In the eyes of many, advertising on television is first prize.

And they have a point. The fact is, advertising on TV is the way to go if you're looking to reach a wide audience - and have the budget available. Whilst the medium isn’t particularly cheap, it’s flexible in its offerings and, in some cases, provides discounted advertising packages to first time advertisers. Television is an in-the-face medium and as such, is suitable for both brand-building and moving product. Depending on the nature of your product or service, it can do a superb marketing job and there are many media strategies out there with only television on the schedule. TV offers advertisers a number of advertising options. Whilst one could go the conventional route of buying ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty and sixty second TV spots, one could also look at infomercials, product-placement in locally-produced soaps or sponsoring a TV series. These days, TV stations are exhibiting much more flexibility and will accommodate your requirements if possible. Through my association with a reputable and respected media buying and planning agency (for three years, Media Agency of The Year), we’re able to structure and negotiate on your behalf. As an experienced copywriter and conceptualiser of ideas, TV is a medium in which one can be seriously creative. Over the years, I have worked on commercials for the likes of Fedlife, Bata North Star, Rent-a- Bakkie, Houghton Harper, CNA, National Breweries, Zimbabwe Sun Hotels and CrimeStop to name a few. (The latter was produced prior to the advent of the cellphone which will give you an idea of how long I’ve been around). Here are a few commercials for you to look at. Hopefully, they’ll give you an idea of my conceptual and writing abilities.

 

Houghton Harper	Houghton Harper	Fedlife
Bata North Star	Rent-A-Bakkie	Crime Stop

 

TV advertisements like the ones produced for CrimeStop and Houghton Harper are produced in studio, can be put together reasonably inexpensively (between R60 000 and R100 000) and are suitable for first time advertisers who have not advertised on TV previously and don’t have a meaningful budget to work with. However, for marketers with more expansive budgets (between R500 000 and R1 500 000), I work with top film production companies whose work is out of the top drawer. One of my favourite commercials was for my client Fedlife, which featured a boy named Marco who stood up in class and declared that, upon growing up, he wanted to be a “pirate”. When asked whether he meant to say “pilot”, he replied “But that’s what I said”. (This, to much sniggering from his classmates). Whilst the commercial flighted many years back, it stayed in people’s minds for a long time. And not only was it memorable, it scored highly in market research. The Rent-a-Bakkie commercial - shot in various locations across the Limpopo province – also scored highly, whilst the commercial for Bata North Star (filmed in the mine dumps around Johannesburg) went on to win award nominations in London and New York. Commercials with a strong concept and which are shot well can get your brand noticed and talked about. I can see to all your TV and cinema advertising requirements: from coming up with a concept, to writing a script, to overseeing production, to supplying advertising material, to facilitating a television media strategy, to purchasing air time on recommended TV stations and channels. And if, through the media company I work with, we can negotiate you discounts or added value on your TV advertising campaign, we’ll certainly do that. To sum: by working with people who really know their stuff, I can help you make the most of your television advertising. Irrespective of whether you’re looking to run a live promotion on Soweto TV, a thirty second spot before the etv evening news bulletin, an infomercial on breakfast TV, a ten second commercial on SABC1, 2 or 3, a sponsorship of a TV series on MNET or a campaign across DSTV channels.

 

If you’d like me to contact you about your TV advertising requirements, please call me on my landline number 087 805 9977 or 083 444 9888. Alternatively, email me on [email protected] with “Television Advertising” in the subject line. I’ll get back to you asap.