Television Advertising

Grabs attention. Imagine taking your product personally into millions of homes all over the country to show them why it’s better, faster, stronger, higher or longer-lasting, and even demonstrating it right in front of them. One of the biggest advantages of TV ads is the ability to call out to your potential customers right where they are. It’s akin to tapping them on the shoulder and saying, “Hey, come look at this!” 

Combines sight and sound. With print advertising, you try to use compelling headlines and graphics to get people to read about your product. You can only hope they read the whole ad, look at the artwork and tie the two together to understand the message you want them to receive. Radio has the advantage of voice and sound effects, but no visuals. You’re counting on them to envision your product as you want them to see it. TV ads are intrusive, capable of interrupting whatever else a viewer might be doing to watch and listen to your pitch.  

Fosters emotion and empathy. Good TV ads are more than walking, talking messages. You determine how you want your audience to react. Smile. Laugh. Cry. Take action. You’re putting on a skit or short play of sorts for their benefit. You can make it lighthearted or even humorous, thought-provoking or heartbreaking. You can try to do that with print, but you can’t control how the words are read, with the proper emphasis and pauses for emotion. You can put the emotion into radio, but without the visual effect it’s just not as powerful.  

Reaches a wide, targeted audience. One of the big advantages of television advertising is the huge audience you can reach instantaneously. TV ads can be targeted to specific audiences surprisingly well, too. To reach stay-at-home or work-from-home parents, buy daytime spots. To reach a Hispanic market, you could buy air time on a Spanish-speaking network. For products that appeal to full-time workers, advertise in the evening. Toy and cereal manufacturers have known about targeting since TV began and they advertised during Saturday morning cartoons. Parents didn’t always appreciate it, but the ads worked.