Schools may gain considerably from television advertising but there are a number of challenges to initially overcome if this advertizing pathway is selected.

“It’s cool!” Even more cool than radio - A commonly held view by many in the school community. Televsion is one such form of media advertizing for schools.

Television advertising is an expensive form of advertising. It is difficult to justify the expense / success ratio! Television is most likely seen as the coolest main-line commercial medium.

Beware: the challenges!

• Quality

Television advertising is fraught with various levels of the ‘cringe factor’ if not produced and presented in a very professional manner.
Quality is paramount, as all weaknesses are multiplied when shown on air.

• Large Cities

Capital city advertising is very expensive. Similar to radio, there remains the question as to whether there is any benefit in advertizing over a large area for a specific school in one location.

System level advertising would often be of benefit for those schools within the region. There is also the flow-on effect of like schools e.g. other Catholic Schools being seen as equivalent to the advertised ones.

• Smaller Cities and Towns

Smaller cities and towns also have the question mark over the effectiveness of this form of advertising against the cost involved. Quality of production may also be questionable.
The local television channels usually only produce a nightly news program. All other shows are normally direct feeds from the main networks. The advertizing is added from the local station and interspersed with the major companies’ adverts.

The major question here is - how many people watch the local station when they could be watching the main networked station?
Hence, how successful would placing local adverts through the local station be?

Television Station Advertising List – Learn from…

• The best way to decide on this is to see the local channel’s list of advertisers.

This is easily obtained from the station’s advertising consultants. Once you have the list, check the businesses, schools and community groups, etc, which advertise.

• Does this advertising list inspire you to also advertise with this channel?

It may become apparent that no really significant local or larger business accounts exist and hence there is probably little reason for you to use this form.

If the major businesses and community groups don’t use it, there is usually a good reason why. This reason is most likely that the number of viewers is limited.

A case could be made for regional or system level advertising in these smaller places.
Once again, check who are the present advertisers and decide whether this suits your SMP.

Other topics and strategies covered in the School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed) 2010 are:

Creating a Television Advertisement for schools:

• The Proposal
• Professional Quote / Professional Proposal
• School Marketing Manager and Advertizement Preparations
• School Personnel and Facilities
• SMM's Role in Production

The 'Television Advertising for Schools - Beware the Challenges' blog post was written by Bryan Foster author of School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed) 2010, a 369 A4 paged instructional manual e-book loaded with strategies for school marketing managers available for just $AU16.95.