Don’t let the myths about TV allow you to miss out on a powerful marketing tool, says David Gent.

I heard recently about a marketing director who had been given an extra £100k by the board to boost exposure, but rejected TV because he thought it would merely cover production.

That may have been true some years ago, just like colour printing was hideously expensive in its early days.

Digital filming and slimmed-down production crews, however, mean that a polished commercial could now cost anything from a few grand upwards.

Couple that with the UK’s multichannel TV network and airtime prices that have actually fallen in real terms over the last decade and the barriers to entry in TV advertising are now much, much lower.

It has never been cheaper to put your product or service on telly and - to back up that statement - let me dispel a few modern myths about TV marketing.

Myth 1: It is prohibitively expensive to produce a TV commercial.

This is not true, unless you call £5k, £10k or even £20k prohibitively expensive.

Many of the retail and brand commercials you see could be replicated quite inexpensively, if you remove the celebrity voice-over and hit soundtrack.

These standout features count if you are competing for fractions of market share, but at entry level you can dispense with these costly add-ons and focus on communicating your message effectively and inexpensively.

Myth 2: Nobody watches television these days.

Again, this is not so. We watch as much telly as ever - on average between three and four hours a day - and in far greater numbers than in the early days of the box.

Of course, ITV does not deliver the large viewing numbers it once did, when it was the only commercial station, but nowadays commercial TV overall has the biggest share of viewing, which is great for advertisers.

Myth 3: Young people no longer watch television.

Yes, they do and TV programmes and personalities are still the main topics of interest when they are online or texting their mates.

That is why TV catchphrases like ‘am I bovvered’ gain currency.

Besides, studies of what is known as ‘media meshing’ suggest teens typically have TV on in the background when surfing the net and the big online players themselves recognise that TV ads prompt more visits to websites than any other media.

Myth 4: TV is only for big brands with national distribution.

Let’s separate these statements out. Digital channels, many with sizeable audiences, give TV marketing access to advertisers of all sizes, while running a campaign at periods when airtime prices are lower makes even the terrestrial stations affordable.

At the same time, regional splits provided by the different ITV companies, plus macro areas offered by Channels 4 and 5 and GMTV, mean you can tune your schedule to a particular distribution or catchment territory, even down to micro level.

Myth 5: Your adverts will be screened in daytime or off-peak only.

Not unless you want them to. With a regional split, your commercial could appear in the centre break of Corrie and other top-rating shows, alongside the big brands, although your campaign would probably include daytime and late-peak spots to add frequency and vary the audience.

Anyway, depending on your target audience, daytime can be very good for direct response, while ‘post-pub’ telly reaches students and young people cost-effectively.

Myth 6: You cannot calculate return on investment with TV.

Quite the reverse is the case. Thanks to the independent BARB panel, you will have a precise estimate, including a demographic profile, of how many thousands of viewers watched your commercial, enabling exact ROI calculations.

You can use this spot-by-spot data to work out cost-per-response for each phone call or web visit, while it can also allow you to analyse the impact on customer traffic, recruitment levels, names, addresses and other measures, enabling you to identify top performing channels, days of week, day parts and programming.