"We have actually controlled 10, 000 1-800 numbers at one time because that's how we got attribution, " says Renker, 53.
Recently Klum launched an antiaging skin care line, In an Instant, to be hawked through infomercials by marketing giant Guthy-Renker.
Founded in 1988 by Bill Guthy and Greg Renker, the infomercial company is the largest of its ilk, excluding channels like QVC.
In order to get the point across, Renker and his partner Bill Guthy decided that a celebrity was the best tactic.
More recently, Renker says that the company is monitoring celebrities who are customers to measure their reach before signing them to endorsement deals.
On the precipice of death, Painter obtained an emergency bridge loan from existing investors, which include Capricorn Investment Group, GRP Partners and an affiliate of Guthy-Renker.
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While the technology is a decade old, the CPA push is one of "the most important new opportunities we have beside our foray into mobile, " says Renker.
Already, Guthy-Renker has a presence in 61 countries, a combination of distributor relationships and eight owned-and-operated businesses in Japan, China, Australia, India, Sweden, Germany, Finland and England.
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"It's frustrating for a direct marketer to become a brander, because your entire DNA is based on measuring, " says Renker, who longs for the simplicity of his earlier business model.
Guthy-Renker's sales have stalled over the last couple of years, the result of consumers pulling back--and being less willing to watch 30-minute ads on the transformative powers of skin creams and exercise equipment.
How Proactiv, which has made its name in the infomercial arena, will respond to this shift in coming years is still up in the air, but Renker agrees the role of social media seems on track to becoming increasingly important.
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