Television Advertising in the Atlanta Market

Television combines picture, sound and motion in front of a broad audience. That lets a commercial demonstrate a product in use, show a place people will recognize, tell a short story or put a real face and voice to a business. Viewers can see how something works, hear how the people behind it talk and remember what the storefront looks like. Online video can do some of the same work, and what television adds is the habit of audiences gathering around familiar programs, such as local news and live sports. Our article on the benefits of TV advertising for local businesses looks at these strengths in more detail.

Television is also no longer only a matter of local stations on a living-room set. Commercials now run on broadcast stations, on cable channels and on streaming services that deliver ads through internet-connected devices. All three put a moving image in front of an audience, but they differ in how viewers are reached, how precisely a campaign can be aimed and how the time is bought. Knowing how they differ helps you build a schedule that fits the business, instead of bending the business around the schedule.

Broadcast stations

Local broadcast stations carry network programming, local news, sports and community coverage to an entire metro area such as Atlanta. They suit a business whose customers are spread across the whole market and who benefit from the familiarity of well-known programs. Their schedules are organized into dayparts such as morning, daytime, early evening news, prime time and late night, and the audience differs sharply from one to the next.

Cable

Cable channels are built around interests, such as news, sports, home improvement, cooking and entertainment, so a placement can follow a particular kind of viewer. In many areas, cable time can also be bought for a smaller geographic zone, which can help a business whose customers live in one part of a metro area.

Streaming and connected television

Streaming services reach viewers through internet-connected televisions and devices. Ads there can often be aimed by area and by audience interest in ways that traditional broadcast schedules cannot, and they are bought through different systems than station time. The commercial itself still has to earn attention quickly, and it needs to read clearly on screens of different sizes.

Different programs draw different viewers, and the aim is to find the ones that resemble your customers, not the ones you watch yourself. Morning news and daytime programs reach people at home earlier in the day. Local evening news reaches households that follow what is happening in their community. Sports gather an audience that is often watching live and paying attention. Late-night programs reach a different group again. Weekend schedules differ from weekday ones, and so do audiences in different parts of a metro area.

Ask the station or seller which audience a program draws and where the estimate comes from, and compare more than one option before choosing. An advertiser aiming at one neighborhood, age group or interest should say so plainly, because a good proposal starts from that description, not from a list of what happens to be available.

A commercial has two jobs: to be noticed, and to leave no doubt about what to do next. Because many viewers have a phone in hand while a program plays, that next step is often someone typing the business name into a search box moments after the spot airs. A shorter commercial can plant the name and the idea and let the website do the explaining. A longer one has room to demonstrate, to tell a story or to answer an objection before the viewer decides.

The balance between them usually comes down to budget and purpose. Shorter spots let the same airtime budget buy more repetitions, which helps a name become familiar. Longer spots deliver more of the message each time but cost more to air. Many campaigns use both, a longer version to carry the full message and shorter cutdowns to keep it in front of the audience. Whatever the length, the ending should ask for one clear thing, and the website, listing and phone line have to be ready for the people who respond. The local advertising page covers that online side.

Television stations set prices from a mix of factors. The size and makeup of the audience for a given program matter most, along with the time of day, the time of year and how much demand other advertisers place on the same time. Election seasons and major holidays often crowd schedules and raise prices. The length of the spot, the amount of airtime bought and how firm the placement needs to be all play a part as well.

Firmness is worth understanding. A fixed position is held for the advertiser, while a preemptible one costs less but can be bumped if another advertiser pays more for the slot. When a station misses a scheduled spot, it typically owes the advertiser a make-good, which is a replacement airing, and stations can also provide proof of airing that a careful advertiser checks. Because prices are negotiated and demand changes, two advertisers buying similar time can pay different amounts. That is why comparing proposals and asking questions before committing is so important, and why media buying is treated as its own discipline.

Kirk Donovan, who founded the firm in 1984, applies behavioral science to advertising on the view that every message exists to make people respond. For television, that means judging a commercial by the action it prompts, not by how polished it looks. Kirk Donovan Enterprises offers television advertising to Atlanta-area businesses, with commercial production available through its production services.

A television commercial begins long before a camera is switched on. The concept comes first, then a script and a plan for the visuals, followed by decisions about who appears on camera, where it is filmed, how the sound is handled and how long each version should run. Music and the people who appear need to be properly licensed or released, and the finished spots must be delivered to stations in the formats they require. Each of those steps takes time, so approvals and revisions should be planned from the start.

Production should be scaled to the airtime that will carry it. A lavishly produced commercial with too little airtime to be seen often enough wastes both budgets, while a simple, honest spot with enough repetition behind it can do more. Using the owner on camera can be effective when the person is comfortable and credible, and it is better skipped when they are not. For the range of work involved, see production and video production.

Television builds recognition gradually, which makes it easy to judge badly. Before the schedule starts, decide what a worthwhile flight would look like: more searches for the business name, more calls, more visits or more traffic to a specific web page. A web address or phone line used only in the commercial gives the clearest signal, and asking new customers whether they saw it fills in what tracking cannot.

Set the dates of responses beside the dates of airings, and look at the weeks before and after as well as the weeks during. Because television's effect can linger, a brief dip after a flight ends is normal, and one day's numbers say little. Where the schedule allows, running television in one part of the market or in one stretch of the calendar makes it easier to see what changed.

• Burying the business name. A memorable scene that never makes clear who is advertising helps competitors as much as the advertiser.
• Too many ideas for one spot. Each extra idea dilutes the one that matters, and viewers leave with a blur.
• Weak first moments. If the opening gives viewers no reason to look up, the rest is wasted.
• Unreadable details. Web addresses and phone numbers shown too small, or for too short a time, cannot be used.
• Too little airtime. Airtime so sparse that nobody notices it gives the commercial no fair test.
• Mismatched programming. Buying time where the audience does not resemble the customer.
• Changing the commercial too soon, or never. Repetition builds recognition, but every commercial eventually wears out.
• No plan for the response. Viewers who look the business up and find a slow site or an unanswered phone are lost.

Settling a few questions early keeps a television campaign focused.

• Which programs does your customer actually watch, and when?
• What single action should a viewer take after seeing the commercial?
• What will they find when they take it?
• How long will the schedule run, and how will you judge it?
• Does the production budget fit the airtime budget?
• How will television work with radio, outdoor and online placements?

The last question matters because television rarely works alone. Pairing it with radio can keep the name in view between viewings, and tactics for first-time television advertisers collects practical advice for getting started. More articles on the medium are collected under television and video advertising on the blog.