not sold. Kraft is happy because it gets a bargain rate and reaches an audience likely to hang in to find out who won for best picture. Likewise, overrun time on sports programming is likely to be a bargain: Viewers will stay tuned to see who wins the contest, and afternoon events that run long tend to bleed into prime time (in some parts of the country, at least), when the number of sets in use is higher.
Why don’t sponsors jockey to buy overrun time? For the most part, commercials are bought by advertising agencies representing sponsors. Commercials are usually designed to influence specific demographic groups, and advertising time is bought in order to reach a designated number of that group within a certain amount of time. Sponsors tend not to be as concerned about “bargains” (they know approximately how much it will cost them to reach each thousand of their targeted audience) as they are about reaching that audience efficiently (they don’t want to sell life insurance on The O.C. , whose audience is predominantly young and female when most of their customers are older and male) and quickly.
Many companies use live programs (sports, awards shows) that might overrun to introduce new products, announce improvements and changes in image of products, since specials and sports are exciting and glamorous environments in which to showcase their “exciting news.” When a company is making such an important announcement, it is imperative that commercials run as scheduled, to coincide with its products’ hitting the stores.
Networks aren’t always successful at selling overrun time, however. If not, their best strategy is to use the vacant advertising time to promote their own shows. Ever since ABC used the 1976 Olympics to successfully hype its prime-time line-up for the fall, networks have become acutely aware of the power of promotion within important television events to increase the initial tune-in of regular series.
The last option of the network, and by far the least desirable, is to use up the extra commercial time by running free ads. When networks haven’t sold time and haven’t planned extra promo time, they will often run ads at no cost to the sponsor rather than run public-service spots. Public-service spots denote to the viewer that no commercial time could be sold, a failing the networks do not want conveyed, even subliminally, to the viewer.
When network overruns impinge on their affiliates’ time (11:00 PM E.S.T., 10:00 C.S.T.), the local station usually loses the revenue from commercials already sold for that period. In most cases, local stations sell time in “strips,” meaning that sponsors buy, say, five 30-second spots during the 11:00–11:30 PM period, Monday through Friday. The station may place the sponsor’s five spots on whatever day or days it wishes to. If the network preempts its time, the local station will simply place the ad on another day. If the station were totally sold out of commercial time for the quarter and the network preempted it, the station may have to refund the sponsor’s money unless some kind of trade of time slots can be negotiated. It thus isn’t hard to understand why local affiliates don’t appreciate even planned overruns, such as theatrical movies that are longer than two hours. Although local stations profit from the limited number of commercials they can sell per hour during the network lineup, they can make more during local programming, when the network doesn’t have its finger in their pie.
WHY ARE RACQUETBALLS BLUE?
----
L arry Josefowicz, of Wilson Sporting Goods Co., told Imponderables that the dark blue color is the most easily discernible. Light colors fade into the wooden floors and white or cream walls of a racquetball court. Considering how fast a racquetball moves during a game, the choice of colors becomes a safety, as well as a playability, issue.
Wilson and its competitors tested other colors, but none combined visibility
Why don’t sponsors jockey to buy overrun time? For the most part, commercials are bought by advertising agencies representing sponsors. Commercials are usually designed to influence specific demographic groups, and advertising time is bought in order to reach a designated number of that group within a certain amount of time. Sponsors tend not to be as concerned about “bargains” (they know approximately how much it will cost them to reach each thousand of their targeted audience) as they are about reaching that audience efficiently (they don’t want to sell life insurance on The O.C. , whose audience is predominantly young and female when most of their customers are older and male) and quickly.
Many companies use live programs (sports, awards shows) that might overrun to introduce new products, announce improvements and changes in image of products, since specials and sports are exciting and glamorous environments in which to showcase their “exciting news.” When a company is making such an important announcement, it is imperative that commercials run as scheduled, to coincide with its products’ hitting the stores.
Networks aren’t always successful at selling overrun time, however. If not, their best strategy is to use the vacant advertising time to promote their own shows. Ever since ABC used the 1976 Olympics to successfully hype its prime-time line-up for the fall, networks have become acutely aware of the power of promotion within important television events to increase the initial tune-in of regular series.
The last option of the network, and by far the least desirable, is to use up the extra commercial time by running free ads. When networks haven’t sold time and haven’t planned extra promo time, they will often run ads at no cost to the sponsor rather than run public-service spots. Public-service spots denote to the viewer that no commercial time could be sold, a failing the networks do not want conveyed, even subliminally, to the viewer.
When network overruns impinge on their affiliates’ time (11:00 PM E.S.T., 10:00 C.S.T.), the local station usually loses the revenue from commercials already sold for that period. In most cases, local stations sell time in “strips,” meaning that sponsors buy, say, five 30-second spots during the 11:00–11:30 PM period, Monday through Friday. The station may place the sponsor’s five spots on whatever day or days it wishes to. If the network preempts its time, the local station will simply place the ad on another day. If the station were totally sold out of commercial time for the quarter and the network preempted it, the station may have to refund the sponsor’s money unless some kind of trade of time slots can be negotiated. It thus isn’t hard to understand why local affiliates don’t appreciate even planned overruns, such as theatrical movies that are longer than two hours. Although local stations profit from the limited number of commercials they can sell per hour during the network lineup, they can make more during local programming, when the network doesn’t have its finger in their pie.
WHY ARE RACQUETBALLS BLUE?
----
L arry Josefowicz, of Wilson Sporting Goods Co., told Imponderables that the dark blue color is the most easily discernible. Light colors fade into the wooden floors and white or cream walls of a racquetball court. Considering how fast a racquetball moves during a game, the choice of colors becomes a safety, as well as a playability, issue.
Wilson and its competitors tested other colors, but none combined visibility
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