If You Aren't Closed Captioning Your TV Spots -- You Should!

If You Aren't Closed Captioning Your TV Spots -- You Should!

Like many of you, even though I don't need assistance to hear my TV, I often turn on closed captioning.  Sometimes there's someone in the room who's trying to read or talk on the telephone, or I want to catch all the words to a song being performed by a band on a late night talk show.  Whatever the reason, I find closed captioning very useful.  I think all shows should be captioned.  

For one thing, it's just good business.  An advertiser spends tens of thousands of dollars or more on every spot they run.  A quick search on the net shows a company that will do it for $15 for a 60 second spot, so adding closed captioning doesn't add much to the cost; but the resulting benefits are many.

Here's one that excites me:  Putting captions on your spots can add 10 or even 15 seconds to the amount of time your message is on the air absolutely free!  Here's how it works:  Next time watch TV with captions on.  You'll notice some commercials are captioned while others aren't.  When a captioned spot is followed by one that isn't captioned, an interesting phenomenon occurs:  The last caption remains on screen through a good chunk of the uncaptioned spot that follows.  

Can advertisers use this feature of closed captioning to their advantage?  You bet!  Instruct your captioning producer to make that last caption contain your brand name, contact info, whatever.  Then let it fly.  When your spot airs, that final caption can linger long after the spot has ended.  And that extra linger time might just give a viewer a chance to write down your phone number or address and get you the sale. 

Now imagine this:  Suppose your spot is followed by one of your competitors' spots that isn't captioned.  While they're going on and on about how great they are, there's your brand name superimposed right over their commercial.  How's that for a kick?  Talk about guerrilla advertising!

Closed captioning is also the right thing to do.  It's a welcome service to those who are hearing-impaired.  They'll appreciate it, and it encourages good will towards your brand, again opening the door to more sales. 

It can also keep you out of trouble.  Recently, there have been several lawsuits initiated against universities (MIT is one of them) that haven't been captioning their on-line courses.  The argument goes that without captioning, the courses become inaccessible to the hearing impaired; that's a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Nobody needs a lawsuit that can be prevented for fifteen bucks. 

But without even considering the possibility of lawsuits or the goodwill captioning brings, the added exposure time for your brand makes closed captioning something a smart advertiser shouldn't pass up. 

Until next time, 

Fred Pagano

Brown Cow Studios creates 

"High Quality Video and Sound Design at Terrific Value."  

How can we help you?  Get in touch with me anytime.   Fred@BrownCowStudios.com

Five Questions to Ask Before Becoming Your Own Spokesman

In BullShots! last week we shared five reasons to appear in your own advertisements.  But as we said, thoughts are divided on the subject.  So this week we present the flipside of being your own spokesman.  Answer these questions honestly before you decide:

Five Questions to Ask Before You Appear in Your Own Ads:

Which would you buy from this guy?
Dog food, a used car, or a submarine?

1.  Are You TV and Radio Friendly?  It would be great if we lived in a world where we were all judged on our inherent abilities and goodness.  But alas, that’s not the case, and in this world image and appeal count.  This applies not just to physical good looks, but to manner of speech and general demeanor.  Any accent, regionalism, or speech impediment can work against you.  Do you seem honest? Trustworthy?
2. Is it Ego That Drives the Decision?   Agencies and spot reps know the best way to appeal to a client with a big ego is to urge him to do his own spots.  We all want to be stars.  A lot of crummy advertising results from this sort of pitch.  It’s a disservice to the advertiser, and it’s a disservice to the advertiser’s business.  If you do decide to be your own spokesperson, give a lot of thought to your motivations. 
3. Do You Look the Part?  This isn't a looks question, it's a casting question.  Although you may be the best speaker and best looking person in the world, you still may not be the best choice to relate to your target customer.  Do you look the part?  Are you selling expensive cars but look like a longshoreman?  Are you the supermodel type trying to sell dog food?  Or are you an electrician who looks like an electrician? 
4. How Does it Affect the Long-Term Value of Your Business?  Let’s say you build a very successful business acting as your own spokesman.  Now it’s time to sell and retire.  What is the new owner going to do about advertising?  Your face is connected to the business, and you won’t be around any more to pitch it.  The new owner will have to make a substantial investment to overcome the lack of your involvement, and the business may be worth less because of it. 

A great example of this is Jordan’s Furniture, a Boston area chain.  For years, the Jordan brothers appeared in their own radio and TV spots.  Eventually time came to sell out, but the business was so strongly linked to the brothers that the new owner was forced to keep one of them on the payroll, just as spokesman.  What’s going to happen when there’s no more Jordan associated with Jordan’s furniture?

A nationwide example:  Bob’s Discount Furniture.  Bob is smart, however – he’s already preparing for this by turning himself into a cartoon character.  But is that really the way you want to go?

5. What are You Really Selling?  Sorry, but it’s true:  People don’t care about you.  They care about the washing machine, tv, computer or storm windows you’re selling.  They want to know about features, price, and value for their money.  You might be a pleasant guy or gal, you might have a beautiful family, but people don’t buy refrigerators because of your kids – they buy them because they keep food cold.  Unless you’re a politician, keep your family out of your ads, and keep yourself out too.  And frankly, a lot of politicians would do well to stay out of their own ads too.

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Who do you think does the best job of being spokesperson for their own company?  Who does the worst?  We’d like to know, so please comment on this article. Your Links and Likes are appreciated too! 

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Brown Cow Studios of Boston produces attention-getting videos

that grow your business.  How can we help you grow?  

 Get in touch with Fred@BrownCowStudios.com

Five Reasons to Appear in Your Own Commercials

Turn on your radio or watch TV tonight and I guarantee you’ll come across a plethora of spots in which the owner of a business acts as his or her own spokesperson. 

Thought is divided on the topic – there are solid reasons to do your own pitch, and reasons that are just as solid for not being your own brand ambassador. 

In this week’s article, we take a look at five reasons why it’s a good idea to appear in your own commercials.

Could you be this guy?

1.    Enthusiasm and sincerity.  It’s your company, your brand, your service, and your success on the line.  If you truly believe in what you’re doing then nobody can talk about it, explain it, or sell it as well as you.  Nobody else will appear as sincere or enthusiastic about it as you will, and your enthusiasm will perceived by the audience and motivate them.  Example from the past:  Victor Kiam's "I bought the company" spots for  Remington Shavers.

2.    Credibility.  There’s a reason why lawyers do their own spots.  The most important tool a lawyer has is credibility.  Lawyers who advertise on TV have one strike against them already --  advertising on TV for years has been frowned upon by the legal profession, and many people who see ads for attorneys who specialize in personal injury cases laugh at them.  That is, until they have their own accident.  Then it’s the attorney who seems most competent and experienced they call.  In the Boston area, Attorney Jim Sokolove does a pretty good job of appearing competent and serious.  (Here is  a Jim Sokolove TV spot.)

3.    Personality.  If you’ve got a big personality then doing your own spots is a natural.  Every brand has its own personality, and if you’re the kind of guy or gal that people are naturally drawn to, that personality might as well be your own.  This is great for car dealers like Ernie Boch  (Senior was better at it than Junior is, but Junior is coming along.)   (Here's a vintage Ernie Boch spot from the '60s.)

4.    You can’t quit.  You won’t be threatening to quit if you don’t get more money.  When a company uses a paid spokesperson it’s public image is tied to that person.  If the spots are successful at promoting your business it’s a safe bet that your public spokesperson will be wanting more money for the next go-round. 

5.    Cost.  This is simple.  It’s cheaper to do your own spots. 

When it’s time to plan your next ad campaign, think about your intent – how you plan to portray your product, service, or company.  If you’re up against cost issues, or you need to establish credibility, sincerity, or a personality for your brand, appearing in your own advertisements might be the way to go. 

Next week we’ll take a look at the other side of the coin and look at some good reasons not to star in your own commercials, so please check BullShots! next week. 

Who’s your favorite TV spokesperson?  Let us know!  Your comments and links to this blog are appreciated!  Thanks for reading BullShots!

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Brown Cow Studios of Boston produces radio, TV and Internet commercials

that establish brands and drive in business.

How can we help you? – Get in touch with Fred Pagano today.

Match Your Imagery to the Clients You Desire

In last week's edition, I wrote about matching your style to the industry niche in which you operate.  We continue the theme this week with a discussion of how to match imagery to attract the clients you desire. 

All images have meaning, and they mean different things to different people.  A photograph of a luxury car has a different meaning than does one of an economy model.  Though both cars, the intrinsic messages are different. 

The same is true for video clips and even the written word.  You can call your pet a pussycat, or you can call it your "house lion."  Though logically, both refer to the same animal, there's a difference in meaning.  You'd expect the "house lion" to be a hunter on the prowl, wouldn't you?  Not so much for a pussycat. 

When creating videos or print ads, imagery must be carefully chosen to match the audience's mind set. 

I was recently discussing plans for a new series of videos with one of my clients.  We talked about imagery and how to appeal to the clientele he wanted to attract.  We knew that people attending the local community college would have less need for his college planning service than those who would attend an expensive private university.   Once we made that determination, choice of images to use in his video was easy -- we needed shots of kids graduating from Ivy League schools.  Shots of middle class families were important as well.  The idea was to include footage that his target clientele would relate to. 

Take a look at the two photos of industrial sites on the left.  Though both depict factories on a lake, the intrinsic meanings of the images are vastly different.  Which factory would you rather live near?  Why?


So when you're developing your next project, remember to match the imagery to your target market. 

Brown Cow Studios of Boston specializes in producing high-quality

targeted audio and video content.

To learn how we can help your business be more successful, 

get in touch with Fred Pagano at (617) 230-4019. 

Fred's Advertising Clinic Part 2: Grab Your Audience's Attention!

We live in a fast-paced world...


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Chuck Norvell, What a Great, Great Guy!


In a different way each of these lines grabs your attention and makes you want to know more:

• What's so great about Chuck Norvell?
• Tell me how I can save and get free shipping...
• No, I wouldn't want that to happen to me, so how can I prevent it?
• How can I slow the pace of my life?

There's nothing fancy or splashy about these leads. They're quite simple. But they all have one thing in common: When you see them you want to know more.

That's what the first part of our advertising copy formula is all about -- Grabbing your audience's attention. There are many ways to do it. You can tease the audience, offer a benefit, or entertain them. It doesn't matter as long as you accomplish one thing -- Your audience has to want to know more.

Let's suppose we are writing a spot for dry-erase markers. I picked this product for our example because I've got a couple of them on my desk, and they're fairly mundane as products go. Nothing really sexy about dry-erase markers, is there?

So how do we get the listener to pay attention to our dry-erase markers? Let's brainstorm ....

Dry-erase markers come in many colors ... they are odorless ... the one I'm looking at right now has a fine point, but others have thicker points ... they erase easily ... Hey, I like that. one -- They erase easily. Can we use it? Let's try some approaches that tie into easy erase-ability:

• We can ask a question: "You're only human, right?"
• We can make a statement: "Everybody makes mistakes."
• We can set up a scene: "It's the biggest presentation of your career. Don't blow it!"
• How about a testimonial: "Dry-erase markers saved my job!"
• We can present the unexpected too: "Dry erase markers don't taste very good."

Each of these attention grabbers gets your customers wanting to know more. "Yes, I am only human -- what about it?" "What can I do about my mistakes?" Some tug at them on an emotional level: "The last time I blew a presentation the boss yelled at me for an hour!" And the last one is just too weird not to want to know more.

The key to each is that they hook you, they tease you. They make you want to know more. As a copy writer, hooking your audience is the hardest part of the job. Once you've done it, the rest of the copy flows naturally.

Your next step is to keep your audience's interest and to build upon it -- to get them interested in your product. We'll talk about that next time in part three of "Fred's Advertising Clinic."

Need to get attention for your product or business?
Fred Pagano's Brown Cow Studios of Boston creates attention-grabbing commercials,
Internet ads, product demos and presentations that sell.
Visit the Brown Cow Studios website at www.BrownCowStudios.com to learn more.
Or send an e-mail to Fred Pagano - Fred@BrownCowStudios.com

Fred's Advertising Clinic - Part One: The Formula

Years ago I had quite a chuckle when I saw a poster on the wall of a friend's office. It read, "Mankind's greatest need is to edit another person's copy."

If you've written any sort of copy - from a business letter to a commercial to an article for a science journal - you get the joke. You might write the world's greatest copy (hmm ... sounds like me), but once you submit it to the client or your boss, it's torn to shreds (hmm ... how could they!). Maybe the edits are an improvement; perhaps they're not. The only thing we know for certain is that your copy will be edited.

People who run small businesses, as always, are up against a special challenge. Not only do they have to write their own copy, but they have to edit it too. With a limited budget for advertising time, it's especially important that their commercial copy gets results.

In this series we'll take a look at copy writing as both an art and a science, and explore some techniques for writing great copy.

Unlike many things in life, writing ad copy can be broken down into a formula. This formula has been used by professional writers forever because it works. Are you ready? Here it is:

Attention - Interest - Desire -Action.

It's known throughout the ad world by its acronym, AIDA, and it's a blueprint to effective copy. Just follow the steps in order.

1. Attention - The foundation of all effective ad copy is to get your listener or viewer's attention. So you write a catchy headline, or ask an important question. Amuse them, question them or shock them. How you do it doesn't matter as long as you grab your audience's attention.

2. Interest. Once you've got your audience's attention, your second step is to keep it and build interest in your message. In part, you're building on your attention grabbing lead, and you're setting the audience up for the next step.

3. Desire. This may be the most important step of all, because if you don't build a desire for your product or service, your audience won't want it. I find it's often the hardest part of the formula to write.

4. Action. This is the windup. It's time to get your audience to act, so tell them what they should do. Buy your product. Visit your store. Call for more information. Or cross only when the light is green. If you've done the previous steps well, that's exactly what your audience will do.

In principle it's a very simple formula. But some take years to master it, and others never quite do. That's where good copy writing becomes an art form.

Start practicing the formula now by applying it to daily life situations. Use the AIDA formula as the structure of your next letter or e-mail. Try it on your next sales call, or even with friends and colleagues in everyday conversation. Instead of just talking about last night's game over the water cooler, see if you can instill a desire to attend the next one or watch it on TV. Just follow the formula and see what happens. It's good practice.

Check back for the next article in this series, as we take an in-depth look at step one.

By the way, did you notice this article uses the AIDA formula? I'm sneaky that way. Thanks for reading!

Fred Pagano's Brown Cow Studios offers complete creative and production services. From great copy writing to creative audio production and lots more, let the creative herd at Brown Cow Studios of Boston help grow your business. Send an e-mail to Fred@BrownCowStudios.com, or visit our web site, www.BrownCowStudios.com.

If you're only talking for 30 seconds, why do I have to pay so much?

I was talking with a friend who is in the public relations business the other day. He's one of the most successful press agents in Boston, and specializes in getting his clients booked on TV and radio talk shows. As we compared notes, we realized we both faced the same obstacle: Clients who don't understand why our services are priced the way they are.

Not that we can blame them. To the uninitiated and those new to using the services of a press agent -- or in my case, a voice over artist -- it doesn't make sense. They wonder how a commercial that takes sixty seconds to do can cost so much to record.

A similar comment is one I used to hear back in my Top-40 DJ days: "I wish I had a job at which I only had to work four hours a day!" On the surface, it sounds about right, and believe it or not, there really are some DJs who only work four hours a day. But the fact is, they're not very good and they don't last in the business very long. The best radio personalities -- the ones who make it seem oh-so-easy have to work at it. And they work hard. The best don't put in a four-hour day, or even an eight-hour day like most of us. They'll spend hours preparing for their shows and trying to come up with new material. For the truly successful, it's more like a 10- or even a 12-hour day.

My friend the press agent? Sure, all he has to do is make a phone call to get his client booked, but again the truth is there's much more to it than that. He doesn't make one phone call, he makes fifty. And the only reason he can make those fifty calls is because before those fifty he made made 500 other calls to newspapers, radio and TV stations so he would know the producers and bookers, and what their tastes, interests, and preferences are.

Now since this blog is about voiceover production, let's take a look at what happens when a voiceover artist is hired to do a 60-second spot.

Even before the voiceover artist gets hired, he's already put a lot of work into the job. He's made phone calls to his agent, he's paid for and sent out demos, bios, postcards, letters, and maintains a web site too. He's probably called a few hundred potential clients on his own, and done every other kind of marketing he could think of. Along the way he's probably done fifty or sixty auditions -- maybe 100 -- that haven't resulted in any gigs.

Then one day the phone rings, or he gets an email from somebody who liked his audition enough to actually ask him to do their spot. They fax the copy over.

The first thing our voiceover artist does is read the copy to find out what it's all about. Then he reads it again, this time to get an idea of how the read should sound. Depending on the type of spot it is he may have to figure out who his character is, what his purpose is, even how he feels about it. In other words, he goes through the same preparation all actors go through when they land a part. But our voiceover actor doesn't have the length of a feature film or even a sitcom to develop his character and get his message across -- he's got 57 seconds, or even less.

He reads the copy again, this time marking it to note which words to emphasize and which to downplay, trying to find the most effective way to get it said.

By this time, he's read the copy five or six times, and hasn't even opened his mouth yet. But that's next. It's time to rehearse. Again he'll read the copy as many times as he needs to -- or, if he's working with one, as many times as the producer wants him to -- until it sounds right. So we're up to ten reads or more.

When the mike goes on, all that preparation hopefully results in a good read the first time. But, alas, that's rarely the case. Inevitably there will be goofs, mistakes, places where he rose in pitch when he should have gone down. Since he didn't write the copy, the words he speaks aren't his own in the way he would speak them, but in the way some committee somewhere wrote them, and he has to find a way to make that committee sound like one person with one voice, who's fluent in the English language.

If the recording is being done in a studio with a producer, engineer, and likely the client too, all of which are listening in on the session in the control room, our voiceover artist will have to follow their direction. Some of that direction may be genuinely helpful. Some of it may be arcane. "Can you make it sound like stardust?" or "put more electrons into it!" Hmmm ... electrons! More takes...

Eventually the tracks do get laid down and the recording session is finished. It's taken all day, and for his day's work the VO artist has earned $600. It may be the only job he'll do that week. If he's lucky, he'll get a check within 30 days as promised. If he's not so lucky he'll have to wait, track the client down, or maybe just not get paid at all. It happens.

So add it all up: The VO actor has probably read that script anywhere from ten to 50 times. And the money he gets paid has to cover all his administrative expenses and the costs of marketing, maintaining a studio, and going to auditions. Don't forget he has to pay his agent's commission too, if he ever wants to work again.

Do the math and you'll see that for all the effort to land and then produce that 60 second spot, our voiceover guy is lucky if he makes $10 an hour.

So why does he do it? Easy: He loves it.

Should you take advantage of a station's offer to produce your ad for free?

Just about every radio station, and many TV stations too, offer their advertisers free commercial production. To advertisers pinched by today's economy it's a very attractive offer that's hard to refuse. But should you refuse it?

I think so. From my years of experience in the broadcasting industry, I believe a very strong case can be made for declining the station's offer and instead using a professional, independent voiceover artist.

First, if your ads are being produced by the station on which you've bought time, your ads are being produced by one of the station's staff announcers. The voice will be one of the five or six people who voice probably 80 percent of all their spots - those of your competitors too! I'm not saying that the staff announcers aren't good at what they do; on the contrary, they're probably excellent. But your spots will end up sounding like every other spot on the station, and listeners will easily tune them out because they don't sound any different from everything else they hear. They'll just be part of the "clutter".

To be their most effective, it's very important for your ads to stand out and sound different from the rest. This is particularly important with 10- or 15-second "shorts."

Secondly, auditory memory plays a big role in the success of your ad. If a listener dislikes a particular personality for whatever reason - maybe they think those dulcet tones are too syrupy, or they don't care for the subject matter of that DJ's show (think of your local "shock jock"), that voice will have made an unfavorable impression. That impression carries over, subconsciously, to your product - it's quite likely that just hearing the voice of the announcer they don't like will work against you.

If you've ever found yourself talking back to the radio or arguing with a particularly annoying or stupid commercial you know what I mean.

But when you use an independent voiceover announcer, you're using a voice that's not heard every day - day in, day out for years. So your spot cuts through the clutter, is more likely to command attention, and won't suffer ill effects from a listener's auditory memory of an unfavored personality.

Many voiceover actors have spent years in training, taking acting classes, courses on dialects and accents and the like. The result is not just a "read" of your copy, but an interpretation of it. Even with relatively straightforward copy, professional, independent voice actors bring elements of drama, credibility, and showmanship to your spots. They don't get lost in the clutter.

In the end, your advertising is more successful because it commands the listener's attention and gets results.

Finally, there's the price issue. Free sounds great, but how much is that "free" actually worth? Most voiceover actors, myself included, operate their own studios and can provide complete creative services - from copy writing to voiceover to producing a finished spot at very reasonable rates.

You also gain the benefit of a professional who gives your spot complete attention and wants to earn your repeat business. Radio DJs and staff announcers don't get paid extra to do your spot, and they may not be happy about it either - it's just one more spot on the list of 5 or 10 spots they have to do that day, in addition to doing prep for their on-air show, paperwork, and the show itself. Because they simply don't have the time to give you their full attention, you might end up with a spot that's not great, but "good enough."

When you think about the total cost of your advertising schedule, the cost of choosing a a pro voice actor versus the station's "free production" offer works out to a small percentage of your ad budget. But the results a pro voiceover actor will get you are much greater!

So when the sales exec from the station offers you free production, tell him "no thanks." Then get in touch with Fred@BrownCowStudios.com, or one of the many fine VO talents working today.

- Fred Pagano