Overview of TV Advertising
Television is the big dog when it comes to media dollar expenditures. There are a number of reasons for this but the obvious one is that more people spend more time in front of their TVs than any other media source. For hitting the masses, there is really no better opportunity from a media standpoint than TV. In short, TV has a proven track record of getting to consumers and shaping their behavior.
Upside of Television Advertisement Campaigns
Some of the upside I mentioned above, but there are a number of very good reasons why TV advertising can be advantageous.
- TV gives you instant credibility. Consumers just seem to believe things they see on TV.
- The ability to combine sight, sound and motion adds dimension and realism to your advertising campaign.
- Through program selection, you can target your audience pretty effectively.
- No medium offers greater mass global impact. Depending on your budget, TV has almost unlimited reach and a high percentage of people have more than one TV.
- The creative opportunity is larger for TV. If you have the cash, you can take a camera anywhere and create incredible presentation.
- Since it is generally a leisure activity, consumers spend a lot of time in front of a TV and they have the ability to immediately act on many buying impulses.
Downside of TV Advertisement Campaigns
TV advertising is not without its pitfalls, though, and any one of you reading this could list off some of the reasons as easily as I could.
- To really hit the masses, broadcast TV is best and commercial spots are very, very pricey. Cable offers more affordable options but then you don’t hit the masses as well.
- Research shows that you need significant repetition (at least 5-7 viewings) for your message to sink in. To get 5-7 viewings, you need to be on a lot more than that. Pricey.
- Before you even buy commercial spots, you need to spend significant dollars to create a high quality ad. You can do it for less but generally not very well.
- Much like radio, your commercial spot comes and goes and when it’s out of sight it falls out of mind. That is, unless you buy more spots.
- As a rule, people don’t want to watch commercials. The turn on the TV to watch the program. With more and more channels available, it’s easy to skip the commercials.
Main Thing To Know About TV Advertising
Television is the largest target of media dollars for a reason and it’s attractive for a lot of reasons. My problems with TV are that it is very expensive (when done properly) and it’s somewhat inefficient no matter how well you do it. My advice is, if you have the brand and the budget to do it right, TV can be money well spent. You need to have a high quality ad, lots of repetition and the right commercial time. If you’re not sure you have the budget, then you don’t have the budget. You’re much better off not doing it than doing it poorly.
