When it comes to commercial production, every second of your commercial should be keeping your brand in mind. I had a poetry lecturer once who described poetry as being language under pressure. Commercial production is film production under pressure. You want to create desire, connection, and a long-standing love-relationship in the short spell of time that a commercial allows. There are so many ways in which people have the option of skipping over advertising these days that you need to draw them in instantly – the first few seconds must achieve the same goal as the first twenty minutes of a movie. Your target demographic must be moved by some emotion or entangled in some way before any call to action can take place. If you succeed in this initial goal of grabbing their interest, research suggests that most people are willing to watch up to two minutes of commercial advertising. This length would apply more to web based commercials, but the underlying truth of it applies to television commercials, too.
Now, once you have created a successful hook, the objective of any decent commercial is to make a sale, sure, but to create brand awareness as well. Some believe this to be a more important objective. There are several ways to ensure that you create a strong selling commercial while instilling an awareness of your brand simultaneously.
You have obviously created your brand based on market research around your product offering, and that branding should come through in your commercial. Being consistent with the colors you have chosen will create a link between the commercial for this product or service and your brand. On the topic of having a strong brand presence, don’t wait for the end of your time slot to pop your logo onto the screen. Consider finding some way of having your brand present on the screen the entire way through the commercial.
Many brands that are well known have established a consistent device in all their commercials. They rely on humor or empathy or something else. The point is, people can recognize the brand of a commercial based on the atmosphere created just as much as they can by logos if it has been established well. An example of this could be always taking a literal spin on familiar expressions for humor. This kind of approach to commercial production will help you to turn your commercials into a series that people enjoy and may even seek out. They also come to know what to expect of you. It is tricky to play on a targeted demographics’ sense of fun one day and then on their political fervor the next.
There are other, more general methods to create consistency when producing commercials that help establish your brand. A common one is sound. Jingles have been popular forever. A unique take on the jingle concept – like having a certain sound present in all commercial you produce – will establish your brand, which makes every subsequent commercial more effective. Color palettes that align with your approach is another way of doing it. This next one is my favorite – word association. There is so much psychological and marketing research on how word choice affects the emotions of others, and how a simple change of sentence structure can have an entirely different effect. If your style of language in your script is one that your target demographic becomes familiar with then it should translate into commercials that are well-branded. Lastly, people tend to mirror the things they encounter that they admire. In your commercial, try to create an impression of the highest ideals of your targeted audience as you can, especially where actors are involved. Use this psychological tick to your advantage to create desire.
We spoke earlier about creating an approach that appeals to some aspect of humanity. If you are going to adopt this idea, then this aspect should be firmly established before heading to production stage. Along with this approach, you should have a clear idea of what senses or desires you would need your commercial to tug at. Are you going for fun-loving or sophistication, elegance or adventure? This is such a careful decision to make because it has to consider what is relevant to your intended viewers so as not to lose their interest. Linking this emotional facet to something, or a few things, that are hot topics amongst this demographic creates a strong association that is harder to ignore. When the time comes for a call to action, maintain this association.
Many commercials rely on testimonials, real or scripted, to win over the trust of future customers. Go further by creating commercials that show the product’s benefit in everyday living. Make this subtle instead of overly dramatized. This should result in creating a sense that your brand belongs in every kitchen/home/study/office/playground or wherever, and the feeling that not making use of this product is primitive or silly. Real life situations hit a nerve with the right audience. Play on something you know is going to happen – not just seasons and celebrations but on trends as well.
Commercials that are well produced have a funny way of playing on a person’s mind long after it has ended, much like an excellent movie. If you have some way of creating a lingering question or hypothesis, do it! Achieve this by either presuming something about the viewer, making them question something about themselves, or by addressing their apprehensions before they can. Or do something completely unexpected.
With so many distractions and so many ways for your commercial to be passed over, you need a visual that tells a story easily understood even if the sound is muted. You need a script that has sticking power even if heard from another room. You need a voice that correlates to the story and your brand. Make use of technology that creates a unique impact. Essentially, you need to be using every tool at your disposal, every facet and every second of your video to manifest something that becomes hard to ignore even when it is being ignored. The sound, script, colors, and story all need to attach to your targeted viewers in an unmistakable way – and to your brand just the same. You need to have done your homework on what your intended viewership is already bored of. Take further steps by associating your brand with charitable deeds and kind acts – like gifts to customers – because people will appreciate charity on their behalf and kindness is not easily forgotten.
I guess at the end of the day the aim is to create the most uncommercial commercial. What better way to do this than to leave the production in the hands of award winning production script writers who know their way around any audience. The Michael Group offers experts to make every second count. Contact them for all your commercial production needs, from start to finish.
