Companies make impact through TV ads

About 25 years ago, Little was working on a new television ad for his company, PFI Western Store. He had about two seconds to fill, and was looking for a tag line.

Luckily, he had the help of Fred Switzer, then with KY3.

“He came up with ‘I’m not kidding,’” Little said. “I thought it was going to be the goofiest thing in the world, and everybody was going to laugh. But literally the next day, people were coming and saying ‘And I’m not kidding.’ It stuck.”

That line has become part of the company’s identity, Little said, as evidenced by the reaction when he suggested changing the tag line after about 10 years of commercials.

“(Switzer) said, ‘When you begin getting tired of it, the rest of the world is just now hearing it. Don’t touch it,’” Little said. “And it’s so true.”

PFI is one of many local companies that can provide evidence of the impact that comes from TV ads. Making that impact, however, is not always easy, but local production companies are up for the challenge.

“You have to go through initial fact-finding, where you try to find out the target market and the branding or image that the client wants to portray,” said Craig Kauffman, president of Associated Video Producers Inc., which now produces PFI’s commercials. Kauffman’s company has more than 25 years of production experience, including local TV spots for Bass Pro Shops and CoxHealth.

Image is everything

As with many things, in TV advertising, image is everything.

“Some businesses have an image of the local owner being involved in the business, so it’s a good marketing strategy for the local owner to be involved in the TV ads,” Kauffman said.

There’s a long list of questions that have to be answered before shooting ever begins, according to Opfer Communications Creative Director Robert White. How many of those questions are answered by the individual business owner, however, depends on the situation.

“It’s one of two ways,” White said. “They either come in and they perceive a need for advertising but they don’t know where to go beyond that, or they have a very specific idea of what they want – they control 80 to 90 percent of what that comes in – and we basically put it together.”

White said that about half of the local companies that use Opfer’s services – companies that include Maxon’s Jewelers, Community Blood Center of the Ozarks and Murney Associates – use actors hired through local modeling and talent agencies.

Pricing factors

The first major question is what type of commercial the company wants – an image ad or a “price spot.” That question will determine a lot about the commercial, from what it looks like to how much it costs.

Cost can vary widely depending on the type of ad and its purpose; short spots touting a sale or new product are usually shot on video and can cost less than $1,000. More timeless ads, used to build image and brand recognition, are more often shot on film and can cost $20,000 or more.

“We have a checklist and itemization we go through that looks at original music, location, what editing work has to be done,” Kauffman said. “All of that affects the total budget.”

So why spend so much money for 30 seconds – the standard length of a local TV commercial?

“TV has the largest reach,” Kauffman said. “It’s also your best avenue for putting forth your image, because you have both sound and visual.”

PFI owner Little can attest to that .

“You mention PFI, and people know the line. (At) the ballpark, people come up to me,” said Little, who is in all of his company’s TV ads. “It’s part of us now – we’ll never change it.”