The Disadvantages of TV Advertising

Despite the many entertainment options we have today, "television remains the dominant medium in most U.S. households," according to a study by Ball State University. Americans on average spend over 4 1/2 hours watching TV each day. Advertising your product or business on television can be very effective, but there are also several drawbacks. Before you purchase ad time, you should be aware of the disadvantages of advertising on television.

Expense

Producing a television commercial and purchasing airtime is costly--it is the most expensive form of advertising there is. TV commercial production is often a complicated process which can involve a lot of manpower, time and equipment. Some ads are simple--for example, just graphics and a voiceover. Other ads involve renting a studio and equipment, hiring a director, writers, actors, light and camera operators and editors. Who you hire to produce your ad will also affect the overall cost. For a less expensive, albeit lower quality ad, use your local cable station, which often has the capability to produce ads. If you have more to spend and want a higher quality ad, hire a professional production company. And assuming you're not an advertising professional, it's wise to hire an advertising agency to help you come up with a campaign, which will add further expense.
Besides production, there are a number of other factors affecting the final cost of your ad. Once the commercial is completed, you must then purchase airtime on one or more TV stations. According to AllBusiness.com, the key with TV advertising is repetition, so you'll want to air the commercial as many times as possible. This is why TV stations offer pricing in bulk. Another cost factor is the size of the market in which you run the commercial. Airtime in major markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Dallas is more expensive than in Eureka, California or Amarillo, Texas. And cost will also depend upon where the ad will be seen. Local advertising on cable TV is significantly less expensive than ads that run on major networks nationwide.

Changes

Because of the complex process of making TV commercials, it can be difficult to make changes once the ad is complete. If a sale price or special offer needs changing, it could take days or weeks to make the adjustment at additional cost. Meantime, you may be unable to run your ad if the information is no longer correct. This will cost you valuable time during which you're not reaching your audience, unfortunate especially if you're advertising an event or limited time offer. In comparison, a newspaper or radio ad can be changed almost overnight and will likely cost little or nothing to change.

Ad Campaign

Creating an effective advertising campaign is not an easy task. You want your ad to be memorable, informative and entertaining enough to keep the viewer's attention. If you don't have prior experience writing ads, you should hire an advertising agency. You can present them with the information you want to use in the ad, as well as any creative ideas you may have. The advertising professional will help you shape your information and ideas into what will hopefully be an effective ad campaign. Just remember that even agency-created, high-quality campaigns don't always work. TV-viewing audiences can be fickle and hard to please; sometimes it's difficult to tell whether your ad will bring them to your business or make them change the channel. Your best chance of creating an effective ad campaign is to leave it to professionals.

Hitting the Target

Finding the right viewers is critical to the ad's success. If you're selling women's shoes, then buying ad time during Monday Night Football is unwise, as most of the viewing audience is male. Run your ad instead during shows mostly viewed by women. Your advertising agency or a TV station's advertising department can help you decide when and on what channels you should advertise. They have access to Nielsen ratings, which are compiled from surveys that ask TV viewers what they watch. These ratings also provide viewer demographics--information such as gender, age and economic class. These statistics make it easier to determine when your ad should air based upon audience makeup; if your ad misses its target audience, it may fail to increase your business.

Avoiding Commercials

For viewers, television advertising can be an annoyance. Many people use commercial breaks to go to the bathroom, get a snack or flip channels. Add to that all the other entertainment options they have such as video-on-demand, radio, the Internet, Mp3 players and video games--opportunities abound to miss the ad altogether. All you can do as an advertiser is create the best ad you can, repeat it often and hope viewers watch it and patronize your business.

DVR

A relatively new technology that is making its way into households across the nation is the DVR or Digital Video Recorder. A more modern version of a VCR, a DVR allows users to digitally record TV shows easilyand automatically, and to record more than one show at a time. Unfortunately for the advertising industry, DVRs allow users to fast-forward through commercials. According to Cnet News, a March 2006 study by the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research said about 70 percent of advertisers surveyed believed that "DVRs and video-on-demand will reduce or destroy the effectiveness of traditional 30-second commercials." It remains to be seen just what sort of effect DVRs will have on television advertising.

References

• cnet news; The DVR Challenge
• All Business: TV Advertising Pros and Cons