TV Advertising for Startups – Direct Response for Internet Companies
For years we’ve all seen direct response ads hocking the George Foreman Grill, ShamWow and countless other products. The common call-to-action is dial an 800 number and maybe a website. Instead of a sexy brand awareness ad from Mercedes to keep their cars top of mind, direct response is aimed at eliciting an immediate response from the target audience. Nothing new there.
But there’s been an emergence of a new class of direct response ads popping up with more frequency. Internet companies and startups have increasingly turned to TV as a marketing channel to extend their brand. There may be an overall trend to move away from TV to digital video, but television still has enormous reach and low CPMs when done correctly.
It’s nothing new for internet companies to advertise online, they’ve been doing it for years. Surely you’ve seen some of these examples from popular categories and companies beaming their message to your TV:
Search
Dating
Travel
Jobs
Beyond the examples above, there’s a whole new wave of startups using TV, tapping into a huge distribution network at a remarkably low cost. Our friends at Media Design Group are a cutting edge media agency who have have mastered the art of purchasing remnant inventory for substantial savings – anywhere from 50%-70% less than upfronts. This allows startups with aspirations for TV to give it a shot without breaking the bank.
In fact, that was exactly the approach online job aggregator, ZipRecruiter, took when they approached 4WT Media to produce a commercial. We developed creative that was on-brand and clearly conveyed messaging for their target demo – hiring managers & employers. The TV commercial produced for ZipRecruiter has run nationally for months and we’re currently in production on another spot for them and have tapped YouTube star Mystery Guitar Man to direct.
Part of the reason that so many startups are choosing TV is because attribution can be extremely detailed and provide in-depth analytics to track performance. Our top choice for attribution is Convertro, their TV optimization platform gives advertisers unparalleled insight to understand not only how their TV campaigns are performing but how to optimize. For a lean company looking to grow this is a recipe to quickly scale and reach millions of potential customers.
Just make sure you’re ready for the traffic and your servers don’t crash.