The advertiser or the agency has defined a media brief, and has listed the range of media available. But what should those media provide? What is it that the advertiser should look for? Different circumstances require different benefits, but in overall terms there are certain basic criteria the advertiser needs to consider when seeking to put together a media plan. These are the media essentials.
Coverage
How much of the target audience does the medium cover? The advertiser should not just be looking for sheer size, or circulation, but coverage. The aim is to cover as much of the target audience as fully, as economically and as comfortably as possible.
Readership or viewership
To assess coverage, the advertiser needs not only to know the circulation of a magazine or the number of sets switched on to a TV programme, but the full audience of those media; in a magazine not just the copies sold but the number of readers, or the size of the readership; for TV, the size of viewership. And so on for the other media.
Frequency
How often is the message seen? What is the frequency of messages delivered? In cases where repetition is required, frequency is a key factor. But there is a balance to be struck. The advertiser has to make a decision: is it better to deliver several messages to a smaller audience (by running a number of insertions in one publication) or to deliver fewer messages to a wider audience? On a limited, given budget this judgement may to a large extent depend on what is called for in the media objectives.
Opportunity to see
The gross number of media or of space insertions is not the key requirement. The advertiser needs to establish if possible a high rate of ‘opportunities to see’ – OTSs. This factors out the number of insertions against the size of the audience and establishes the average number of times an average member of the target audience has the opportunity to see a message. This is the best measurement of the achievement of an advertising schedule.
Value and cost
On a set budget, the advertiser will presumably look for value for money and cost benefits by selecting those media which deliver the best audience size with the greatest cost value.
Economy
Different media cost different sums. It is important to evaluate their comparative economy, one against the other. The method here is to factor out their cost per ’000. This takes a unit of space (say, one-column centimetre) and divides the cost of this unit into the number of thousands of readers. If a unit of space costs £10 and there are 10,000 readers then the cost per ’000 is £1. Using the cost per ’000 measurement, it is possible to compare media. Other things being equal (which they are not always) a low cost per ’000 is the desired objective.
Timing and duration
These may be major issues. If buying days, for example Saturdays, are key, then the advertiser must use those media which can provide concentration on a day-by-day basis. Again, campaigns may need to be of a certain duration for which some media are more suitable than others.
Response factors
Response mechanisms such as a coupon, a Web site address or a telephone number may be necessary. Again, certain media behave better for response messages.
Impact
OTS is an ‘opportunity to see’. But the advertiser may demand real seeing, not just an opportunity. So does the medium have impact? Or the potential for actual seeing or viewing? Media may provide such opportunities in particular ways:
- Size: a large size may be more visible than a smaller size. But, is it better to have fewer large sizes or more smaller sizes? Whatever the choice, in all cases the advertiser must stipulate a size.
- Position: better positions may have better visibility: poster sites near a shopping centre, a solus front page space in a newspaper, a TV spot in the main evening TV news broadcast, inside the front cover of a magazine. But again, if a premium is to be paid for special positions, is it worth it?
- Colour: impact can be gained fromcolour.Howmuch is it worth?
- Timing: this factor can achieve impact. Advertising at the right moment may ensure greater attention from the audience.
Editorial environment
Theoretically, an advertisement gains from the surrounding editorial. It gains credibility, or enhanced status or greater awareness. So, a fashion product will benefit from Vogue magazine, garden seeds from using the gardening press – so long as those media do not carry too much advertising, or are not too crowded and cluttered. The challenge, for example, is to use The Architects’ Journal for its prestige and its targeting but to handle the fact that at the peak season it could carry a hundred or more advertisements.
Flexibility
What are the cancellation timings for the media? How quickly can space be bought? How quickly can advertising appear? How quickly can it be abandoned?
Trade and sales force influence
Where distributors or sales force staff are important factors, their attitude to media should be remembered – by the choice of media which appeal to them and which they will support.