There are many options in today’s fast paced world for communicating your marketing and media advertising message to your target customers. Each media option has value, depending on who you are trying to reach and how much you have to spend. The following summary is certainly not an end-all to understanding and choosing the right media advertising for your message. But it should give you a brief idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each major media type.
Television – Strengths
- Provides sight and sound for dynamic selling
- High reach and frequency potential
- Rapid awareness and audience accumulation
- Flexibility both nationally and locally
- Flexibility by daypart and program type for targeting
- Relatively cost efficient
- Merchandiseable to sales force, distributors, franchisees
Television – Weaknesses
- Relatively downscale audience demographics
- High total cost
- Short lived messages
- Commercial clutter growing
- Limited availability of top rated time slots
- High production costs
- Network audience erosion
Cable TV – Strengths
- Provides the qualitative dynamics of TV.
- Highly targeted capabilities for selective audiences.
- Recovers “lost” viewers from broadcast TV.
- Builds frequency against select targets.
- Low out of pocket cost.
- Can be purchased on a sub-DMA basis.
Cable TV – Weaknesses
- Not everyone with a TV has access to Cable.
- Cable CPM’s are typically not efficient vs. broadcast.
- Lack of specific audience data on a local level.
- Still weak in major markets.
- Ability to select specific programming is limited.
- Advertising environment can be questionable.
Radio – Strengths
- Highly targeted capabilities for selective audiences.
- Builds frequency against select targets.
- Low out of pocket cost.
- Can be purchased on a sub-DMA basis.
- Effective for time-of-day or day-of-week timeliness.
- Provides “dual daypart” targeting.
Radio – Weaknesses
- Limited Reach capabilities
- Background medium, non-intrusive.
- Low attention levels (attentiveness level = 32%).
- Can be more costly than Television.
- Difficult to buy with so many stations to consider.
- Station loyalty can be low in competitive markets.
Internet & Interactive – Strengths
- Specific target audiences can be reached with little waste.
- Low out-of-pocket costs.
- Can be set up quickly to reach large audience.
- Ads reach involved and active consumers who may be searching for your product.
- Can reach the hard-to-reach young audience.
Internet & Interactive – Weaknesses
- Less control of demographic leads.
- Qualitative audience research still lacking.
- Consumers may perceive ads as internet “junk” mail.
- Declining click-through rates.
- Very small amount of space for your message.
Newspapers – Strengths
- Have potential for high single day reach to exploit immediacy, especially on key shopping days.
- Effective vehicle for coupon distribution.
- Readers often shop ads for specific information when ready to buy.
- Ability to pinpoint specific geographic locations.
- Multiple products/features can be advertised.
- Short lead times.
Newspapers – Weaknesses
- Lack of demographic and geographic selectivity.
- Relatively inefficient.
- High out-of-pocket cost for large-size ad units.
- Circulation is declining and does not equate to readership.
- Lower quality image reproduction.
- Cluttered ad environment — small ads get buried.
Magazines – Strengths
- Efficient reach, and the opportunity for repeat frequency, of selective target audiences.
- Reaches light TV viewers.
- Demographic, Psychographic, and Geographic coverage flexibility.
- Can provide detailed ad message using high quality graphics.
- Ability to match ad copy with compatible editorial.
- Ads can be saved for future reference.
Magazines – Weaknesses
- Reader controls ad exposure and can ignore completely.
- Difficult to exploit time-of-day or day-of-week exposure.
- Slow audience accumulation.
- Significant difference between circulation audience and ad exposure audience.
- Long lead times.
- Limited geographic options and uneven market coverage.
Direct Mail- Strengths
- Reach hard-to-reach specific demographic targets with virtually no waste.
- Pinpoint specific geographic locations.
- Advertising messages can be customized and can feature longer messages.
- Cost-per-Response measurements are available.
Direct Mail- Weaknesses
- High CPM’s.
- “Occupant” mail may be a turn-off to some consumers.
- “Junk” mail is often discarded without viewing.
- Need to obtain prospect’s address for follow up.
Outdoor – Strengths
- Delivers very high broad reach and frequency.
- Very efficient.
- Reinforces brand or product identification.
- Features long life and a variety of ad sizes.
- Ability to pinpoint very precise geographic locations.
- Can impact the consumer very near, or at, the point of purchase.
Outdoor – Weaknesses
- Lengthy, complicated messages cannot be conveyed.
- High out-of-pocket and production costs.
- Long production lead times.
- Limited and sometimes questionable research.
- Minimal targeting ability.
- Market variations in availability of quality locations.