Still the Most Powerful Form
The Internet may grab all of the attention these days, but TV is still the media king. According to one recent study, the average American spends more
than four and a half hours a day in front of the tube -- and a whopping 99 percent of all U.S. households have at least one TV.
Those numbers make one thing crystal clear: television advertising is still the most pervasive and powerful tool for reaching U.S. consumers. For small
businesses, however, the barriers to using TV ads can be daunting; airtime can be very expensive, and good commercials are difficult and costly to
create.
Given both the costs and benefits, is TV advertising the right approach for your small business? In the following slideshow we'll run down both the pros
and cons, and help you to decide whether television advertising is a good choice.
The Pros
The Cons
The "Show and Tell" Effect
TV ads allow you to show and tell a wide audience about your business,
product, or service. You can show how your product or service works,
demonstrate the benefits of ownership, and show how it's packaged so
prospective customers will know what to look for at the point of sale. While
both online and print media offer some of the same advantages, TV
advertising still offers the best way to tell your story in an engaging,
consumer-friendly format.
TV Ads Demand Good Scripts and Strong Offers
For every really good ad that we see on TV, there are many others that
either fail to make an impression or actually make the wrong impression -they're cheap, tacky, stilted, or flat-out dumb.
Also keep in mind that in advertising, it often takes multiple touch points to
influence consumers' purchasing behavior. TV makes it easier to
accomplish that quickly, allowing your small business to convert more
potential buyers into paying customers.
TV Reaches a Bigger Audience
TV reaches a much larger audience than local newspapers and radio
stations, and it does so during a short period of time. According to one
study, for example, Americans in 2010 spent an average of 96 minutes per
day listening to radio and 30 minutes a day reading newspapers. That may
sound like a lot of time, but it pales in comparison to the 4.5 hours a day
that the average person spends in front of his or her TV set.
At the same time, the growing number of cable TV channels offers an
opportunity to purchase lower-cost ads that still reach specific
demographic groups. Whether your business needs to reach young people,
seniors, women, or minority communities, chances are there's a channel - or several channels -- that are a good fit for your ads.
To create an effective television ad, it's first necessary to have a good
script that highlights a strong offer. Ads must also be effectively produced,
and it's for this reason that it's often better to enlist the services of an
advertising agency. That's an expensive prospect (more on that next), but
it beats the alternative: the kind of ad that actually makes your business
look worse than it did before.
TV Ads Are Expensive
No other advertising medium will eat up your budget as quickly as
television. Even if you're buying late-night cable TV spots, air time can run
into thousands of dollars. You'll also have to deal with production costs,
including hiring script writers, actors, editors, and other professionals. An
ad agency can coordinate this process and even help you design an entire
ad campaign, but they'll charge you by the hour to do so. And since TV ads
are far more effective when they're viewed repeatedly, you're going to
have to buy multiple ads.
How much will all of this set you back? At the national level, the average
cost of producing a 30-second spot can be well over $300,000. While ads
in local markets, using smaller agencies, can cost far less, you'll still
invest thousands of dollars to produce even a bargain-basement TV ad
with enough air time to get your business noticed.
TV Ads Get Your Attention
Never mind the dismissive talk about "couch potatoes": TV advertising
often reaches consumers when they're at their most attentive and alert.
Consider how many people, after a boring day at work, look forward to
watching their favorite TV programs. And while not everyone is pleased
that more people vote in "American Idol" contests than in U.S. presidential
elections, it still proves just how powerful TV can be as a tool for getting -and holding -- the attention of millions of viewers.
Of course, your small business probably doesn't have the budget to buy
space on a prime-time sitcom or top-rated drama. But more affordable
ads are still available on shows with lesser-known but still popular
personalities -- including ever-popular soaps, talk shows, and tabloid TV
programs. Getting a viewer's attention may not ensure success for your
business, but it certainly sets the stage.
TV Adds Instant Credibility
TV commercials allow you to convey your message with sight, sound, and
motion, all of which can combine to lend your business a big dose of
instant credibility. Part of this is simply the fact that, for better or for
worse, we think of "being on TV" as a sign of prestige or importance. And
part of it is the fact that a clever TV ad can actually take on a life of its
own, especially when combined with social media tools such as Twitter and
YouTube.
Need more proof of just how powerful this process can be? Consider that
millions of people watch the Super Bowl not for the game but for the
commercials. Even decades later, many of those commercials are more
memorable than the games they accompanied.
Pro: TV Adds Personality
TV ads give you an opportunity to be creative and to give your business a
real sense of personality. That's a great way to connect with customers
and to build a loyal clientele that keeps coming back for more
Jack in the Box, for instance, conducted one of the most successful and
longest-running ad campaigns in television history just by hiring an actor
to wear a giant ping-pong ball head. Is it ridiculous? Sure. But that silly
mascot also expresses the chain's serious-about-fun personality better
than any realistic spot could. While a truly iconic TV mascot like "Jack" is
always a long shot, it still shows how your business can add a shot of
much-needed personality into its consumer marketing mix.
TV Ads Are Hard to Change
With newspaper or online advertising, updating a sale price or adding a
special offer can be as simple as swapping out a coupon or loading a new
banner ad. With television advertising, making even simple changes can
mean updating your script and reshooting the entire ad, and paying a steep
price to do so.
Also, changing a TV ad isn't just expensive; it's also a slow and timeconsuming process. Re-shooting and producing an updated ad can take
days or weeks, making it impractical to adjust your TV ad strategy on the
fly. And even if you do manage to make changes to a TV ad campaign, the
people who view your ads might notice the changes and find them
confusing -- or they might simply question your competence as a business.
Con: TV Is a Mass Medium, Not a Targeted One
As we discussed before, TV is a good medium for reaching broadly defined
audience groups. If your business wants to deliver targeted advertising to
very specific audiences, however, you've got your work cut out for you.
One challenge, of course, is the fact that even niche cable TV channels still
appeal to relatively broad audiences: stay-at-home moms, for example, or
retirees. Also keep in mind, however, that TV advertisers have a hard time
knowing exactly who sees their ads at any given time. This lack of feedback
gave rise to the old adage that half of all advertising works but nobody
knows which half!
This doesn't mean TV advertising is completely ineffective; it has its time
and place. But if your business wants to reach very specific audience
groups or access detailed analytical feedback, consider using online
advertising instead.