Is There A Trade Off Between High Tech And Low Budget?

The end goal of TV advertising production is to come up with an advert that is of the highest production quality, leaving no barriers to the central element of getting across the advertising message and reaching out to the target market.

Some elements of what is required are obvious. There can be no compromise on the quality of sound or visual images, for the viewer needs to hear the message being spoken, along with any other sound elements like music, and see every visual hint or clue. Nothing should get in the way of what should be a carefully crafted and effective piece of communication.

However, there are secondary questions that will concern certain details of the advert. To create something memorable that sticks in the mind of the viewer and is not simply forgotten when the programme resumes (or the next show starts), there needs to be something that stands out.

The question is: does this need to be something that uses modern special effects, or will something simpler - and lower budget - suffice?

Do Some Comparison

You only need to look at some of the adverts we see commonly on TV to note that both approaches can work.

For example, take the Go Compare TV adverts, with a highly familiar (though some would say annoying) opera singer Gio Compario, whose moustache has become the most recognisable symbol of the brand.

However, this has been supplemented by cartoons of the singer and also digitally superimposed moustaches on ordinary people who have enjoyed using the price comparison site.

Such production is fairly simple in concept: Someone acts the part, then, in post-production, the animated moustache is added.

Some adverts go further in dressing people up as characters, but it is a moot point as to whether this requires lots of special effects. Anyone familiar with the original Planet of the Apes films will recall the skillful work with prosthetics, whereas CGI was needed for the more recent prequel films to create the sentient ape characters.

Drumming Up Attention

Whether this kind of digitisation is required in adverts is another matter. After all, Cadbury’s decided a realistic gorilla suit and a drum kit were all it needed (the lead to the earphone being worn by the drummer showed it wasn’t CGI).

If adverts can be created using relatively simple special effects (albeit there are many cheaper gorilla suits around and probably less expensive drum kits too), should everyone follow suit?

The key issue should be whether it is necessary. Part of the answer will depend on the product and the target market. Something aimed at children will benefit from lots of colour and animation, adults perhaps less so.

Why Keeping It Simple Often Works

Sometimes, avoiding any extra effects altogether is the best move. For example, our clients include M&S Food, which was recently listed in a recent YouGov poll as one of the 20 most popular brands in the UK. That kind of success will owe much to the quality of products, but good advertising makes a difference.

In this case, there is no need for bells and whistles, with ads focusing on the real-life matter of how products are sourced, with footage and interviews highlighting the process where products like haddock are fished in British waters and then filleted.

The message is all about the process “from farm to food hall”, which is of interest to consumers who want to know exactly how the things they eat got there.

For this reason, the first thing to consider when wondering whether to spend your advertising budget on adding all sorts of extra elements to an advert, like high-tech animation, graphics or CGI, is whether this is what you need, especially when ‘real life’ may convey the message more effectively.

The key for an advert like that for M&S Food is that of picture quality, of close-ups ranging from the wake of the water emanating from the boat to the fish lying on the crushed ice, all adding to the sense of reality and highlighting the fact that the details are not being hidden. This conveys a message of openness and transparency, which is what consumers want.

Horses For Courses

For this reason, it is wrong to think of TV advertising as a matter of spending a large budget on a lot of high-tech elements. In some cases, less is more, as you may, for example, have more different adverts, but keep each of them simple to find different ways of transmitting the same message.

A retailer producing a series of short films on how various products go from farm (or boat) to the food hall may be a case in point. In other cases, however, a CGI moustache may be just what a lady needs.