Buying on a Budget; For mid-range marketers without the clout of a GM or P&G, opportunities come via tight targeting and willingness to strike in a hurry.

Contestants aren't the only ones who can hit the jackpot on ABC's hit "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

By holding back about 20% of its $15 million to $17 million media budget for opportunistic TV buys, contact lens marketer 1-800-Contacts was able to slip one of its 15-second spots onto the show in June on a night that fortuitously featured a million-dollar winner.

Luck, in the form of a last-minute opening on the schedule, was the only way 1-800-Contacts was going to get national network time on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." But the opportunistic buy shows that the upfront is not the final answer for small-budget advertisers.

The buy added shine to 1-800-Contacts' cable, network and syndication TV plan, 80% of which was bought during the upfront. Empower MediaMarketing, Cincinnati, handles the media. Creative is handled in-house.

With overall TV ad rates up 30% to 40% the last three years, TV has gotten pricy even for heavyweights such as Procter & Gamble Co., says Erwin Ephron, president of Ephron Papazian Ephron, New York. But advertisers in the $10 million to $30 million range have been burned even worse by the hot market.

Still, media planners, buyers and their clients see plenty of opportunity for brands with …