Welcome once again.

Hope the day has dawned bright and sunny wherever you’re reading this.

In the past 72 hours, I’ve had one client who waffled about the daunting cost of a combined radio & TV campaign at a quarter million dollars, to wanting to champion a new campaign of TV only at more then double this investment.

What is it about television that still seems to trump all other players?

Well let’s take a look at the lure and allure of the iconic ‘boob tube.’

In Media Spike #16, I was asking if you’re a fan of TV, and in Media Spike #21 I was referencing TV as the driver off the tee, to pursue the golf analogy, plus in Media Spike # 26 I spoke to TV’s incubation in 1927 and reaching commercial birth in 1947.

I mention these previous efforts to show that despite the naysayers, television is alive and well and living in your home. You’ll find it in your living room, maybe the media room and then I’ll bet you there is a screen in your bedroom and maybe one for each of the kids too?

Yes it is now on your computer, and handhelds, and tablets and at the cottage, probably on the boat too. Our thirst is unquenchable.

Perhaps moreso than any other media, television has to continually refresh and reinvent itself. Whether you like any of the content on all 132 channels is up to you. But the mere presence of that kind of TV universe (and probably more) is testament to its’ enormous staying power.

Its’ immense footprint as a persuasive platform make it irresistible to many deep pocketed advertisers who reap the benefit of its’ enormous reach.  Such reach and influence comes at a price. A price that many advertisers are prepared to spend to put themselves in front of millions of candidates every day.

Television brings, audio, and video in the same experience. Motion, light, sound, demonstration, bring the world to any and all of the above mentioned rooms that house the aforementioned TV’s. Because it’s in front of us all the time, it’s easy to get complacent about it, but the technology that brings images from around the globe to our eyeballs in fractions of seconds is truly staggering and magic.

It’s hard to not be tempted to be a part of that. I think that’s why this particular project had the client salivating. The prospect of being on television, to a huge pool of candidates (provincial at 5 million plus) was hard to ignore.  The jury is still out on whether this will be the course of action, but the prospect of showing off is enticing.

Showmanship is always exciting when delivered with the necessary panache. Television can do that.

• Television continues to delivered unmatched mass reach.

• Despite rumours to the contrary, consumers still spend more time with television each day than they do with any other media.

• TV continues to be the screen of choice, and is considered the most persuasive and most exciting media to be a part of.

• It is not an either/or environment, but one of coexistence where TV is the ultimate stand alone media, as well as being a team player supporting any and all other media with targeted, extensive audio and visual muscle.

• If you’ve wondered about the appeal outside the home-pop in to any sports bar where multiple television screens large and small dominate wall space or on suspended cradles. A panorama of hockey, football, golf, tennis, curling, car racing, baseball, horse racing, boxing, and wrestling compete for attention for hours on end.

• This entire 57 Media Spikes series could have been devoted to TV and still not have enough space.

• We have and continue to advocate testing. TV can be an expensive arena to do that. It’s why advertisers in my experience, come to ‘graduate’ to television. Once testing and learning has been done on a small scale, then the successes can be rolled out to bigger and wider audiences, confident they have a greater chance of success. Television sends a message to your prospects that you are successful and serious, and worth paying attention to.

• The greatest challenge for most advertisers is the cost of TV advertising. As scary expensive as it is – you’ll remember my reference to one spot was whopping $77,500, in Media Spike #16, television continues to be among the most efficient media available.  Not unlike most media, you have to shop and negotiate for the best value, but dollar for dollar, you’ll get excellent value for your TV dollar.

• Make your TV ad work very hard for you.

• Buy the airtime smartly. The better you can target your audience by age, gender, geography, income, education etc., the better your programming selection can be, the more targeted your buy, the better the efficiency, the more mileage you get from your budget (Coming back to The Spike of Angels Media Briefing Template that got you started).

• Select or recommend the type of programming you’d like to be associated with (IE: More comedy and drama and less reality TV, more sports and less news, more afternoon talk shows and less sports, only the dinner window of 4.30pm to 6.30pm, and after 11pm).

• You will in all likelihood, need a variety of programming to reach your audience. But I’ve found using a few well chosen anchors of programming in a schedule makes for more memorability than being everywhere for the sake of it.

• Don’t dismiss cable TV programming as it delivers enormous penetration and can often improve your efficiencies by consistent performance.  As Tom Cruise voices in ‘The Firm’ about mail fraud: ‘It’s not sexy, but it’s got teeth.’ Cable may not have glamour written all over it, but it works.

• Keep your expectations in check with real, measurable, objectives. This is true of all media, but especially TV. The expense devoted to it means we expect instant sales and salvation.

• As I expressed in our very first meeting of Media Spike #1, Don’t ever give away a time at bat.

• TV means you’re ‘On Stage’ performing. Don’t miss this chance to shine.

Stay tuned.

Dennis Kelly
dennis@firstimpressionsmedia.ca

P.S.: If you’re inclined for more detail on many aspects of television, the Television Bureau of Canada is an invaluable resource to draw on. You can reach them here.

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