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Adding TV to Your Franchisees’ Marketing Toolkit
May 2007 Franchising World
Consider the branding benefits of hundreds or thousands of operators running corporate-approved TV advertising campaigns with a localized message. By David Waxman Every day franchise systems ask themselves how they can make their franchisees more successful. Marketing and advertising are usually parts of the answer and most franchise companies spend considerable resources trying to help their franchisees promote their businesses. Marketing toolkits, consisting of customizable point-of-purchase displays, newsletters and print advertisements, are a tried-and-true method of driving business to local outlets, while also increasing awareness of the brand through approved materials that adhere to the company’s guidelines and overall messaging. One tool that is rarely considered a viable option to include in their marketing tool kits is television, even though it’s the most powerful medium in advertising. For many, TV remains a mystery. Franchise systems are concerned about maintaining a consistent brand identity, which is why typically only the largest franchises with prodigious marketing budgets advertise on TV, mainly through national buys at the corporate level. There’s also a misconception that advertising on TV is inherently a complicated and expensive process. The fact is, however, when run at the local level by franchisees, TV advertising can be an extremely effective way to increase the overall value and recognition of the brand with little to no direct cost to the franchise system. And for the franchisee, TV can be a highly-valuable, cost-effective way to promote the business. Why should franchise systems consider TV and what are the advantages of advertising on local cable?
TV advertising is effective. There’s a reason for that. TV advertisements are visual and compelling ways to create immediate and lasting impressions tied to a brand. For a franchise company that is introducing an entirely new category of business, this can be critical in educating consumers on the business’ benefits. TV advertisements create a short story or vignette of a company that people hold on to and re-play in their minds when they’re in a position to buy. iSold It, one of the world’s leading chains of eBay “drop-off” stores and sellers, recently began providing TV advertising to its local franchisees to help define its growing brand. “Our industry is really still in its infancy, and TV lets us visually explain what we do in ways that print and online ads can’t, so TV is a vital advertising tool for our company,” says iSold It CEO Kenneth Sully. “TV advertising allows our franchisees to introduce their services to the community—which is extremely valuable—because once people understand what we do, they visit our stores. We’re also a fast-growing company with aggressive plans for expansion, and TV advertising plays a major role in our ability to increase the volume of merchandise our stores sell on eBay.” TV is a multi-sensory medium, which is important when one considers that people are different, and they process information differently. Some people respond to moving imagery, some respond to catchy jingles and others respond to short copy points. If the TV is on, people naturally tend to listen to voice-over scripts, take in the visuals or read contact information or do all three. TV advertisements essentially give advertisers several chances to connect with viewers. TV advertisements give a business instant credibility and name recognition and create an aura of success. People know who advertises on TV. Just ask them. Ask them to talk about the local supermarket that advertises on the local news. Ask them to talk about the local steak restaurant that advertises during Monday Night Football. And while image making is something of a lost art for some businesses, if a business regularly advertises on TV, many people know who it is and what it’s selling. That’s no small feat, and it’s what helps them stay in business.
Advertising on TV is easy and affordable. For many people considering TV, creating a commercial is likely the biggest challenge in the process. The reality, however, is that there are a variety of ways to have a commercial produced, including advertising agencies, production companies, cable companies and Internet-based ad agencies. And contrary to popular speculation, commercial air time isn’t necessarily expensive—unless one is seeking to buy a national time slot, which a local franchisee likely won’t need. If a franchise company keeps its TV advertising on a local level, a strong, month-long campaign can start at as little as $1,500, depending on the market. Traditional advertising agencies and media-buying firms can help negotiate the cost of air time, or, alternatively, create your own targeted advertising campaign and secure air time from an online advertising agency or auction.
Local broadcast or local cable? Local broadcast and local cable each have advantages and disadvantages, depending on the type of advertiser, the target audience and the goals of the campaign. Generally, broadcast is better suited when a franchisee wants to reach an entire city and all of its surrounding counties. It also tends to be more effective if the franchisee has a product or offering which appeals to a large segment of the population. The main drawback to broadcast is that it tends to be more expensive than cable because it encompasses the whole region (e.g. Los Angeles) and thus, a larger number of people, rather than a cable zone which reaches smaller geographical areas, sometimes as focused as a neighborhood (e.g. Beverly Hills). Local cable, by contrast, can be more finely targeted, both geographically and demographically, than local broadcast. For example, a franchisee could target a very specific neighborhood using local cable, and if the business only wanted to target young men, they could choose to only run ads on ESPN and Spike. Local cable tends to be less expensive than broadcast, but a franchised establishment may only be reaching viewers in its immediate neighborhood. Keep in mind that TV advertising allows firms to attach its brand to media brands that are trusted sources of specialized information or entertainment. If, as a real estate franchisee, one were to regularly advertise locally on HGTV, those viewers—people who follow the local housing market, regularly invest in their homes and make informed home-improvement decisions—would begin to link the brand to HGTV. This local agent, by association, would be seen as someone that “gets” the industry and would become a part of the larger HGTV universe that viewers occupy each night. Contours Express, a network of women’s fitness centers, is using TV advertising to differentiate itself within the health-and-fitness segment. “We’re always looking for ways to help our franchisees grow their bottom lines and raise the awareness and prestige associated with our brand, and we’re confident that TV is one way we’re helping them to accomplish these tasks,” says Contours Express Managing Director of Marketing Eddie Leonard. “With cable TV, franchisees can pinpoint the audiences and geographic areas they want to reach and we can rest assured that the Contours Express brand is being represented properly at the local level.” What does it all mean? It means that the next time a franchise system is thinking of ways to really make an impact on franchisees’ bottom lines, consider the branding benefits of hundreds or thousands of operators running corporate-approved TV advertising campaigns with a localized message. Widely seen as the most engaging and dynamic advertising medium, TV advertisements can be easily localized and don’t have to be out of reach of franchisees’ budgets. It’s a medium that’s transformed businesses of every size for decades and yours could be next. David Waxman is co-founder of Spot Runner, Inc. He can be reached at 310-430-7900.
According to a 2006 survey conducted by Nielsen Media Research, 90 percent of Americans watch an average of four-and-a-half hours of TV a day and 82 percent say that it is the most influential form of advertising.
Many tools are available now online that take the complexity out of advertising. Thanks to companies, franchise systems can provide franchisees with pre-produced TV advertisements that adhere to brand standards, much as one would for point-of-purchase displays or print advertisements. Franchisees can customize an advertisement from a library that the franchise system has pre-approved, create a media schedule online and run on television in a matter of weeks. The process is almost as easy as approving a newspaper print advertisement, picking a run date and the section in which it will appear.
There are two kinds of local TV advertising inventory: broadcast and cable. Local broadcast ad inventory is provided by the national broadcast networks (e.g., ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC) to their local affiliates so they can sell advertising to businesses in their market. Local cable ad inventory is provided by the national cable networks (e.g. CNN, ESPN, Bravo) to the local cable provider so they can sell advertising to businesses in their market. Typically, there are two-to-six minutes of local ad inventory during each hour of TV programming.
