Direct Line established high levels of recall among consumers. In September 2014, the brand worked with Saatchi and Saatchi to relaunch its advertising, using Hollywood actor Harvey Keitel as Winston Wolfe, a Mafia style 'fixer'. The company had one million customers after eight years. The company expanded with a series of new offshoots in the 1990s. In 1995, a Spanish offshoot, Linea Direct, started offering motor insurance in Spain. They expanded into travel insurance in 1996, pet insurance in 1997, and Direct Line Breakdown started offering breakdown insurance in 1998. Their non general insurance products umbrella Direct Line Financial services launched their
Direct response television include categories for long form TV Infomercial and DRTV work. For short-form television direct marketing, the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) recognizes program excellence via the A. Eicoff Broadcast Innovation Award, named for DRTV pioneer and DMA Hall of fame member, Alvin Eicoff. Many advertisements during the Super Bowl have been DRTV ads and encouraged direct response via websites and 800 numbers. These include ads for web services ranging from Cars.Com to Pets.com and Monster.com. The eTrade advertisement shown during the 2008 Super Bowl featured both an 800 number and a website for response In 2000, Netpliance aired a 30-second advertisement