Do It Yourself Television Advertising...really?

"Do you folks do video and television commercials?"  Yes, yes we do.

I got a call the other day from a young lady who works for an upscale shop in Des Moines.  She wanted to know what it might cost to shoot a thirty-second television commercial.  It was clearly her, and the shops, first time in this world of TV.  She told me about her thoughts:  "We want to show quality and how buying the best makes a real value statement.  We want to reach a specific demographic that understands this." 

She went on telling me her ideas regarding the video treatment.  It seemed that she had a "handle" on the look and 'feel' of the project.  Of course I had some questions:

• Will you be using experienced talent or volunteers? - "Volunteers"
• Will you want to shoot on location? - "Yes, in an upscale home."
• Where are you planning on airing the ad? - "We're looking at cable."
• Will there be speaking parts or a voice over?  "We're not sure at this point."
• How long will you air the commercial?  "We're not sure yet."

And then THE question:  "So, tell me what kind of budget number do you have in mind for the project?" - "We're not sure, can you give me an estimate?"

This is where it starts to get weird...  I told my eager young friend that it all depended on what they wanted.  Doing a location shoot, volunteer talent, edits.  ( At this point in injected that our editor has an Emmy for editing...honest - here's the photo: check over Bob's left shoulder on the monitor.)  Hey good quality is good quality!

Her reaction: "Well, I'm not sure we need an Emmy Award Winner..."  OK...so I went on:

I told her the cost would be "someplace" between $1,500 and $3,500 (could be higher too) depending on what she wanted. The response, "That sounds like a lot.  Why the cost difference?"

I went on to explain quality, the cost of continued time or "takes" using raw talent, on-site video work costs more than studio work, speaking lines or voice overs, proper edit to make it sparkle, camera quality...and the fact that they were in the very early stages and didn't exactly know what they wanted.  "You know, somebody will have to write this piece."

She said, "Oh that should be easy!  I took a class in college about broadcasting.  I still have the book on how to write a thirty-second ad."  And, "What if we use stills and shoot the photos ourselves?"

I stopped talking and listening at that moment wondering to myself where in the world the "...high quality and buying the best..." statement went?  We went from showcasing "quality" to "do it yourself".

Guess it depends on who is selling and who is buying...and we're in a learning curve.

Michael P. Libbie - Insight Advertising, Marketing & Communications - We're not sure we'll hear back...we hope so because we're all about quality.  Thanks for reading.  www.InsightCubed.com On Twitter at @MichaelLibbie