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Many marketers need to run tactical advertising on TV to explain to, educate or inform their consumers. They need to get their message across to create sales quickly. But until now, the choices have been fairly limited.

They could use a large ‘full service advertising agency’. Full service ad agencies are good at writing and organising large ‘brand TV commercials’ but have difficulty creating and producing tactical TVC’s. It is almost impossible for a large agency to produce a TVC for less than $100,000 and make a profit. If they do, the loss has to be made up somewhere else.

At the other end of the spectrum, a growing number of ‘branded advertising format’ companies have evolved. Many of these formats seem to be as interested in advertising themselves, as their client’s brands.

‘Branded advertising format’ ads usually use the same presenter for every brand they advertise. This presenter is often sold to marketers as being a ‘third party endorser’. She is not. She’s a payed spruiker and consumers know it. They accept her as a presenter of facts about a brand. Not a bad thing. But an hour later she is presenting facts about some other brand. The marketer’s brand is remembered in the short term. The presenter and her ‘Branded advertising format’ are remembered in the long term.

The production cost seems low: $30,000 - $60,000. But these companies make their money from the client’s media budget.

The first way is by imposing a levy on the number of tarps used, every time the ad runs, this year, next year, whenever. The other approach is by only selling a production and media package. Production is cheaper, media is more expensive.

Either way the media bill subsidises the production bill.


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