How to Select a TV Commercial to Produce

The creative team has been working furiously during the past several weeks and has a number of ideas from which to chose. But you, as client, can only pick one. This guide will walk you through the steps to selecting which commercial to produce.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Creative team or ad agency
• Product or service to advertise
• The budget to produce the commercial

1. Creative brainstorming session Working on the Advertising Idea
   A creative brief has been approved and agreed with the agency and creative team. This sets the direction of the commercial to be produced including what is the main message about the product or service, who is the target market, commercial length, type of programming it will run on and whatever else you need to know to create and produce a commercial.
   Then the creative team members go off to develop ideas.
2. The storyboard The Storyboard
   The storyboard is typically developed to show the scene by scene development of the commercial. Much like a comic book, it shows the various frames needed to convey the story. It is a rough indication of the final commercial as it represents the first draft idea. Many hands will touch the commercial by the time it finally runs including client comments and changes, commercial director vision for the commercial, final edit and legal approval
3. The presenting of the storyboard Presenting the Storyboard
   The team presents the commercial via a storyboard. It's best to ask questions about anything unclear in the commercial as it stands. It is not the time to pass judgement or critique the commercial; that usually comes at the end.
4. The meeting The Meeting
   In the meeting, the audience takes in the work being presented asking questions for clarity
5. The criteria to produce The Selection
   A number of ideas have been presented in storyboard form. It is now time to evaluate them in terms of the following criteria:
   1. Is the commercial on strategy according to what is in the creative brief?
   2. Will it stand out amongst competitors or does it look like what everyone else is doing?
   3. Will it appeal to the target based on what all is known about the target? It doesn't necessarily matter if you or your boss don't like it if you're not in the target.
   4. Will the commercial last over time? For instance, sometimes humor wears thin upon repeat viewing. But does this commercial have staying power with something you see differently each time or contain such a precious performance you can't wait to see it again?
   5. Is it within budget?
6. Scene one Approval to Produce
   It is typical for a lot of back and forth to take place when deciding which commercial to produce. Everyone has an opinion and there's usually a lot of money riding on the decision. If you have a well crafted creative brief, a good agency and a good business sense, you will be well on your way to making a good decision.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure all decision makers are involved throughout the process. Whoever has final approval over the commercial should have "blessed" the creative brief.
• Designate a key contact for the agency on the client side. That person should stay in close touch with the agency and offer them any support during the process. Often, questions will arise. It's best to have only one designated person to represent the various client constituencies at large so it's not a free for all of communication.
• Sometimes it's back to the drawing board to do more work. The problem usually lies in the original input or direction within the creative brief.
• Don't expect your final commercial to look exactly like the original storyboard. Ideas often improve during the process through director input, casting decisions or copy changes.