Advertising on Television

Advertising on TelevisionAdvertisements of products, organizations, andservices are generally aired on television. Thisis be done by buying slots on the airtime from aparticular television channel. Price depends onthe popularity of the channel, time thecommercial is being aired, number of viewers andlength of the commercial. Placing a commercial onlocal channels is more affordable than onnational channel where the cost is almost double.When thinking of placing a commercial ontelevision it is advised that you first

understand what audience needs to be reached.Different audiences have different taste, whichcan be determined by their choice of televisionshow like celebrity talk, cartoons, sports,reality, news, movies, soaps, prime time etc.Prime time is usually from 6 to 7 pm and is themost expensive slot. Following it is the news timeat noon or 10-11 pm slots, which are proven to bethe most effective time slots for the success ofa commercial. More affordable is the 12-4 pm soaptime. Always check out with the salesrepresentative for the prices. When advertisingon national level, check out an ad agency thatusually works on commission basis. It 抯 highlyrecommended to negotiate during a re-run of theadvertisement and stay away from paying thecomplete amount.Compare the prices of different networks anddifferent programs before you place an ad.Another money saving trick is to buy a thirtyseconds slot and air commercials of ten to fifteen

seconds of length one after the other. Thisincreases the possibility of target viewersseeing the commercial without the cost of re-runs.But this is risky as the pressure of conveyingcritical information in a short period of timeincreases. So the commercials should not be soshort that the actual message couldn 抰 bedelivered correctly to the audience. Usually areminder commercial can be of a shorter duration.Look out for the people who would like to buy aslot that has already been purchased. This can bevery tricky as it will be more like a bid for whichthey will be ready to pay a larger amountsometimes even double because they badly need aslot. This usually happens during the holidayseason, which comes in the last quarter of theyear around New Years Eve, Thanksgiving holidaysand Christmas holidays. Best time of the year tobuy slots for commercial is the first and secondquarter of the year. Price is usually negotiableduring the first quarter as the sales

representatives give discounts to advertiserswho have spend a lot of money advertising duringthe holiday season and are trying to recover fromit.If planning to pay for advertising commercialsfor the whole year check out the discounts thatare being offered for advertising round the year.Usually a five percent discount is offered whensigning for a six-month time period and tenpercent when signing for a twelve-month timeperiod. But do keep in mind to check out exactlywhen the commercials are being aired becausethese discounts are usually offered to distractpeople from this point and the commercials areaired during odd hours and also not during theholiday season.The very first commercial to go on air was ofBulova Watch Company on WNBC, United States ofAmerica on July 1, 1941. And ever since then therehave been no stopping and now commercials sell

anything that one can ever imagine.PPPPPWord Count 576