TV commercials rely heavily on emotion. It's better to save detailed product descriptions and benefits for your inbound marketing materials when leads are looking for that information. Instead, let the value and emotional pull of your product pull through in your TV ads.
There’s a long history of commercials that tug on one particular heartstring for Portland businesses: nostalgia. A combination of perceptive scripts, striking visuals, and well-crafted jingles that stick in listeners' memories (like in the Franz Bread commercials) create strong commercials.
When your television ads can pull viewers into a particular state of mind and stick with them through the years, you've made a commercial that will give you years (or even decades) of value. Learn more about how to create those emotive and nostalgia-generating ads for your specific Portland audience in this guide.
1. Get To Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience is the most crucial step when creating any marketing material. You need to understand what your customers care about, what specific problem your product can solve for them, and how they prefer to be talked to. Even if you don't discuss your product in detail, showcasing how your target market can use the product and how it changes their lives is a powerful message.
Portland is home to a diverse group of people, even though it's a local audience. Before you even start scripting your commercial, you need to know who your commercial is for to successfully advertise.
How Demographic Research Will Help
Demographic research and customer personas help you find out who you need to reach. A customer persona is a fictional representation of your target market based on data you gather about who buys your products. The more detail you can add to a customer persona the better you can engage them and create a personalized message. Gather data like:
- What their daily life looks like
- Which media platforms or TV channels they prefer
- Their income levels
Strong demographic research is the only path to creating richly detailed customer personas. Achieve this through surveys on your website, detailed analysis of your web traffic and buyers, and even by working with third-party consultants.
2. Plan Out What You Want to Say
As soon as you know who you're talking to, it's time to create a script. YouTube videos and social media can create the illusion that media is becoming less scripted and more impromptu or natural. TV ads, however, need to be tightly scripted to let audiences know you put time and attention into your message. TV commercials are a more formal, defined space.
Other benefits of planning out exactly what you want in your television ad include:
- Faster production: The more specifics you already have, the faster your production service can pull the whole ad together.
- A clearer focus on the core message: When you tightly script and block out every second of your commercial, you know if it's focused on the message or if the message is getting lost.
- Savings: A detailed plan reduces the chances of you changing your mind halfway through production or needing last-minute revisions. It saves your company money on direct production costs and indirect costs of delays.
- Testing: Detailed planning allows you to test each element of the ad with a focus group or test audience. It includes your script, your core message, and even your music. You can revise your message if it's confusing before it reaches thousands of viewers.
3. Decide Where You Want to Air Your Ad
Researching your audience also sets the stage for deciding where you're going to air your television commercial. You need to know where your target market (and customer personas) spend their viewing time.
Your audience might watch the local news, or they may only watch channels in their cable package. Sometimes, your audience won't watch traditional television at all, instead preferring online streaming channels. You need to know both where your audience is and isn't so you can create a list of contenders.
Then actually reach out to local stations to:
- Determine their demographics to verify their reach and audience matches your goals
- Learn their rates for different time slots
- Confirm their rules for ad formatting and content (this is essential!)
4. Hire a Media Partner or Ad Agency
At this stage, everything is falling into place. Streamline your race to the finish line by working with a professional media partner. An experienced agency can:
- Take on some of the heavy liftings for developing your ad
- Help narrow your focus onto a specific target market that's the best fit for your ad
- Negotiate with local stations to secure you the best rates or the best time slots
- Give you a detailed insight into television ad campaigns, especially if this is your first campaign
Reach Your Portland Audience With a Well-Crafted TV Commercial
Television commercials are an excellent opportunity to imprint your brand in the local culture. Reaching out to Portland audiences requires research, a tightly crafted message, and precision. Portland is its DMA with over 1 million homes with televisions, so make sure your brand is reaching them with the best possible message.
