TV Commercial 101: How to Create a Quality Spot Within Your Budget

Therese Adams

Therese Adams About The Author

Jul 16, 2020 4:55:00 AM

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TV commercials are not reserved for big businesses with vast advertising budgets. In fact, it's entirely possible to create a quality TV spot within your existing budget. A quality spot always starts with a quality message and a strong call-to-action. Your business, especially when working with a media partner, can create those high-quality ads and direct them to precisely the right spot. These strategies can help you design a television spot that fits within your existing budget. 

Repurpose What You Have

You may already have photos and b-roll that can help create a stunning, high-quality commercial. Even better, those materials can allow you to create that commercial at a lower cost than a commercial that requires you to start from scratch with your creative. Take a look at the marketing materials you have already created. Examine the photos you have taken of your business and your events. Take a look at the creative spots you have used on social media or videos you have created.

All of those materials have the potential to help you remain cost-effective while creating a great new commercial that will expand your reach and your ability to target customers who need your business. You may have the ability to use the same images or footage that you've already used for another ad or even for internal purposes as part of your next television commercial. A media partner can also help identify your most valuable footage and show you how to reuse or repurpose it for your new advertising efforts. 

Not only can repurposing your existing creative help you save money on your advertising budget, but it can also help create a sense of continuity that consumers want when interacting with your business. By reusing the materials you already have, you can keep your tone and message more consistent across different platforms. You can showcase the same familiar faces, the same creative content, and the same virtues that set your business apart, allowing consumers to get a better feel for exactly what they can expect when they make a purchase from your business. 

Take Part in Unique Opportunities

Take advantage of the unique opportunities available in your local area. By partnering with WFSB Advertising, for example, you can put together material for the Better Connecticut weekend edition. Consider a Facebook Live segment, that can then be edited for a 1-2 minute segment for Better Connecticut. That segment can also be repurposed for a commercial. 

There are plenty of other unique advertising opportunities available to you. Consider sporting events you might want to advertise before or after, especially if you're on a tight budget, rather than advertising in the middle of a game. Look at local programs and consider how they might help you reach your target audience more effectively. With so many unique opportunities available, you can find a segment or spot that will help you expand your reach while remaining within your budget. Talk with your media partner about the opportunities that they can provide, then consider how they fit your message and your target audience.

Decide On Your Message and Desired Outcome

Before you start creating your television commercial, you need to know what you want to say. What do you want the outcome to be? You need this information long before you start producing the commercial. With this knowledge, you can determine when you will need to shoot, how much footage you need to collect, and who you need to have on hand in order to produce it. Your price for those ads may be negotiated based on the commitment and time required. When you have a solid idea of what you want, your media partner can help lay out exactly what it will take to accomplish those goals, as well as what it will cost. 

A shoot that requires the participation of multiple members of your team, for example, may require a great deal more time and effort to shoot than a spot that requires only a couple of people. Likewise, if you need a great deal of creative editing or other material, it can take longer to put those ads together. By assessing what you want to say ahead of time, you can also increase the likelihood that you will put together exactly the commercial you intended to create, rather than having to go back and recreate some of that material. 

Creating a television commercial does not have to stretch your advertising budget. You may also find that working with a media partner makes it easier to reach your goals. A media partner can help identify what makes your business different, design the creative that will help you stand out from the competition, and help you create a quality spot that doesn't stray from your budget.

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