Lecture 6

Media planning and

analysis

Chapter 6
 Learning
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
LO1 describe the media planning process
LO2 explain the major variables that are used to segment
target audiences for the media strategy and the meaning
of reach, frequency, gross rating points, target rating
points, effective reach, recency and other media
concepts
LO3 discuss the logic of the three-exposure hypothesis and
its role in media and vehicle selection
LO4 describe the gross rating points (GRP) concept and
perform cost-per-thousand calculations
LO5 explain the three types of scheduling available when
allocating the marketing communication budget
LO6 explain the recency principle and illustrate the three
interrelated ideas that this principle is based on
LO7 Cost considerations
LO1: The Media planning process

Developing media strategies

consists of four interrelated
activities:
• profiling/selecting the target
market
• specifying media objectives
• selecting media categories
and vehicles
• determining media costs
LO1: The media planning process
An overview of the media planning process
LO2: Selecting the target market and
establishing objectives
Three types of information are used
to select a target audience:
1. buyer behaviour
2. demographics
3. consumer values and lifestyles
Establishing which message is most
effective for the audience is often
determined by buying behaviour
 Specifying Media Objectives

Reach

Frequency Weight

Issues in Setting
Media Objectives

Continuity Recency

Cost

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

Establishing media objectives
Align the marketing communication schedule objectives
with the media use of the target audience
Issues to be addressed by the marketer when setting
media objectives include:
▪ Reach – what percentage of the target audience should receive the
message?
▪ Frequency – how frequently should the target audience be exposed
to the message?
▪ Scheduling – continuous, flighting or pulsing schedules
▪ Recency Planning – weekly reach
▪ Weight-calculating a marketing communication schedule’s weight
Reach
• ‘Reach’ is the percentage of the target
audience who are exposed to the
vehicles used to deliver the marketing
communications (MC) message
• Who sees and hears what is difficult to
measure
• By itself, reach is not an effective
objective
Source: https://www.bionic-
ads.com/2016/08/how-to-
estimate-advertising-reach-
while-media-planning/
 Reach (%)

Reach: The percentage of a target audience (e.g.,

homes) that is exposed at least once (e.g., 1, 2, 3, ...)
during a specified time frame to the media vehicles
containing the ad message.

e.g., 90% (9 of 10 homes)

90% = reach or “1+ exposures”

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

Determinants of reach
• The number and diversity of media categories used;
newspaper and TV are media categories
• The more media categories used, the greater the
reach
• Diversity within a single media vehicle or multiple
vehicles
• Diversity in the time of day
used
• Combining prime-time and
off-peak times
LO3: Frequency
• Frequency represents the number of
times during a period that the target
audience will be exposed to the
media vehicles
• Higher frequency rates can be
achieved through repetition of the
advertisement
• Higher frequency rates will have a
greater impact on the consumer
making a choice to buy the brand
 Average Frequency

Frequency: The average number of times during the

specified time period that members (homes) in the
target audience are exposed to the media vehicles
containing advertiser's message.

e.g., 2.22 times

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

 Hypothetical Frequency Distribution for the Smart
Car Advertised in Cosmopolitan Magazine

Weightage
0
20
80
60
40
200 GRP

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

 The Concept of Effective Reach

How often does the target audience have an opportunity to

be exposed?
Effective reach (ER) is based on the idea that an
advertising schedule is effective only if it has a minimum of
three “exposures” (i.e., 3+ exposures)

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

How many exposures are needed?
• Exposures are measured by conducting continuous
market research
• However, continuous market research is costly and time-
consuming; therefore, a rule of thumb has been adopted,
largely based upon the three-exposure hypothesis
(frequency distribution)

Number of Effect
exposures
1 What is it?
2 What of it?
3 or more Recall
LO4: Weight
• Advertising weight is used to determine the required
advertising support to achieve the IMC objectives
• Three metrics can be used to determine advertising
weight
1. Gross rating points (GRPs)
2. Target audience rating points (TARPs)
3. Effective rating points (ERPs)
• Advertising weight is generally set by using past
historical records
Gross rating points

GRPs reflect the gross weight that a particular advertising

schedule delivered.
This is a gross weighting, which could include a duplicated
audience.

GRPs Reach (R) Av. Frequency (f)

200 = 90 (R) x 2.22 (AF)

 Determining GRPs in Practice

The Gross Ratings

generated by a particular
media schedule simply
equal the sum of the
individual ratings that
can be obtained across
all vehicles included in
that schedule. (GRPs
below = 48.9)

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

TARGET AUDIENCE RATING
POINTS
• An important variant of GRPs
• While GRPs measure the gross audience weighting,
TARPs only measure the target audience viewing the
advertisement through that particular vehicle.
• Thus, TARPs are an adjusted measure of GRPs
• TARPs are a more targeted measure of the potential
audience

Source:
https://thinktv.com.au/how-tos-
resources/whats-a-tarp-and-
hows-it-measured/
TARP in action

TARPs are calculated by using the following formula:

▪ TARP = Average audience viewing a program / target universe
estimate x 100
‘Universe estimates’ estimate the total audience size
• So let’s say 720,000 women aged 25-to-39 were exposed to
an advertising campaign from a total universe of 4,800,000
people,
• then the campaign delivers a TARP of 15 since 720,000
divided by 4,800,000, x 100, equals 15
EFFECTIVE RATING POINTS

• Alternative media schedules are usually compared in

terms of the number of GRPs or TARPs each
generates
• Effective reach is based on the theoretical optimum
range of exposures to an advertisement with minimum
and maximum limits
• An advertising schedule is effective only if it does not
reach members of the target audience too few or too
many times
• The correct number of exposures depends on a
number of factors
 Hypothetical Frequency Distribution for the Smart
Car Advertised in Cosmopolitan Magazine

Weightage
0
20
80
60
40
200 GRP
100 ERP

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

Effective Reach in Advertising Practice

• 3-10 exposures during a media-planning period

(typically 4 weeks)
• Using multiple media
• Subjective factors must be considered
• Consumer awareness
• Competitive position
• Degree of loyalty
• Message creativity
• Objectives – e.g., awareness versus sales

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

 Reach versus Frequency Strategy?
Reach: Frequency:
New products Strong competition
Undefined Complex message
markets
Weak brand loyalty
Brands with large
shares, loyal Target market that is
customers well defined

Infrequently Frequently purchased

purchased products
products

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

Effective reach in practice

• Opinions are divided

• The most widely held views:
▪ Fewer than three exposures during a four-week
period is ineffective
▪ More than 10 exposures during a four-week period
is considered wasteful
▪ Using effective reach is likely to lead to a more
diverse strategy, away from television as the
exclusive media
 Alternative Media Plans Based on a $25 Million
Annual Budget and Four-Week Media Analysis

$25 million
193
$25 million
81

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

LO5: Scheduling

The question is how the media

budget should be distributed
throughout the campaign
There are three general
schedules to be considered:
1. continuous
2. pulsing
3. flighting
Continuous schedule

In a continuous schedule, a relatively equal amount

of advertisement expenditure is spent throughout
the campaign
Pulsing and flighting
Pulsing and flighting schedules involve differential levels of
advertising expenditure throughout the year.

Differences:
• Pulsing schedule – some amount
of advertising dollars are spent in
every period of the campaign, but
the amount varies from period to
period.
• Flighting schedule – expenditure
is varied throughout the
campaign and in some months it
is zero.
LO6: Recency planning
• The recency principle challenges the idea behind the
effective reach (3+) criterion, which can lead to the
adoption of flighting scheduling.
• The recency principle is based on three interrelated
ideas
1. The first exposure to the brand message is most
powerful
2. The role of advertising is to influence choice
3. High levels of weekly reach, rather than heavy
frequency, should be the goal
The powerful first exposure

• Research evidence
suggests that the initial
exposure to a message
offers the highest degree of
utility
• Subsequent exposures
show diminishing returns
• Influencing brand choice:
recency planning and the
‘window of opportunity’
Optimising weekly reach
The recency principle suggests that media
schedules should be nearly continuous and
should:
▪ influence rather than teach consumers (contrary to
the three-exposure model)
▪ reach consumers when they are ready to buy
▪ budget to reach more consumers more often
▪ sustain 100% of the target audience (at least once
per week) and maintain this throughout the year
Selecting media
categories and
vehicles
Once media objectives
have been established,
the media planner must
consider the use of
various media and media
vehicles

33
LO7: Cost considerations
• Cost per thousand criteria (CPM): One of the most
important and universally used indicators of media
efficiency
• CPM measures total contacts exposed to the
advertisement
• CPM-TM measures only the target market exposed
to the advertisement
 Cost Considerations

Cost per Thousand (CPM)

Target Market (TM)

CPM = Cost of ad x 1000

# of contacts
CPM-TM = Cost of ad x 1000
# of TM contacts

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

Cost Consideration Calculations
Advertising at a Football Game
▪ Cost of message delivery = $500.00
▪ Stadium capacity = 80,000 persons
▪ Cost per Thousand (CPM) = $500.00 ÷ 80 = $ 6.25
Advertising on Television
▪ Total program viewership = 18,273,600 households
▪ Cost of 30-second commercial = $780,000
▪ CPM = $780,000 ÷ 18,273.6 = $42.68
▪ Target market percentage = 60%
▪ CPM-TM = $780,000 ÷ (60% × 18,273.6) = $71.14
Ivestopedia explanation of CPM

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cpm.asp
Online cost per thousand (CPM)
Three metrics are generally used to calculate the CPM for online ads
1. Click-through rate (CTR): the number/proportion of visitors who clicked on the
advertisement
2. Cost-per-click (CPC): a fixed cost charged every time a person clicks on an
advertisement
3. Cost-per-acquisition (CPA): fixed cost charged every time a person clicks on an
advertisement and completes a desired action, such as purchasing or ordering a
product
Assumptions:
CTR average is approximately 1%
The average CPC is $0.09
The average CPM is $0.25 with a CTR goal of 1000

For 1000 clicks the advertiser will pay a CPC of $900 (1000 × $0.09).
Based on this number, CTR of 1%, the ad will have been displayed approximately 100 000
times. CPM will be $$25 (100,000/1,000 x $0.25)
CPM limitations
• CPM and CPM-TM can be useful for comparing the
efficiencies of different vehicles
• However, they should be used cautiously, as efficiency is
not the same as effectiveness
CPM limitations
• The roles of the different media
vehicles can be significant
• therefore, the comparability of
the CPM of the vehicles may
not be an appropriate measure
• Even within the same media
vehicle, a comparison may not be
appropriate
• Daytime television may have
a lower CPM than prime time
television, but may be less
effective for some products
An alternate approach:
the efficiency index procedure
• An alternative to the three-
exposure approach

• The objective of the index is to

select the media schedule that
generates the highest
exposure value per GRP

• The choice of a media

schedule comes from a set of
alternative schedules
An alternate approach:
the efficiency index procedure cont.
• The process involves:

– estimating the exposure utility for each level of vehicle

exposure (or Opportunity To See)
– calculating the exposure distribution of the various media
schedules
– determining the value at each OTS level and then totalling
across all OTS levels
– developing the index of exposure efficiency by dividing the total
value for each schedule by the number of GRPs produced for
that schedule
 Telmar ADPlus Media Database for
the Esuvee Safety Campaign

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

 Telmar ADPlus Magazine Schedule for the
Esuvee Safety Campaign

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

 Telmar ADPlus Magazine Schedule for the
Esuvee Safety Campaign (cont’d)

Gross impressions =
Reach (1+) x target consumers x
frequency = 64.9% x 17,674,840 x
3.6 = 41,041,000

Cost per Thousand (CPM) =

(Cost/gross impression) x 1000
$1,997,585 x 1000 = $48.67
41,041,000

Cost per rating point (CPP) =

Cost/GRP
$1,997,585 = $8,603
232.2

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

 Gross Impressions
(“total exposures” or “duplicated audience”)

Gross Impressions: Total audience (homes) exposed

during the specified time period to any of the media
vehicles containing the ad messages on any occasion.

Gross impressions = net coverage (Reach) x (target

segment number) x average frequency

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

 The Real Cost Media Plan

Source: Integrated Marketing communications 10e, Cengage

Chapter 6 – True/False
Questions
1. The percentage of a
target audience that is
exposed to the
advertiser's message
during an established
time frame represents
reach
True
Chapter 6 – True/False
Questions
2. Effective reach is based
on the idea that an
advertising schedule is
effective only if it does
not reach members of
the target audience too
few or too many times
True