Why you might ask, would anybody intentionally portray themselves as a “hick.” Andy’s motivation was what we call in the advertising and marketing industry, “branding” and “positioning”.  Andy and I were members of a large fraternity at The University of Texas in the mid 1970s.  The fraternity from a social stand point was our world, a small provincial, pretentious, chauvinistic world. Many of our “brothers” were handsome guys; we called them “face jocks”.  Even more of them seemed to be from wealthy families.  They dressed well and they drove very nice late model automobiles.  Being a face jock, dressing well and driving nice cars had its’ advantages in the Greek world at The University of Texas in the mid 1970s.  The most important advantage of course was with the women.  If you had these characteristics you were guaranteed opportunities to date some beautiful sorority girls who might also be from a wealthy family.  Yeah the Greek world at The University had some shallow aspects to it.

Andy wasn’t a face jock. He didn’t drive a nice late model car and he didn’t appear to be from a wealthy family. Since he couldn’t compete in those areas Andy brilliantly identified a strength he could exploit when it came to competing against wealthy “face jocks” for women.  Andy developed a “charming hick” persona.  Think Andy Griffith as the small town North Carolina sheriff in The Andy Griffith Show.  Andy was good at it.  He worked construction during summers in east Texas and enjoyed using the region’s accent and some of its’ interesting phraseology that he had picked up.  His positioning strategy worked.  Andy dated more than his share of pretty sorority girls and eventually became engaged to one during his senior year.

I wasn’t rich or particularly handsome and I had no gimmick as Andy perceptively pointed out.  Despite Andy’s advice I didn’t identify a positioning strategy that I could successfully execute.  Therefore my love life was some what of a bust juxtaposed to my roommate the “Charming hick”.

What’s your business’ “gimmick” i.e. your position versus your competition?  What do you do best?  What do you want to perceived by the marketplace?  Have you done what Andy did by identifying and exploiting a market niche for yourself?  Or are you like I was– without a positioning strategy? If your position is: “low prices”, “been in business for over 20 years” or “locally owned and operated,” you probably haven’t claimed a unique position in the market place and my advice to you is,  “you got to have a gimmick.”

bill@frinkadvertising.com

How can you go wrong?

1. Letting the cable provider write the script and control the production of your commercial.

The sales people and the production people with the cable provider are not professional script writers and it’s not what they get paid to do. In fact their compensation is not tied to the quality or effectiveness of the commercials they’re producing. The production people know how to operate a camera and know something about lighting and audio but to do a professional job they need to be supervised and directed by a professional television advertising producer.

You don’t have to be an advertising writer/producer to have noticed local television commercials that seemed a little gamey or less than polished. It’s probable that these are spots written and produced by a local cable provider or television station.

2. Making your media buy based solely on the recommendation of the sales rep.

The sales rep is not a professional media buyer. The cable rep’s charge is to sell cable network advertising inventory at the highest possible rate that they can charge. Another responsibility of the sales rep is to sell inventory that is less in demand whether or not it’s suitable for the advertiser. Therefore their recommendations are influenced by several factors that are unrelated to your best interests.

3. Buying Cheap Spots.

Cheap spots are cheap for a reason. The audience is small therefore the demand for them is low. A campaign of hundreds cheap spots even if they’re targeted to a niche audience isn’t going to reach enough of your market to help you unless it’s combined with spots that reach a large audience.

4. Buying a “Package”.

Cable providers are always selling packages. There’s the “Summer Sizzler” the “Hot Spots”, the “Lots-O-Spots” or just the plain old “Frequency Package”. These are designed to sell inventory that doesn’t normally sell. Usually a combination of Monday-Friday daytime inventory, Monday-Sunday 5am-12midnight rotators on low demand networks such as CNBC, Animal Planet, Oxygen and The Travel Channel that are packaged together so the average spot rate comes in at less than $10 or so. The purpose of these packages is to sell unsold inventory for the cable operator. This is probably not an effective strategy for a unique advertiser.

5. Not evaluating your market’s local television stations.

Don’t assume you can’t afford to incorporate local broadcast stations into your plan or even use broadcast exclusively. If your target audience is lower income or retirees your local broadcast stations may be the best choice.

Conclusion
I sold local television advertising for Time Warner Cable in Austin, Texas for ten years. For the last nine years I’ve planned and executed media buys for my clients in several markets across the United States. My expertise in utilizing cable television continues to grow and develop.

If you’re interested in contacting me regarding cable television advertising or other advertising and marketing issues, please click here or on any of the contact links on this website.

How to make a good Cable buy:

1. Clearly define your target prospects

2. Identify what they’re watching

3. Know the cable vendor’s pressure points.

With a little thought you can probably handle #1 on your own. A good cable sales representative might be able to help you with #2.  A good sales rep. isn’t going to help you with #3.  Your best bet is to seek the advice of an independent advertising professional. A good one will save you time and money.

I think it’s a lousy short sighted business practice for both sides of the exchange.  But it’s especially misguided for the advertiser. Think about it.  For a business that advertises on television, their commercial is their image.  Their commercial is the most important business presentation they will make.  In terms of sales and marketing their commercial is everything.

Do you get your haircut for free at the barber college?  Do you buy a suit for the big job interview at the second hand shop?  I’m guessing probably not.  Then why would a business go to the “barber college” of advertising production to create its’ image?  It’s not hard pick out the commercials you see on television that were produced for “free”.  We laugh at those commercials all the time.

Bottom line the businesses that go for the “free production” aren’t really saving any money.  What they’re doing is wasting a significant percentage of their airtime investment presenting a cheap image of themselves to their prospects and customers.

If you’re going to advertise on television hire professionals to write and produce your commercials. Then devote a significant amount of your time communicating to them what’s special about your business and its’ products and services.

After you’ve hired professional script writers and producers, you should also delegate the purchase of your airtime to media buying professionals. But if you find yourself negotiating a media buy, tell the sales rep that  since you aren’t using their free production you want to be compensated for the production services you’re not using with equal value on their airtime rates.

Some advertisers are paying much higher rates than others for the identical programming on local television and radio. And it’s not always because advertisers with large budgets have greater leverage or buying power than small budget advertisers. Most often it’s because some advertisers have professional media buyers and some don’t. Advertisers with small budgets can get rates just as low as the biggest spender in town if a pro is buying their media.

Small businesses that advertise on television or radio without the advice of a professional media buyer are almost certainly wasting money. If you don’t have long term media buying experience and you’re not shopping, buying and negotiating media buys on a routine basis you can’t know everything you need to know to make efficient buys.

“ I have a great relationship with my media rep. and she really takes care of me”

. Their job is to sell each and every spot for the highest rate possible.  Their management expects that. Simply demanding lower rates or holding out until they offer a lower rate isn’t all there is to it. Professional buyers know what rates are negotiable and when they’re negotiable. A buyer who is in the market every day can identify nooks and crannies in ad inventory where demand has not caught up to value.

As the owner of an advertising agency that specializes in local television and radio advertising I call on small businesses to solicit new clients. One of the most common objections I encounter is, “we’re a small business and we can’t afford an agency”. Or, “won’t it be more expensive to buy through a middle man?”

The answer to both objections is that the most expensive way to advertise on television and radio is to not use a professional buyer to purchase your airtime. Not only that, but if you hire a professional to do your buying you have the shortest, easiest and most effective blow off line to the many pesky media salespeople who will call you once you start advertising. “Call my agency”