Once, it was not as it is today, but, in our modern world, advertisements of products, organizations, and services are generally aired on
television. This is be done by buying "time slots" on the airtime from
a particular television channel. Price generally depends on the popularity of the
channel, time the commercial is being aired, number of viewers, the show being aired, and
length of the commercial. Placing a commercial on local channels is
more affordable than on national channel where the cost is almost double.
If you are thinking of
advertising on television it is recommended that you first understand
what audience you need to reach. Different audiences have different taste,
which can be determined by their choice of television show like
celebrity talk, cartoons, sports, reality, news, movies, soaps, prime
time etc.
Prime time audiences are generally the most coveted, and prime time is
usually from 6 to 7 pm and is the most expensive slot. Following it is the news time at noon or
10-11 pm slots, which are proven to be the most effective time slots for the
success of a commercial. More affordable is the 12-4 pm soap time.
Always check with the station sales representative for the
prices. When advertising on national level, check out an ad agency that usually
works on commission basis. It is highly recommended to
negotiate during a re-run of the advertisement and stay away from
paying the complete amount.
Compare the prices of
different networks and different programs before you place an ad.
Another money saving trick is to buy a thirty seconds slot
and air commercials of ten to fifteen seconds of length one after the other.
This increases the possibility of target viewers seeing the
commercial without the cost of re-runs. But this is risky as the
pressure of conveying critical information in a short period of time increases. So
the commercials should not be so short that the actual message
couldn’t be delivered correctly to the audience.
Usually a reminder commercial can be of a shorter duration.
Look out for the people
who would like to buy a slot that has already been purchased.
This can
be very tricky as it will be more like a bid for which they will be
ready to pay a larger amount sometimes even double because they badly
need a slot. This usually happens during the holiday season,
which comes in the last quarter of the year around New Years Eve,
Thanksgiving holidays and Christmas holidays. Best time of
the year to buy slots for commercial is the first and second quarter of the year.
Price is usually negotiable during the first quarter as the
sales representatives give discounts to advertisers who have spend a lot of
money advertising during the holiday season and are trying to recover
from it.
If planning to pay for
advertising commercials for the whole year check out the discounts that
are being offered for advertising round the year. Usually a
five
percent discount is offered when signing for a six-month time period
and ten percent when signing for a twelve-month time period.
But keep in mind to check out exactly when the
commercials are being aired
because these discounts are usually offered to distract people from
this point and the commercials are aired during odd hours and also not
during the holiday season.
The very first commercial
to go on air was of Bulova Watch Company on WNBC, United States of
America on July 1, 1941. Ever since then there has been no
stopping and now commercials sell everything that one can ever imagine.
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