Why TV Advertising is Still Relevant to Today’s Customers

Discover why TV advertising remains effective in reaching customers despite digital alternatives, offering broad appeal and cost efficiency.

The following is a guest post from my bloggy friend Taylor McKnight. Interested in having a guest post on my website? Click here for my guest post submission form.

TV Advertising Relevance: Why Traditional Media Still Converts Customers

Television commercials are still an effective way of reaching people, and there’s a good possibility that many products get sold because of them without anyone knowing. It’s hard to judge whether or not a consumer did something because they saw a particular commercial. Business managers will often conclude that the lack of data means nobody was interested in their ad, but the opposite is often true. There are metrics that can be collected which could provide an estimate but honestly it is very hard to track it directly to the sales.

Consumers watch TV for both information and entertainment. While it’s debatable whether the two should be mixed to the degree they are now, the good news is this means that anything they elect to watch is going to have at least some impact on them. People watch around five and a half hours of TV every day. That alone should prove that whatever they’re watching is at least relevant enough to keep them coming back for more.

Differentiating an Advertisement

Creative attention grabbing material is always going to catch the eye of at least some portion of the audience. With how many people watch some broadcasts, even encouraging a tenth of one percent of viewers to do something could be a huge success. People like to hear engaging stories whether they contain promotional consideration or not. As a result, viewers tend to resonate with anything they see that’s geared toward them directly because it is so relatable.

Advertisers in other spaces will often make the mistake of trying to directly pinpoint everything toward a certain type of person. This is usually when a consumer portfolio is created by the marketing team of a company. Even seasoned TV advertisers will sometimes make this same error though. The beauty of TV is that it has such a wide appeal, and thus leading to advertisers being free to reach a huge section of society by sponsoring a general entertainment broadcast.

Micromanagement on behalf of viewers has brought new opportunities, and missing out on these would prove to be a mistake others have made as well. Digital dash channels, often called netlets, provide niche programming that appeals to a select audience. Some of this might be in the form of foreign language content. Other netlets feature special types of news or even audio only material that’s geared toward an audience that considers its material more relevant than what they would see on an average broadcast.

Even these places offer a far broader appeal than influencer marketing programs do, however, which is why business organizations are flocking to them. Depending on their particular public relations goals, they might not even work with a conventional broadcaster either. Some larger firms have jumped ship to streaming services, thus leaving a large chunk of the pie left over for smaller agile companies or startups that don’t have as much money to spend.

Cost

One of the biggest reasons TV advertising stays relevant is the fact that it remains relatively low cost. Once a company has some video content they want to promote this would be the first step they usually look to. Startup companies that have almost no marketing budget can make the most of it by investing in a low-cost video package. A channel will usually run on local stations in the markets they want to target most. As many local services also have at least some kind of streaming component, they could potentially double their reach by doing so. Startups choose to specialize in this when trying to bring in customers as word of mouth can only do so much for them. While other companies that have passed the startup stage, such as franchises, find this as icing on top of a cake. Which means that it is just something extra and affordable that a business can invest in to continuously reach more and more people that have not ever associated with the brand. Usually they would not focus on local channels after a certain point, but more so national or international ones. 

LIVE Television

There are certain scenarios where a live showing that includes paid advertisements are also the streaming subject matter. This could be huge sporting events, such as the Super Bowl to live first-time showings of a movie or cinematic experience. When it comes to these the advertisements are usually first come first served and payment is based off the time duration of the miniature video. What is unique about this is after the first showing it could not have the same ads attached to it. When this is done the owner of the movie or show channel will usually incorporate regular advertising based on the rest of the customer base, like they regularly do. 

There are special circumstances where a movie or live event could even be three dimensional. Usually this would be announced prior by the media channel head so the viewers could run out and purchase some 3D glasses for their viewing pleasure. While this is not a common craze anymore, it still does occur here and there and it adds an extra special feeling to whomever is watching. Within the past the Super Bowl has even invested in 3D commercials and even half time shows. The matter of 3D and now even 4D that exists within media today is eye opening.

Written by Taylor McKnight, Author for American Paper Optics

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