Cable TV

These are some things about advertising on cable TV that you should know if you are considering cable for your business.

 

First, the 30-second TV commercial is a scalable and remarkably effective advertising tool. It has sold trillions of dollars of goods and services since the dawn of TV because virtually everyone watches TV and commercials are an integral part of that experience. Certainly, the Internet has had an effect but television, at least at this point, is still best enjoyed by watching a TV program in the traditional way.

 

Cable TV advertising is a way for small business (and sometimes bigger business) to be on television, near the programming that lots of people watch. It gives your business credibility and importance and raises the recognition of your business above others.

 

Here’s a brief rundown of some of some things you should consider:

 

Frequency

You have to buy a lot of cable TV spots to get the exposure that you need. Every viewer – even those with the most basic cable service – has from a dozen to a hundred cable channels available to them. To have your commercial seen by a significant number of people, you must repeat it often and repeat it on a number of different channels.

 

What channels do you buy?

If you are a local advertiser, your point of entry into the purchase of cable will be a cable company. All cable companies have sales organizations that can give you help in choosing the right cable channels for your product. To make the most of that information, you must know how to define your potential customer in terms of gender, age range, income level and perhaps occupation or preferences for leisure time pursuits.  For instance, you might target Adults, ages 25-64, income of $50,000 or more, who dine out more than four times per month or, males, ages 18-34, with income of more than $35,000 who have attended an auto-related event in the last six months.

 

With that target market defined, the cable company can offer a selection of cable channels that those within your target market are more likely to view.  There are two basic strategies you can follow here. The first one is to run your commercial only on the channels that research information shows your potential customer may watch. (Home & Garden TV is a good example of this.) The second one is to place your spots on cable channels with relatively high audience levels, such as AMC, A&E, ESPN, etc., in the hope that enough of the members of your target market will watch and respond to justify the cost.

 

Remember that cable TV advertising is based on viewership.  The more highly watched the channel, the more each spot will cost.

Large & Page Communications, Inc.