December 05, 2010

Commercials, and brands, and billboards... Oh my!

I.
               Last week I was very curious about advertising on television and billboards. How much time and money do companies spend on making advertisements?  What is the average price of a commercial or billboard? After much research the answers have been found!
               Depending on the market, the average cost per TV spot ranges from $13 to $63. Companies can reach 80,000 households more than 200 times for less than $10,000. These numbers vary though by television station and amount of views per station. Also the show that is playing while the commercial is being shown changes the price too, a half-minute Super Bowl television commercial costs $2.4 million! National TV spots on the final summer "Survivor" episode sold for $1 million. National TV spots on "Millionaire" sold for $750,000. National TV spots on final "Seinfeld" sold for $2 million each. Also the average billboard costs from $500.00 to $8,000.00 per month depending on the amount of traffic on the road.



II.
               Last wek in Ethic's class, we spent a lot of time talking about advertising and brands. We finished watching The Persuaders  and talked about the hassels companies go through to reach consumers at home. Also we had to do a project on one of our favorite brands and do research to find out the history of that brand. All in all it was a pretty interesting week filled with lots of new interesting facts.


               I really enjoyed listening to the Brand Analysis Projects this week, and it was probably my favorite part. Hearing about the unique histories of some of my favorite brands was very enlightening, as well as entertaining! All of the commercials shown were very different, but they all had one mission: to get comsumers to buy their products. Some companies used entertaining, and some slightly creepy, characters to advertise their products. Others used bright colors and flashy words to sell their products. Despite these two, other companies showed their products in use, and they tried to make them look appealing. I see all of these forms of adertising daily on television, some beign more sucessful than others. Another intersting thing I saw in some of the projects was the amount of controversy certian companies had been involved in. I think the skill and strength of a company are shown best by how fast and easily they can get out of controversy. Smaller, less powerful companies would not recover as easily as some of the larger brands like Pop-tarts and Coco-cola.


               One thing that we did not really discuss in class was which style of advertising we thought was most effective. Personally, I think the companies/brands that do not bombard comsumers with outrageous amounts of commercials and billboards are more effective. Certain brands can actually get rather annoying if they can be seen everywhere one looks. Also I think commercials that are creative, but deliver a strong message are the strongest of commercials. I love seeing something new on a television commercial that I have never seen before. Also I think that the commercials that everyone can recognize have successfully won their audiences, such as the Coca-cola Santa, the Geico Lizard, and the dancing iPod users.

III.
               After all of this talk about advertising, I am very curious about the response people have to commercials. Which ones historically have been the most effective? Which ones do people respond to the best?

Please stay tuned for the answers next week!

Sources:

Billboard and outdoor advertising. (2010, December 5). Retrieved from http://billboard-outdoor.com/
Poptarts vs toaster strudel. (2010, December 5). Retrieved from http://www.sodahead.com/living/would-you-rather-have-a-poptart-or-toaster-strudel-for-breakfast/question-60830/?link=ibaf&imgurl=http://www.waterworldrec.com/Pop%2520Tarts%2520logo.jpg&q=poptart

The cost of advertising on television. (2010, December 5). Retrieved from http://www.gaebler.com/National-TV-Spot-Ad-Costs.htm

The cost of renting a billboard. (2010, December 5). Retrieved from http://askville.amazon.com/cost-rent-average-billboard-sign/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=12691479 http://www.gaebler.com/National-TV-Spot-Ad-Costs.htm
 

http://askville.amazon.com/cost-rent-average-billboard-sign/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=12691479
Shake up disappointment?. (2010, November 14). Retrieved from http://aemmp.org/