FUNDAMENTALS OF ADVERTISING
By: Ruby F. Alminar-Mutya, DBA
The Advertising Media: Broadcasting
Television Advertising
Producing commercials for television is the most expensive. As the technology
of electronic commercial production has soared, so have the costs and the complexity,
resulting in greater specialization in the production process. In the past, most agencies
maintain in-house production facilities. Now, they would rather sub-contract some of
the services to cut on costs.
For a student of advertising, general understanding of the basic production
concepts is still a must. They need to know how commercials are made, why
commercial production is so expensive, and what methods can be used to minimize
expenses on production without sacrificing quality of output or effectiveness of
advertisements.
Script Development
Script for television and advertisement is called the storyboard. This is divided
into two parts: the audio and video. The right side is the audio, and the left side is the
video; or another way is: the upper frame is the video, and the bottom frame is the
audio. The video includes the camera action, scenes; whereas, the audio includes the
spoken words, the sound effects, and music.
Scenes on the typical storyboard are sketched in frames by the art director, and
the audio printed on the right of underneath of each scene. This will help the
advertising agency and the client visualize the concept, estimate the expense, present
to management for approval and final guide for shooting. This is final vision of what the
advertisement will look like. Television advertisement goes beyond the use of words,
but also on believability, credibility, and relevance.
David Ogilvy points out the following principles in television advertising.
The opening should be a short, compelling attention getter – a visual surprise,
compelling in action, drama, humor or human interest.
The demonstrations should be interesting and believable – authentic and true to
life; they should never appear to be a camera trick.
The commercial should be ethical, be in good taste, and not offend local mores.
The entertainment should be a means to an end and not interfered with the
message.
The general structure of the commercial and the copy should be simple and
essay to follow. The video should carry most of the weight, but the audio must
support it.
The characters should be the living symbol of your product – they should be
appealing, believable, and most of all, relevant.
Further, Courtland Bovee and Willian Arens offered this checklist for creating
effective television commercials:
1. The opening should be pertinent, and relevant. It should permit a smooth
transition to the balance of the commercial.
2. The situation should lend itself naturally to the sales story –without the use of
extraneous, distracting gimmicks.
3. The situation should be high in human interest.
4. The viewer should be able to identify with the situation.
5. The number of elements should be held to a minimum.
6. The sequence of ideas should be kept simple.
7. The words should be short, realistic, and conversational. Sentences should
be short.
8. Words should interpret the picture and prepare the viewer for the next scene.
9. Audio and video should be synchronized.
10. The audio copy should be concise – without wasted words. Fewer words are
needed for TV than for radio. Fewer than two words per second is effective
for demonstrations. Sixty-second commercials with 101 to 110 words are
most effective. Those with more than 170 words are the least effective.
11. Five or six seconds should be allowed for the average scene, with none less
than three seconds.
12. Enough movement should be provided to avoid static scenes.
13. Scenes should offer variety without “jumping”.
14. The commercial should look fresh and new.
15. Any presenters should be properly handled – identified, compatible,
authoritative, pleasing, and non-distracting.
16. The general video treatment should be interesting.
