Video continues to be a huge trend in the world of marketing, with 86 percent of businesses using it as a marketing tool. It’s no wonder TV commercials account for massive portions of the marketing budgets of many companies.
A well-produced commercial can significantly boost brand engagement. It can help you connect with your target audience through powerful storytelling and provide just the solution consumers are looking for.
But exactly how much does it cost to produce a commercial? More importantly, what does producing a commercial that customers will resonate with entail?
This comprehensive guide sheds light on these questions. Read on to learn more.
The Cost of Producing a TV Commercial
The cost of producing commercials can vary significantly depending on a variety of factors, including the length of the commercial and your cast.
Currently, producing a 30-second TV ad can set you back between $2,000 and $5,000. Airing the same commercial on a national network costs $115,000 on average.
What’s Involved in Producing a Commercial?
When you’re spending thousands of dollars on TV commercial production, you want to be sure that you get your money’s worth. But that’s only possible by ensuring that the commercials you put out are top quality.
In this section, we take you through the process of producing a commercial that your target audience will love.
Gathering Information
The first and most important step in TV commercial production entails establishing your goals for the commercial.
Are you looking to create awareness of a new product or service, or would you like to persuade them that your product or service is better than your competitors’?Another goal would also be to remind your audience about the need for a product or service that you offer.
During this stage, determine how long you want your commercial to be.
Writing the Script
Now that you have a clear creative vision, it’s time to write the script. Depending on your vision, the script may have a wall-to-wall voiceover, meaning the voiceover lasts throughout the commercial. The script may also have no voiceover at all and instead use creative graphics, visuals, and music.
You could also have an on-camera model who talks directly to the camera. Other scripts have talent interacting and conversing with each other.
Casting
The next step in the commercial production process is to decide who’ll be acting in the ad. You can decide to use paid actors or simply feature people who already work in your company. Some commercials opt to use real customer testimonials, while others simply use footage of products or locations without people in the commercials at all.
Deciding how to go about this step can make a huge difference in the overall effectiveness of your commercial.
Scouting Locations
Some businesses prefer that the commercial is shot at their own premises. Others need a studio space over a chromakey white, black, or green background. Certain projects require a specific location for the shoot, such as a park, private home, warehouse, pool, or some other locale.
Take the time to scout appropriate locations and make a decision on what suits your project.
Acquiring Appropriate Wardrobe and Props
Now that you’ve picked the best cast and location for your commercial, it’s time to assemble the wardrobe and props you’re going to use on the day of shooting. Be sure to procure any special costumes or clothes you’ll need, and ensure they’re in the right sizes for the actors.
Props may include anything from coffee cups to luxury vehicles. Note that you can always rent these items.
Shooting
With the crew ready and everything assembled, it’s now time to get to work. Depending on the project, the crew may be as small as a two-person ENG crew to a large crew consisting of a producer, director, production coordinator, camera operators, hair and makeup artists, and so on.
Your producer will ensure that members of the crew stick to the shot schedule and capture everything on the shortlist.
Video Editing
Once the shooting is over, it’s now time for the post-production stage. This is where everything comes together. The producer and editor work together to ensure that your vision is executed just the way you wanted it.
FX artists help the main editor in such tasks as graphics, custom motion, animation, 3D tracking, compositing, and color correction. You can choose to stick around and supervise the process.
Audio Editing
This step can also happen before video editing to enable the editor to match the voiceover to the visuals. If the commercial contains music cuts, they’re matched with video cuts during this stage.
Generally, the audio editor here works on the sound FX, music mix, audio sweetening, and noise reduction.
Review of the Commercial
Now that the commercial is complete, it’s time for you to view the product and give your feedback. If there’s something about the ad you don’t find satisfactory, the commercial production team revises it until you are content.
Versioning and Uploading
Sometimes, you want more than one version of the main commercial. It could be that you want a cut-down version of the ad for your social media. Or you may even prefer additional versions with different graphics or alternate phone numbers for different regions.
Your commercial production team gets to work and completes the different versions you need. Once that is done, it’s time to upload your commercials to broadcast servers. Your commercials are now read to air.
Set Yourself Apart With Superior Commercials
Producing a commercial that arrests the attention of your target audience does not have to be an impossible affair. As long as you follow the steps we’ve outlined in this guide, your commercials should start to resonate with consumers and make you more sales.
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