We recognize good commercials when we see them, but it’s much more difficult to know what goes into producing top-quality commercials. For many business owners, that makes commercials seem insurmountable. However, achieving quality is more in reach than you’d initially think.
It’s crucial to achieve that quality because with good production comes better results. If you want to find out what creating TV commercials entails, here are several successful tips to help you start your next campaign.
Know What You Want to Accomplish
Your TV advertising needs to be constructed differently depending on whether it's trying to increase sales or build awareness around your brand. You'll need to carefully choose your messaging and stick with it instead of trying to say too much at once.
Overloading your commercials with too much information will overwhelm your audience and backfire on you. It undermines your ads because it doesn’t communicate what your brand does and instead confuses your audience.
When choosing a message for your ads, narrow it to only what's necessary and decide how many to convey in a single commercial. Each commercial should be limited to around 30 to 60 seconds' worth of content. Even shorter commercials at 15 seconds have been gaining popularity due to their effectiveness. These ads have a high impact and a lower production cost for their shorter length, making them increasingly attractive to marketers. 15-second commercials can also easily be repurposed for online ads.
Commercials are short-form media and their points need to be clearly conveyed. Limit your commercials to a few key points instead of trying to condense a ton of information into it. If you want to convey more information, you can create multiple ads that feature different content variations that appeal to specific diverse audiences. Keep in mind that you want to stay on brand and communicate a centralized message, despite targeting different audiences with different creative. For instance, if you’re a financial institution encouraging customers to open savings accounts, your promotion should be crafted to appeal to a younger, retirement-focused audience. While your message to an older audience might be making an account for your child’s college fund.
Base your messaging on the specific goal you want to achieve. When building brand awareness, your content should be introductory and express your brand mission, along with an overview of your offerings. If you want to boost sales, your messaging should revolve around particular actions, products, or services with a specific call-to-action, like visiting your physical location or website.
Figure Out Who You're Speaking To
Narrowing your message to communicate with your specific audience helps your message resonate and drives sales. Developing a deeper understanding of your target audience and what they want to see and hear lets you create content they’ll enjoy. Knowing your audience's preferences and interests helps you laser-target your messaging and creative to better reflect them, thus making your message more appealing.
It's impossible to encapsulate your entire brand in a single commercial. Instead, you'll do better to highlight a minor aspect of your brand that resonates with a particular audience segment. Pinpointing your target audience is a daunting task that can more easily be done using engagement metrics or working with a media partner. If you want to connect with different demographics among your audience, you can create other spots that appeal to each of them, respectively.
Grab Attention Creatively
It’s crucial to immediately grab the audience's attention to build recognition around your brand. You need to leave a good impression quickly, as the first three seconds are all people need to decide whether to tune into or out of your ad.
Portraying your message creatively grabs people’s attention by cutting through the clutter of the many commercials on-air. Make sure you keep your visuals and messaging cohesive because if you grab attention solely for the sake of grabbing attention, it will feel disingenuous. As you develop your commercials, develop your identity as you stretch your creative muscles. Don’t sacrifice who you are in exchange for audience engagement.
Authentically Represent Your Brand
Consumers have an over-exposure to marketing materials, and using authentic brand messaging helps your ads cut through the noise. People are social creatures and are drawn to messages with a relatable human voice that feels real. For companies, that means presenting your brand as honestly as possible around a set of core values.
Demonstrate the wholesome motivation behind your business with a personal, compelling brand story. That way, you can intuitively present what you stand for while communicating why you stand for it. A good example of this is the yogurt brand Chobani, which has founded itself on making a local impact. It’s now one of the largest yogurt producers in part due to its efforts in sustainably giving back to its communities. Be Memorable
Memorability is vital to a successful commercial, but you can make your commercials memorable without straying into over-repetition. Using catchy jingles or taglines is a great way to resonate with your audience without relying on simple repetition to give your message staying power. Make sure to do your research before going with either because a lousy jingle or line could become memorable for the wrong reasons. Market-test your jingles or slogans on smaller focus groups before rolling them out to wider audiences.
Another way to make your brand more memorable is to feature influencers or brand representatives in your ads. Having instantly recognizable figures appear in ads can be key in not only grabbing but holding your audience's attention. People are also likely to remember endorsements from their favorite local or national celebrities.
Create High-Quality Commercials That Establish a Quality Brand
Creating quality commercials reflects positively on your brand, which is crucial for successful TV advertising. With a solid commercial or series of commercials behind your business, you'll be able to drastically increase awareness and develop a clear brand identity. Subsequently, you'll be able to stay in people's minds and stand out from competitors.
