Getting the most out of your creative and production

Creative and production are areas that, with just a bit of good writing and skillful execution, are perfect places to save money without sacrificing effectiveness. Your ads can look and sound like champagne, even though your budget can only afford beer. You don’t need to spend a small fortune producing a television commercial to sell something that could easily be explained in a well-written and cleverly produced radio spot. Nor do you need to buy a full-page, four-color newspaper ad when a small-space, black-and-white ad with a killer headline and graphic will likely attract as much or more attention. And you needn’t waste money on a so-called celebrity spokesperson to pitch your business on radio if you can hire an actor who simply has a great voice.
You can save money on advertising production if you begin with a clever concept and good writing that take cost-effective production into consideration from the very beginning. In other words, don’t write a TV spot that must be filmed beneath the Eiffel Tower if you can’t afford to send a film crew to France. Putting together a radio spot by using French music, European traffic sound effects, and an actor with a believable French accent may be a bit more cost-effective. If you do it right, the listener will add the mental image of the Eiffel Tower for you, free of charge.
Okay, so you’re not planning to do a full-blown commercial shoot in Paris, but you may be tempted to write and produce a TV spot because you feel your product is so darned visual that the consumer simply must see it to appreciate it. Here are two truths to ponder before you bite off more than you can chew:

• Television production costs more than radio production.
• Radio can conjure visual images in the mind of the listener if you use it correctly.

Armed with this information, why not write a radio commercial that’s filled with visual imagery and costs only a pittance to produce as compared to a TV spot? These mental images (the theater of the mind, as I call it) can be more effective than showing the actual product. For example, a chain of furniture stores my agency handles hasn’t done television in years because we proved to them that radio can effectively paint mental pictures of the various furniture pieces they’re selling. With the same amount of dollars they were spending on one or two broadcast or cable TV stations, they’re now buying time on a half-dozen radio stations — and their business has never been better.
Begin by planning a creative concept that can, at the same time, be produced inexpensively and is clever enough to be heard above the roar. Easier said than done, you say? Perhaps. But it’s not impossible, and it can be quite a bit of fun. Besides, why would you want to do boring advertising? Consumers don’t want to see or hear any more boring advertising — they’re already saturated with it. They’d much rather see or hear clever, funny, memorable ads that, more often than not, will jolt them into responding. This type of advertising is what you should be shooting for.
Want a voice for your radio spot or TV commercial? Call your ad agency, or look in the Yellow Pages under “Talent Agencies & Casting Directors.”