By Michaela Gordoni
Move over, big-name brands; smaller sponsors need a space to advertise, too — and Fox News gives them that chance.
Take Anna Brakefield and her father, Mark Yeager, and their textile company, Red Land Cotton.
“We’re proud to say that 100% of our products are made right here in the U.S.A.” said Yeager. Brakefield added in another commercial that their textiles start “with a seed in the ground, a hope, and a prayer.”
The company used to find its customers online until it got a spot with Fox, Variety reported.
“We built where we are with Google ads, Meta ads — all that you’d typically think an e-commerce business would grow their advertising on,” said Brakefield. But her dad is a “religious Fox News watcher, and so it was his idea to approach Fox about an advertising opportunity.”
The company trialed Fox News in 2023 and found success. Now, it has regular ads on the network between several programs.
“‘I saw you on TV,’” said Brakefield. “That is still a thing for people.”
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Other companies Fox has ads for are Blue Compass R.V., the Good Ranchers and Boll & Branch bedding.
Small business commercials represent “one third of our national business right now,” said Trey Gargano, Fox News Media’s executive vice president of ad sales. “Sometimes they are veteran owned. Sometimes, a CEO we know is like-minded and wants to reach the audience on Fox News.”
NBCUniversal has also featured more ads from small businesses. Hulu, now under Disney, and Paramount also have interest in small business ads.
“SMB ads have become more important as TV publishers try to maximize, diversify, and increment their advertising’s yield,” explained Nikhil Lai, principal analyst with Forrester, which tracks the advertising industry. “SMB advertisers are saturating search and social, which have diminishing returns. They need to scale acquisition without escalating acquisition costs, so they turn to TV.”
This could be an opportune time for small businesses, as supply issues affect the auto industry and its ads and as people seek healthier products, putting a slowdown on soda and beer.
However, Kagan, a research firm under S&P Global Intelligence, expects the Fox News Channel to see an advertising decline over the next two years. But Fox says it has seen a growth in ad spending so far this year, which may be due to President Donald Trump’s 2024 election.
Sometimes Fox goes directly to a company’s CEO, which can be tricky, as these companies sometimes have no experience with TV ads.
“You are going to their house, or their ranch. They invite you in,” Gargano said.
Grill Rescue ads have been airing on Fox for a few weeks.
“I always had the belief that the new age of advertising is online,” explained one of the founders, Anthony Tranchida. After launching TV commercials on Father’s Day, he said, “we are spending millions with Fox” and may look to other outlets, too.
“I asked them, ‘You’re asking me to put quite a bit of money into advertising on the network. I’ve never done this before. I want a little bit of reassuring,’” recalled Tranchida. “Everyone else is like, ‘Nope, we don’t do that.’ Fox made it their mission to find someone.”
Fox also supports small businesses through its “Small Business Spotlight” segments.
Paramount’s self-service ad platform lets small businesses have ad space for the lowest commitment of $500.
“There’s the misperception that TV ads are not accessible to SMBs because it’s too hard or expensive,” Steve Ellis, chief operating officer of Paramount Advertising, told Ad Age last year. “With Ads Manager, the process is extremely easy — we even added AI partners to help with TV creative — and you can buy ads for as little as $500. All this is possible now thanks to the power of our growing streaming inventory.”
A little boost from a big network could make all the difference for a small business.
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