TV account executives are turning to Ready Spots, a service offering pre-produced commercials in a wide range of categories, as a quick-turnaround way to get quality spots to clients.
A dozen or so local TV sales accountants are using a resource that helps them when they call on new or existing clients no matter the category.
They say using a service called Ready Spots offers advertisers a range of creative, high-quality commercials they can choose from that are budget friendly and ready to air.
The term “win-win” has been used in describing how Ready Spots is working for them.
“They really have helped me become even more successful,” says Josh Richhart, an account exec at WANE, Nexstar’s CBS affiliate in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Richhart says with Ready Spots, his clients get creative that’s “good, fast and cheap. It’s just a ‘win-win’ all around.”
Kathy Saunders, an account exec with 22 years’ experience at WGHP, Nexstar’s Fox affiliate in High Point, N.C., says: “When we were introduced to Ready Spots, it just seemed like, oh wow this is a great concept. It’s really turnkey for us.”
Brian North, a regional sales director for Nexstar, says he turns to Ready Spots for monthly revisions or custom builds.
“Ready Spots was easy to use.”
Sarah Peters, also an account exec at WANE, says: “They really bring agency-level creative to the local advertisers that is affordable and it works. It is really a win-win for the client and for the account executive because it makes our job easier.”
So what is Ready Spots and why are these local TV sales execs singing its praises?
According to its website, Ready Spots provides pre-built, ready-made, market-exclusive TV spots that can be customized for any business.
“We now have over 500 spots in 80 categories,” says Jeff Palmer, Ready Spots founder, who started the company in 2017.
Palmer says the AEs that use his service, “use the heck out of us, get more deals and do more business development with it.”
Most local TV stations have people in their creative services departments whose job it is to write, shoot and edit commercials for local clients who buy advertising on the station.
But with cut backs, a demand for a quick turn-around, but yet still provide quality creative options, some station account execs see Ready Spots as an advantage for its quality creative, and quick turn-around.
One advantage is the ability to call on a business and show them some Ready Spots commercials in their category.
“They have some excellent commercials for roofing,” says Peters, who started a presentation to a roofing company by showing some Ready Spot roofing commercials.
“The owner was so excited about the spot,” says Peters that she closed the deal right then and there.
“It just worked really well for them. They’ve been running it now for a couple of years. We have done revisions throughout, but it has been an excellent experience.”
Most of the 500 or so commercials in Ready Spots inventory are canned and ready to air with minor modifications. But Ready Spots also does custom creative.
“I had a creative idea for a client that had never been on TV before,” says Richhart. He gave the idea to Ready Spots which, he says, “turned around an incredible spot. I knew it was a home run right off the bat.”
When he showed the commercial to the client, a local car dealer, “he watches it and the next thing you know, he is calling in all his sales people, calling in the receptionist, calling in everybody in the dealership, saying come in here and take a look at this. They signed up and we got a new client.”
Richhart says when the client aired the spot, they had “the most feedback of any advertising they have ever done.”
All the AEs interviewed commented on the quality of the Ready Spot commercials.
“If a local client was going to go out and get the kind of production that they are providing with the actors, the backgrounds, the scenery and everything, it would cost a fortune.”
“That’s what is great about them — they can do it all,” says Richhart. “And the spots are high quality. Their music beds sound good, their voiceovers sound good. They do an excellent job with sound effects.”
Palmer says one of the strengths of Ready Spots is that it puts together the commercials, “in a way that no one else does, the cleverness, the creativeness, the style, the graphics and the animation.”
Another advantage Ready Spots provides to local TV AEs and their clients is seen in the diversification of categories, like roofing.
Saunders says she showed a female roofing client some examples in her category telling her the spots could really elevate her image to a new level.
Over time, the client stayed consistent with the same music, announcer and look, making her commercials so recognizable that her business in now wildly successful.
Palmer says the legal, roofing, car sales, chiropractic, cosmetic and dental categories are his top sellers. Medical, he says, is probably the toughest.
Perhaps Saunders sums it up best when she says, “Ready Spots is a really great way to provide clients with an image in their business category that they can use and really have something that is top notch.”
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