Entrepreneur's Journal: When spending some money on TV advertising makes sense

Posted Feb 3rd 2008 8:00PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Monster Worldwide (MNST), Small Business

Back in 2000, a variety of dot-coms – like Pets.com, LastMinuteTravel.com, Monster.com (Nasdaq: MNST) and so on – spent gobs of money on Super Bowl commercials. Of course, it marked the height of the bubble. Since then, upstart companies have been mostly afraid of producing commercials.

Hey, take a look at this classic ad from Pets.com (now defunct), during the 2000 Super Bowl:

But don't be afraid. While I'm not suggesting that you shell out $2.7 million for a Super Bowl ad, I still think things are different. After all, it's fairly cost-effective to advertise on local cable channels. What's more, online video is also surging.

So how can you crank out a top-quality 30-second spot?

Let's take a look:

Production: Technology is making it incredibly cheap to create commercials. "All you need is an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Mac laptop and the iMovie software that comes with the computer," said Rob Frankel, who is the author of The Revenge of Brand X and has his own marketing firm. "And just about any MiniDV camera can produce broadcast-quality video."

That's all he needed to create this spot:

To spice things up, you can use stock footage and music clips (which may even be free). "A simple Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) search will find a lot of stock content," said Frankel.

Crafting the right message: It's temping to be too cute or cutting-edge when putting together a 30-second spot. Unfortunately, the result is that your audience ignores things – or is just confused. Some tips:

Focus on one idea (that's easy to understand). Clutter is your enemy.
Avoid special effects and location shoots.
Don't star in your own commercials.

"Notice that some of the best commercials these days offer one central image or theme with even stark or simplified backgrounds," Rachel Weingarten, who is the president of GTK Marketing Group. "It might be wiser to spend more on the concept and come up with a very clever and catchy phrase or theme or even sweepstakes or promo that can drive people to your website, retail location or some other call to action."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Tags: Commercials, Video

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-04-2008 @ 1:21PM

Arthur Evry said...

A suggestion is to check with local stations for a run time of their choice at reduced rates or multiple runs at the stations choice. Since they decide when to run it will be when they have otherwise un sold time and thus you can get a lower price per insertion.

Another method is to prepare your message as a Public Service Anouncement if appropriate and provide it for free to small stations where it would fit their format and appeal to their audience. Be sure to include content that makes your PSA of value to the viewer.

2-22-2008 @ 8:09PM

Matthew Galvin said...

The idea that this Heinz spot was produced using a MiniDV camcorder and iMovie is downright laughable. I have been producing commercial video for over 20 years, and producing a quality commercial (like this one) costs thousands of dollars and requires an extensive crew, not to mention writers and storyboard artists. The lighting, food prep, camera work, editing, and sound mix alone on this ad probably required a crew of six or seven for 2-3 days. This ad was clearly shot on film - probably 35mm, which costs thousands in equipment rental alone.
If you are a capable entrepreneur you can tell the difference between a genuine article, and a load of horse manure. In this case, Rob Frankel and Tom Taulli are being completely dishonest about the required skills and abilities to produce commercial media.