Five Tips for Creating an Effective Television Commercial
Creating a TV commercial can be tough - you have a short amount of time to make a big impression on a viewer and the goal is to make an impact that makes people remember a brand and how the creative piece made them feel. Effective television commercials leave the audience with a clear recall of the brand and the brand’s messaging in order to create a connection. It’s one thing to remember a commercial, it’s another thing to drive a person to interact with a brand because of the connection made from a commercial. The connection is what makes a commercial effective.
What’s Your BIG Idea?
Your big idea is often your marketing message cut down to a concise point. Think of the last few commercials you watched - what was the overall message behind them? Do you remember the tag line? Your big idea can be tied to your tagline or just part of your overall brand messaging. It’s also a bit like the north star that a strategy should follow, so consider any current marketing and digital strategies you have in place.
Prior to reaching out to a video production company, it’s important you have an idea of what you want your television commercial to be centered around. This helps with the effectiveness in driving goals. Understanding how the commercial fits into your business and your company’s goals will help shape your big idea.
Know Your Market
In general, every business should be aware of who they are targeting. This rings even more true when it comes to creating a tv commercial. During the pre-production phase, it’s important to account for your target market to make sure the commercial is geared toward them. Your target market can help shape every detail in the project, affecting the casting, location, editing pace, and more. When you speak to your target market, instead of the masses, you have a greater chance of making an impact.
Remember, representation matters.
Speaking to only one of your consumer types, or personas, in your commercial is a common tactic and it allows for better targeting when media buying comes into play. Having a clear image of your target, who they are, what they like, their ages, and their entire persona will help script the ad properly so it can reflect this consumer. You have about three seconds to capture your target persona during your commercial before they get up to retrieve a snack or tune into something on their phone, so make sure you know what makes them tick so you can capture their interest from the get-go.
Crafting a Good Story
The best commercials don’t sell anything - they tell a story. While it’s great to see what your competitors are doing from a storytelling standpoint, there’s more value in being original and authentic to your own products and services. When creating a script, authenticity should be front and center. Your story should appeal to your target market and incorporate your big idea. While it’s not hard to flesh out a good idea, writing a script can be complex. Storytelling involves a few different aspects like:
A Defined Story
Story Structure
Character Creation
Brand Personality
A Goal
Great storytelling starts with defining the story before you write a single word. You have an idea, now craft the story around that idea with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The story needs to be compelling and exciting, too. When you start writing, stop and edit mercilessly. You have a short amount of time, so it’s important to script appropriately.
Your story should also serve your business goals - are you looking for visibility for your brand or to sell a specific product or service? This helps define your story more accurately.
Understand Your Goals
Think about your business and marketing goals. What part does a television commercial play in reaching those goals? Should the commercial enhance brand visibility or should it drive sales? Should the commercial do both? You can create interest in a product with a commercial aimed at boosting visibility. If your target is millennial women and your goal is to spark interest in the brand to build new consumers, this will affect casting, the story, and the placement of the commercial when it’s completed.
When you fully understand your goals, you can fully empower your video production team to create a script, storyboards, and a commercial based on your marketing goals and the goal for the TV commercial.
Hire a Production Company
You’ve got your big idea, you know the story you want to convey - now you need to find the right partner to write and produce your commercial the way you envision it. Finding the right production company can be challenging. You need a partner who can work with you every step of the way from scripting and location scouting to sound mixing and voiceovers. Tiny Giraffe Pictures can help you take your vision and turn it into a real commercial. We’re committed to working with our clients as partners in the creative process.