Latest / Influencer Marketing with Fexingo: Creators, Sponsorships, and Modern Endorsement Deals / How Influencers Are Buying Local TV Ad Slots During Reruns
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's a trend I keep seeing pop up in my feeds that I had to double-check: influencers buying local TV ad slots. Not during the Super Bowl, not during prime time. Think 2 AM reruns of 'Law & Order' on a Boise NBC affiliate. Luna: Wait, like actual cable television commercials? In 2026? Lucas: Exactly. And it's not a gimmick. There's a creator named Jenna Velez — she does mid-tier travel content, about 180,000 followers across platforms — who spent $3,400 buying remnant inventory on a local cable station in Boise. She ran her ad during late-night reruns and weekend morning blocks. Luna: Remnant inventory meaning the unsold slots stations are basically dumping at discount? Lucas: Right. Broadcasters sell their prime inventory way in advance, then whatever's left — late nights, early mornings, random Wednesday afternoons — gets sold at a steep discount through programmatic exchanges. For a creator with a tight budget, it's a way to buy TV for pennies on the dollar. Luna: Okay, so what did Jenna get out of it? A few extra eyeballs on her travel vlogs? Luna: So her cost per acquisition on TV was about $19 per subscriber. That's actually pretty competitive for a paid newsletter. Lucas: And that's kind of the point. The typical cost per acquisition for a newsletter through Instagram ads can run $25 to $40 depending on the niche. So she's getting TV for cheaper than Meta. Luna: But who's actually watching those 2 AM reruns? I feel like the audience is mostly insomniacs and maybe a few people who forgot to turn off the TV. Lucas: That's the counterintuitive part. The viewership is tiny, but it's hyper-targeted by geography. Jenna's newsletter is location-agnostic — she covers global travel deals — but by buying in Boise, she was testing a specific DMA. She could measure the lift in signups from that area versus a control region. Luna: So it's less about scale and more about clean measurement. I can see the appeal for a data-driven creator. Lucas: Exactly. And the mechanics are becoming easier. There are now broker-style agencies like LocalNow that specialize in connecting creators with local TV stations. They handle the programmatic buying, the ad creative approval, and the compliance stuff. For a creator, it's almost as simple as setting up a Facebook ad campaign now. Luna: What kind of compliance issues? I imagine the FCC has rules around sponsorship disclosure on TV that are different from Instagram. Lucas: Big one: the ad has to clearly identify who's paying for it. If Jenna's ad says 'Sponsored by Jenna Velez,' that's fine. But if she disguised it as a news segment — which she didn't — that's a problem. Also, some stations require pre-clearance if the ad mentions certain categories like health claims or financial products. Luna: So it's not a free-for-all. But it's opening a new channel. I'm curious about the CPMs. How cheap is remnant TV compared to, say, Instagram Reels? Lucas: We're talking CPMs of $5 to $12 for local cable remnant, depending on the market and time slot. Instagram Reels, by contrast, can run $8 to $15 CPM for a mid-tier creator running their own ads. And if you buy through Instagram's ad platform directly, it's even higher. So TV is genuinely cheaper on a per-thousand basis. Luna: But the engagement is different. Someone scrolling Instagram can tap a link instantly. On TV, they have to remember your URL or search for you later. Lucas: Right, which is why Jenna used a vanity URL — traveldeals slash boise — and offered a promo code. She made it trackable. And she ran the ad during a block where viewers might have their phone nearby. Think late-night: people on their couch, phone in hand. Luna: I can see this working for local businesses too. But for influencers, the play seems to be building awareness in a specific market before a live event or a product launch. Lucas: Exactly. Some creators are using it as a 'halo' channel to boost search volume in a city before they go on tour. Or to test new types of content without committing to a national campaign. Luna: It's interesting that this is happening just as linear TV viewership is declining overall. Aren't stations desperate for any revenue? Lucas: They are. Local TV ad revenue has been sliding for years. So when a creator walks in with a few thousand dollars, the station is happy to take it. It's incremental revenue they'd otherwise leave on the table. Luna: And the creator gets to say they advertised on TV. That probably has some perception value for their audience too. Lucas: That's a good point. There's a credibility boost. A follower might think, 'Wow, they're on actual TV now.' It's a different kind of social proof. Luna: So what's the catch? There has to be something. Lucas: The catch is that remnant inventory is unpredictable. You might get a 2 AM slot one week, then a 5 AM slot the next. You can't guarantee consistency. Also, the audience is tiny — we're talking maybe a few thousand impressions per spot. So it only works if your offer is compelling enough to convert a very small pool. Luna: And measurement is still messy. Station attribution isn't as clean as digital platforms. Lucas: True. But some stations now offer pixel-based tracking through smart TVs. If a viewer sees the ad on cable but later searches for the creator on their phone, a connected TV platform can sometimes tie that back. It's not perfect, but it's improving. Luna: Before we go further — and I know this is a bit of a detour — but this kind of deep dive into how creators are spending their money reminds me why we can keep this show ad-free. A handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds us making this many of these episodes. Lucas: Yeah, and it means we don't have to shoehorn in some sponsor read about a mattress company. We just get to follow the data wherever it leads. So genuinely, thank you to anyone who's part of that. Luna: Okay, back to TV ads. So where do you see this going? Are we going to see influencers buying national Super Bowl spots in five years? Lucas: I doubt it's going to scale to that level. But I think we'll see more micro-budget TV buys, especially around events. Imagine a creator launching a book or a course, and they buy a few hundred dollars' worth of local TV in the top five metro areas where their audience lives. Luna: That's almost like programmatic out-of-home, but for TV. I could see agencies adding this as a standard option for mid-tier creators. Lucas: LocalNow already does that. They offer 'creator TV packages' starting at $1,500. It's becoming a line item in influencer marketing budgets. Luna: One thing I'm wondering: does the creative have to be different for TV? You can't just run an Instagram Reel as a 30-second spot. Lucas: You can, but it's not optimal. Most creators are shooting simple square videos, which look awkward on a 16:9 screen. The smart ones are producing landscape versions with clear calls to action, no clickable links obviously, so they use promo codes or vanity URLs. Luna: So there's a new skill set emerging: TV ad production for creators. That's interesting. Lucas: Absolutely. Some creators are hiring freelance video editors who specialize in broadcast specs. It's another niche opening up. Luna: All right, last question: if I'm a creator with 50,000 followers, is this worth my time? Or is it only for the Jenna Velez tier? Lucas: I'd say it's worth testing with a very small budget — maybe $500 — in a single DMA. Pick a market where you already have a decent audience concentration. Run the ad for a week, measure the lift in newsletter signups or sales from that area. If the math works, scale. If not, you've lost the cost of a decent dinner. Luna: Practical, low-risk, and data-informed. That's the Fexingo way. Lucas: Exactly. And it's another reminder that the line between 'influencer' and 'media buyer' is getting blurrier every quarter.