As I was running like a rat on the treadmill @ my gym in Manhattan Beach in the early hours of the morning I saw a TV advertisement for a company called SpotRunner.com. The ad talked about how you can log into their webstie and purchase commercial spots throughout the U.S. on major stations. Curiousity definately killed the cat as I fired up my two keypads and started typing away.

Spotrunner puts the power of an ad agency in the hands of folks like you and I by simply creating an account with an email address and a password. As I logged in I was reminded of my daily activities purchasing keywords from the big three. To my surprise, I was able to create a campaign and pick what location, time, and television stations I was able to advertise on in under 10 minutes.

It was amazing to me to see that I can advertise on CNN, MSNBC, & basically any noteworthy channel in the Los Angeles area for as little as $20 per 30-second spot. With a budget of 15k I can purchase 600 spots and put my message in front of target market - AMAZING!

The fact that you can purchase TV spots through an online interface & not have to pay an ad agency to put together all the research is a huge step in the advertising industry. I have no doubt in my mind tha the almight Google has their eyes on this company being that they purchased a company similar to Spotrunner but for radio spots.

Yea, but what about the production cost of putting together a video?

Spotrunner has a library of ads that you can license for a nominal fee of $500. You would think that the videos are crap but they are actually really well put together - not the typical local video you see from time-to-time from a local business trying to reach their market through TV. Spotrunner gives you the ability to customize the narrative for each one of their videos and their actors will cover the rest - are you kidding me? There are pros and cons to this but if you are using the video then no one in your market can use the video until 30 days after you stop advertising with Spotrunner. Of course if you do want to spend the money to get a video made yourself then you can use Spotrunner to make the buys.

For any of you that manage high-budget Search Marketing campaigns you might want to introduce Spotrunner to your clients if they do not already know about it. We will use some of our knowlege of online marketing skills to purchase 30-second spots real soon.

In summary, watch out for this company and if they ever have an IPO jump all over it. As an ad major @ one of the best state colleges I was introduced to the world of creative advertising via television. It was always interesting when one of the well-paid professors tried to discuss online advertising.

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