we repeat and repeat and repeat- It costs money to do that and it means taking a risk.

The HFC has taken that risk and we are now reaching more than 4,000,000 women 18-54 each month through our television program HAVEN. We are generating some very interesting statistics:

• More than 50,000 viewers have called the HFC Hotline since the program began. All are referred to retailers in their local area.
• Better than 40% of those callers have watched 2 or more shows (10% have seen all 13 of our original shows ).
• Over 95% of our callers tell us they are remodeling, redecorating, or moving. Prime prospects for home furnishings.
• We have received more than 16,500 entries in our HAVEN Win-A-SET Sweepstakes.
• Our consumer database of names and addresses has now grown to nearly 100,000 potential HF buyers.
• The show is drawing excellent viewership and ratings in many markets, especially where it is on between 9-12AM on Saturday or Sunday. Some seven week average ratings are compiled in figure 1.

Rating numbers are difficult to understand, but this isn't: 30,000 people in San Antonio, Texas; 35,000 in St Louis, Missouri and 60,000 people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are watching HAVEN each week.

Another help to understanding the power of our program might be to understand how other shows perform:

The Lifetime cable network's OUR HOME which airs twice each day at 10:00AM and 2:00PM has 144,000 people watching in the morning and 118,000 in the afternoon, nationwide. Since it airs daily it will reach one million people per week, but it takes them 20 hours on air to reach the numbers that HAVEN will do in 30 minutes.

Good Morning America is now achieving an average rating of 4.5, The Ricky Lake Show the fastest growing syndicated talk show in TV history is now averaging about 4.0, and HAVEN is reaching these levels in many markets, not consistently yet, but the show is competing on a real basis with more typical television programming.

We now have a great platform sending our message to the consumer. What message should we send? We believe that the message should be that it is easy to redecorate, and here are the products and information that can help your home be the home you want it to be.

Our host Joy Philbin serves as the consumer's guide through the world of home furnishings. Her job is to help us find the answers we need, to ask the questions our viewers send in and to represent that viewer to gain the ideas and information they need to feel comfortable making decorating decisions.

Our 800# helps further. Callers gain further information and reference to retailers who can help them right in their own home town. We believe it is important to have people shopping every week... looking for new ideas, and realizing that the answers are right at home.

Some thoughts for retailers: You can capitalize on the draw of HAVEN by buying local time now. Our ratings are just beginning to grow, by this time next year they will be even better. Buy now and establish yourself as an HFC retailer. Show your logo in your ads and on your door. Soon we will begin an effort to tell the consumer to look for the logo. If you can not buy the show (it is sold out in some markets) buy time adjacent to the show... just before or after... especially after. The people who watch HAVEN are not like the viewers of a typical sitcom... they will not continue to watch unless they have a real interest in home furnishings. This is a prime buying group.

Some thoughts for manufacturers: You can capitalize, whatever your size, by joining the HFC and using this great platform. Your products will be featured on the show and your advertising can help us fund the continuation of the effort -- plus gain outstanding exposure for your company name and products.

Join with us... we're telling the consumer more each day about our products and our industry. We'd like to include everyone.