Different types of Television Commercials

Since the time the first ever commercial to be aired on television of Bulova Watch Company in July 1, 1941 many categories of advertisements have been formed. The advertisements have become a part and parcel of daily life and are playing a significant role in decision making of the consumers. Such has become the power of advertisement that even a politician cannot assure his success in election campaign in if he hasn’t advertised on television. The different categories of television advertising are political advertising, promotional advertising, infomercials, television commercial donut, promo, and sponsorship.

Political advertising is nothing but reaching out to the citizens of a particular region to capture their vote bank. It’s the most influential advertising method and is also very important as it affects the nation in a big way. The two main platforms to advertise for a political campaign are television and radio known as broadcast media. This also depends on the money raised through political campaigns. The earlier the money raised and the more the money raised, the better the method of advertising. Usually the candidate’s party committees contribute the money. To advertise through television specialized consultants are be contacted to buy slots on local or national network. It has been observed that even a candidate for local office position places an ad on television.

Promotional ads or product placement ads are commercials placed on television by marketers involving commercial products to increase their sales and services. Promotional ads can be featured on television, movies, music videos, books, websites and even video games. Good amount of money can be saved by consulting sales executives and by renting location, models and props.

Television commercials are popular with automobile industry and James Bond movies are credited for promoting them. Promotion of cigarettes or any other tobacco products in movies have always been a point of controversy as most of the State Governments have set up a limit for promotion of such items. Authenticity of the products and services being advertised are many times questioned by the consumer as some of them can be misleading. To tackle this, many consumer groups have been formed who ask for complete disclosure of the product from companies advertising them. In case of any refusal for cooperation of any kind these groups are liable to slam a case against the product and its company. The product ads can be differentiated on the basis of appearances like sponsorship, cost reduction oriented, brand integration and fee based. Sponsorship is the contribution by the company to soaps or sports matches. Brand integration is known as the annexing of the product in a movie or video song.

Infomercials are differentiated from other television advertisements on the basis of time. They are usually thirty minutes long like a regular program. They are also known as teleshopping or paid programming. One can catch them at odd hours of the day like early morning or late in the night. It’s actually a commercial letting out the complete information about a particular product like expert advice on the product, how it should be used, its cost, and where it is available. They resemble more like a talk show than to a commercial as the advertisers communicate to viewers with the help of catchy phrases, celebrities and experts.

Television commercial donut is a template. Its like a blueprint and has all the necessary elements to make a finished commercial but the actual product is missing. Usually advertisers who find producing a commercial difficult use it. The local networks in return of purchase of airtime on their respective channels usually provide the commercial donut. It is a very cost effective method but it has a lack of creativity that will not ensure customer attraction. With the advancements in video editing technology this option is becoming increasingly popular among advertisers.

Promos or network promotional advertising involves television advertising. The amount of commercials that are being hosted on local and national television has been rising by the day and has featured almost everything one can imagine in the world.

Sponsoring a program or a channel is done to promote products or a program for a cause. The group or individual supports financially to advertise his product, service or organization.

Advertising on Television

Advertisements of products, organizations, and services are generally aired on television. This is be done by buying slots on the airtime from a particular television channel. Price depends on the popularity of the channel, time the commercial is being aired, number of viewers and length of the commercial. Placing a commercial on local channels is more affordable than on national channel where the cost is almost double.

When thinking of placing a commercial on television it is advised that you first understand what audience needs to be reached. 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 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 out with the sales representative for the prices. When advertising on national level, check out an ad agency that usually works on commission basis. It’s 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 do 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. And ever since then there have been no stopping and now commercials sell anything that one can ever imagine.