MEDIA PLANNING CONCEPTS

Concepts / Definitions:

Average frequency: The number of average opportunities to see (OTS). It is calculated by dividing gross reach by net reach. Average issue readership: An estimated number of people who view the ad 

Below-the-line: Advertising that uses controlled delivering techniques like telemarketing, point-of-sale in shops, direct mail, public relations etc. This falls below an arbitrary demarcation line between the ad media that pay commission to ad agencies and those who do not.

Bleed: When the printed area of an ad extends to the border of the page rather than being set in a box or limited by white margins. Printing to the edge of the page, with no margin or border. Block. Consecutive broadcast time periods. 

Break bumper: A TV commercial in the form of the sponsor’s logo, restricted to a maximum of 10 seconds at the start and end of a commercial break.

Burst strategy: An ardent phase of advertising within a concentrated period of time.

Clutter: A term describing a high intensity of competing ad messages that consumers happen to come across in a given time period.

Cooperative advertising: When the expenditure of an ad, placed by a retailer who is promoting the manufacturer’s brand, is shared by both of them.

Cost per thousand (CPT): The cost borne by the advertiser to reach 1,000 people in the target audience.

Cover date: Cover date refers to the date displayed on the covers of magazines. However, this is not necessarily the true date of publication.

In India the standard practice is to display on magazine covers a date which is some weeks or months in the future from the actual publishing/release date. The reason for this apparent discrepancy is to inform newsstands when an unsold magazine can be removed from the stands and returned to the publisher or be destroyed. Weeklies (such as Time and Newsweek) are generally dated a week ahead. Monthlies (such as National Geographic Magazine) are generally dated a month ahead, and quarterlies are generally dated three months ahead.

Exposure: Exposure of a target audience to an ad expressed as an opportunity to see (OTS) or opportunities to hear (OTH).

Full Run: Buying the entire circulation of the magazine Gross Rating Point (GRP): A unit of audience measurement, commonly used in the audio-visual media, based on reach or coverage of an ad. A single GRP, usually, represents 1 per cent of the total audience in a given region.

Off-the-page advertising: Advertising products/services in the print media that invite consumers to purchase by filling in a coupon (cut out from the ad), by ringing up a number or by accessing a website given in the ad.  

Frequency. The number of times that an average audience member sees or hears an advertisement; the number of times that an individual or household is exposed to an advertisement or campaign (frequency of exposure); the number of times that an advertisement is run (frequency of insertion).

Pulse: A pulse is a period of intense advertising activity. The pulses can occur at the start while launching a new product. There can a promotional pulse of one shot, e.g., financial advertising of a company’s issue.

Reach: Percentage or number of target audience that has had an exposure to an ad or a campaign at least once within a designated period.

Cumulative reach. The number of different households that are ex- posed to a medium or campaign during a specific time.

Share of voice: Each advertiser’s GRP expressed as a percentage of the total GRPs of all the advertisers belonging to a specific product /service category.

Split run: A facility offered by a publication that allows advertisers to run different copies in different parts of the publication’s circulation area.

Spot Buys: When national advertisers buy time on local stations the practice is known as spot television or spot buys. The term comes from the fact that advertisers are spotting their advertising in certain markets as contrasted to the blanket coverage offered by network schedules. Spot television demonstrates two primary disadvantages compared to network buys.

It requires a great deal more, planning and paperwork than network since each market must be bought on a one-to-one basis.

It is normally more costly on a CPM basis.

TRP (Target Rating Point): A unit of TV audience measurement based on coverage. A single TRP represents 1 per cent of the targeted viewers in any particular region.

Wastage: When an ad reaches the consumers whom the advertiser does not want to reach. Reaching people who are neither customers nor prospects.

Wearout: The level at which an ad campaign loses its effectiveness after repeated exposures.

Short rate: Charges resulting from the recalculation of an advertiser's rate after failing to fulfill contract stipulations.

Agency of Record: An advertising agency, appointed by an advertiser, with full authority to negotiate, contract and provide insertion instructions to the media on the advertiser's behalf.

Audience Duplication: A measurement of the overlap of audience between different media (external) between successive issues, or broadcasts of the same medium (internal). 

Gatefold: Double or triple-size pages, generally in magazines, that fold out into a large advertisement.

Gross audience: The audiences of all vehicles or media in a campaign, combined. Some or much of the gross audience may actually represent duplicated audience.

Gutter: The inside page margins where a publication is bound. The inside margins of two pages that face each other in a print publication.

Milline rate: Used to determine the cost effectiveness of advertising in a newspaper; reached by multiplying the cost per agate line by one million, then dividing by the circulation. Also referred to as Milline.

Opportunities To See (OTS): OTS is, the number of times the publications/spots in the schedule are (potentially) seen by the target audience. Thus Opportunity to See (OTS) is a single opportunity to view an ad—used interchangeably with exposure and impression.

Run-of-schedule: A station's option to place a commercial in any time slot that they choose.

Share of voice: A competitive analysis of a product's advertising exposure within a specific category or market. Analyses commonly are based on the number of printed pages or the total amount spent.

Share of Mind: Marketers try to maximize the popularity of their product, so that the brand co-exists with deeper, more empirical categories of objects. Kleenex, for example, can distinguish itself as a type of tissue. But, because it has gained popularity amongst consumers, it is frequently used as a term to identify any tissue, even if it is from a competing brand

One of the most successful firms to have achieved pervasive mind share is Hoover, whose name has been synonymous with vacuum cleaner for several decades. Similarly, the term "googling", describing the act of online searching, was derived from the Internet search engine Google. Popularity can be established to a greater or lesser degree depending on product and market.

For example, it is common to hear people refer to any soft drink as a "coke", regardless of whether it is actually produced by Coca-Cola or not. The term "cola" would be a more accurate term.

Split run: Testing two or more print advertisements by running each only to a portion of the audience, usually in a single issue.

Up-front Buys: The purchasing of broadcast or print advertising early in the buyings

Run-of-press or Run-of-paper (ROP): A newspaper publisher's option to place an ad anywhere in the publication that they choose, as opposed to preferred position. 

Infomercial: A commercial that is similar in appearance to a talk show, news program, or other non-advertising program content. Infomercials are the broadcast equivalent to an advertorial.

Insertion Order: An agency or advertiser's authorization for a publisher to run a specific ad in a specific print publication on a certain date at a specified price.

Pass-along Readers: A reader that becomes familiar with a publication without purchasing that publication. These readers are taken into account when calculating the publication's readership, or total number of readers.

Preferred Position: A position in a printed publication that is thought to attract most reader attention and is sold at a higher rate. (E.g. The back cover of a magazine.)

Spread: (1) A pair of facing pages in a periodical; or (2) an advertisement printed across two such pages.

Tear Sheets: A page cut from a magazine or newspaper that is sent to the advertiser as proof of the ad insertion. Also used to check color reproduction of advertisements.

Make Goods - Adjustments made by a publisher to an advertiser to make up for a shortfall in contracted ad impressions or errors.

Ride-Along: Ride-Alongs (RALs), similar to Package Insert Programs, ride in tandem with outgoing mail packages; however, they are not necessarily with purchased goods. Advertisers still receive the benefit of a name list mailing and high opening rate, while delivering their message to targeted consumers. RALs are essentially various communications sent by a company with which the recipient has a pre-existing relationship. These mailings have special offers from the sponsoring company. By advertising in RALs, marketers can reach consumers based on similar demographics or common interests.

Indian readership survey: It is the largest media survey database source for demographics, media habits and product/ brand usage. IRS was created in 1995 by media Research Users Council (MRUC) AND ORG Marg. MRUC is a non-profit body of advertising media and

Split run. Testing two or more print advertisements by running each only to a portion of the audience, usually in a single issue.

Share of audience. The percentage of sets-in-use (and thus of HUT or of HUR) that are tuned to a particular station, network, or pro- gram .

Share of voice (SOV). The proportion of advertising expenditures that are made for a brand versus competitive brands. It’s a competitive analysis of a product's advertising exposure within a specific category or market.

Analyses commonly are based on the number of printed pages or the total amount spent.  

Run of paper (ROP). Advertising that is positioned anywhere in a publication, with no choice of a specific place for the advertisement to appear.

Run of schedule (ROS). Broadcast commercial announcements that can be scheduled at the station's discretion anytime; in some cases, the advertiser can specify or request certain time periods; for ex- ample, ROS 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Monday - Friday.

Open rate: The maximum rate charged by a magazine.

Road block: Method of scheduling broadcast commercials to obtain maximum reach by simultaneously showing the identical advertisement on several different channels.

On sale date: The date when Magazine hits the stand which is different from cover date.

Duplication: The estimated number of people who read two or more given publications. A duplication table measures the crossover of readership

Opportunities To See (OTS): OTS is, total number of times the publications / spots in the schedule are (potentially) seen by the target audience. OTS = Readership x insertions

Short rate: Charges resulting from the recalculation of an advertiser's rate after failing to fulfill contract stipulations.

Gutter: The inside page margins where a publication is bound. The inside margins of two pages that face each other in a print publication.

Stripping: A TV scheduling format where programmes are broadcast on the same regular time slot throughout the week.

Pulse: pulse is a period of intense advertising activity. The pulses can occur at the start while launching a new product. There can a promotional pulse of one shot, e.g., financial advertising of a company’s issue

Circulation and Readership: Circulation is a count of how many copies of a particular publication are distributed. Circulation audits are provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).

Readership is an estimate of how many readers a publication has. As most publications have more than one reader per copy, the NRS readership estimate is very different from the circulation count.

Readership estimates also show:

•              • The demographic profile of readers.

•              • What else they read and do. 

The relationship between readership and circulation is known as readers-per-copy, i.e. readership divided by circulation. 

Ref: Dr. H. Lakdawala's Media Planning & Buying Notes