TV Advertising is More Affordable than You Think

23rd January, 2009

We are in a recession (officially from today) and it's natural to take a close look at your costs but you also need to generate sales. Some business managers make the mistake of cutting marketing budgets at this time but being ‘ex-directory’ is a sure fire way of letting your competition steal your customers.

The smart marketing advice is to maintain your budgets or, dare I say it, even increase your marketing spend when in a downturn and there are a number of studies that prove this to be right. As well as gaining a greater share of voice (because your competitors aren’t as clever as you and have cut their marketing) you can also benefit from getting more marketing for your money.

Let’s take TV advertising. I bet your initial reaction is that it is too expensive and is only for national brands. Wrong!

Advertising on TV is cheaper than you think

Channels like ITV can be broken down into regions to allow you to only reach the customers that you want. TV advertising is usually priced based on a couple of factors including how many people are watching and how many people want to advertise. In simple terms if less people want to advertise and more people are watching then the price plummets.

We expect that some less astute companies are cutting their advertising but what’s happening to TV viewing figures?

Let’s see … everybody has a TV … people are staying at home more to save money … consumption of entertainment usually goes up when the economy is in a downturn...… and it's still dark by the time we get home from work...

All of these factors shout “more TV watching”. As a cosequence TV advertising makes more sense than ever. Not only will more people see you advert but it will cost you less. It's not rocket science, just common sense.

For example a month’s worth of adverts on Meridian Sussex (approx 1,142,000 adults) could cost less than £8,000. No that isn’t for 3am slots, that’s for 9.30am to 11pm slots and based on 30% of them being in peak times i.e. around Coronation Street. And a month on Thames Valley could be as little as £4,000!*

Make the most of the recession and add TV to your marketing mix.
Jason Edge

*Costs are approximate and accurate prices for specific campaigns can be provided.