Stupid Questions?

Since our opening on January 15th, I have received many mails and within these mails have been many questions. But it almost seems that, for one reason or another, many of these questions were worded as if the person asking did not really feel comfortable about asking in the first place.

Let me assure you that the age old saying that “there is no such thing as a stupid question” holds true for the advertising business as well. Given that many marketers are in direct contact with their agencies on a regular basis, it may seem that all the answers are either already accounted for or that the account execs or directors have them memorized. So what then when someone like TVLowCost comes along with a business proposition that seems out of line with all the packaged replies of the agency?

The first thing seems to be a kind of thought transmission along the lines “well, this can’t really be for real, otherwise somebody would already have done it” or “this is bull – no way they can deliver” or “like I need another agency, they all talk a good game, but when it comes down to it…”. And this is followed by a kind of introspection that asks the question, “but what if there is something to this?”

This is when the email gets sent or a phone call gets made and TVLowCost is asked to explain and verify its business model. As these conversation get into a little more detail and the comfort levels rise, it becomes clear that we are not out to criticize, but to offer an alternative to the current way of communicating a message through the medium of television.

When we are asked as to the cost, the package cost that includes a full day of shooting, where more often than not we are able to shoot two, three or four commercials for the same price as one commercial in the classical sense, clients initially think we are offering slam-bam video productions done in a garage. When we show them our reel, lead them through the process and explain why the costs are so low and the results so good, they begin to realize that the question was far from stupid, but that the answer could not have been known as they had never dealt with us before. Their existing agency could not have had an answer pre-packaged as they work much differently from TVLowCost.

The next question often then pertains to the timing: on air in eight weeks max, three weeks min. We have the system and the resources in place to make this happen – we make it happen because we will not make our clients sign an agency contract – we get repeat business because we earn it.

“How do I know you guys are for real?” seems to follow on the cost and timing heels. Again, we did not produce 300 commercials in two years by being wing-nuts (no disrespect to what was a very useful fastening device at one time). We have won over 60 clients in these years and we welcome the comparison to any agency in the world.

So please keep asking questions, you have nothing to lose – you may even get answers that shed light on some of the things you’re doing at this very moment.

TVLowCost – Are we Pirates?

Now that TVLowCost is open in Toronto, along with six other countries in the network, the interest in our concept of advertising is growing on this side of the Atlantic. One of the first questions posed to me was, “Are you going to be the pirates of the advertising world?” What an interesting way of looking at us.

If this is from the perspective of the other agencies out there, yes we will be pirates! We are taking clients from them in a way that they see as being outside of the accepted “pitch and dine philosophy” of new business. A method they have so long used to bait and hook in order to eventually lock clients into their web of over-priced services.

For TVLowCost, the way of doing business does not depend on an AOR contract, we will not become the “Agency”, rather we will develop and execute television commercials, testing everyone for effectiveness, planning and buying media on the basis of highest effectiveness in terms of immediate sales growth and we will never compete in pitches. We will not operate the same as the old guard of top-heavy, over-staffed and for the most part inefficient agency players today. Do they like this? No! But then again we are pirates.

Our clients, over 50 and counting in the last two years, not only respect the fact that we do business in order to make more money for them, they in turn come back to us and this makes us more profitable. And as a pirate, we do not see profit as a dirty word. We will never play down the fact that growth is just as important to TVLowCost as it is to our clients. However, our model depends on perfect executions and complete customer satisfaction in all we do. We must be perfect because it is the only way for us to build a long-term relationships with our clients. And of the 50, we are still making commercials for 48 – not a bad figure for a bunch of pirates.

So I guess we will be pirates in the eyes of the other agencies until they begin to understand that their way of doing business is open to attack. But then if you’re on a floundering, over-crewed, directionless yacht with lavish parties in the staterooms(no longer on the deck, in the open), adrift in an ever faster current, taking you ever farther from the vital shipping lanes, what else could we be?

And did I mention that this question came from an employee of another agency?

TVLowCost opens in Toronto… at last Canadian advertisers will save money on their TV campaigns.

Every single client is complaining about the outrageous prices of their ad agencies and media agencies in relation to their TV ads.
TVLowCost network was born in October 2004 in France and now covers 6 countries and works for 60 companies all over those countries.