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News Release from: David Gent Creative | Subject: TV advertising
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 16 January 2008
TV advertising: myths and misses
Don't let the myths about TV allow you to miss out on a powerful marketing tool, argues David Gent of TV agency David Gent Creative.
I heard recently about a marketing director who'd been given an extra GBP100k by the board to boost exposure, but rejected TV because he thought it would merely cover production That may have been true some years ago, just like colour printing was hideously expensive in its early days, but digital filming and slimmed-down production crews mean a polished commercial could now cost anything from a few grand upwards
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 2 Apr 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Couple that with the UK's multichannel TV network and airtime prices that have actually fallen in real terms over the last decade and the barriers to entry in TV advertising are now much, much lower.
In fact, I'd go as far as to claim that it's never been cheaper to put your product or service on telly and, to back up that statement, let me dispel a few modern myths about TV marketing.
Myth 1: it's prohibitively expensive to produce a TV commercial.
Not true, unless you call GBP5k, GBP10k or even GBP20k prohibitively expensive.
Many of the retail and brand commercials you see could be replicated quite inexpensively, if you remove the celebrity voice-over and hit soundtrack.
These stand-out features count if you're competing for fractions of market share, but at entry level you can dispense with these costly add-ons and focus on communicating your message effectively and inexpensively.
Myth 2: nobody watches television these days.
Again, not so: we watch as much telly as ever, on average between three and four hours a day, and in far greater numbers than in the early days of the box.
Of course, ITV doesn't deliver the large viewing numbers it once did, when it was the only commercial station, but nowadays commercial TV overall has the biggest share of viewing, which is great for advertisers.
Myth 3: young people no longer watch television.
Yes they do and when they're online or texting their mates, TV programmes and personalities are still the main topics of interest.
That's why TV catchphrases like 'am I bovvered' gain currency.
Besides, studies of what's known as 'media meshing' suggest teens typically have TV on in the background when surfing the net and the big online players themselves recognise that TV ads prompt more visits to websites than any other media.
Myth 4: TV's only for big brands with national distribution.
Let's separate these statements out: digital channels, many with sizeable audiences, give TV marketing access to advertisers of all sizes, while running a campaign at periods when airtime prices are lower makes even the terrestrial stations affordable.
At the same time, regional splits provided by the different ITV companies, plus macro areas offered by Channel 4, 5 and GMTV, mean you can tune your schedule to a particular distribution or catchment territory, even down to micro level.
Myth 5: your adverts will be screened in daytime or off-peak only.
Not unless you want them to be: with a regional split, your commercial could appear in the centre break of Corrie and other top-rating shows, alongside the big brands, although your campaign would probably include daytime and late-peak spots to add frequency and vary the audience.
Anyway, depending on your target audience, daytime can be very good for direct response, while 'post-pub' telly reaches students and young people cost-effectively.
Myth 6: you can't calculate return on investment with TV.
Quite the reverse: thanks to the independent BARB panel, you will have a precise estimate, including a demographic profile, of how many thousands of viewers watched your commercial, enabling exact ROI calculations.
You can use this spot-by-spot data to work out cost-per-response for each phone call or web visit, while it can also allow you to analyse the impact on customer traffic, recruitment levels, names, addresses and other measures, enabling you to identify top-performing channels, days of week, dayparts and programming.
Myth 7: there are too many channels with nobody watching.
Until the early 1980s there was only one commercial channel and, if you could afford to advertise, virtually everybody saw your spot.
Nowadays, there are hundreds of channels and audiences are much more fragmented, but this means you can reach niche markets highly cost-effectively.
Whether you're targeting mothers, motorists, food lovers, wine buffs, property buyers, teachers, holidaymakers or whatever, there's a digital platform that delivers them.
Even if a programme is 'zero rated', it's just that it's below the BARB threshold and could still be viewed by thousands.
Myth 8: viewers are always fast-forwarding through the commercial breaks.
This refers to PVR (personal video recorder) users, representing less than 14 per cent of viewers, who have the means of fast-forwarding through paused or recorded programmes.
However, research indicates that almost 90 per cent of their viewing is live, on top of which they watch an average 20 minutes extra TV per day, more than compensating for any shortfall.
Besides, even when viewed at x30 fast-forward, ads still have a positive effect on brand awareness, according to a recent study.
Myth 9: people watch more BBC than commercial television.
That's not true: ITV is the biggest rating channel in peak time and, across the board, we watch more commercial TV than state-funded telly, at around 65 per cent of viewing.
This myth has arisen because the Beeb always wins the Christmas ratings battle.
But that's just because ITV and other commercial broadcasters choose not to compete at that time of year, since advertisers are thin on the ground and airtime prices are low, just as newspapers get slimmer at Christmas, because most readers are at home and so advertising levels drop.
Myth 10: it is cheaper to deal direct with TV contractors.
Not so: it costs nothing extra to use a specialist TV agency, because the commission is built into the airtime pricing structure, and you'll get an independent view of which platform is best for meeting your marketing objectives.
Moreover, we've heard enough about TV-related scams to realise that broadcasters don't always put the customer's interests first and, like any advertising medium, will always manipulate the figures to show their proposition's best.
A contractor won't look after your script writing, production and clearances either, which a specialist TV agency like ourselves will.
I hope what I've said has given you the confidence to actively consider TV advertising as a marketing option and evaluate how it stacks up against other media, which don't always get the same slide-rule analysis.
Depending on your catchment area and target audience, you could put together a campaign for as little as GBP25k and certainly a budget of GBP50k-GBP100k would give you plenty to play with, creatively and airtime-wise.
Don't let the myths make you miss out on a powerful marketing medium that you can probably afford.
David Gent is Managing Director of David Gent Creative, an agency of some 24 years' standing with offices in Lancashire and Essex.
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