What makes a good commerical?

[jason]

What makes a good commercial? Is it a CGI style, one that shows you quick images of your haunt, or other? Does one have a better effect on the viewer(s) then the other?

What's a good lenght for a commercial?

[Jonathan]

Now this is all my opinion and not ness. the right way...but...

Commericals should run about 30 seconds only. people grow very bored if they are too long. As for haunt images and such, it doesn't really sell your event. What you want is to make sure you capture their attention by showing how fun the event is. If photos do that great, if GCI, or maybe just actors in quick cuts,etc.

Also, keep in mind the 3 factor. # times to remember it. THink Head on...there is a reason they repeat it, 3 times is usually what it takes for a person to remember your event or any product for that matter.

If your URL is very long or too hard to remember, buy shorter ones for the purpose of easy remembering.

These are just some of the things to keep in mind and items I use each day in my day job working as an Art Director at an ad agency.

Hope it helps and like I said not ness. the correct way so if other users have ideas shoot em to him.

[jason]

that is some wise advice

[Jim Warfield]

Jason, Ask yourself:"Which commercials for anything do I remember?"
Second question:"Do you remember them fondly or do you grimace as over-repeated jingles play in your head?"
One commercial I have never forgotten was maybe under 8 seconds long.
A exterior door and stoop of a house is shown fairly close-up. A head barely sticks around the quickly opened door and yells the name of a paint store then pulls back, retreating out of sight behind the door as about 4 or more paint balloons smash against the door----end of commercial.
I saw this maybe 50 years ago.
The main thing about TV is , "Is anybody watching the channel you chose?"
We have advance reservations, caller ID AND I ask almost everyone coming in where they are from or how they found out about this place?
After spending alot of money (for me) and placing this commercial of mineon cable 200? times on three different channels infront of a captive audience of 20,000 people just 20 miles away I had 10 people admit to seeing my commercial!
My commercial was 30 seconds long, it was quick shots, it looked scary,it zoomed it was visually interesting, it said everything that should be said. I took control of the commercial content when the two people the station sent to do it wanted to just tripod the camera with me infront of it for the 30 seconds.
Whether or not TV works for any of us is a hung jury in my experience and I bought the ropes for all 12 of them! Good, solid ropes , like the one they yanked my wallet out of my pocket with!

[redcrowdesign]

I designed several TV comercials for my last employer, but none of them was actually in TV, they all were rejected cause of my 'dark vision of life' they said LOL but I have designed audio commercials/sound fx that actually went on air in the radio few years ago for a friend (sadly there was no pay at all).
I can design a successful haunt commercial, but I am not the most adecuate person to film stuff or anything that actually involves cameras since I have no experience at all with filming anything, but I know someone who does, I did a soundtrack for him some time ago, here's his web:

www.reelsplatter.com

Contact Mike Lombardo and tell him ReDCroW sent you, he can make your commercial for a good price, FX and all, he is also an FX artist.

[Jonathan]

Hope you get some takers Redcrow. You do good work so I want to see you succeed man.


I'll keep spreading the word.

[elswarro]

jason,

Standard length is 15 or 30 seconds. Anything longer than that gets really expensive to air. We have been creating haunt commercials (as well as other industry commercials) for 5 years now and we have found that you have to have a hook. What I mean by that is..... you have to get the audiences attention right off the bat. Dont let them get up off the couch and walk away.
Check out our stock haunt commercials at www.elswarro.com or if you have a custom commercial idea, let us know! We can film and create just about anything!

-Jason
Elswarro Productions

[redcrowdesign]

Thanks Jonathan, what is a taker BTW?

[Jolly Pumpkin]

A commercial should include images that reflect that haunt. In the 15 or 30 seconds that it airs, it should have details such as location, dates, times, price, web address etc. It should be straight and to the point and never loose the customer's interest. It should get people in the mood for Halloween and your haunt. Even though radio and tv are good sources of advertising, I think that haunts should utilize the internet for their advertising purposes since they can get a much larger audience that way.