Television Advertising

The Commercial

A television advertising campaign can be an expensive proposition when you consider everything that goes into creating one. The first thing you need is a thirty or sixty second commercial that competes with national advertisers and network programming in getting and keeping the viewers attention. Of course you can write a script and film this yourself. All you need to do is find a suitable location where the lawn and the landscaping is in top form; the owner agrees to having a film crew traipse over their property for the better part of the day; talent lined up for the filming - including kids and dogs doing what kids and dogs do, the right equipment to light and film the scene(s); and preferably some knowledge and experience in using the equipment to produce TV commercials.

Chances are that you will NOT be able to create a professional-looking TV commercial with your camcorder and using your brother-in-law’s kids and your two year old not-quite-trained golden lab as talent. You may be able to produce a quality commercial locally through a local advertising agency or video production company. (Your local network affiliates and cable systems rarely do commercial production these days, but you can check.) If you use a local agency, make sure you understand all of the details of what you are getting for your money. How is it going to be filmed? Are there any residual costs for the talent or music? Do these costs include all editing and dubs to beta?

A third alternative for creating your commercial is to use one from Yes Marketing. We have found that kids and dogs really do get the best response from homeowners. With this mix, you have a better chance of capturing the attention of viewers that are deluged by slick car ads, prescription drug commercials and high production industrial commercials that numb the brain after a while. Think of the film clips you see most often on America’s Funniest Home Videos – kids and pets. Also, visions of children and pets frolicking on a lawn bring to mind a sense of family, security and safety. It’s organic - a good thing these days.

We edit each commercial with your company’s specific information such as logos, phone numbers, and additional contact info. We can also customize the voice-over audio for a slight additional cost. Once this is complete, the video is converted to beta and sent to the television stations for airing.

Other than adding the market information, all the other expenses involved in the production are shared among all users of our commercials. That means that instead of paying out $10,000 - $40,000 dollars for your own production, you can gain a high quality commercial for under $1000 in production costs. This of course, does not include air-time.

The Buy

Once you have the commercial, you need to determine the programming on which you want to air your commercials. You need to match the geography and demographics of your customers and prospects to the programming of every television affiliate and cable system that services all or part of your marketing universe. Yes Marketing does that for you. We’ll send you a proposal within your budget to show you the best TV schedule to buy based on cost per rating point for your market and demographics, with analysis down to the zip code level so you don’t waste advertising dollars. However, television is expensive. You will need to invest at least $20,000 (significantly more in large markets) in buying air time in order to get enough frequency and reach to be effective.

To find out more about how you can have your company on television contact us today. We'll be more than happy to discuss your options and air dates.

Here are a few examples of our TV spots: