QVIews

from Theresa Quintanilla

An Archive of the old QViews Typepad Blog

Small Biz Owners CAN Use TV

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In an earlier post we mentioned a new service called Spot Runner. Now Brad Kriser, owner of The Barking Lot dog care facility in Chicago has tried it and is impressed.

BusinessWeek: See Spot Run by Kate Hazelwood, Spring 2006 Smallbiz Front Line

For two weeks in November, Kriser gave it a try, running 30-second ads 144 times on networks including ABC Family, Lifetime, and Animal Planet, all in his local market.
While his ad didn’t look cheap, it came cheap, considering the results. In the three weeks during and immediately after his campaign, calls to The Barking Lot were up 20% to 30%. Kriser received a discount for participating in Spot Runner’s pilot program, but without it, the ads would have cost him $1,700.

Don’t rule out a medium. Instead keep your eyes open for the ways in which technology is bring all forms of communication within reach.

QVIews

One response to “Small Biz Owners CAN Use TV”

  1. Studio60 Avatar
    Studio60

    We compared Spotrunner to Cheap-TV-Spots.com, Spot Runner’s largest direct competitor, and Spotzer, the EUs entry to the online ad field. Of these, Cheap-TV-Spots.com is the best deal. The air time costs less with CheapTVSpots.com because they don’t pad, and their high quality ads can air nationally, too. Spotrunner does not allow national airings or 60-second airings. Also, Spotrunner will sell the same ad to your competitor should you stop airing with them (which is the antithesis of branding). Spotrunner also holds the ad and prevents you from airing with another agency, forcing you to buy Spot Runner’s more expensive air time. It costs less for Cheap TV Spots to produce a custom ad with a national TV campaign than it could cost for Spotrunner to make a local canned ad with local air time. Cheap-TV-Spots also can provide a full web version of the ad for e-mail campaigns and web site posting. Spotrunner only allows a watermarked version or a link back to their site with is very inconvenient. If Cheap-TV-Spots.com would buy Spot Runner we could see a real shake-up in the national market for modestly priced TV and web campaigns. The high end agencies won’t be affected, though.

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