Mortgages typically are not advertised on television alongside acne creams or exercise DVDs, but the West Coast lender Paramount Equity Mortgage Inc. thinks the infomercial is the perfect tool to generate leads.
Paramount Equity said Monday that it had partnered with Guthy-Renker LLC — known for its TV infomercials promoting the Proactiv line of acne treatment products and the Ultimate Edge with Tony Robbins motivational materials, among others — to help it expand nationwide. Guthy-Renker, which is taking an undisclosed though "significant" equity position in Paramount, will create commercials for the Sacramento, Calif., lender and provide it with back-office support, including IT and customer service.
"Our dream has always been to take the business national," said Hayes Barnard, founder and chief executive of Paramount Equity.
Since its founding in 2003, Paramount has spent about $50 million on marketing, Barnard said. "The sophistication of a company like Guthy-Renker … gives us a lot more marketing fuel to get us to another level."
Guthy-Renker, of Santa Monica, plans to launch two-minute and 30-minute spots for the lender, touting its ability to close loans in as few as 10 days. People tend to think of infomercials as cheesy, long-winded pitches to the gullible, but Guthy-Renker stressed that Paramount's ads will target creditworthy borrowers.
"People who watch television are the same people [who] get mortgages from Bank of America and Wells Fargo," said Ben Van de Bunt, a co-CEO of Guthy-Renker. "We can only save money for the people that have credit and the ability to take these loans."
