TV Advertising: Not Just For Big Dogz Anymore!!

How can I effectively use TV advertising in my market like the big dogz do and do it on small business budget?

In the past, most small businesses wouldn’t even contemplate TV advertising. Creating commercials and then buying the airtime could easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you have a few bucks for advertising, you’ll do what you can with local newsprint, radio, or maybe dabble in direct mailings.

So, TV advertising has been pretty much out of the question for most small businesses and within the exclusive world of the big dogz. Enter an internet-ad agency called Spot Runner.

Spot Runner (www.spotrunner.com), is most likely the first internet-based ad agency that provides a very cost effective way for small, local businesses to participate in TV advertising. Here’s how they do it:

First, the service is internet-based. So you can get an entire TV ad program up and running from your PC. You choose from a library of thousands of 30-second TV ads and personalize it for you business. They have ads for a wide variety of business categories. Everything from Arts to Sports is available. You can preview any ad you want. I went through a few of them and they are professionally done and sharp. In particular, I looked at a fishing tackle ad under “Sports & Recreation”. It was an exceptionally well-done ad that would put any of the usual local “car dealer” ads to shame (you know, those ads you see on your local channels that look a few bars below professional).

Each 30-second ad costs you $499…that’s it. The same ad, if you tried to hire a professional ad agency to do it, would literally cost tens of thousands, if not more. You couldn’t produce a better ad than Spot Runner has for that price.

After I selected an ad, I told them (online) about the demographics I am targeting. Then Spot Runner asked me where I wanted to run the ad, so I chose my zip code. It gave me the option of running ads in Orange County and/or the greater NY area. I chose both.

Then I could set my advertising budget and determine the number of weeks I wanted to run the campaign. Then, with a press of button, Spot Runner developed a full TV campaign that I could review. My 4-week campaign would cost me $1990 (plus the $499 for the ad) and would run 123 times on such channels as TNT, TV Land, USA, etc. For each network, Spot Runner told me how many spots would run on each and the dayparts (when during the day the ads would run) for each network.

Wow. Where else can you find a way to run 30 second spots for about $16.17 per spot? Spot Runner is the answer for the small business owner who wants to maximize their exposure in their markets for a price that they can afford. You want to run with the big dogz? Check out Spot Runner.