What exactly is negative campaign advertising?

Television Advertising: What is the average total dollar amount and over what length of time do most DRTV agencies recommend to prospective clients that they spend on media alone on their first national cable TV advertising campaign to see if TV meets their ROI goals?

• Assume the use of :30 or :60 commercials - this is not for a long-form infomercial.

• Answer:

  I have an article in the upcoming Response Magazine (December) that discusses the total testing that's needed for today's market. But you first need to understand that this is a far more complicated question than it sounds. The complications start with: Where is your ROI? Today, TV ROI generally comes from phone sales, web sales, and retail sales. Phone ROI is relatively easy to test for low amounts of money. Web ROI requires more time to accurately evaluate. And retail requires yet more time and investment to evaluate. Also, the amounts vary depending on HOW MUCH you need to know about your ROI stability. For example, a small test will tell you if you have enough phone sales from TV to be in reasonable shape. But the initial test won't tell you how much media you can buy and maintain those results. That takes considerably more investment in testing. Also, the amounts vary depending on the size and type of business. If you are a small entrepreneur, then less money is required. If you have a larger brand or company, you'll need to double or triple the amount. I know - all pretty vague. I've heard a lot of yell & sell folks claim to test with $5K or less. I'd never recommend it. You should look at $20K to $30K as a minimum. Also, you'll need to save about the same money for revision and follow up testing. But all this will do is test phone sales from national cable. Many people are testing with $50K to $100K today in order to get a more solid handle on how the campaign performs. But even at this level impacting a national retail chain can't be promised. So, many split their media between a national cable test for phone/web and local market tests where phone results should be expected to be poor, but where less money is needed to see retail impact. Overall, an important question. But it's also so important to be aware that there's not an easy answer. Good luck... ...Doug