Welcome
We’ve all got to start somewhere, so if you’re new to TV advertising, it’s probably a little daunting – but don’t worry, we’re here to help.
Supporting the little guy and being a bit maverick is what we're all about - always has been, always will be. And you can see that in the shows we make and our approach to new technology.
4Sales wants to engage with smaller agencies and advertisers who might not even have an agency yet. We’re here to help you get the most out of TV, helping guide you through the process and ensure we work together to develop your advertising and achieve your business objectives.
Contact us at salesenquiries@channel4.co.uk
Why TV?
if you're wondering whether telly is for you - the short answer is yes!
Our friends over at Thinkbox pulled together the following top reasons why TV is so great at delivering for brands of all sizes and shapes. We agree with their analysis and if you're interested in starting your TV journey, we'd encourage you to follow some of the links through to the Thinkbox website, where they have a massive resource of useful guides, insights and data around the power of television advertising - just don't forget to come back and contact our team once you've been convinced!!
Thinkbox's Top Reasons Why TV is so Powerful
- TV advertising is more effective than ever
Whether in the short term or the long, TV advertising delivers the most profit at the greatest cost-efficiency and for the lowest risk.
- TV is the heart of the video world
TV is the most popular form of video, accounting for 69% of the average person’s video diet and 94.6% of the video advertising they see.
- TV has unbeatable scale and reach
Reach is critical in advertising and no other form of advertising can build scale as quickly and powerfully as TV.
- TV is vital for long-term success
TV advertising works and it works fast. But that’s only part of its power. The effects of TV advertising accumulate over time; the longer you advertise, the bigger the effect.
- TV fuels other media
TV drives activity elsewhere in the media eco-system and consistently makes other elements of advertising campaigns work harder.
- TV is everywhere
TV is now everywhere. It continues to colonise every screen in sight, in and out of the home. It accompanies us wherever we go – and brands with it.
- TV creates emotion & makes brands famous
Every brand wants to be a household name – and nothing creates fame like TV.
- TV is crucial to word of mouth
Nothing gets people talking like TV. TV brings brands into conversations.
- TV drives rapid response
TV advertising starts working immediately and carries on delivering for years into the future. However, its short-term effects can be hidden or overlooked.
- TV works across categories
TV advertising has a powerful overall effect on sales and profit, but when you look at individual categories like retail, finance and FMCG you find that TV is the best performing media for each.
- TV is at the heart of creative effectiveness
There is a direct correlation between strong advertising creativity and business success. And TV is at the heart of creative effectiveness.
- TV is brand safest
TV advertising has a responsibility to exercise its power and influence with care and is held to a higher standard through strict regulation – and viewers know it.
Effectiveness
TV has long been proven as the most effective advertising medium in both the short and long term.
Every major study into advertising effectiveness – including those commissioned by competing media – agrees that TV outperforms all others.
‘Profit Ability: the business case for advertising’ (2017), by Ebiquity and Gain Theory, found that television advertising:
- Is responsible for 71% of total advertising-generated profit at an average profit ROI over 3 years of £4.20 per £ spent, the highest ROI of any media
- Is the most effective short-term advertising, responsible for 62% of all advertising-generated profit in the short term at an ROI of £1.73, again the highest of any media
- Is the safest (lowest risk) ad investment, with the highest likelihood of profit return (70% likelihood over 3-6 months; 86% over 3 years)
The IPA’s ‘Media in Focus’ (2017), by Les Binet and Peter Field, revealed that:
- Investing in TV increases effectiveness by 40%, making it the most effective medium
- TV advertising best at generating top-line growth that drives profit, with a 2.6% average market share point gained per year when using TV advertising
- TV advertising is becoming more effective due in part to growing synergies with online, especially online video
- Between 1980–1996, adding TV to a campaign led to an average 12% increase in business effects. This increased to 40% during 2008–2016
For more evidence-based studies into TV's effectiveness, head over to Thinkbox's website here: https://www.thinkbox.tv/why-tv/tv-advertising-is-more-effective-than-ever/
Ad Production
We've all seen the headlines about the John Lewis Christmas ad costing £7 million to produce - but you'll be very pleased to hear that effective TV commercials can be produced on much much more modest budgets!
At 4Sales, we understand that the lack of a TV commercial can sometimes be a barrier to brands considering TV as part of their media plan. But it needn't be such a concern. If you've already got a digital video ad, or have a number of video based assets, it can be relatively inexpensive for one of our production agency partners to pull a great ad together for you.
And, if you've no assets at all, thats fine too - we'll work with you to help guide you through the creative process, sharing our expert insight teams advice along the way, and work with you and your chosen production partner to help make it happen.
Above all, don't let a current lack of a TV commercial put you off - drop us an email to find out what is possible - salesenquiries@channel4.co.uk
Here are some ad production agencies we've worked with recently, who you might also be interested in talking to, for independent advice;
| Agency | Website | Description |
| Sassy Films | www.sassyfilms.com | We are an award-winning production studio who have helped many businesses to develop successful TV advertising campaigns. We have a huge amount of experience and insight across all sectors of business and know how to create hard working campaigns that deliver strong results for our clients |
| Whisper Productions | www.whisper.tv |
We are a global network of production, post-production and broadcast specialists, with the depth and drive to take on the biggest and best projects and deliver difference, each and every time. |
| Active Pictures | www.activepictures.co.uk |
Active Pictures is a television commercial production company based in Leeds, established in 2000 with clients across the UK. We make value driven, high quality productions for many different business sectors that are both creative and effective for our clients.Our philosophy is simple – we know that in a television commercial every frame in every second counts. |
| Chief Productions | www.chief.tv | Chief are an award-winning TV production company based in Media City, Manchester and is recognised as one of the best commercial production companies in the country. Chief approach every project, large or small, with the same dedication and expertise and we can also help clients who require some creative help to generate and develop first place, so please don’t hesitate to ask for our help |
| The Chase | www.thechasefilms.co.uk |
Animation has always been a powerful visual storytelling medium, but since Covid-19 hit, animations can be a viable option for the short to medium term. Animation is also a vastly underestimated and underemployed tool in both B2C and B2B marketing and advertising. |
Regulations
TV is a highly regulated form of advertising - which might initially sound negative, but actually it means you can be assured that your advertisement will always appear in a brand safe environment which consumers trust.
The UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (BCAP Code) sets out the rules for what adverts broadcast in the UK can and can’t contain. The code is created and enforeced by the Advertising Standards Association (ASA), who are the UK’s independent advertising regulator, operating on behalf of Ofcom.
Its true to say that the regulations are relatively long and in some cases, complex. But our team know them inside out and can help guide you through what can and cannot be done in your TV commercial. Plus, the team at Clearcast are experts in this field too. Clearcast are the organisation who check your ad against the BCAP code before its allowed to be broadcast. Channel 4, along with other commercial broadcasters, fund the operation of clearcast in order to make the clearing process as robust and effective as possible.
For more about the BCAP code: https://www.asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings/advertising-codes.html
For more about Clearcast : https://www.clearcast.co.uk/about/
To get in touch with our team, email salesenquiries@channel4.co.uk
FAQs
Advertising on TV
Do costs vary by region?
Yes. Costs vary according to the size of the region, airtime demand and audience supply. London is the most expensive region whilst Scotland and North can be more cost effective.
Do you have a rate card?
Channel 4 does not have a published list of rates. Each campaign is sold subject to availability, month, region and audience delivery. Most campaigns are booked within advance booking deadlines, eight weeks before the start of each month.
Does demand vary by month?
Demand varies according to the time of year, but there is high demand before Christmas and Easter. Post Christmas and Summer are most cost effective times of year to advertise on TV.
Is Channel 4 sold regionally?
Channel 4 is a national channel. It has 6 advertising macro regions.
BARB divides the UK into 14 regions, meaning advertisers can choose to only have adverts broadcast in one area - useful when promoting an area specific brand.
Channel 4 uses regions (also known as macros) so airtime can be traded fairly and allow targeting of a specific audience.
What is a Macro region?
A Macro region is an area that combines one or more geographical areas. Channel 4 trades on its own macros.
What is a CPT?
A Cost per Thousand is the cost of reaching a thousand people on TV. It is the currency used in TV Advertising.
For example, a Channel 4 campaign targeting 16-34 year olds, with a budget of £100,000 would be worked out like this:
100,000 / 25 TVRs / universe (1.4286) = a CPT of £28.00
What is an impact?
An impact is one set of eyes seeing one advert once. Impacts are often referred to in terms of actual number of impacts or % share of commercial impacts. This data can be run in DDS.
What is Reach?
Reach is the estimated number of people who have watched a commercial expressed as a % of the target audience available to view (otherwise known as the universe). Reach is one of the many ways we measure TV effectiveness.
What is the difference between reach and share?
Reach is the average number of people who have watched something for at least 3 minutes - 3 minutes is the industry standard but you can change this if you want. Share is the number of people who watched something expressed as a % of everyone watching TV at that particular time.
What's the difference between a weighted and an unweighted impact?
An impact is one set of eyes seeing one ad once. We often look at impacts to see how well an ad campaign, channel, daypart or programme is doing, so the greater the number of impacts something gets, the more people watching it. An advert can be 10, 20, 30, 40 or 60 seconds long and thus all different costs. In order that we can look at how many impacts something is achieving, we need to be able to compare them, and in order to compare them, they have to be the same time length; a bit like having a common denominator. Weighted impacts are all made to be 30 seconds long. Unweighted impacts are any length. It is always better to look at weighted.
What is BARB?
BARB (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board) is the company that provides estimated TV viewing figures. BARB is a not-for-profit limited company owned by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, five, BSkyB and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. BARB allows you to look at which channels and programmes are being watched, at what times and the type of people who are watching at any one time. This doesn't mean that there is a Big Brother type camera in your house (although that would be very interesting) but there is a small black box called a Peoplemeter, on top of the TV in 50,000 homes in the UK. These peoplemetres record all viewing in these homes, and then feed it back to a main server where the data is then processed, factored up to be representative of the UK, sold to agencies who then cut it into a usable format, and then sold to the agencies and media owners. BARB only reports on private owned houses so no pubs or nursing homes.
What is the difference between consolidated and overnight (or Live) data?
Overnights (also known as Live) are TV viewing figures from BARB which are processed and delivered ready for reading the next day. These figures do not contain time shifted viewing (stuff which is recorded and then watched within 7 days of the original programme). This is where consolidated data comes in - the time shift viewing is added to the live data to produce a final, minute by minute consolidated audience, available 8 days after the original programme. Programme specific data takes 2 weeks to be delivered.
Sponsorship
Can I still advertise within the breaks of a show that I am sponsoring?
Yes you can. If you'd like more detail on this, or have any queries, please contact Sponsorship directly.
How can we find out about programmes available to sponsor?
You can refer to the Coming Up section of this site or send the sponsorship team a brief and they will find a relevant opportunity for you.
Isn't sponsorship very expensive?
Not necessarily, some multi-programme long running packages can cost several million pounds but smaller packages are available.
Should I do Sponsorship instead of Advertising?
Advertising and sponsorship don't have to be mutually exclusive. If the role of sponsorship is to say "if you like this programme, you will like me" then advertising can say "then buy me" the two mediums together can be extremely powerful.
Contacts
Our expert team at 4 Sales can help you with any enquiry or issue you might have on salesenquiries@channel4.co.uk.
We'd always encourage you to contact us first, as we can often help answer your questions or point you in the right direction. But, if you'd rather get some impartial assistance before talking to us, the following organisations are great places to start....
BARB
Barb measure who watches TV content in the UK.
Thinkbox
Thinkbox is the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK.
Advertising Association
Promotes the role, rights and responsibilities of advertising.
Clearcast
Clears ads for broadcast on the UK's main commercial channels.