Just because you don’t have a huge budget for TV commercials doesn’t mean you have to settle for cheap-looking commercials that blend into the wallpaper, or worse, negatively impact your brand.
Hank’s TV Repair & Service is a new, totally turn-key platform that delivers a top-quality written and produced campaign of three, can’t-ignore TV commercials for $79,999, a fraction of what you’d pay at an ad agency.
“Our mission is to repair broken TV at a fixed price,” quips Kevin Sutton, one of the three co-founders of Hank’s, and a long-time, award-winning writer and creative director in Dallas. “And when we say TV, we mean whether you run it on broadcast, cable, social, or any screen. We can do it much better and much cheaper.”
Sutton started Hank’s TV Repair & Service with two other Dallas advertising veterans: Jaime Roderer, legendary former Executive Producer at Publicis, and strategy and marketing guru Jim Wegerbauer, who everyone knows as Wegs.
As Wegs notes, “Agencies today are producing lower quality commercials at higher rates. We decided to flip that on its ear by offering clients proven talent that can deliver market-shifting creative at a better price.”
“Our secret sauce is our price point,” Roderer explains. “We’re delivering a TV campaign of three commercials—written, directed, produced, and edited—for just $79,999.” Roderer sees this as a unique opportunity for clients to get incredible effectiveness at unbeatable efficiency. As he points out, “That breaks down to a little over $26,000 per spot, which is pretty eye-opening.”
“Granted, you could get cheaper commercials elsewhere,” Sutton adds. “But then you’d have to run them.”
Wegs adds, “Clients sense they need this but don’t quite know it yet. They don’t know there’s a resource that can deliver national-quality creative, create that elevates their brand and gets the cash register ringing, at local budgets. They don’t know how to get that done. Until now.”
AdChat DFW’s Patty Harrison sat down with a one-on-one interview with Hank’s TV Repair & Service’s co-founder, writer and director Kevin Sutton.
Patty : How did the idea for a company that does only TV commercials come about?
Sutton: I’ve gotten quite a lot of freelance work over the past few years, and it’s mostly to write TV scripts and TV campaigns. The one constant I keep hearing is, “Young creatives these days don’t know how to write scripts.” Well, I do. And frankly, that’s what I love doing. Nobody wants to spend their day writing social posts. Give a monkey a keyboard and he, or she, can knock out social. But doing the kind of TV that breaks through and really builds a brand and moves the needle, that requires a skill set that’s becoming more and more extinct. I knew Jaime (Roderer) and Wegs thought the same way, so we decided we should specialize in doing only TV.
Patty : So, Hank’s is not a production company?
Sutton: No, we’re more like a micro-agency. Production companies are wonderful. But most don’t offer strategic thinking and creative. Agencies don’t offer directing, editing, casting, production. But smaller clients have to pay for all the agency functions they don’t need, then pay for production. Hank’s just does TV, and when we say that we mean any commercial you run on any screen, TV, computer, phone, tablet. If it moves, we’ll shoot it. Better and for less.
Patty : Where did the name Hank’s TV Repair & Service come from?
Sutton: All you hear anymore is that the ad agency model is broken, which is an over-reaction. Agencies are vital for bigger clients with complex marketing needs. But the model certainly is broken for smaller clients who understand the power of TV but don’t have that kind of ad agency retainer budget or huge production budget. So, let’s repair the model for them. We can make your campaigns work better, smarter, harder. There’s something romantic about the old-school repairman, the roll-up-your-sleeves and get it done, work ethic, blue collar guy who came to your house and repaired your TV set. So, I said, let’s take on that persona, like we’re TV repairmen. Only, we’re not repairing TVs, we’re repairing what’s running on TVs. The name Hank is a nod to my boyhood hero, Hank Aaron. You’ll see on our website, at Hank’s we all have the nickname, Hank. Even Wegs, whose nickname is Wegs. Now his nickname has a nickname. That’s how good we are.
Patty : Tell me about the price point.
Sutton: The key to the whole thing is the one fixed price: Three commercials for $79,999. And the key to that is production efficiencies. We shoot everything in one day. It starts with the scripts. We can’t go, “Open on a beach in Hawaii with Morgan Freeman riding a unicorn, then cut to the surface of Mars.” If you approach it that way going in, you can create wonderfully effective, simple spots. We created three commercials for TexasLending.com. One we shot in the front yard of a house. One, inside the same house. One, in the backyard pool. Three totally different scenarios, three totally different worlds to the viewer, but simple to produce. We won’t have lavish craft service or wrap parties. But our clients are free to invite us to their fourth quarter sales convention when they celebrate their market share going up ten points.
Patty : What do they get for $79,999?
Sutton: First of all, peace of mind knowing exactly what they’re spending: $79,999. No hidden fees or overages. For that they get one campaign of three :30s or :15s, and the :06s they need for social that come out of it, shot in one day. But it’s what they don’t get that’s just as important. At this aggressive price point, Hank’s is not able to afford an over-think tank. No endless revisions and animatics. No agonizing over the color of an extra’s sweater. Just great commercials, well thought out, well made. They simply need to agree to stick to the production discipline we’re bringing to the table. If they feel they need more or different, we can figure out what that is.
Patty : What kind of clients will be attracted to Hank’s?
Sutton: Budgets are only getting tighter. A lot of advertisers are looking for ways to get more for less and I think Hank’s TV Repair & Service is the solution. But some clients want to just use the local station to do their ads, and if that works for them, go for it. When I was growing up, there was a guy in the Midwest with a furniture store. He’d get on his commercials and talk about how things are half off, and when he said, “Half off,” a fishhook yanked off his pants so he’s standing there in his boxers. Get it, half off? The yucks ensued. If you want your brand to be a pitiful man in his underwear shamelessly begging for customers, that’s fine. But most business owners recognize the value of branding, and understand the value of value. When I first got into advertising, I was sure the entire world revolved around the creative. That’s important, to be sure, and of course we offer that. But what clients can’t get anywhere else is the brain power Wegs and Jaime Roderer bring to the table. Wegs was the CMO for the Houston Rockets. He has a wildly popular marketing podcast called, “Navigating the Fustercluck.” He’s invited to speak on strategy and marketing and agency culture. Jaime Roderer is a brilliant producer who’s a real magician at putting together production budgets and figuring out how to get more for less and how to offer our price point without sacrificing quality. Frankly, I’m lucky they let me tag along. Clients can’t get Wegs or Jaime anywhere but Hank’s. So, if your TV is broken, unplug it, wait ten seconds, then plug into Hank’s TV Repair & Service.
Patty : Thanks, Kevin.
Sutton: No, thank you. We appreciate all the support we can get.
