Leveraging Creative TV Advertising
Push for Added Value when Buying a Televison Ad Schedule
For truly creative advertising, a TV spot is only the beginning. Challenge stations to fold in Web, email, sponsorships and other devices to stretch the value of the ad.
It’s easy to buy a TV schedule. Expanding the campaign through value-added extras is the real test of creative TV advertising. For example, consider extending the creative concept into other placements and other media to increase its reach and exploit its full value. This can often be accomplished with little or no additional cost beyond the price of the TV advertising itself.
Sponsorships
One of the easiest gimmes TV stations can offer advertisers is sponsorships. These are typically added-value goodies for ads placed in local news programs. Sports segments are popular with many sporting goods advertisers and others who seek a target that’s oriented towards professional sports. For that reason, some sports segments command a premium. But other segments that are popular with viewers, such as the weather, are often free for the asking. Advertisers usually get a special mention at the open and close of the segment, combining both audio and video elements.
Sponsored Features
Advertisers whose products or services are focused in a relatively narrow range may find that stations are willing to air special feature reports around that niche. The reports showcase the advertiser, sometimes subtly, often through a story that features the experience of a customer or client who used the product or service with excellent results. Well done, these are powerful third-party testimonials. Sponsors also receive a spot at the beginning of the segment and often at the end as well.
Explore this with some sensitivity. Some stations’ news departments view this as a violation of journalistic standards of objectivity. Others are able to maintain their objectivity without compromise by clearly indicating the sponsorship. The content must, of course, have intrinsic value as a feature story. Health care, education and other specialists have found this an attractive option.
Web Promotions
Most stations are as robust on the Web as they are on the air. While some stations try to make more money from sponsorships of their Web content, many view it as another carrot to put on the table during advertising contract negotiations. If a sales rep hasn’t offered any Web presence, suggest it as an adjunct to the TV advertising package as a condition of making the purchase.
Along with their Web presence, some stations are adept at capturing viewers’ email addresses and using them for opt-in station promotions. Some advertisers have found considerable added value in sponsoring stations’ email programs. The sponsorship may include banner ads, hot links to the sponsor’s Web site, or even opt-in offers that viewers may choose to receive from sponsors.
Video Files
At a minimum, the station should be happy to provide advertisers with a video file of a TV ad in a format that can be placed on the sponsor’s Web site. Many advertisers get significant mileage from a spot that customers or clients can view from the sponsor’s own Web site. The video can also be the subject of blogs, posts on discussion boards, even articles placed on free Web distribution sites to maximize the Internet reach.
TV advertisers who challenge stations to stretch the typical relationship in new ways are often met by an energizing and synergistic creativity that can lead to unexpected but pleasantly productive innovations. Many times, it’s not a matter of putting more money on the table than the original TV advertising contract itself. Creative people – and many TV stations thrive on the next new thing – enjoy being challenged, especially by a business partner whose creativity may open the door to mutually beneficial promotions.
