As you approach the unpretentious building with the white blinds and red awnings on a corner of downtown Burlington, it’s hard to believe that a thriving, fast-paced, $150 million-plus business has its corporate offices inside.

But for Cannella Response Television, Inc., home of the company whose founder Frank Cannella is credited with being the creator of the first television “infomercial,” Burlington will always be home, president and CEO Rob Medved says.

“Our corporate headquarters will remain in Burlington. We will stay here,” says Rob, whose company has regional offices in Los Angeles and New York. For Rob, and for the 13 of the firm’s 30 employees who are based in Burlington, the quiet, small town atmosphere is a welcome reprieve from the pressures of a company that has clients who pull in as much as $2 billion a year.

“This is such a unique industry,” Rob says. “It is so fast moving, and the pressures can be high.” Those who succeed in it, he says, have developed a “passion” for the industry, but also know how to balance their work lives, family lives and time spent with friends.

Cannella, which actually operates under two companies, CRT and Cable Response Television, projects an excess of $150 million in revenues this year. Cannella achieved 100% growth each year from 1999 until 2003 and has seen “significant growth since then,” Rob says.

He credits Frank Cannella, who currently chairs the company’s Board, with exhibiting the passion that has carried over to others in the firm. “When I came in (in 1994), I knew nothing about the industry, and definitely had no idea I would wind up where I am today,” Rob says. “But I fell in love with this industry and ran with the ball.”

Frank founded Cannella Response Television in 1985, three years after airing a 30-minute television show that showcased the attributes of a client’s hair care product. This was the first “infomercial” as it is known today.

At that time, Frank, who was employed by a Chicago-based direct response TV advertising agency, worked to sell the concept of a program-length advertisement to broadcast stations and many of the early national cable networks. He already had a weekend home in Burlington and moved there full-time in 1986.

In addition to specializing in direct response media placement on national cable networks and broadcast stations, Cannella Response Television works as a project manager for its clients. This includes guiding clients through the infomercial process by assisting in such areas as product assessment, script analysis, rough cut evaluation, telemarketing scripting and fulfillment.

Rob, an Elm Grove resident who grew up in Sussex, comes from a family of entrepreneurs. His grandfather, Louis Medved, founded the former Medved Tool & Die Co. in Milwaukee in the early 1900s and patented the first retractable clothesline and other products.

Rob’s father, Robert, later took over the tool and die company and ran it until he died in 2002. “Although we had a successful family business, my father really gave me wings and the ability and freedom to pursue my own interests,” Rob says. “You see so many family businesses where it becomes overriding to continue the family name. My father encouraged me to become my own man and to make my own mark on the world.”

A graduate of UW-Madison with degrees in English and economics, Rob met Frank while working at the mercantile exchange in Chicago. He had written and published a computer-training guide, and wound up partnering with Frank on the product. Rob eventually published six computer books in two languages and wrote MediaStar®, Cannella Response Television’s proprietary analysis and tracking software that assists clients with buying decisions and profitability analysis.

At the time he met Rob, Frank was what he calls a “one man show” at Cannella. He asked Rob to join the company, and Rob gradually worked his way up, becoming president in 2005 and president and CEO in 2007.
Working to have “balance” in his life is a key to meeting the constant demands of his job, Rob says. Creating a good balance is also important for all of Cannella’s employees, he believes.

“We hire smart people, but in order to become successful in this business and stick around, you have to have a passion for it,” Rob says. “This is a very competitive industry and I found out early on that the only way to have success is to have that time outside. We create that environment here by giving our team members the freedom to take the time during the day to do what they need, such as going to their kids’ games. We trust and we know that our people will get the job done.”

Although Rob describes being president and CEO of Cannella as a “24/7 job,” one way he achieves balance in his own life is by playing basketball early in the morning as many as four times a week, as well as on the weekends. His three daughters, Claire, 12, Gabby, 11, and Grace, 5, are also a big part of his life. “I’m fortunate enough to have a spouse who is able to juggle my personal life so it is balanced with friends, family and athletics,” he says.

CANNELLA’S CLIENTS

Rob describes Cannella’s clients as “well respected and stable direct marketers. These are the folks who have been in the industry a great number of years and continue to produce great pay programs with sustainable products.” Among the company’s clients are Guthy-Renker, LLC, one of the world’s largest direct response television companies with sales of more than $1.8 billion per year, and Tristar Products, Inc., which — through its multiple partners — has one of the largest retail and direct response distribution networks in the world.

“We don’t want business customers that aren’t good for the industry,” Rob says. “We would turn down a potential client if it was a company or a product that had a track record of consumer complaints – or if it had direct response materials that weren’t moral or ethical. Direct response television has come a long way to better its name.”

Cannella Response Television prides itself in taking a larger role in its client’s campaigns than many other media companies. Some examples of the consulting services it provides are helping to negotiate industry vendor contracts in order to yield additional profits; turning around failed campaigns by reviewing commercials and infomercials, then making key recommendations; and creating telemarketing “upsells” that result in profitability.

One of the most exciting campaigns Rob was involved in was helping to launch the Tae-Bo exercise DVD series, which “really became one of the first mega hits in the direct response world. The product went retail shortly after the Titanic video came out and even knocked that off the charts. It became a brand that still exists today and created the whole kickbox exercising craze,” he says.

In addition to seeing new products achieve success, Rob enjoys watching what happens to the entrepreneurs behind those products. “We’re a great industry in that a person with an idea can see tens of millions of dollars of product revenue within a year. These people may have invested their life savings and their blood, sweat and tears into a product. It’s great to see them become successful,” he says.

CHANGING INDUSTRY

One of Rob’s biggest challenges is making sure that Cannella Response Television stays on top of all of the changes in the industry. “When I first started, there were a dozen cable channels people watched. Now we have a 500 channel digital universe,” he says. The mandate that all television broadcasting be solely digital effective later this month “creates a lot of opportunities for us as an industry,” he adds.

In the future, as more and more consumers become subscribers to digital cable and digital satellite television, it will provide opportunities for direct response television advertisers “to interact with consumers on a more personal level,” Rob believes. For example, he says, click-through advertising will enable consumers to “interact directly with their TVs.” Click-through advertising is the selection of an ad by clicking on a banner or other on-screen device which then takes the consumer to the advertiser’s Web site.

Cannella Response Television has a mid-term plan that calls for growing its business by another 50% over the next three years. Rob believes the company will achieve that by continuing to focus on its relationships with its clients and by being prepared to take advantage of new opportunities that arise.

“We’re in a service industry, so people are very important and the relationships we hold are very important. We are not a company with many assets outside of our people and the relationships they hold,” he says.

When it comes to taking advantage of new opportunities, Rob says “in hindsight, you always want to say that you would have made a certain move earlier in the business, but the reality is that we’re always prepared to take advantage of the opportunities when they present themselves.” Cannella’s success, he notes, is not due “to jumping the gun, but to making the right moves at the right time.”

By Barbara Mulhern