If you can’t get Paris Hilton, this do-it-yourself commercial tool helps your business put quality ads on TV.
Jessica Seid:
Just because you’re a small fry doesn’t mean you can’t compete with the big fish. Findley’s meat market in suburban Atlanta had always relied on newspaper ads, direct mailings and quick radio spots to reach consumers. But after discovering Spot Runner’s do-it-yourself commercial tool for small businesses, the butcher shop ran a commercial on local cable TV ahead of Easter and again before Mother’s Day. (Click here to watch the commercial.)
The commercials cost Findley’s $349 and $499 and the shop spent about $2,100 in March and $1,100 in May to air the spots on ESPN, Food TV, Fox News Channel and Fox Sports. ‘We found out that it was very affordable and they help you work with a small budget,’ said Findley’s owner Dolores Barr. And right away ‘we saw a noticeable increase in 1st-time walk in traffic’ that translated into a ‘35% sales increase,’ Barr said.
‘Spot Runner is very interesting,’ said Greg Sterling, an industry analyst. ‘They’re doing something unique right now, which is offering traditional TV advertising to the small business market.’
Small business owners can log on to the Los Angeles-based company’s Web site, pick a business category and choose from thousands of pre-made ads, which cost around $500 and allow you to script your own voice-over text. Or owners can shoot their own spots.
Spot Runner then completes production and creates a media plan specific to each client’s industry, customers and budget. Spot Runner also buys the air time, which is an additional cost, and transmits the spot to local networks. The total cost will depend on the length of the ad campaign, the number of times the ad is run, and on which channels. ‘Our market is only a 10-mile radius from the store,’ Barr said. ‘Using cable allows you to focus your advertising. You’re not spending money on advertising to people 50 miles away.’
‘People think about mass market, but with local TV you can target practically the neighborhood level,’ said Spot Runner co-founder David Waxman. Waxman and chairman and CEO Nick Grouf started the company less than 2 years ago but have quite a track record. They’re the ones responsible for Firefly Network, a software developer bought by Microsoft in 1998, and People PC, the Internet service provider that went public in 2000 and was acquired by Earthlink in 2002. More.
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