Choosing the right advertising media

Successful advertising requires that the right advertising message be placed in the right media and the choice of media is influenced by the characteristics of each medium and their ability to achieve the specified promotional objectives. This is why choosing the right advertising media is vital for any strategy. A very important thing, which must be taken into account when talking about choosing the right advertising media is the fact that, as Daniel Starch said in 1925, “for an advertisement to be successful it must be seen, must be read, must be believed, must be remembered and must be acted upon”. (David Jobber, 1997, p. 328) Creativity is wasted if the advertisement is not read or seen by prospective buyers. Thus, the goal of successful media planning is to target the advertising pounds where those most likely to buy the product or service are concentrated. Let's see, in the following, how choosing the right advertising media will determine the success of the campaign.

The media planner faces the choice of using television, the press, cinema, posters, radio or some combination of media classes and in order to make the best decision, he must take into account five considerations.

First, creative factors may have a major bearing on the decision . The key question that needs to be addressed in this case is: ‘Does the medium allow the communication objectives to be realized?' For example, if the objective were to position the brand as having a high-status aspirational personality, television would be better than posters. However, if the communication objective is to remind the target audience of a brand's existence a poster campaign may suffice. Each medium possesses its own set of creative qualities and limitations. The second consideration when making the media class decisions is the size of the advertising budget. In this respect, some media are naturally more expensive than others. Third, the relative cost per opportunity to see is also relevant to the decision: the target audience may be reached much more cheaply using one medium rather than another. However, the calculation of opportunity to see differs according to media class and this makes comparisons difficult. A fourth consideration is competitive activity ; two conflicting philosophies are to compete in the same medium and to dominate an alternative medium. The decision to compete in the same medium may be taken because of a belief that the medium chosen by the major competition is the most effective and that to ignore it would be to hand the competition a massive communication advantage. Domination of an alternative medium may be sensible for third or fourth players in a product market who cannot match the advertising budgets of the big two competitors. Supposing the major players were using television, the third or fourth competitor might choose the press or posters where it could dominate achieving higher impact than if it followed competition into television.

Sometimes a combination of media classes is used in an advertising campaign to take advantage of their relative strengths and weaknesses - this is yet another factor to be kept in mind when choosing the right advertising media. For example, a new car launch might use television to gain awareness and project the desired image, with the press being used to supply more technical information. Later, posters may be used as a support medium to remind and reinforce earlier messages.

The most effective media choice

Advertising in the independent media is referred to as above-the-line media advertising , as adverts are there for anyone to see, hear or read, while advertising directed at people in certain places or jobs is referred to as below-the-line advertising and includes such methods as direct mail and mail drops, point-of-sale displays, sales literature, sky advertising, trade fairs and exhibitions. But with the change in the recognition and commission system brought about by the Restrictive Trade Practices Act1976 and the Office of Fair Trading ruling of 1979, the terms ‘above-the-line' and ‘below-the-line' have lost much of their original significance. While the media independents continue to concentrate on above-the-line media, the creative agencies do not. Moreover, the early 1990s saw a recession in the use of above-the-line media and a tremendous growth in the use of below-the-line such as direct mail.

So can choosing the right advertising media actually influence your campaign that much? Originally, above-the-line meant five media which paid commission to advertising agencies, namely press, radio, television, outdoor and cinema. The rest (which usually paid no commission and incurred on-cost percentages) were direct mail, exhibitions, point-of-sale display aids, print and sales literature and all kinds of miscellaneous media, referred to as below-the-line media. These terms, although usually applied to agency and non-agency work, were actually created by Procter & Gamble to separate their different kinds of advertising. (Frank Jefkins, 1998)