Mastering the TV Production Basics

Two years ago, former Wall Street giant Bear Stearns predicted political advertising spending for the 2007 primary and 2008 general election cycles would total $2.5 billion dollars, with nearly 90 percent of that spending directed toward television. If only they could have done as good a job foreseeing their own future. The prediction hit the nail on the head. Total spent: $2.6 billion, with over $2.4 billion on TV—up nearly 35 percent from 2004.

Even with a whole new generation of political media consultants busy perfecting the integration of wireless advertising through social networking and user-posted video sites, television remains the biggest game-changer in political advertising. And you don’t need a big-time political firm to master it.

If you’re new to the world of media consulting or, like myself, wear multiple hats as media buyer, copywriter and spot producer, the task of running a hotly contested political media campaign can be overwhelming. But keeping your head above water is easier than you might think. Here are some basic production and media-buying strategies that are sure to strengthen campaigns of any size.


Before You Shoot
When it comes to reaching potential voters, the quality of the ad campaign is just as important as its message. So savvy media consultants need to think like Hollywood producers—star value, story value and production value all add up to blockbuster success. Here are three things you can do to improve your TV spots before you even shoot a frame.

Look the Part: You’ve heard the phrases “You only get one chance to make a first impression,” and “Image is everything.” They get repeated all the time in the advertising world because it takes most people less than five seconds to make that first impression and 55 percent of it comes from non-verbal communication.

Looks matter—and it’s your job as the consultant to make sure your candidate isn’t stylistically stuck in a past decade. Not only does the suit have to be well fitted and pressed for the camera (HD can be unforgiving), you should also be prepared to advocate your candidate shave his ’70s-style “porn mustache” or suggest her roots may be in need of a quick dye job. Remember, if candidates don’t look the part, how can you expect anyone making a snap judgment to see them as the next mayor, judge or member of Congress?

Show, Don’t Tell: A good ad is about more than just your candidate’s history—how he’s “the son of a steelworker,” or she’s a “dedicated hockey mom of three.” Those are often clichéd ways of telling voters that your candidate is “one of them.” The most interesting story to voters is their own, and the great thing about TV is that it’s a moving, “show me” medium. So don’t tell us your candidate is from blue-collar stock. Show it in an action shot with his sleeves rolled up, listening to, or working alongside, the common man.

Have a Plan: It’s important to gauge your voters ahead of time—you want to adjust your message before you waste time shooting a lot of useless video. You should also write a script before shooting. Obviously, a script is necessary when plans call for an on-camera speech, but even non-speaking action scenes should be written out ahead of time. I’m not saying you should reject spontaneity. Many great, campaign-defining moments have been unplanned and unscripted, but don’t rely on serendipity.


On the Set
Have you ever seen one of those poorly-produced cable commercials for a local business that screams “amateurish” and “cheap?” Unless they’re offering a ridiculously low price, do you want to patronize that business after you see that ad? Then what makes you think a cheaply produced political spot is going to get you votes? Here are three simple things that you can’t afford to get wrong.

Stay Steady: Make sure your crew uses a tripod. Unless you’re trying to produce a cinema verite-style ad or using a Glide- Cam, you need to use a tripod. If you’re going to be following pre-planned action you’ll need a “fluid head” tripod for smooth camera movement. The exception is when you’re on the campaign trail and you’re getting B-roll shots of your candidate in action: talking, shaking hands, etc. For almost anything else, a shaky camera is distracting and looks unprofessional, and that reflects on your candidate.

Use Even Lighting: Lighting seems like another no-brainer, but I see so many ads (mostly local or regional) that still don’t get it right. Whether you’re on location or in the studio, use a crew that has some soft box lighting, or at least employs some dimmers or diffusion techniques. Many amateurs also forget (or don’t know) to white balance, which causes video to appear too yellow or too blue because the proper color temperature wasn’t balanced for the given lighting. You can correct the color somewhat in post-production, but extreme cases will always look bad.

Don’t Neglect Sound: If you’re working on a smaller local campaign, the cameraman may also have to double as the soundman. If that’s the case, you need to ensure two basic things. First, if your candidate is delivering a direct, on-camera speech, don’t rely solely on the camera mike for audio—use a separate microphone. Crisp, clean sound with minimal ambient background audio goes a long way in producing a professional spot, so use a shotgun mike on a boom or a high-frequency lavaliere.

Second, the camera operator should wear headphones so he or she can monitor the audio. I’ve seen campaigns try to save a buck by having a film student, wedding videographer or friend with a high-end video camera shoot their ad. I’m not opposed to this practice; it’s how I got my start 10 years ago. Just make sure the person has some credentials and understands the basics of production and the importance of sound.


Buying Time
As important as it is to produce a quality spot, it is equally vital to buy enough ad time to ensure the spot is seen with adequate repetition. It doesn’t take any skill to just have an account executive put a schedule together, and if you don’t at least know the basics you’ll be relying on someone whose paycheck is directly related to how much money your candidate spends. A good political media consultant must understand how to maximize the amount of time bought for the lowest cost per spot with the highest number of viewers. Here are three tips for maximizing your media buy.

Learn the Terms: There are several types of airtime on both cable and broadcast. I can’t go into all of them here, but you need to familiarize yourself with them: pre-emptible, non-pre-emptible, ROS, fixed position, lowest-unit cost, reach and frequency.

When it comes to buying the time, your local broadcast stations will usually allow you to buy fixed position, which means you are buying a specific program like your local 11 o’clock news. Most local cable companies, however, will only allow you to buy Fixed ROS (rotation of schedule). This allows you to put a limited number of spots a day on a given channel. The spots rotate equally over a limited time period, such as a morning day-part of 6 a.m.-10 a.m. But forget about buying a guaranteed fixed-position spot, or what some cable companies refer to as “special fixed”—a guaranteed run in Monday Night Football or The Rachel Maddow Show. They don’t allow it.

Start Early: It’s a simple way to beat the TV broadcasters at their own game. Television political cycles start 45 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election. Once inside these political windows, TV ad suppliers must by law offer your candidate rates at “lowest unit cost.” That means they have to sell you time at the cheapest rates that other non-political customers bought throughout the year.

But many cable companies skirt the lowest unit cost mandate by only allowing you to buy higher-priced, segmented, successive time slots like 5 a.m. to 10 a.m., 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and so on. This is called Fixed ROS, and they essentially make you pay a premium price for it even though most local non-political buyers opt for lower-cost, 18- hour or 24-hour ROS schedules that can yield similar reach and frequency numbers at a lower price.

The solution: Buy early and snag more cable TV time at a lower cost per spot than your competition does. Anything your candidate buys before the start of those political windows is outside of the political rate card. Not only can you buy 18-hour and 24-hour ROS at a lower cost per spot, but you can also purchase fixed position. So if your target audience is NASCAR dads, go ahead and lock in some ad time during Sprint Cup races.

Unlike cable, local broadcast stations allow you to buy fixed position, like local news or your favorite network sitcom, but they are also able to command top dollar by almost forcing you to buy non-pre-emptible spots. They can offer you lowest unit cost by selling pre-emptible airtime, which can be pre-empted by those paying a higher rate for that same time slot. Let’s say both you and a pizza shop want to buy ad time during the same specific program. If the pizza shop buys at a higher rate than what your candidate paid and there is limited inventory of that ad time available, the station will bump you out. This is called “pre-emption,” and if that was the last six o’clock news spot available before Election Day and you got bumped, you’re out of luck. Sure, your candidate will get the money back, but you won’t be able to get back the audience you missed on the nightly news the evening before the election. Remember: The early bird gets the worm. If you buy early you can still buy lowest cost pre-emptible airtime before all the inventory gets bought out by other campaigns. When election day gets closer, you’ll have to decide between buying the more expensive non-pre-emptible time and risking the chance of your spots being bumped.

Know Your Goals: At the end of the day, your goal is to buy smarter and achieve more reach and frequency at a lower cost per spot than your opposition. There are many different metrics you can use to evaluate the strength of a particular TV ad schedule: GRPs (gross rating points), impressions, etc. But as long as you know your target demo for a particular ad schedule, then reach and frequency are the two most important terms.

Reach is the percentage of a targeted demo (like Adults 18+) that sees the spot. Frequency is the number of times a spot is seen by that specific demo. With a big enough budget, you can achieve a 95 percent or higher reach, and a 10.0 + frequency. This is basically saturating the market with enough repetition to make your message stick.

If you’re working on tight budget, try to at least achieve a 60 percent reach, and minimum 3.5 to 4.0 frequency. That gets your ad out to the solid majority of your target demo with enough viewings to make an impact.

Of course, every consultant has his or her own minimums, maximums and methods. There are a million ways to skin a cat—or run a political media campaign. Your goal should be to produce quality spots that tell a compelling and structured story with a unifying message and are geared toward cost effectively reaching your target market with enough frequency. Mastering these basics will go a long way and could save your campaign a ton.


Jim Fogarty is creative director of 2 Ticks & The Dog Productions. He has successfully run over three dozen political media campaigns on the local, state and federal levels, including an award-winning television ad campaign for Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio).