Advertising may be a constantly changing medium, but there is one marketing method that has remained relevant since its first appearance 80 years ago—the TV commercial. The internet may have surpassed TV as the most profitable advertising space in the U.S., but that doesn’t mean traditional commercials aren’t incredibly effective. As of 2020, companies could reach approximately 78% of households nationwide through connected TV programming.
If you’re trying to increase brand recognition, boost sales for a new product or service, or enter a new market, TV commercials are an excellent way to do so. With the right video production company, you can create an ad that resonates with your audience and substantially impacts your sales.
Want to know how Abstrakt Studios creates one-of-a-kind TV commercials for our neighbors in and around St. Louis? Keep reading to learn about each step of our B2B video creation process.
Our Commercial Creation Process
Creating a TV commercial isn’t that different from creating any other type of B2B video, such as a corporate highlight video or marketing collateral piece. However, we add a few extra steps to our process to ensure your commercial gets the results you’re looking for. These additional steps include:
- Conducting a market analysis: If you don’t know how your specific industry or niche fares when it comes to TV advertisements, you might make a misstep that costs you your return on investment. Before we start diving into the production process, we identify any concerns or trends to keep in mind for your commercial.
- Completing a competitive analysis: Once we analyze your market, we scope out the competition. By seeing how similar companies approach their TV advertisements, we can identify opportunities for improvement and help you determine your key differentiators.
- Determining your unique selling proposition: Why should potential customers choose you over a competitor? The answer to that question reveals your selling proposition. Our team uses your proposition to craft a commercial that converts for your business.
After our team completes the above steps, we jump into step one of our proven video production process: creative discovery.
1. Creative Discovery
Before we launch into the logistics of video production, we spend time brainstorming ideas for your commercial. This preparation stage enables us to create a commercial that not only fits your expectations but also catches the eye of your ideal customer. Our team collaborates with your business to determine:
Your target audience: Who should your commercial speak to? The answer depends on what you’re trying to sell. You can narrow down your target audience by age, gender, socioeconomic status, location, and more. Simply determine who you want your commercial to resonate with and plan your content accordingly.
- Time restrictions: Do you want to purchase a short, 10-second ad slot, a 30-second commercial, or a full minute of airtime? The longer your commercial, the more expensive your investment. However, you can spend more time highlighting your selling proposition during longer commercials, which might make the steep upfront investment worth it.
- Tone and voice: Think of the commercials that left a lasting impression on you in the past. Why did they stick with you for so long? Most likely, they evoked emotion, whether that was joy, sadness, or fear. Depending on the reaction you want from your target audience, you can determine the tone of your commercial and the voice you want to use.
- Overall goals: What action do you want viewers to take after watching your commercial? Maybe you want them to visit your business and shop your inventory. Alternatively, your goal may be to get viewers to visit your website, learn more about your services, and ultimately submit their information. In some cases, your objective might be to increase awareness of your brand instead of invoking a particular action. Your overall goal shapes the entire video production process.
Once our brainstorm session is over, we nail down an idea and set our TV commercial plan in motion.
2. Planning
There’s a lot that goes into making a TV commercial. You can’t just come up with an idea, grab your equipment, and start filming—you need to prepare for every element of the filming process. With a clear plan in place, you’re able to stay on schedule, reduce unexpected expenses, and end up with your envisioned finished product.
Depending on the type of commercial you want, the preproduction process can be pretty involved. We create a budget breakdown for your video to ensure we can meet your financial needs. Then, we collaborate with you to determine a project timeline. If you need actors for your commercial idea, we handle the casting and location scouting process on your behalf. While our project managers oversee the technical tasks, our creative team finds the best way to tell your story.
During the creative process, our video production team puts together a storyboard and shot list, and our writers craft a compelling script for your video. Once you sign off on our initial decisions, we progress to the fun part of your TV commercial creation process: production.
3. Production
Our production process looks different for every TV ad we produce, but these are some of the tasks we typically tackle during this stage:
- Voiceover recordings: If your commercial includes a voiceover, we can hire actors or bring your team to our studio in downtown St. Louis for a recording session. We record the lines our writers wrote during the planning process until we get the best take possible.
- Location shoots: Whether you want to capture video of your office or film in a third-party location, we can pack up our filming equipment and bring the studio to you. Our video production experts tweak the lighting and composition before each shot to ensure our footage is of the highest quality. From there, we direct your team or actors to keep everything on track while we film.
- Animation: Live actors aren’t your only option for a custom TV commercial; we also offer animation services. If you choose to take the second route, our talented animation artists spend the production phase molding your vision into art.
- Additional audio recordings: Want a custom soundtrack for your commercial? We have a professional music recording facility at Abstrakt Studios, which means we can produce a unique sound just for your business.
Because we carefully plan each video shoot before we press “record,” our production stage is typically quick and stress-free. You get to watch your vision become a reality, and we get to do what we enjoy most—film the best commercials possible for our partners in St. Louis and throughout the country.
4. Post-Production
Once we have the raw footage for your commercial, it’s time to bring each element together into a cohesive video. Our expert editors pull the best clips from our video recording session, overlay voiceovers and music, and add extra features to the footage, including text and graphics. We also tweak your footage to ensure it looks great on any screen using color correction and grading.
Depending on how involved you want to be, we offer both unsupervised and supervised editing sessions with our clients. We leverage cutting-edge video review tools to ensure we quickly address feedback and questions.
5. The Reveal
Once we get the final approval for your TV commercial, we deliver the final cut in the form of your choice via Vimeo. From there, we share the ad with your TV station of choice and start turning your business into a household name around St. Louis. Additionally, if you decide to release your commercial on your company’s YouTube channel, you can enlist our team to handle the upload and publishing process.
After experiencing the results our state-of-the-art equipment, award-winning staff, and creative prowess provide, it’s hard to stop at just one commercial. Many of our clients start brainstorming for round two before their first commercial appears on screens throughout the area.
Want a TV commercial for your St. Louis business that looks like it was created for one of the nation’s most recognizable brands? Think Abstrakt Studios.
Need a Professional TV Commercial for Your St. Louis Business?
Despite what many digital advertisers want you to believe, TV commercials can be just as powerful today as they were decades ago—but only if you follow a proven process and do your research. A lackluster commercial isn’t worth your investment, but a custom video from Abstrakt Studios is. We’ve spent years mastering the video production process and honing our commercial skills, enabling us to create one-of-a-kind ads you can’t get from other video producers in St. Louis.
Whether you’re a new business trying to get your name out there, an established company that needs a sales boost, or you’re somewhere in between, Abstrakt Studios will help you reach your goals. Our experienced team of video producers, editors, animators, and writers can take any vision and bring it to TV screens across your target area. Don’t believe us? Explore our testimonials and see what our current customers have to say about Abstrakt Studios.
Ready to create a memorable TV commercial that gets results for your business? Get in touch with Abstrakt Studios today to learn more about our custom video creation process.