Billboard Advertising in San Antonio

On July 1st, 1941 a payment of $9.00 was made to a New York City NBC affiliate for a 20-second commercial featuring a Bulova watch. The nuts and bolts of network television advertising.

Television advertising has an exceptional track record as the premier mass-market advertising format. This can be inferred from the high prices TV networks assign to their commercial advertisers during popular TV programs. Production costs for television commercials vary depending on factors such as animation, acting, music, special effects and time-sensitive information. This is one of the reasons many advertisers amortize this cost over the high frequency that television advertising offers.

This erects high barriers to entry for the local advertiser who is looking to bid against national advertisers for network programming. Often times, the local advertiser cannot afford to hire an advertising agency to produce high-quality commercials, and thus many times their television ads are not clear and do not reach their prospects.

Trends in television advertising
Commercial television is becoming increasingly fragmented. In the 1950’s there were less than 100 commercial TV stations. Today there are over 1200 commercial TV stations. Over this same period of time, network television has been pressured by the increase in other TV viewing options such as TV network websites, cable television, satellite TV, Netflix, and other alternatives to television. This has severely diluted the local business’ influence, and for the local advertiser or small business, this makes network-television advertising difficult.

This has caused ratings for television programs to suffer. From 1990 to 1999, television ratings have decreased nearly 50% for the 18 - 64 age group. Of this group, approximately 40% are categorized as light television viewers, watching less than 90 minutes of television programming per day.

Advantages of television advertising

The local advertiser is having an increasingly difficult time making commercial advertising an effective means for building an equity stake in their local market. Network television advertising provides advertisers a wide geographic coverage - a boon for national advertisers, but bust for the local business owner. Television advertising can reach a broad audience, and of course, it includes sight, sound, motion, and product demonstration.

Disadvantages of television advertising

I am going to leave it at this: the internet and tivo.

Television can work well with outdoor advertising

The local business can use out of home advertising whether it is on dry cleaning ad-bags, receipt tapes, grocery store point of purchase stations to reinforce their equity stake by reinforcing their message during the day. The local business owner can then use their television programming during the late evenings to deliver their message. Billboards and out of home media tend to limit wasted circulation.

The local advertiser can use local television programming, but to rely on it would be advertising folly. Television can be expensive, especially if you are looking for an extended campaign (which you always should). There is simply too much clutter during television programs. Your energy would be better spent sponsoring charity events to market your company to the local community, not hiring an ad agency to think up a fancy jingle for your real estate company.