Ed Valenti
American marketing expert
Ed Valenti is an American Television personality, advertising pioneer, and entrepreneur. In the 1970s he founded Dial Media, which created numerous techniques that transformed infomercials on television in the United States and beyond. His techniques were used on a variety of products but were best known for their use in the now legendary Ginsu knife commercial. They sold millions of units across America between the mid-70s to mid-80s and were eventually acquired by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 1985 for an undisclosed sum.
Valenti and his business partner Barry Becher founded Dial Media, Inc., one of the first major infomercial companies in the world. Using various evolutionary selling techniques, Valenti sold over $500 million worth of units of various products from the 1970s onwards using mostly TV.
Valenti is credited with coining a number of phrases widely adopted by advertisers today, including: “But wait, there’s more!”, “Now how much would you pay?” and “This is a limited-time offer, so call now.”
Career
In the early 1970s, Valenti worked as an Advertising Executive at an NBC TV Affiliate, using clever "first time" marketing techniques such as toll free numbers, credit card payment options, with unique slogans & phrases on the TV ads. He and his friend Barry Becher, bought an unusual painting pad gadget for their first product. The commercial featured a man in a tuxedo painting to demonstrate "no drip". The unique commercial was so successful using clever marketing techniques, toll free numbers and catchy slogans and phrases, that the product grossed $10 million is sales.
In the late-1970s, Valenti developed more DR campaigns, namely for a new knife from Douglas Quikut.
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