Just as radio didn't disappear when TV entered our lives, TV won't disappear now that being online is rapidly becoming part of our lives. Yes, it's true that people are spending more time with their PCs and less time with their TVs and it's also true that the lines between them are blurring. But television deserves a place in the arsenal of a small business now more than ever.
The main reasons why this is true are:
- Television now allows you to target your audience more precisely
than you could in the part. It lets you single out specific groups
of people, such as business people, and it enables you to home
in on selected neighborhoods in your community. These phenomena
are due to the growth of cable TV.
- Television is now more affordable than it ever has been, in many
cases lower in cost than radio. Direct response companies by the
carload are discovering this and also discovering there is a 24-hour
viewing audience out there with even lower rates and there are
program-length infomercials that cost what regular one-minute
spots used to cost. Again, we tip our hats to the cable industry
for putting TV within everybody' reach.
- This column will set you straight and tell you the truth about
television use and production so that you avoid the multitude
of mistakes made by non-guerrillas stumbling down the TV trail
before you. You will end up understanding TV so clearly that it
will be effective for you, though not from Day One. Guerrillas
rarely expect reward before Day Ninety.
Of the myriad of things you should know about television, I've limited my list here to only ten. There are one thousand ten things to know but these ten are the most important and every guerrilla knows them:
- Television is inexpensive. The cost to run commercials is no more
than $20 during prime time in most markets in the United States.
The cost to produce a commercial, although $197,000 during l996,
should run you no more than $1000. You don't need Michael or Tiger
or Dennis endorsing what you have to offer. And you're after sales,
not Emmies.
- Television is a visual medium. Don't think of it as a radio spot
with pictures. Think of it as a visual story with a beginning,
a middle and an end. Because over 70 percent of us mute the commercials
with our remote zappers, if you're not telling your story and
saying your name visually, you're not telling your story or saying
your name at all.
- Television is powered by an idea. Forget the special effects,
music, staging and lighting. First think of the idea. That's what
makes a commercial successful -- a strong offer, a visual expression
of a good idea. Once you have the idea, everything else will fall
into place. Without the idea, your commercial has hardly any chance
of success.
- Television is made fascinating by special effects. Many people
get carried away at their opportunities to be like Steven Speilberg
and fall prey to gizmos and gimmicks. Use special effects to highlight
your idea, to focus on your idea, to further your idea and then
you'll see why they're so special. Otherwise, they act like vampires,
sucking attention away from your offer with their dazzle.
- Television doesn't cost as little as you think. Here I am telling
you right off the bat that TV is inexpensive and here I am one
minute later telling you that it's not so inexpensive. The spots
are inexpensive. The production can be inexpensive. But you've
got to run several spots every day, several days a week, three
weeks out of four, and for a minimum of three months -- unless
you're making a direct response offer -- before you see any glimmerings
that TV is about to do the job for you. If you're looking for
instant gratification, look somewhere other than the tube.
- Television is made better if you operate from a script. You need
not waste your precious money having somebody produce a storyboard
for you because you don't need one. But you do need a script that
tells the exact visuals and the exact sounds that will go on for
30 seconds.
- Television production costs are lower if when you pre-produce
with care. The way guerrillas cut $196,000 ugly dollars from their
TV production costs is by have pre-production meetings where all
production details are handled. These are followed by rehearsals
for the talent and the technicians. There should be zero surprises
on the day of the TV shooting.
- Television production costs are lowered still if you produce your
sound track first. After you've got it, you can shoot footage
to match the amount of time the words and music take. Shooting
sound and picture at the same time means that if a plane flies
overhead or a truck drives by, you've got to re-shoot. Do your
sound first, using professionals, then shoot the visuals.
- Television's greatest strength is its ability to demonstrate.
As newspapers give the news and magazines involve readers, as
radio provides intimacy and direct response adds urgency, television's
power is the way it can demonstrate. It can show before and after,
with a shot of the product in use during the middle. It can hit
left and right-brained people. It can combine all the art forms
into a masterful blending of show and sell.
- Television is still the undisputed heavyweight champion of marketing.
I love online marketing so much that I'm nearly bursting with
enthusiasm for it. I know it's gonna make every other medium stronger
and more effective. And I know it's not a matter of if, but a
matter of when you go online. Until then and after then, you'll
find that television can talk directly to your specific target
audience, that it will cost you much less than you figured, and
that if you've got the patience to commit to a TV campaign, you're
going to be delighted at how it rewards your patience.