I've been involved in hundreds of local television advertising campaigns since six years and for the past six years as the owner of an advertising agency specializing
in television for local markets. Some of the campaigns were successful and
lasted for years. A few of the successful campaigns were for advertisers that
were customers of mine.The causes for a campaign's success or failure were
varied but the successes all shared some common fundamentals.
Why are investing in a television advertising
campaign? Is television advertising your primary tactic in generating leads and
making sales or is it just one of several tactics and mediums being used in
your overall marketing and sales strategy? Having a well defined purpose for
the campaign and how it fits into your overall marketing and sales strategy as
opposed to a general purpose of, "getting our name out there," is the
foundation for building a successful campaign.
Television advertising is relatively expensive so I
advise prospects and clients that unless you're comfortable with no return on
your investment you should have research or evidence that there is a demand for
what you're selling.
The message has to be clear and concise. The
audience has to know what's in it for them and what you want them to do about
it. Call, come in, visit your website, or all of the above.
This starts with the writing or concept. The
simpler the concept is to execute the better. You need broadcast quality
professional lighting, cameras, editing equipment and operators who are
professional and committed to making your commercial a success.
First know your target, demographically andgeographically. Each local station and cable network have programming that
serves specific core demographic audiences. You need objective audience
research to pick the programming suitable for your campaign. Local cable
provides an option to target an audience geographically.
You must have an adequate budget to achieve
frequency and to sustain the campaign for several weeks. A benchmark for a
minimum length of a campaign is about three months. For a new campaign if
you're not getting some tangible results within three weeks I recommend pausing
and re-evaluating your strategy.
In the internet, digital, YouTube age television is
still a powerful medium than can be an incredibly effective advertising and
marketing tool if you know how to use it.
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