TV Air Time Buying Secret Weapon

By Bob Schott

This book is written for the Individual or Small to Medium Advertiser  or entrepreneur who wants to buy TV Advertising Commercial Air Time. This book will show you exactly how, using industry secrets, terminology and some tactics you never heard of before.  You will see how you can buy the air time yourself, save a lot of money and get creative deals. It is intended on providing straight forward no-nonsense strategies and methods that will give you an edge when dealing directly with the TV Stations. If you are going it alone then you need a working knowledge and strategy of this industry and how to go about buying the time yourself without the use of outside agencies or representatives, thereby potentially saving you tens of thousands of dollars. What this book is not, is a resource book. You wont' see links or many recommendations here for the simple reason that they constantly change and what I'm going to reveal to you in this book you simply aren't going to find in any one source, any where. At the time of this writing it is still the ONLY book on this specific topic that reveals industry secrets. Plus you don't need to pay someone to give you resources in this day and age of the Internet, you can certainly find those on your own. Plus the inside information here in this book will easily give you all you need to specifically find any necessary support resources on your own. Many Resource books are antiquated and outdated as soon as you buy them. This book is Your Secret Weapon with 'legs' so use it strategically. This book could easily have been several hundred pages more, but the purpose of this book is to get right to the point and offer inside secrets derived from years of experience in the entertainment industry. Through stories, examples and straight talk I have included sound methods and strategies of purchasing air time on television that you can understand, remember and use to your advantage.

 

Worth 100x the price of this Book

Save $1000's on TV Ads
Get The BEST Spots and Rates

Buy Air Time Yourself

What the TV Sales Reps and Agencies Don't Want

You to Know!

Small to Medium Budgets
Be an AD Expert
Get the Agency 15% Discount
Inside Industry Terminology
 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Schott
• Release date: Jul 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201332129

Book preview

TV Air Time Buying Secret Weapon

*Copyright 2022 by Bob Schott. All Rights reserved, no unauthorized copying, distribution, digital reproduction, circulation or otherwise is permitted, including any text or graphic portions of the contents without express written consent from the Author. Printed in the U.S.

For Personal Consultation on TV Air Time to support this book

Contact: [e-mail]

See the end of the book after Glossary for Discount Coupon worth $125 on Consultation Service.

About the Author Bob Schott

‘Who's Who in America'  2006-2016 - 2006 Diamond Edition

'Who's Who in the World'  2007–2016 - 2007 Silver Anniversary*

Over 28 Years Broadcast TV and National and Local Advertising Producer of 'The Woman's Secret Weapon for Auto Buying' Video *Highest Rated Video on the subject by LJ (Library Journal.

Bob's experience in Hollywood includes being an Actor, Producing and Directing his own documentaries as well as producing other programs, and Licensing of Broadcast TV Series for channels such as NBC/Uni Sci-Fi Channel both in the U.S. and the U.K. Bob has worked with major Hollywood stars including Clint Eastwood and Angie Dickenson, Tanya Tucker, Charles Bronson, David Hasslehoff, and many more. He has personally developed and purchased TV Air Time Campaigns for medium sized businesses in California, the #2 Market in America, since 1988 and has arranged creative deals with media outlets such as Tribune Broadcasting, FOX, UPN, ABC, KCOP and numerous Cable Stations. Bob's implementation of creative campaigns were considered unique and innovative and produced powerful results for those he helped. His knowledge and experience in the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry combined with extensive Television Advertising, extends into some of the largest Agencies and National Commercial Advertisers in the World, including Ogilvy and Mather and Budweiser, McDonalds, Nissan and many more.Bob decided to write this book after years of constanty being asked about how to buy television commercial air time and after of seeing many small and medium sized businesses make mistakes that caused the dire need for them to be able to handle their own advertising to avoid repeated costly mistakes and increase results.Many Ad Agencies and Station Reps keep a lot of the inside secrets from the advertisers, hammering their clients with hype and sales pitch when dealing with them. Bob wrote TV Air Time Buying' to expose and educate Entrepreneurs from the individual to the medium sized business owners on how to buy your own TV Air Time, be your own agency, get the standard 15%, save hundreds to thousands of dollars on air time purchases and get better results, all on your own. Even if you decide to use an Agency, already do use an Agency or have have advertised on TV before, this book will help ensure that you get maximum results or that you get the best deals from any third party buying your time. By studying this book you'll now know what 'they' know and how they use it, and then some, and that gives you the edge.

Apply this invaluable information and secrets to your retail business, service or other even and announcement projects. These principles, if used wisely can save you hundreds to thousands of dollars in advertising expenses. Having bought his own air time and air time for some large automotive multi-dealers, that is no exaggeration.

Bob tells this in a factual and story format as many books leave out valuable illustrative examples that the reader can usefully apply to their own product, service or project.

CONTENTS

TV Air Time Buying Secret Weapon

Table of Contents

About the Author Bob Schott

FORWARD

1 INTRODUCTION

1 Introduction

TV Advertising Overview

Who Needs This Book

Identifying the Small and Medium Business Owners

What you'll learn – Your Secret Weapons

The Glossary – Communicating like a Pro

2  AD Agencies – Big Business

The local agency - avoiding overcharges

Ad Agencies and Station Sales Reps

Large National Agencies  vs Smaller Agencies

Ad Agencies provide buying power – 'but'...

Do you really need an Agency?

Being Your Own Agency get that 15%

3  Your Campaign – What it is and how to plan it

How Much – What - When – Where?'

Negotiating

Establish Your Budget

Infomercials

Today's Internet vs Yesterday's Programming

4  Ratings How important are they?

Your Product's application to Demographics

Analyze your product - Make it a Fit

5  Air Time Costs

Day/Time Parts to Consider Avoiding

Straight Time and Sponsorships

Understanding the Markets and ADI

Beware of Pre-Packaged Deals from Agencies

Structuring Your Package

6  Your Ad – The Production

Concept and Preparation

Message Delivery and Impact

Storyboard it – Script it!

How to get a Low Cost or Free Spot Production

7  Air Time Scheduling and Purchasing

Managing Budget Allocation for Maximum Impact

Networks or Cable TV or Both

Where to Buy - How to Buy

'Deadzones' and avoiding the 'Crowd'

Inventory - Avails

Political Protection Periods – Take the Advantage

Sample TV Spot

How to get Bonus Spots and/or Free Publicity

8  Dealing with the Stations

The CPS Factor

Network TV and Cable TV – The Choice(s)

Putting Your Deal together

The Traffic Department

9  Your Billing – Your Reports

ABR's – Actual Broadcast Reports

Make Goods

Use Social Media as Tie-ins

11  The Future of TV

A Comparison - Music vs TV vs the 'Freeloaders'

The Trend

Secret Weapon Reference List

TV Broadcast Glossary of Industry Ad Terms

FORWARD

This book is written for the Individual Advertiser of a small to medium size business entrepreneur who wants to buy their own Television Air Time. It is intended on providing straight forward no-nonsense strategies and methods that will give you an edge when dealing directly with the TV Stations. If you are going it alone then you need a working knowledge and strategy of this industry and how to go about buying the time yourself without the use of outside agencies or representatives, thereby potentially saving you tens of thousands of dollars. What this book is not, is a resource book. You wont' see links or many recommendations here for the simple reason that they constantly change and what I'm going to reveal to you in this book you simply aren't going to find in any one source, any where. At the time of this writing it is still the ONLY book on this specific topic that reveals industry secrets. Plus you don't need to pay someone to give you resources in this day and age of the Internet, you can certainly find those on your own. Plus the inside information here in this book will easily give you all you need to specifically find any necessary support resources on your own. Many Resource  books are antiquated and outdated as soon as you buy them. This book is Your Secret Weapon with 'legs' so use it strategically. This book could easily have been several hundred pages more, but the purpose of this book is to get right to the point and offer inside secrets derived from years of experience in the entertainment industry.  Through stories, examples and straight talk I have included sound methods and strategies of purchasing air time on television that you can understand, remember and use to your advantage.

This book is not intended as a conversational novel but as an actual user's guide you can implement yourself. What you are going to learn is a 'Crash Course' based on over 28 years of experience in the Broadcast TV Commercial and Major Motion Picture industry that you won't find in any school, library or other publication. The value of the information contained in this book along with a Bonus featuring the most extensive Glossary of it's kind would be a tremendous asset if the price were 10  times or more of what it actually is, as you will see. I 'tease' the use of the Extensive Glossary throughout, and this book will not only show you what you don't know, but reveal exactly how 'much' you need to know, helping you to realize that with any investment you need to know what you're doing, so you won't need any other help. Use the information in this book strategically and you could not only save big money on your buys, but you'll have the potential for maximum impact ROI's and have the knowledge to develop and deliver a successful running campaign, all on your own. I have also included a Discount Coupon at the end of the book worth a savings of over $125 good on up to 2 hours personal consultation should you be just starting out and feel a need for a jump start support in applying what you're about to learn.

I hope you use this book to your advantage...and if you have a success story to share with me on how my book has helped you out, please share it with me.

Regards and Happy Advertising!...Bob Schott

1 INTRODUCTION

The TV Air Time Buying Secret Weapon is not just a guide, but a necessity for every small to medium sized business owner who is even slightly considering Advertising on Television. With every business owner be it service or product based, or even to test market a new product idea, the temptation is there to satisfy one's curiosity with the thought of I wonder what would happen if I ran an Ad on TV?  Be honest with yourself, how many times, not if, but how many times, have you as a business owner or venturesome entrepreneur had that thought. If you have, then this book is for you and I'll wager over 95% of everyone who even hears of the Title of this book wonders about this marketing avenue. Now you finally have what you need in order to do just that, but first, to fully understand what you'll be learning here, you must first be informed of the trends in TV advertising.

The entire strategy of manipulating your way through the maze of TV Advertising potentials and solving the most sought after answer to success can be summed up in four words, Who, What, How and Where. Who are the buyers for What you're selling, How to target them and Where they'll be watching. Figure that formula out and you've mastered the art of TV Advertising.

But first, a bit of History can be a valuable element, one must be aware of how TV used to be, in other words TV Advertising, Past vs Present. As one of the great musicians of our time, Mark Knopfler, formerly of the Dire Straits, once stated in an interview, To understand music and be a great musician you have to go way-back, and I don't just mean to Zeppelin. Well having a bit of an understanding on some history of how Television stations once operated is no different. It's all based on the same principle of why you buy a Racing Form before you go to the race track - so you can see what the horses did yesterday to get an idea of your best chances to figure out how they might run today.

TV Advertising Overview

In dealing with TV Stations, buying air time used to be an interesting venture as station management had more control over their programming, scheduling and inventory propositions to offer. In short the station managers controlled a lot more than just every day staff and operational functions. They actually had inventory control at their own discretionary disposal. Now, or perhaps should I say shortly after the late 80's, more and more stations began to get gobbled up and thrown into the monopoly umbrella of control by the mega networks, whereas the term affiliates and sister stations became more of a standard terminology. To me, it meant the end of an era where as instead of dealing with a 'Station' on it's own with it's own policies, you ended up dealing with an 'Affiliate', obligated by a one-policy system. Take a brief ride with me in Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine for a quick minute as I take you on an historical trip into the past  back to the year 1988, just to give you a brief idea of the open door policies and propositions one could negotiate. Everyone all seated, good.

As we arrive in the 80's we discover that for the most part all the stations operate independently of each other and that we can meet with the station manager who basically had control over 'his/her' station, he/she was in charge. So I arrive with a plan to grind out some very interesting and creative air time buys, for HIS/HER station in particular. One example that will give you an idea of the opening prelude to where TV is at today comes from a campaign I arranged for a car dealer. Knowing I can deal pretty close with the station manager and reps, I present them with my proposal, that being I want to host their late night movies on the weekends from 11pm – 2am with various creative spots in between, a very popular but saturated time period for car dealers. Because of the fact that I'm dealing with one or two managers at the station who have flexibility in making their 'own' policies I'm able to actually gain access to some of the station's inventory or library of available movies, pick out the ones I like that are all in the same genre and schedule some creative spots in advance for some really 'cool' cross promotions. That's exactly what I did with Tribune Broadcasting in Los Angeles in this era. I wanted to run some late night hosting spots, give the effect that my client was actually hosting the late night movies on an ongoing campaign, tie up some key commercial time slots with his dealership, give the appearance that it was syndicated, donut the program with some billboards, sponsorships and then schedule pre-selected programs that I chose out of the stations library myself to cross promote in print ads. I did all this 'without' paying the larger syndication fees and received good prices from the newspaper I ran half page ads in. I advertised each weeks movies in print ads and received good pricing from the station as in the print ads I would of course mention the station and time, with a 'Call to Action', etc. As you can see quite a bit of latitude here in the 80's, but now it's time for a reality check and since you can't play the re-runs on a horse race, it's time to get back aboard the Wayback Machine and head 'Back to the Future' of today's reality.

Understanding this one small example and bit of history on how you could deal with stations individually only goes to illustrate that while times change and policies change, your creativity must have a forward looking element to it as it just needs modifications along the way. The individuality of yesteryear has led way to a more conformed set of rules of today, especially with the invent of the internet, a marketing system that has drastically affected the TV stations, like the monopolization affected some of my creative deals of those wide open avenues of the past. Just like me and plenty of other creative ad buyers and agents have had to do from the 80's, TV stations, networks and programmers are now facing constant creative practices to keep viewers, capture market shares of ad revenues, and, yes, now  you will need to deal with a new monopoly, even bigger than their own broadcasting operations, that monopoly materializes in the form of something called POD, Program On Demand. A marketing policy changer for the broadcasters to deal with. So you see, it's not only you and I who have to be creative when dealing with the stations, they're in a similar situation themselves, maybe even worse. What all this means is this, by identifying what your source for advertising is, the TV Stations, networks, etc. you can study what they're up against and try to work deals within their parameters. Remember, we all want to make a deal, it's just how we go about it to circumnavigate the restrictions of the ever changing technology and policies of the times.

Who Needs This Book 

This one won't take up too many paragraphs because everyone knows about where they fit into this advertising equation. I'll be touching on this further later on and get into how to maximize your position whether you're an individual, small or medium sized business. Of course there is no exact figure on this identifier, but I consider the two categories as follows: Individuals and small businesses who have a monthly budget to spend of between $1000 and $5000 for TV air time. I stated TV air time because after all, that is the focus of this book. I could get into all forms of combined advertising, but that would be a different topic, so let's focus on the TV aspect as that is the reason why you bought this book in the first place. Next would be the Medium sized business and I usually put them in the spending range between $5000 and $35,000 monthly. Now since we're talking 'Local' here, not Regional as with a franchised store chain of multiple outlets spread across several counties or states, these figures are fairly appropriate. The individual may be someone who has an idea or new product or invention they want to test market or try to do a Direct Response sales campaign, so in this case it would be more appropriate to use the budget as opposed to business category.

I've told you in the Forward what this book is and what it is not. There is no 'one way' to write this book as there is no 'one way' to advertise on TV. I wrote this book to motivate you to think as you go, meaning, as we discuss the various topics of importance think about how or what you would do before you learn what it is I'm going to show you. You may even find yourself asking why did I mention a particular subject at one point when you think it may belong in another. Don't worry about any particular order as you need some understanding of actual practices and things you may be able to accomplish when the time comes, and a few stories and examples I throw in here and there will help you. Plus as I mentioned, the Glossary in and of itself could be a separate book as it is your guide to understanding the language and terms that the industry you'll be negotiating with regularly use. Thumbing through the Glossary for definitions is one thing, understanding what they mean and how to use them is another, so master the Glossary. Also, you may have the urge to simply look at all the Secret Weapons first, Ain't gonna help ya if you don't see some illustrations of how to use them, so sit back and relax. As you read you will see numerous terms, I don't always explain them all as we go so you need to stop and refer to the Glossary then come back and you'll see how you just gained months to years worth of virtual experience from that one exercise alone. Believe me when it comes time to deal with the stations on the spot, where you have to invest your money and your business marketing efforts, you'll be very glad you did. You'll be a graduate of Bob Schott's Secret Weapon TV School.

Identifying the Small and Medium Business Owners

Now let's look at the 'Why' of why you need this book. First off, the various different reasons 'why' one would be reading this book are vast. You could be an individual with a new product you invented chomping at the bit  to kick off a promotion, you could be a small retail furniture or appliance store or yes, even a local car dealer and now, the interesting one, just want to drive traffic to your website for the 'Close'. If you fit into the small to medium business range then you'll greatly benefit by paying close attention to the information I'm going to give you here. This is where I draw the line as I hate picking up a book that just keeps rambling on and on with fluff to make more pages in their book. There's no need for a bunch of annoying sales pitch here, heck, you've already bought the book or you wouldn't be reading this right? Plus, if I wanted more pages I could just reduce the size of the book and increase the font size right? So let's wet your appetite here right off. Let me make it clear right away, buying TV Air Time is not an Exercise, it's a Science, it's not a Game, it's an Investment. A quick scan through just a few of the terms in the glossary will show you what you'd be up against if you just jumped in, met with the rep and just wrote them a check for some air time. Once they find out you know nothing, you'll be hammered with a barrage of these terms you have no clue of what they mean, then they gotcha!

A word on historical facts about advertising here, it used to be many years ago, before the internet that it took about 3 impressions to reach and convince a viewer to buy or act