Disadvantages of TV Advertisement and ways to overcome it

Disadvantages of TV Advertisement

If we look back into the history of marketing, television advertisement becomes popular in the 1950s. Since then, Television advertisement becomes the most popular medium of advertisement. Television advertisement becomes the most influential medium of advertisement with the ability to reach to their homes and engages the viewers visual, audio and emotions. It also has the unmatched ability to reach a huge group of audiences almost instantly.

Even being the most popular and traditional medium of advertisement, many of the new advertisers stuck with the disadvantages of TV advertisement and move to digital advertisement and other mediums. In this article, I am trying to clarify the doubts of young marketers about television advertisement. Cross-checking the most discussed disadvantages of television advertisement and solutions to overcome it. It will help you to decide whether television advertising will suit your brand or business.

1. Television airtime itself is very costly.

Compared to other traditional advertising mediums, television advertainment is very costly. A single spot cost during prime time itself is costly and can eat up your advertisement budget very quickly. Moreover, you have to run your ad campaign multiple time to get registered in the customers

Solution: If you are just measuring the cost, then you will feel it very costly. But you have to actually understand the cost per eyeballs. Also don’t Compare with newspaper, Radio or Bill Boards because you are running a multimedia content in comparison with the static content in other mediums. If you really compare the cost per impression of video content on Facebook, YouTube and Television, you will realize that Television will be much cheaper than the other two.

2. Cost for Creating Commercial.

TV Commercial is the most expensive to produce and the most time-consuming. Because it involves writing a good script, identifying good actors, editing and other production resources.  Sometime you may have to involve an advertisement agency in the process which further increase your costs.

Solution: You have to consider your TV commercial as an Investment for the future. A well-developed concept and commercial will clearly communicate your brand’s message than any other medium. A good Commercial is a long term investment and you can use it for a few years. Also, you can use the same in any video platforms like Facebook, YouTube, website, Theater etc. Considering these facts your investment of time and money is never get wasted. If your budget is very low, then you can consider a 2D animation video, which you can develop less than a lakh.

3. People will Skip the channels during break

There is no guarantee that a TV advertisement will be viewed by all the viewers every time it’s aired. People take a break for their personal needs like getting some snacks or going to the bathroom or even skip the channel to search for some other shows. After that, they will return in in time for the break to end without seeing or hearing about your advertisement. Many people doubt by deliverability of TV advertisement considering this as a one of the disadvantages of TV Advertisement

Solution: You can negotiate with the channel to telecast your advertisement in the first spot during a commercial break. By the timer viewer move into any other activity, your ad has been fully played. Another solution is to select the programs or channels which people will switch less often. During the breaks in Music or movies, switching between channel will be comparatively less.

4. Targeting is difficult in TV Advertisement.

Television advertising is a mass marketing tool. Targeting your core target group in terms of gender, location, age or based on their interest is very challenging in a television advertisement.

Solution: Television advertisement is the best tool for mass marketing across a state or country. It may not be suitable in 2 situations. If your product or service is localized to one particular region or district. If you have an independent shop in one location and want to plan a TV advertisement, then it may not be cost-effective for you. Better to focus more localized advertisement medium. The second case is when your product is an extremely niche product like Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Rolex etc. You might not require a mass marketing tool for advertisement. In any other case, you can choose your right customer group by choosing the channel, program or time band.

Read More about advantages of TV advertisement: https://vijinv.com/benefits-of-advertising-on-television/

5. Changing the creative will be difficult

Making changes to the content of a commercial is very difficult and time-consuming. Even making a small change also require re-shooting, post-production can take days or weeks. All these processes may affect your marketing strategy even losing your important sales season itself.

Solution: Spend time in the concept development stage and making the final commercial. After that do a trial run before scaling up your marketing campaign. The first thing is taking feedback on your commercial before telecasting. During telecast also, start with a single channel and Inform the spot timing with your stakeholders and collect their opinions about the same.  If everything if perfect, then scale up for the mass campaign.

6. Building frequency is difficult

Compared to other advertisements channels, building frequency through television advertising is very costly. many people focus on frequency advertisement strategy consider this as one of the disadvantages of TV Advertisement and move away from this medium.

Solution: You can divide your budget for Reach and frequency. The Reach part can be spent on GEC channels during Prime-time bands. Based on your budget, you can even start with a single program which closely matched with the TG of your customer group. And the remaining frequency part can be used in movies or music or news at suitable time bands. This strategy will help you to build reach and frequency with your available budget.

7. Life of your message is very short

During television advertisement our message expires immediately. Technically it doesn’t have any shelf life.

Solution: This is true in case of most of the broadcasting advertisement mediums. Life of advertisements like radio, digital etc is just a few seconds only. For a news paper, it can be one day. But Television advertisement can reach to much more people in its short span of time. To overcome this you have to telecast your advertisement multiple time during a day itself.

8. Difficult to reach to youth

With the increased internet penetration, and availability of wifi at every home, younger generations spend most of their time in smartphones and difficult reach them through Television.

Solution: The statement is only half true. Because television is medium which have more than 90% penetration in India. The print media have 70% reach and digital has only 40 – 45% reach. Majority of Indian household have only one TV in their home left no other option for the youth to escape. Also, you can more focus on Movies, Music and reality shows rather than choosing News or serials.   

Read More about common TV Advertisement Terms: https://vijinv.com/tv-advertising-terms-television-advertisement-glossary-explained/

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