One of the most frequent questions I get is: “How do you put a TV commercial on local
TV?”
It’s really a two-
To make a commercial you need to shoot it in good enough quality to be
accepted by the TV stations and cable TV companies. It needs to be on a professional
video format. But beyond that, to be successful, it needs to be compelling enough
to get people to remember it when they’re ready to buy whatever you’re selling.
Most
local companies don’t have enough money to pay for a professional crew to show up
at their place of business. And even when they do, you need to have a message that
resonates with viewers – making an effective TV commercial involves more than just
waving a camera around in your place of business. You’ve got :30 seconds to sell
the sizzle – to get them interested in your message.
Most new, local TV advertisers
are under the impression that if someone sees their phone number on TV, the viewer
will just call them right up. But it rarely works that way. People don’t remember
phone numbers very well in 30 seconds, unless the phone number is presented in a
memorable way – that means either as a jingle, or repeated over and over, visually,
or if the phone number is something easy to remember, like 1-
That’s why it’s good to have another form of advertising to work with TV. Print is
great for someone looking for a phone number. But print doesn’t engage people as
TV does.
TV sells sizzle – it’s music, bright colors, and engaging images. It’s reported that
most people remember about three ideas from TV advertising. Given that you’ve only
got 30 seconds, you need to determine what 3 ideas those are going to be. At least
one should be a compelling reason for customers to choose you as a product or service.
Local TV stations and cable stations usually produce TV commercials for clients.
Sometimes they work very well – other times they don’t because people don’t pay any
attention to them. They might look too “local”, or just not be very interesting.
We have developed our template approach to help small businesses look big. In most
of our spots, you can upload your own pictures or just use ours. By using pictures
from your own business and dressing them up, you can get an expensive look for your
TV commercials.
How Do You Put A TV Commercial On Local TV?
Part I