Advertising on TV has for a long time been considered the premium platform on which to promote your brand or product. It reaches the largest audience via a medium that’s a proven track record in generating awareness and sales.
But this premium platform has always come with a premium price, and consequently has only been accessible to the big brands with the big media buying budgets.
Until now, that is. Sky have launched a game-changer with their AdSmart offering.
As advertising on digital platforms like Facebook and Google has evolved, this has meant that advertisers have been able to very specifically target who they sell to. Whether it’s a certain geography or demographic, the data sets now available mean money can be spent showing an ad only to those likely to buy.
According to Komando, Facebook has 52,000 (no, that’s not a typo) data points on each of its users. This means they know exactly what you want to buy, and when you want to buy it. It also makes the ad dollars spent, work more efficiently.
Sky have applied the same principles to AdSmart. They use data sets from the likes of Experian and Dunnhumby to enable their advertisers to spent money more efficiently. If your product or service relates to people moving house in a certain postcode, then you can ensure that only they see your ad. If you’re selling new cars, only people looking for a new car will be advertised to.
AdSmart is available currently in 40% of UK households, but Sky hope to grow that to 60% by the end of 2022.
And for those thinking ‘but everyone just fasts forward through the ads now, right?’ you only pay for ads of which 75% is played at normal speed.
Prices for media start at £3000 and your audience must be at least 5000 households, but this now means more and more companies can advertise on television.
Obviously you still need an advert to place in the slots you buy, so here are a few considerations on the creative and consequently the production budget:
- What do you want to achieve? Is it building awareness, generate sales, or both? Never lose sight of what you want the consequence of people viewing the advert to be, and come back to this for every decision you make throughout the production process.
- Following on from the above, make sure your commercial ends with a call to action.
- Measure the success of the commercial. This way you ensure that you come away with something – if it doesn’t work, you will improve your marketing mix and your understanding of your consumers as a consequence. Don’t underestimate the value of this knowledge.
- Things cost more for use in a TV commercial. As an example, buying a 30 second music track from a royalty free library such as Audio Network is about £70 for use in a corporate video, but the same track will be about £600 for use in a TV commercial (prices mentioned exclude VAT). I suspect with time may come a little more flexibility on some of these fees that take into consideration media spend and specific platform a little more, but there will always be an increase in cost for such explicitly promotional uses.
- Following on from the above, crew can cost more to work on a television commercial. The Advertising Producers Association (a trade body for anyone working in advertising) advise on the rates and working conditions for anyone involved in a commercial. These are higher (and more stringent) than for something like a corporate video.
- The technical requirements of any content going on television are very specific. The sound levels, colours, where the picture appears on the screen – it all has to be up to broadcast standards and will be rigorously checked before it is allowed to be broadcast. Meeting these requirements needs expertise and experience – plus use of the right equipment!
- The content of the commercial will have to be reviewed and approved at multiple stages in the production process by an independent company called Clear Cast (funded by all the major commercial broadcasters to maintain the integrity of adverts shown on all television channels). There are third parties that can manage this approval process of both the technical requirements and the content and they charge about £600 for this service. Whether the production company you work with do it themselves or outsource it, the cost in terms of time charged for is likely to be similar.
- Aim high. It’s a cliché, but there is no harm with some ‘blue sky’ thinking about how you envisage the ad looking (if you’re not sure how best to do this, we can help). You may be able to get closer to this than you think.
- Look at what other people are doing. What do you like? What don’t you like? this will really help define what you do, and avoid wasting time (and money) unnecessarily.
- A badly produced commercial will have more of a negative impact than no commercial at all. If you can’t afford to buy the media slots and produce a commercial you are happy with, do not spend the money on either. You will be better off spending it elsewhere.
- Television advertising in any form, works best when it is part of a larger integrated campaign or promotion. For more advice on how such campaigns can be put together, speak with our friends at Sixth Sense Marketing or Rocket & Fox
Here are some thoughts from Sixth Sense Marketing on things you should consider when working out whether AdSmart from Sky might be right for you.