Austin Advertising Agency Frink Inc. » television advertising

20 Years in TV Production and Advertising

thundercow — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:22:29 +0000

Television Advertising in Local Markets

I’ve been involved in hundreds of local television advertising campaigns since 1990: first as a cable advertising sales person, and for the past eight years as the owner of an advertising agency specializing in television and radio advertising campaigns for local markets. Some of the campaigns were successful and lasted for years. Many were failures and for obvious reasons lasted a short period of time. A few of the successful campaigns were for advertisers that were customers of mine when I was in sales for Time Warner Cable and became clients when I started Frink Inc. Advertising. The causes for a campaign’s success or failure were varied but the successes all shared some common fundamentals.

Fundamentals for Success in Local Television Advertising

1. Define Success: Why are investing in a television advertising campaign? Is television advertising your primary tactic in generating leads and making sales s 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.

2. A compelling product or service: 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.

3. A clear Call to Action: 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.

4. Professional production: 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.

5. Media Placement: First know your target, demographically and geographically. 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.

6. Budget: 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 digital and YouTube age television is still a compelling medium that can be an incredibly effective advertising and marketing tool if you know how to use it.

Cable Television Advertising-”How not to”

thundercow — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:00:13 +0000

Cable television advertising is an inexpensive and easy way to get your business’ message on television. Spots can be purchased for as little as $10 or less. You may be able to target your specific trade area. Your local cable provider might even produce your television commercial for free!

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.

Do it Yourself Media Buying

thundercow — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:53:04 +0000

Do it yourself media buying

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”