Making a 30-second television commercial might seem like it could be a breeze, but the reality is that there’s a lot that goes into making an effective TV ad. From the initial conception to the final edit, there are many steps – and potential mistakes – along the way.
You’ll want to make sure that your commercial is successful, otherwise it would be a huge waste of time and money and might even send the wrong message about your brand.
First, you’ll want to make sure that your TV commercial has these “5 Elements Every 30-Second Commercial Should Feature”
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Here are four of the most common mistakes made during TV commercial productions, and how you can avoid them:
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Not having a clear objective.
Before you even start writing the script or shooting the footage, you need to know what your commercial is trying to achieve. What is the key message you want to get across? What call to action do you want your viewers to take? Without a clear objective, it will be very difficult to produce an effective TV ad.
A few ways to avoid this is to plan and storyboard your commercial production. Make sure you have an easy-to-understand script that communicates your objective clearly. Work with a professional video production company that can help you plan and execute your TV commercial project from start to finish. They’re well equipped with plenty of experience to understand the planning process in order to make sure your production goes off without a hitch!
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Not understanding your target audience.
Who are you trying to reach with your TV commercial? It’s important to have a good understanding of your target audience before you start producing your ad. Otherwise, you run the risk of making your commercial irrelevant to your target. You need to consider things like age, gender, location, interests, and even TV viewing habits when planning your ad.
One way to ensure you understand your target audience is to create buyer personas. These are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer based on real data and research. Once you have your buyer personas, you can start to understand what type of TV commercial will resonate with them.
If you want to learn more about buyer personas, check out this article: “How to Craft the Perfect Buyer Persona”
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Not budgeting enough for production.
Creating a high-quality TV commercial requires a decent budget. You need to account for things like scriptwriting, storyboarding, location scouting, hiring cast and crews, shooting, editing, and post-production. If you try to cut corners in any of these areas, it will show in the final product.
To avoid this, make sure you have a realistic budget for your TV commercial project. Work with a professional video production company that can help you understand the costs involved and create a budget that meets your needs.
But budgeting doesn’t just mean budgeting the right amount of money. You should also be budgeting the right amount of time for each step of the production process. Make sure you allow enough time for things like scriptwriting, storyboarding, and editing. Hurrying through any of these steps will likely result in a lower quality TV ad, and even potentially end up costing you more money in the long run. If you don’t budget the right amount of time for filming in a specific location that you’ve rented, you’ll need to rent that place again, and you’ll be at the mercy of the location’s schedule, bumping out your production’s timeframe and changing your entire schedule.
It’s better to over budget on both time and money than it is to under budget.
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Not having a clear call to action.
Your TV commercial should have a clear call to action that tells viewers what you want them to do after watching your ad. Whether it’s visiting your website, calling your business, or making a purchase, make sure your call to action is specific and easy to understand.
To avoid this particular mistake, make sure your call to action is included in your script and that it’s communicated clearly throughout your commercial. Work with a professional video production company that can help you ensure your call to action is effective. A production company will be well-versed in making sure your call to action is well placed, easy to understand, and easy enough to follow that anyone can participate.
Avoiding these four common mistakes will go a long way in ensuring your TV commercial is successful. Work with a professional video production company to produce a high-quality TV ad that achieves your objectives.
Working with a Professional Production Company
We’ve mentioned working with a professional production company to make sure that your production can avoid these four common mistakes. When you hire a production company to work on your TV commercial, you are ensuring that your project is in good hands. A production company will help you every step of the way, or even with the bits and pieces you’re less familiar with doing on your own, such as post-production or storyboarding.
C&I Studios is a professional video production company specializing in TV commercial production. We have years of experience helping businesses create successful TV ads. We’re experienced in many different forms of video production, too, from feature films to documentaries to those best suited for social media platforms such as TikTok or YouTube.
What services can you expect when you work with C&I Studios?
We offer an array of video production services that are perfect for television commercial production!
First, we have services that can take you from start to finish with your commercial. C&I Studios has the crews, studios, gear, and post-production expertise to help you throughout the entire process of producing a brand new television commercial for your brand. If you need help with ideation, development, writing, pre-production, production, or post-production, we’re here to help.
We also offer individual services to those who may already have a commercial but need some help in one particular area. Perhaps you need a new location for your shoot or some additional crew members to round out your team. Maybe you need help with the post-production process, such as color correction and sound mixing. No matter what your needs are, C&I Studios has the services that can help take your TV commercial production to the next level!
And then we have rentals available, too! From renting out gear such as cameras, lighting apparatuses, and audio equipment including microphones, we have everything you need to create an amazing TV ad on your own. Find out “What Kind of Gear you Need to Produce a Commercial“.
You can even rent out any of our studios located throughout the United States any time of day or night! We have fully-equipped studios located in major cities such as Los Angeles and South Florida, as well as others, too. You can build custom sets or use our green screens or cyc walls for any kind of media creation you have in mind!
If you’re ready to get started on your TV commercial production, or if you just have some questions about our services, please don’t hesitate to contact C&I Studios today! We would be more than happy to discuss your project with you and see how we can help bring your vision to life.