MEDIA PLANNING

Media Planning Definitions i. The process of deciding how to most effectively get your marketing communications seen by your target audience. ii. A process for determining the most cost-effective mix of media for achieving a set of media objectives. Goal: maximize impact while minimizing cost Media is often the largest MC budget item iii. The design of a strategy that shows how investments in advertising time and space will contribute to achievement of marketing objectives. iv. Media planning is about determining the best Media Mix (i.e., the best combination of one-way and twoway media) to reach a particular target for a particular brand situation.

Media Planner Media Planner is the person at the advertising agency who develops and executes your media plan. Four basic functions of media planners
i. Conduct media research ii. Determine media objectives and strategies iii. Determine the media mix 1v. Do the actual media buy Decisions: Which audience? Where? When? How long?

Functions of Media Planning in Advertising

i. Proper media planning enables the selection of the right media: selection of the right media is crucial in the entire planning process. How best can I reach my target audience? Is the question kept in mind? ii. It helps to allocate the advertising funds to the right products in the right media: for example, ads for chocolates will be placed in a slot where there is maximum children viewer ship. And channels like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network or between 5-7 pm when most children watch cartoons. iii. It indicates the period or the season in which the advertiser need to concentrate advertising efforts: for example all the paint advertisements concentrate on the festive seasons. A few months before the festival like Diwali the ads are released. iv. It helps achieve the advertising objectives. v. It minimizes wastages of advertising funds: when money is used in the right direction there are minimum wastages. A media plan helps the ad agency to obtain approval form the client. Proper media planning will help the advertiser to reach the right target audience. It helps to finalize the frequency of advertisements: how many repetitions of the advertisement should be done and are required also specified in a media plan.

Media Plan
Media Plan the document or flow chart which details the tactics used to accomplish your media objectives. A thorough knowledge of the characteristics of the various advertising media is somewhat like knowing the vocabulary to a language without the grammar. Like a vocabulary, media characteristic dont allow you to put the pieces together into a meaningful whole. A media plan is made up of many elements in addition to a descriptive analysis of the various media. While there is no standard format, the following elements are found in most national plans:

Media Plan components Or Criteria Considered in the Development of Media Plans

1. The media mix 2. Target market coverage 3. Geographic coverage

4. Scheduling 5. Reach versus frequency 6. Creative aspects and mood 7. Flexibility 8. Budget considerations

1. Media mix: The media mix has to reach the target consumer. It the advertiser wants to reach men between
25 and 55 who are professional, the Economic Times will be obviously a more appropriate choice than Femina. But sometimes matching consumer profiles with media characteristics becomes a lot more difficult. For example: Media planners will find it difficult to decide which kind of households can be reached by the Hindi feature film TV slot v/s the 9 Oclock serial slot. A thorough analysis of the target market will help in making this match and will reduce wastage of media expenditure.

2. Target market coverage: Audience can also be described in psychographics terms activities, interest,
and opinions forming a life style, personality traits, and brand preferences. After having a complete picture of our target audience, we undertake the study of the medias readership in terms of demographic, economic and psychographics terms.

3. Geographic coverage: Media strategy is based upon market coverage. If media planners want to market
products nationally, they will select all-India newspapers and magazines. However, if market is limited to a particular region, they shall select vernacular media popular in that region. In this way, media planners do not waste resources by advertising product in the regions in which it is not available. They have to see how strong a product is in a particular geographical region and advertise more in high potential areas. 4. Scheduling: Media scheduling decisions are the decisions about the timing, continuity and size of the ads. We have to see when to advertise, for how long, and for what time period. We have to see the size and placement of our ad. 5. Reach versus frequency: There should be an attempt in the media objectives to balance the reach and frequency. There should be an appropriate message weight at the same time. This will help us realize our advertising plan. To face heavy competitive campaign, we should have greater frequency to ensure the repetition of the message. It is not so important to have a wider reach. While advertising an innovation, a greater reach is preferred, to a greater frequency. It is also important to have a large message weight. Once the media objectives are set, we are ready to develop strategies to realise them. 6. Creative aspects and mood: Creative considerations such as the quality of reproduction, the colour effect, special effects, have to be considered. The medium must be appropriate for the ad message. For example: The ads for ice cream would be reproduced better in colour and therefore black and white newsprint is not appropriate. Media decisions have to be made in consultation with the creative team that has actually produced the ad. Within the medium selected, decisions related to unit buying, is also influenced by the creative team. There is a constant tug-of-war between the creative team and the media team . the creative team wants larger space, more TV and radio time and superior quality of POP material, while the media team along with the finance department of the client looks for economy and maximizing the effect of every rupee spent on the media. 7. Flexibility: The ability of the media to adapt to changing and specific needs of advertisers is flexibility. Certain media allows such flexibility with respect to the advertised message, the geographical coverage and the ad budget For example: the times of India group of publication may offer advertisers the flexibility of placing ads in different editions of the paper. So if, for instance, Parles find that competitive activity has increased in Delhi, it may use the Delhi edition of Times of India to combat competitors activity. 8. Budget considerations: A choice of media will depend to a large extent upon the size of the advertising budget. Certain media types may be too expensive for the funds available.

Media Buying
Media Buyer responsibilities: Media Buyer is responsible for purchasing media space or time, as well as developing the campaign and researching how it will be most effective for the client. Their mission is to find a combination of media that will enable the marketer to communicate the message in the most effective manner possible at the minimum cost.

1. Providing inside information. Media buyers are important information sources for media planners. Close enough to day-to-day changes in media popularity and pricing to be a constant source of inside information. 2. Selecting Media Vehicles. Choose the best vehicles that fit the target audiences aperture. The media planner lays out the direction; the buyer is responsible for choosing specific vehicles. 3. Negotiation. Media buyers pursue special advantages for clients. Locate the desired vehicles and negotiate and maintain satisfactory schedule and rates. 4. Preferred Positions. Locations in print media that offer readership advantages. Preferred positions often carry a premium surcharge. 5. Billing and Payment. It is the responsibility of the advertiser to make payments to various media. The agency is contractually obligated to pay the invoice on behalf of the client. 6. Monitoring the Buy. The media buyer tracks the performance of the media plan as it is implemented, as well as afterward. Poorly performing vehicles must be replaced or costs must be modified. 7. Make-Goods. A policy of compensating for missed positions or errors in handling the message presentation. Ensure that the advertiser is compensated appropriately when they occur. When a medium falls short of some audience guarantee, advertisers are provided concessions in the form of make-goods. Most commonly used in television & magazines. 8. Post-campaign Evaluation. Once a campaign is completed, the planner compares the plans expectations and forecasts with what actually happened. Provides guidance for future media plans

Media planning process:

Media planning is the process of designing a course of action that shows how advertising space and time will be used to contribute to the achievement of the marketing and advertising objectives. The media plan is created by the media planner from information about the market and prospective customers. Media decisions are primarily based on the creative strategy established for the campaign and the characteristics of the target market. Through market research, facts about the target market are accumulated and generalized into a consumer profile. This along with the basic copy strategy and copy requirements is analysed by the media planner, taking into account the size of the advertising budget. This analysis is followed by matching the audience characteristics of various media with the consumer profile and by evaluating the adaptability of the physical format of the media to copy requirements. Finally, through the exercise of judgment concerning dimensions of coverage, reach, frequency, continuity, ad size... the media plan emerges. With all the advertising decision making the ultimate responsibility for choosing media rests with the advertising/ brand manager

The Media Planning Steps

There are 5 steps in the Media planning process: 1. Market analysis 2. Media objectives 3. Media strategies 4. Media Mix 5. Budget and Media Buying

1. Market analysis
The goal of a market analysis is to determine the attractiveness of a market and to understand its evolving opportunities and threats as they relate to the strengths and weaknesses of the firm. Detailed situation analysis is done find out the following information: David A. Aaker outlined the following dimensions of a market analysis: Market size (current and future) Market growth rate

 Market profitability Industry cost structure Distribution channels Market trends Key success factors Market Size

2. Setting media objectives:

Media Objective: The specific goals an advertiser has for the media portion of the advertising program. In the media planning context, you need to establish firm objectives for your plan in order to demonstrate how it will help your brand achieve its marketing goals. Media objectives are in harmony with the advertising and the marketing plans. Thus while launching a new product or repositioning an existing product, there are specific objectives which will guide our media decisions. These objectives must be measurable. It facilitates co-ordination and evaluation once the campaign is over. There are broadly five elements in media objective statements: a) Target Audience b) Reach c) Frequency d) Message Weight e) Message Distribution

a) Target Audience:
How to reach? Which is the audience for our product? This happens to be the most important consideration in the media decisions. We first examine our market plans and advertising plans. These provide us details about the audience in terms of age, religion, gender, income, education these are demographic characteristics. Audience can also be described in psychographics terms activities, interest, and opinions forming a life style, personality traits, and brand preferences. After having a complete picture of our target audience, we undertake the study of the medias readership in terms of demographic, economic and psychographics terms. The classification of the target audience helps the media planner to understand the profile of the T.A. & their media habits. This helps the media planner to select the most appropriate media. For media planning operations, it is important to keep their focus on the total picture of the consumer, the product & benefit. e.g. Rasna- T.A.- middle & upper middle income group families having children. Primary T.A.- women i.e. women who actually buy the products for their households, while the Secondary T.A.- children, who influence the purchase. The media planner will therefore decide to put 60% of the emphasis on women & 40% on children. In the media strategy the target audience must be defined more clearly and thoroughly. i. Target audience and advertisement must fit each other. a. Kind of argumentation, aesthetics, used language etc. b. Appropriate prominent endorsers (e.g., Aamir Khan for Coke). ii. Advertising might communicate to different target audiences with different objectives, e.g., Increase product sales in age group 14-29, Increase brand awareness and image in age group 30+. Agencies conduct their own media research. Even media itself provides a demographic profile of their readers. There are readership surveys to guide us. We have to select those media vehicles whose demographic profile matches the target audience of our product. We can target our product to a segment of the market. Then we have to select that media vehicle which reaches this segment. We may have to use another media vehicle to reach some another segment; It should, however, be seen that a united image is projected and consistency of message is maintained through different media mix.

b) Reach:
Reach indicates a percentage of target audience who is exposed at least once in a given period to a particular media vehicle. It does not matter how many times they actually see or hear the ad message. Though reach measures exposure, it does not actually measure those who have noticed a particular ad. The objective of reaching target audience is calculated irrespective of the fact whether these people have taken cognizance of our ad. It is a term that is used for all media (print, TV, radio) and indicates the number of people who are actually exposed to the medium in a given period, which is normally linked to the periodicity of the medium. While deciding about the reach, the time period selected is either four-weeks or corresponds to the purchasecycle of the product. Determinants of Reach 1. More prospective customers are reached by a media schedule using multiple media rather than a single medium. 2. Another influencing factor is the number and diversity of media vehicles used. Reach can be increased by diversifying the day parts used to advertise

c) Frequency
Frequency indicates the number of times people in the target audience are exposed to a media vehicle during a given period of time. Average frequency gives the average number of times people or households in our target audience are exposed to a media vehicle. Average Frequency = Total Number of Exposures Total Audience Reach If 1500 people in the target audience tune in an FM radio programme 3 times during a four week period, and 1500 people tune in 6 times, the calculation would be Total Number of exposures = (1500 x 3) + (1500 x 6) = 13,500 Total audience reach Average frequency = 1500 + 1500 = 3000 = 13500 = 4.5 3000

In our example, we reach 3000 people 4 times on an average. It does not necessarily mean that everyone has 4.5 exposures. It is just an average. Generally, a single exposure may not work either in creating an awareness or provoking someone to buy. The more the exposures, the better the impact. Besides, more exposures make us rise above the competitive noise. It is good to plan how many times we would like our audience to see the message in a given medium. While introducing a new product, we need more frequency. When the ad size is small, we need more frequency. When the message is complex, we need more frequency. Higher frequency helps us stand out in the clutter. We have to decide the effective frequency- it is not frequency, which is needed to communicate effectively with the target audience. It is a difficult thing to settle. There can be a minimum frequency and maximum frequency to be effective. Lesser frequency makes the communication ineffective. Higher frequency may be a waste of ad resources. There can be also ad fatigue if there are too many repetitions. Just as the situation analysis leads to establishment of marketing and communications objectives, the media situation analysis should lead to determination of specific media objectives. The media objectives are not ends in themselves. Rather, they are designed to lead to the attainment of communications and marketing objectives. Media objectives are the goals for the media strategies.

d) Message Weight
The sum of the reach number of specific media vehicles in a given media plan gives the message weight. Here while summing the reach, duplication or overlapping is ignored. Message weight is expressed in terms of gross impressions or gross rating points (GRP). The total size of the audience for a set of ads or an entire campaign. Message weight can be expressed as: i. Opportunity to see: The possible exposure of the advertising message to one audience member is called an opportunity to see (OTS). ii. Gross Impressions: It is the total number of potential exposures (audience size by the number of times the ad message is used during a period). Gross impressions are a summation of exposures of the target audience to media vehicles in a media plan. Each exposure is counted as one impression. Suppose an advertiser puts advertisements on a programme of a TV channel viewed five times by 6000 people in the target audience and seven times by 6000 people in a four week period. Also suppose during the same four week period, the ad is put another programme of a second TV channel viewed 3 times by 3000 people in the target audience, the gross impressions would be: Gross impression = (6000 x 5) + (6000 x 7) + (3000 x 3) = 81000 The first group receives 30000 impressions, the second group receives 42000 impressions and the third group receives 9000 impressions. Thus in all 81000 impressions are received during a four week period. As duplication is ignored between the media vehicles while summing up the impressions, we use the term gross. iii. Televisions households: Because gross impressions are often expressed in millions and are awkward to handle, media planners prefer to use percentages - or a rating, for example, a rating of TV households is the percentage of homes exposed to an ad medium. A rating of 20=20% of the households with TV sets; televisions households, or (TVHH). iv. Gross Rating Points (GRPs) - the total weight of a specific media schedule, computed by multiplying the reach, expressed as a percentage of the population, by the average frequency. GRP is the combined measure of reach and frequency indicating the weight of a media plan The more GRPs, the more weight a plan has. GRP is 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. For a mass media like a TV channel, message weight is expressed in gross rating points (GRPs). It is a sum of the rating points of all programmes in the TV media plan. One rating point indicates one percent of the target audience. GRPs of the entire media plan are given by GRPs for TV are calculated generally for a week or a month. Television Rating points (TRPs) are available in India calculated on the basis of the panel method. The ultimate business of TV is to deliver the eyeballs. It is obviously an issue of audience share. Gross impressions in print media are counted for every ad in every media vehicle used during the whole campaign.

There should be an attempt in the media objectives to balance the reach and frequency. There should be an appropriate message weight at the same time. This will help us realize our advertising plan. To face heavy competitive campaign, we should have greater frequency to ensure the repetition of the message. It is not so important to have a wider reach.

While advertising an innovation, a greater reach is preferred, to a greater frequency. It is also important to have a large message weight. Once the media objectives are set, we are ready to develop strategies to realize them. The Simple Formula to Calculate GRPs Gross Rating Points (GRPs) = Reach x Frequency Print example: 50 reach X 5 insertions = 250 GRPs Broadcast example: 6 (rating) X 5 (frequency) = 30 GRPs Gross impressions are a summation of exposures of the target audience to media vehicles in a media plan. Each exposure is counted as one impression. Suppose an advertiser puts advertisements on a programme of a TV channel viewed five times by 6000 people in the target audience and seven times by 6000 people in a four-week period. Also suppose during the same four week period, the ad is put another programme of a second TV channel viewed 3 times by 3000 people in the target audience, the gross impressions would be: Gross impression = (6000 x 5) + (6000 x 7) + (3000 x 3) = 81000. For a mass media like a TV channel, message weight is expressed in gross rating points (GRPs). It is a sum of the rating points of all programmes in the TV media plan. One rating point indicates one percent of the target audience. GRPs of the entire media plan are given by GRPs of Media Plan = Proportion of target audience reached x average frequency. GRPs for TV are calculated generally for a week or a month. Television Rating points (TRPs) are available in India calculated on the basis of the panel method. The ultimate business of TV is to deliver the eyeballs. It is obviously an issue of audience share. Gross impressions in print media are counted for every ad in every media vehicle used during the whole campaign. There should be an attempt in the media objectives to balance the reach and frequency. There should be an appropriate message weight at the same time. This will help us realize our advertising plan. To face heavy competitive campaign, we should have greater frequency to ensure the repetition of the message. It is not so important to have a wider reach. While advertising an innovation, a greater reach is preferred, to a greater frequency. It is also important to have a large message weight. Once the media objectives are set, we are ready to develop strategies to realise them.

e) Message Distribution:
Message-distribution objectives define where, when, and how often advertising should appear. To answer these questions, a media planner must understand the following: Audience size - simply the number of people in the medium's audience. In print media, for example, Audit Bureau of Circulation actually counts and verifies the number of subscribers (circulation) and multiplies by the number of readers per copy (RPC) to determine total audience. Reach vs. Frequency Aspects: Since advertisers have a variety of objectives and face constraints in budget, they usually must trade off reach & frequency. They must decide whether they want the message to be seen or heard by more people (reach) or by fewer people more often (frequency). How much Reach is necessary?

 The hierarchies model requires that the first stage of each model requires Awareness of the product and/or brand. The more people are aware, the more likely are they to move to each subsequent stage. Achieving awareness requires Reach- that is, exposing potential buyers to the message. New brands or products need a very high level of reach since the objective is to make all potential buyers aware of the new entry. High reach is also desired at the later stages of the hierarchy. For example, at the trial stage of the adoption hierarchy, a promotional strategy such as sampling may be considered useful so as to reach a large number of people with these samples. The problem arises because there is no way of determining how much reach is required to achieve levels of awareness, attitude change, or buying intentions. We cannot be sure that an ad placed in a vehicle will actually reach the intended audience. While buying advertising time in say, a 8-8.30 p.m. program in Star Plus channel, the question that arises is that will everyone who is tuned to the program see the ad? Many viewers may leave the room or engage themselves in some other activity during the ad or may be distracted during the commercial, and so on. If I expose everyone in my target group to the message once, will this be sufficient to create a 100% level of awareness? The answer here is No. So this leads to the next question of what frequency of exposure is necessary for the ad to be seen and to have an impact? What Frequency Level is Needed? In media planning, frequency is the number of times one is exposed to the media vehicle, not necessarily to the ad itself, during a specified period of time. Research studies estimate the actual audience for a commercial may be as much as 30-40 percent lower than that for the program. Not all researchers agree to this. Many advertisers feel that a 1:1 exposure ratio does not exist. So, if your ad has been placed in a certain vehicle, the fact that the consumer has been exposed to that vehicle does not ensure that your ad has been seen. As a result, the frequency level expressed in the media plan overstates the actual level of exposure to the ad. Hence this has led some media buyers to refer to the reach of the media vehicle as opportunities to see an ad rather than actual exposure to it. Since the advertiser has no sure way to ascertain whether the exposure to a vehicle results in exposure to the ad, the media and advertisers have adopted a compromise; one exposure to the vehicle constitutes reach, given that this exposure must occur for the viewer to have an opportunity to see the ad. Thus, the exposure figure is used to calculate reach & frequency levels. This compromise does not help determine the frequency required to make an impact. The creativity of the ad, the involvement of the receiver, noise, and many other intervening factors confound any attempts to make a precise determination. How does then, one make these decisions? The truth is that the decisions are not always made on hard data. Establishing frequency goals for an advertising campaign is a mix of art & science but with a definite bias toward art.- Joseph Ostrow. Establishing Reach & Frequency Objectives It is possible to be exposed to more than one media vehicle with an ad, resulting in repetition (frequency).

 If one ad is placed on one TV show, the number of people exposed is the reach. If the ad is placed on two shows, the total number exposed once is unduplicated reach. Some people will see the ad twice. The reach of two shows, includes a number of people who were reached by both shows. This overlap is referred to as duplicated reach. Both unduplicated and duplicated reach figures are important. Unduplicated reach indicates potential new exposures, while duplicated reach provides an estimate of frequency. Most media buys include both forms of reach. Let us consider an example. A measure of potential reach in the broadcast industry is the TV (or radio) program rating. This number is expressed as a percentage. Using Gross Rating points: The media buyer typically uses a numerical indicator to know how many potential audience members may be exposed to a series of commercials. A summary measure that combines the program rating and the average number of times the home is reached during this period (frequency of exposure) is a commonly used reference point known as gross ratings points (GRPs):GRP= Reach x Frequency GRPs are based on the total audience the media schedule may reach; they use a duplicated reach estimate. Target ratings points (TRPs) refer to the number of people in the primary target audience the media buy will reachand the number of times. Unlike GRP, TRP does not include waste coverage. Given that GRPs do not measure actual reach, the advertiser must ask: How many GRPs are needed to attain a certain reach? How do these GRPs translate into effective reach? For example, how many GRPs must one purchase to attain an unduplicated reach of 50 percent, and what frequency of exposure will this schedule deliver? The following example may help you to understand how this process works. First you must know what these ratings points represent. A purchase of 100 GRPs could mean 100 percent of the market is exposed once or 50 percent of the market is exposed twice or 25 percent of the market is exposed four times, and so on. As you can see, this information must be more specific for the marketer to use it effectively. To know how many GRPs are necessary, the manager needs to know how many members of the intended audience the schedule actually reaches. The effects of Reach & Frequency 1. One exposure of an ad to a target group within a purchase cycle has little or no effect in most circumstances. 2. Since one exposure is usually ineffective, the central goal of productive media planning should be to enhance frequency rather than reach. 3. The evidence suggests strongly that an exposure frequency of two within a purchase cycle is an effective level. 4. Beyond three exposures within a brand purchase cycle or over a period of four or even eight weeks, increasing frequency continues to build advertising effectiveness at a decreasing rate but with no evidence of decline. 5. Although there are general principles with respect to frequency of exposure and its relationship to advertising effectiveness, differential effects by brand are equally important. 6. Nothing we have seen suggests that frequency response principles or generalizations vary by medium. 7. The data strongly suggest that wear out is not a function of too much frequency; it is more of a creative or copy problem.

Determining Effective Reach Since marketers have budget constraints, they must decide whether to increase reach at the expense of frequency or increase the frequency of exposure but to a smaller audience. A number of factors influence this decision. For example, a new product or brand introduction will attempt to maximize reach, particularly unduplicated reach, to create awareness in as many people as possible as quickly as possible. At the same time, for a highinvolvement product or one whose benefits are not obvious, a certain level of frequency is needed to achieve effective reach. Effective reach represents the percentage of a vehicles audience reached at each effective frequency increment. This concept is based on the assumption that one exposure to an ad may not be enough to convey the desired message. As we saw earlier, no one knows the exact number of exposures necessary for an ad to make an impact, although advertisers have settled on three as the minimum. Fewer than 3 exposures is considered insufficient reach, while more than 10 is considered overexposure and thus ineffective reach. This exposure level is no guarantee of effective communication; different messages may require more or fewer exposures. The three-exposure theory was valid in the 1970s when consumers were exposed to approximately 1,000 ads per day. Now that they are exposed to 3,000 to 5,000 per day, three exposures may not be enough (Jack Myers of Myers Reports). Adding in the fragmentation of television, the proliferation of magazines, and the advent of a variety of alternative media leads Myers to believe that 12 exposures may be the minimum level of frequency required. Also, Jim Surmanek, vice president of International Communications Group, contends that the complexity of the message, message length, and recency of exposure also impact this figure. Since they do not know how many times the viewer will actually be exposed, advertisers typically purchase GRPs that lead to more than three exposures to increase the likelihood of effective reach and frequency. Determining effective reach is further complicated by the fact that when calculating GRPs, advertisers use a figure that they call average frequency, or the average number of times the target audience reached by a media schedule is exposed to the vehicle over a specified period. The problem with this figure is revealed in the following scenario: Consider a media buy in which: 50 percent of audience is reached 1 time. 30 percent of audience is reached 5 times. 20 percent of audience is reached 10 times. Average frequency = 4 In this media buy, the average frequency is 4, which is slightly more than the number established as effective. Yet a full 50 percent of the audience receives only one exposure. Thus, the average-frequency number can be misleading, and using it to calculate GRPs might result in underexposing the audience. Although GRPs have their problems, they can provide useful information to the marketer. A certain level of GRPs is necessary to achieve awareness, and increases in GRPs are likely to lead to more exposures and/or more repetitionsboth of which are necessary to have an effect on higher-order objectives. Perhaps the best advice for purchasing GRPs is offered by Ostrow, who recommends the following strategies: 1. Instead of using average frequency, the marketer should decide what minimum frequency goal is needed to reach the advertising objectives effectively and then maximize reach at that frequency level. 2. To determine effective frequency, one must consider marketing factors, message factors, and media factors. In summary, the reach-versus-frequency decision, while critical, is very difficult to make. A number of factors must be considered, and concrete rules do not always apply. The decision is often more of an art than a science.

Production of the message is managed both centrally and locally depending on the needs of the clients and the distribution of the message in the region. Some agencies that create and execute the marketing mix for multinationals with extensive product lines organize their staff according to the marketing demands. Two agencies in particular use a combination of central, regional and local personnel to target their client's customers worldwide. Depending on the scope of the brand and the regions to be targeted, these agencies would accordingly distribute the creation, production and execution of the message. The goal in this case is to produce the most effective message for each market.

3. Media Strategy
Media strategy is the way we seek to realize our media objectives. When formulated correctly, it enables an advertiser to rise above the clutter of ads, and stand out in the competition. Media strategy expects media planners to be creative in using the media. The use of the media should complement and supplement each other. The ad should be consistent with the editorial environment of the media. The placement should be strategic. The medias creative potential is fully used. The ad should provoke readers to look at it more than once. It should be engaging enough, say incorporation of a crossword puzzle in the copy of the ad. We can use non-traditional media like a Tamasha show, puppetry or a magic-show. Media can be used to build credibility. Factors Influencing Media Strategy a) Target Market Profile b) Nature of the Message c) Geographic Market Priorities d) Timing of Advertising e) Reach/Frequency/Continuity Media strategy has to cover decisions taken in the areas of: a) Geographic selectivity b) Scheduling of the ads c) Media selection d) Cost efficiency of the selected media. a) Geographic Selectivity Our media strategy is based upon our market coverage. If we market our products nationally, we will select allIndia newspapers and magazines. However, if our market is limited to a particular region, we shall select vernacular media popular in that region. In this way, we do not waste our resources by advertising our product in the regions in which it is not available. We have to see how strong a product is in a particular geographical region and advertise more in high potential areas. Marketers may measure the sales strength in particular market by making use of two ratios the brand development index and the category development index Brand Development Index: To determine BDI, a markets brand sales percentage is divided by the total population percentage of that market multiplied by 100. The brand development index (BDI) measures the sales strength of a brand in a particular area. BDI = Percentage of brands total all India sales in the market x 100 Percentage of total Indian population in the market This index enables a media planner to allocate the media budget by setting his priorities. Category Development Index: To determine CDI, a markets category sales percentage is divided by the total population percentage of that market and multiplied by 100.

It measures the sales potential of product category. Thus it takes into account the potential of all competitors selling the same category. CDI = Percentage of product categorys total all India sales x 100 Percentage of total Indian Population in the market These numbers over 100 are considered good but comparing the BDI to the CDI provides the most insight.

Brand and Category Analysis (Quadrant of BDI & CDI)

b) Media Scheduling Media scheduling decisions are the decisions about the timing, continuity and size of the ads. We have to see when to advertise, for how long, and for what time period. We have to see the size and placement of our ad. Timing: Advertising message can be timed in four ways depending upon our objectives I. To time the message in such a way that the customers are most interested in buying that type of a product, e.g., fridges in summer, soft drinks in summer, woolens in winter, gift items during Deepavali. II. To time the message in such a way that it stimulates demand in the lean period, e.g., ice creams in winter, holiday resorts in monsoons. III. To time in such a way that it by-pass competitive campaigns, e.g., Pepsi commercials are to be aired when there are no Coke commercials. IV. To time in such a way that the message is carried by the media when the audience is receptive to it, e.g., household products in the afternoon slot of TV when housewives watch TV. The importance of time element must be understood in the purchase behavior of the customer by doing suitable research. Most Organizations Use One of These Three Scheduling Strategies Three Scheduling Methods 1. Continuity: When an ad is run in the media for a long period without any gap, we are using continuity scheduling. It is used for those products, which are in demand round the years. The ads are in the form of reminder. 2. Flighting: Alternative to continuity is fighting where advertising runs for some period and then there is a gap, and again it runs for some period. The interval between two advertising runs comes after a flight. The message can be schedule to correspond to peak purchasing periods or at a time when the audience is most receptive. When we have a media mix alternative flights are adjusted in such a way in different media that overall continuity is achieved. 3. Pulsing is another option. It represents a consistent low-level advertising activity, and addition of pulse to make a high-level of advertising during certain periods. 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 companys issue. Bursting is a technique for scheduling TV ads. Here the commercial is repeated on the same channel time and again to reinforce the message for a short period.

Timing and Duration as Media strategies

Timing: Steady schedule or continuous Flight Pulse Duration: Reach Frequency

 GRP CPRP CPT BDI CDI

c) Selecting the Media

An advertiser can choose a single medium or a mix of media to take its message to the target audience. Media mix a combination of several media is used when it is not possible to reach the target audience by one single medium adequately and with a good impact. Marketers segment a market, and a suitable media can be chosen to match a specific segment. Creative execution becomes varied when a media mix is used. In a media mix, one medium can be used to promote a product and the other as reminder, thus reinforcing each other. A combination must be synergistic, where the sum total of effects is greater than the sum of individual mediums effect. Each media has a particular readership or viewer ship. We have to understand the size and the characteristics of the readership or viewer ship. We have to match the target audience of our product to the demographic characteristics of the readers/viewers of the media as far as possible. Media research helps us in this matching the product and the media. Each medium has different alternation value. But attention given to a medium also depends upon the message and its execution. Each medium has a motivation value whereby it stimulates readers to respond. Each medium has its own editorial environment provided by its contents which surround the ad This environment should be compatible with the product and its benefits. The environment should also be consistent with the mood of the desired audience. A commercial of an air-line is not consistent with the news of an air-crash. The audience mood is not conducive to the reception of the message. Several media provide an environment of respectability. We have to consider the placement of the ad and the editorial material and keep on changing the same if necessary. Our competitors also via with us for the attention of the same target audience. We must understand their media strategy, budgets and mixes. It helps us in setting our strategy correctly. We can confront them head on. We can change the media mix. We can bypass a media selected by them. We can change our geographic allocation. A competitors share of voice can be studied. It is given by: Share of voice = Brand Expenditure Product Category expenditure We have to decide whether we can match a competitors share of voice or exceed it. We can use another medium in which there is a large share of voice for us. We should not forget that we never buy media. We only buy audiences. The client pays the agency to buy the audience attention to his brand. Size and Placement The decisions about the size of the ad and its placement are also important in scheduling. There are several size options in print media right from a small portion of the page to a full page to several pages. In electronic media, we have options to select commercials for various lengths of time, 10-seconds, 30-seconds or 60-seconds. The size decision is based upon our objectives, the creative execution necessary, the budget and the reach and frequency decisions. A full-page ad does not cost twice the half-page ads. It is less than that. By sacrificing the size of the ad, we can save costs but we miss on attention. But we can buy more ads of lesser space if we sacrifice size, and thus a higher frequency objective may be satisfied by reducing the size. The small ads can be made more effective by having suitable layouts and copy.

Placement of the ads in the medium also affects the impact of the ad. Covers are the preferred medium for their impact in magazines. The placement near important editorial matter is also preferred. Media charge slightly higher if we specify a particular position and so we must do a proper cost-benefit analysis.

d) Cost Efficiency of selected Media

The cost of advertising in various media must be analysed properly. We have to compare the cost of different media. It helps us select the best media to optimize our objectives. Cost per thousand (CPM) is one yard-stick to compare the costs of different media. It is the cost of reaching a thousand persons. The formula for CPM is: Cost per Thousand = Cost of media unit Gross Impression x 100

To illustrate, if we take a full page ad at a price of Rs. 50000 in a magazine to reach one lakh people, our CPM would be Cost per Thousand = 50000 x 1000 100000 = Rs. 500 CPRP: Cost per rating point The cost of reaching one percent of the target population. CPP is calculated by dividing the cost of the schedule by the gross rating points. National and regional advertising buyers frequently use this cost efficiency measure, since it can be applied across all media. The cost per rating point is used to estimate the cost for TV advertising on several shows. Cost per rating point = Commercial time cost Percentage of audience

4. Selecting Media Mix

Media mix means the advertising strategy encompasses the use of more than one type of advertising media to get its message across the target audience. A combination of media types is known as the media mix. No advertiser can rely only on one medium to reach his audience.

Selecting broad media classes

Purpose: To determine which broad class of media best fulfils the criteria. Involves comparison and selection of broad media classes such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and others. The analysis is called intermediate comparisons. Audience size is one of the major factors used in comparing the various media classes.

Selecting media within classes:

Purpose: To compare and select the best media within broad classes, again using predetermined criteria. Involves making decisions about the following: 1. If magazines were recommended, then which magazines? 2. If television was recommended, then i. Broadcast or cable television? ii. Network or spot television? 3. If radio or newspapers were recommended, then a. Which markets shall be used?

b. If network, which program (s) c. If spot, which markets? d. What criteria shall buyers use in making purchases of local media? What criteria shall buyers use in making purchases of local media? a. Media use decisions- Broadcast: b. What kind of sponsorship (sole, shared, participating, or other)? c. What levels of reach and frequency will be required? d. Scheduling: On which days and months are commercials to appear? e. Placement of spots: In programs or between programs? Media use decisions-Print: a. Number of ads to appear and on which days and months. b. Placements of ads: Any preferred position within media? c. Special treatment: Gatefolds, bleeds, color, etc. d. Desired reach or frequency levels/ Media use decisions-Other media 1. Billboards i. Location of markets and plan of distribution ii. Kinds of outdoor boards to be used. 2. Direct mail or other media: Decisions peculiar to those media.

The Media Mix

Media mix means the advertising strategy encompasses the use of more than one type of advertising media to get its message across the target audience. A combination of media types is known as the media mix. No advertiser can rely only on one medium to reach his audience. Even a small advertiser having a small media budget has thousands of media from which to choose. A typical media mix for consumer products, such as a soft drink, will include television, outdoor, POP and even the print media. This combination plays a crucial role in reaching the maximum number of consumers at the minimum cost. Once a media plan is ready, the decision is to be made about the media mix. Selecting the media mix involves several considerations. Factors considered while selecting a media mix The media plan which is derived from the marketing and advertising plan has set a broad framework for media decisions. The execution of this plan depends upon the following considerations: 1. Budget: A choice of media will depend to a large extent upon the size of the advertising budget. Certain media types may be too expensive for the funds available. For example: the cost of national transmission over Doordarshan may be too high for an advertiser. The cost of maintaining a neon sign cannot be afforded by small budget advertisers. 2. Competitors Strategy: Media decisions of one advertiser are influenced by the competitors strategy. Some years ago only large advertisers used television in India. But with the runaway success of Nirma detergent, manufacturers large or small used television to gain maximum exposure, with the hope of creating another success story. An advertiser tries to reach the same audience as its competitors. He may also attempt to find specific target groups not reached by his competitors. In both these cases he considers his competitors strategy before deciding his media mix. 3. Frequency v/s Reach. As explained in the earlier section, frequency and reach are important considerations in the media plan. Frequency refers to the number of times the advertiser reaches the same person, while reach refers to the total number of people covered. The greater the frequency with which you reach the same person through media selection, smaller the reach will be and vice versa (assuming a limitation in the size of the budget). An advertiser will need to know the quantitative data about media audience in order to make more accurate frequency and reach decisions.

For example: If an advertiser uses radio, he may be able to afford to broadcast the advertising jingle every 30 minutes, and this increases the frequency of the radio listeners exposure to the advertised message. But the reach of this message is limited and will not cover those who are not listening to the radio. With the same budget, the advertiser can buy less radio time, place a few insertions in the print media and buy some television time. This combination will reduce the frequency at which an individual consumer is exposed to the advertised message but will increase its reach. Thus, there is always a trade-off between these two considerations. 4. Increasing distributors support: Although consumer media are selected primarily to affect the consumer, the impact of media upon distribution channels, that is the middlemen, is also important. Effective use of advertising media lends support to the middlemens selling efforts. Middlemen are more likely to support a brand that has greater exposure in the local media. Retailer sometimes runs their own tie-in advertising along with the producers advertisement, in the same media. 5. Continuity: A decision must be made about how long an advertisement campaign should be run on one media. There is a cumulative advantage from continuity, as a greater audience will be reached in Terms of both frequency and coverage by advertisements continually placed in one medium. The same medium will have some new audience. For products such as toothpaste, soaps, that are frequently re-purchased, continuity is a more important consideration. But products that are purchased infrequently may find it more suitable to use a variety of media in order to reach varied audience. For example: the ads of Sintex water tanks. 6. Flexibility: The ability of the media to adapt to changing and specific needs of advertisers is flexibility. Certain media allows such flexibility with respect to the advertised message, the geographical coverage and the ad budget For example: the times of India group of publication may offer advertisers the flexibility of placing ads in different editions of the paper. So if, for instance, Parles find that competitive activity has increased in Delhi, it may use the Delhi edition of Times of India to combat competitors activity. 7. Franchise Position: Advertisers using a particular medium over a period of time may enjoy special franchise positions. Special page positions in magazines and newspapers may be reserved for them. For example: The back page of Business India may be booked by Bajaj Auto while the inside back cover of India Today may be booked on a long term basis by Wills Filter Cigarettes. 8. Standard of Acceptance and Codes of Ethics: Most media vehicles have codes of ethics that set the standards of acceptance. 9. Cost per Thousand: This is the most important consideration while making media decisions. Although the cost is considered while fixing the budget, the concept of cost per thousand is the accepted norm for measuring the media effectiveness. The formula for computing cost per thousand is equal to Price of the medium to the advertiser/Delivered audience (in thousands). This formula has certain limitations. The delivered audience may not be the same as the prospective customers. Adjustments to arrive at the prospective customers are possible but this is not always easy to compute. Secondly, there is no data available to find out whether the delivered audience has actually seen or heard the advertised message. 10. Creative considerations: Creative considerations such as the quality of reproduction, the colour effect, special effects, have to be considered. The medium must be appropriate for the ad message. For example: The ads for ice cream would be reproduced better in colour and therefore black and white newsprint is not appropriate. Media decisions have to be made in consultation with the creative team that has actually produced the ad. Within the medium selected, decisions related to unit buying, is also influenced by the creative team. There is a constant tug-of-war between the creative team and the media team . the creative team wants larger space, more TV and radio time and superior quality of POP material, while the media team along with the finance department of the client looks for economy and maximizing the effect of every rupee spent on the media. 11. The medium and Target Consumer Match: The media mix has to reach the target consumer. It the advertiser wants to reach men between 25 and 55 who are professional, the Economic Times will be obviously a more appropriate choice than Femina. But sometimes matching consumer profiles with media characteristics becomes a lot more difficult. For example: Media planners will find it difficult to decide which kind of households can be reached by the Hindi feature film TV slot v/s the 9 Oclock serial slot. A thorough analysis of the target market will help in making this match and will reduce wastage of media expenditure.

12. Language: In India this is an important consideration and depending upon which a particular ethic group has to be reached a particular language newspaper, or television and radio programme must be used. 13. Prestige of media: It is said that the prestige of the advertising medium is transferred to the advertised product. When an ad appears in times of India, the image of the newspaper is transferred to the product and this helps in building the brand image. Sponsorship of prestigious programme such as the Oscar awards, Grammy awards, World Cup matches, are also considered prestigious advertising opportunities. 14. The Editorial Environmental: Since the broadcast media , that is the radio and TV media, are government controlled, they are not perceived to have independent editorial policies. But the print media enjoys the freedom of press and each publication has its individual editorial philosophy. The editorial environment in turn influences reader profile. Advertisers would like to place their ads in publication having an appropriate editorial environment. For instance, the ads of political parties have appeared in various newspapers while the ads promoting brand name of liquor tend to use mens magazines as their vehicles. 15. Nature of the product or services and nature of the market to be covered: Some products have niche markets and a special direct advertising medium will be suitable for them. For example: Detergents for washing machines can be used only by people having washing machines, but daily consumer products have a wider market and hence may use mass media. The geographical extent of the market has also to be considered. Is the market local, national or international for example: The ads of Air India will appear both in national media as well as international magazines and other media. But the ads of Indian Airlines will probably use only national media. 16. Availability of Media Time and Space: Media time and space have to be booked in advance. When an announcement is to be made immediately, the advertiser has little choice but use the available media time and space. Most popular media slots have to be booked months in advance. Media buying has become an important component of media planning due to the cost constraints and increase in competitive activity.

5. Budget Allocation and Media Buying

Budget Allocations: classifies spending my medium, region, and time of year

Media Buying
a. Occurs once plan is approved b. Buyers work with media representatives to negotiate final prices for the various activities Media buyers work in advertising and media agencies negotiating, purchasing and monitoring media space on behalf of their clients. They aim to reach the highest number of people in the target audience at the lowest possible cost. Chosen media may include newspapers, magazines, posters, internet, television and cinema. Media buyers work across a range of media or specialise in one particular area. They often work on more than one client account at a time. In some full service agencies, offering both creative and media, the role of media buyer is often combined with media planner. Typical work activities Media buyers work closely with media planners. Media buying and planning activities may be combined in one role, particularly at the early stages of a career. Typical work activities of Media buyers include: working on a range of client accounts at the same time, often juggling various projects and deadlines; identifying the target audience for a particular media campaign and deciding how best to communicate to that audience; keeping up to date with industry research figures, including distribution figures (newspapers and magazines) and audience figures (TV and radio); monitoring buying strategies; liaising and building relationships with clients and media sales companies;

 negotiating with media sales companies to obtain the best rates and most appropriate media spaces in online, broadcast and print advertising; liaising with media sales people to adjust media schedules in response to audience figures; booking individual media spots, pages, posters, internet banners, broadcast adverts, etc.; ensuring that the adverts run accurately so the desired media message is seen and heard by consumers; client reporting and budget management, including preparing costings for clients and producing spending updates throughout the campaign; collecting and analysing sales and consumer data; undertaking research using a wide range of specialist media resources; monitoring the effectiveness of the campaign - this data may also be used to monitor future campaigns; supporting the media manager and other colleagues.

6. Evaluation
Media plan evaluation is a crucial final step to check whether the planned media. programme conforms to the objectives as set for it. .

Media Buying in Detail

Types of Newspapers Advertising 1. Display advertising: To distinguish advertising from editorial matter, display advertising is designed comprising the copy, the layout, and the visuals. These ads come in all sizes. They are placed all over in a newspaper, depending upon the policy of that paper. Display advertising is national or local. 2. Co-operative advertising: Local ads can be inserted on cost sharing basis between the manufacturer and retailers co-operative advertising. Local display advertising is charged a lower tariff than the general display advertising. 3. Classified ads: Classified ads are small ads charged in terms of number of words, and putting the message in several categories or classes such as employment, real estate, matrimonial, automobiles and so on.Classified ads can be classified display ads, where bold letters, illustrations, borders and other visual elements are used. Newspaper also put a pre-printed ad insert in the paper. The paper with the insert is delivered to the reader. It is just a method of distribution for advertisers. It can be geographically selective and cost-effective Placing the Ad in the Newspapers We have to fill an insertion order while placing the ad. This order gives specific date(s) on which the ad is to be published, the rate at which it is to be published, and production details preparatory to the publishing of the ad. Agencies provide newspapers the ad material in finished form. If a small advertiser expects the newspapers to compose the ad, the newspapers first create a proof which is to be checked by the advertiser for correctness. Once the ad is run, a tear-sheet which is an actual page torn from the newspaper in which the ad was run is sent to the advertiser. It is a proof of publishing as per requirements. If there is an error, the advertiser or its agency can ask for rate adjustment or free insertion.

Print Media Buying

a. Newspaper buying: Characteristics of Newspapers 1. Immediacy. Newspapers offer the greatest advantage of conveying the message quickly. They are flexible and so the advertising copy can be written very close to the time it goes to press. This characteristic is especially useful while launching new products or making public announcements. The advertisements can thus have a powerful new emphasis. For example. When the manufacturer of Good Knight launched HIT mosquito repellent, half page ads were inserted in the Times of India to announce this launch. 2. Selectivity. This is one of the greatest advantages in the Indian context. The advertiser can select the geographical area over which the message is to be communicated as also the language. Newspapers offer splitrun facilities using which advertisers can test different campaigns in different geographical areas. 3. Newspapers Mechanical Requirements. Newspapers come in standard and tabloid sizes. Advertising space in newspapers is sold on the basis of columns and inches.

Most newspapers are largely printed on newsprint (a coarse paper stock) by high speed presses. Therefore there are limitations on the kinds of illustrative materials that can be effectively reproduced. Newspapers have recently begun offering colour supplements. For example, the Saturday Times of the Times of India , ET Esquire of The Economic Times and the Sunday supplements of most of the newspapers. In addition to innovative colour techniques, newspapers are adding other features to attract advertisers. Flexform advertising offers the advertiser the opportunity in any conceivable shape. Those parts of the newspaper page not containing the advertisement are filled with editorial matter. For example, the ads of Cinthol Lime, lime Lite and Liril have used the technique. Such unconventional layouts, surrounded by editorial matter are hard for the reader to ignore. 4. Variety: Most newspapers present a suitable variety of material to provide an interesting mix for a wide range of readers. A typical newspaper has sports, financial pages, society news, city news, shopping columns, comic strips and other features. Some pages are widely read by women, other by men interested in business news, and so on. An advertiser can select a target market by placing his advertisements in certain sections or pages of the paper. 5. Penetration: Morning newspapers are read by almost all the literate people. The readership is much more than the circulation. For example, the Times of India circulation is 7, 00,126 while its readership is 39, 36,000. Children are also keen readers of certain section. 6. Types of newspaper: There are a wide variety of newspapers to choose from. Advertisers who wish to make announcements would use morning newspapers. For example, public issue of shares and debentures. The copy in the morning newspapers has to be short and attractively illustrated. The evening newspaper can be used to advertise family products such as refrigerators, television sets and cupboard, which require detailed explanation and long copy including special offers and hire-purchase schemes. Specialty newspapers such as The Economic Times can be used for business-to-business communication such as advertisements of SKF ball-bearing, HCL computers, and so on. Advantages of Newspapers as an Advertising Medium 1. Prestige. The prestige and respectability of the newspaper is transferred to the advertised product/service. 2. Segmentation. Editorial content of the newspaper influences the type of its readers and thus offers segmentation of the market. For example, the Independent claims that its readers are young decision-makers, highly educated and professional, while the Times of India has greater appeal among the middle and older age groups. The characteristics of selectivity and variety explained above increase the newspapers advantage in market segmentation. 3. Flexibility. The newspapers offer tremendous flexibility to advertisers. When it is raining in Bombay, it may be hot in Delhi. While the Bombay newspapers can be used to advertise raincoats and umbrellas, the Delhi edition of the same newspaper can be used to advertise air coolers. The most important is the time flexibility that is the contents of the advertisement can be changed upto a few hours before the paper goes to press. MRF Tyres use the press medium just before the monsoons in Bombay by predicting the date of the first rainfall and thereby communicating to the consumers the urgency of changing to MRF Tyers before the monsoons. 4. Split Run Facilities. Many newspapers offer split run facilities. The split run test is a service used for testing print advertisements in which the media cooperate with an advertiser in allowing the same space for two or more copy variations to appear in systematic rotation through the entire circulation. This permits simultaneous circulation of two or more advertisements in identical editorial surroundings with comparable audiences. 5. Keying the advertisement. It is possible to key the advertisement and attach a mail order coupon in order to measure its effectiveness. 6. Measuring Reach. The Audit Bureau of circulation (ABC) gives the readership and circulation figures and therefore it is possible to measure the reach of different newspapers. 7. Mobility. Newspaper can be carried and read anywhere, while travelling, at the place of work, in library, inn doctors waiting room and so on. Limitation of Newspapers as an Advertising Medium

Despite the above advantages newspapers have the following limitations: 1. Limited coverage. In India with the literacy, level being low newspapers cannot be used to penetrate the lower income segments of the market. 2. Short Life. It is often said as stale as yesterdays newspaper. A newspaper has a very limited life and therefore advertising will have little impact beyond the day of publication. 3. Hasty reading. Studies indicate that people spend about 30 minutes on the paper. This means that the ad must make its impression quickly or it will fade. 4. Cost. It is an expensive medium that is unsuitable for small advertisers especially the morning English newspapers such as the Times of India. 5. Poor Reproduction. Most of the pages are in black and white and the colour advertisements are not as well reproduced as those in magazines. Therefore we rarely find food and fashion ads in newspapers. 6. Demonstration and Display. It is not possible to demonstrate product usage as in television commercials.

Factors affecting the choice of newspapers are as follows:

1. Circulation and Readership It is important to know who will notice our ad. Reach of a newspaper is given by circulation, which is the number of copies distributed each day for a daily or each week for a weekly. Paid circulation means the subscribed copies sold on stalls. Controlled circulation means free copies distributed. The circulation is certified by a body Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC). The number of readers exceeds its circulation figure; because each copy of the paper is read by more than one person. Readership is thus the total number of person who read a print vehicle either newspapers or magazines. Readership thus can be equated to audience. An average 3-5 person read a newspaper in India. It determines the number of people who notice the publication in which the ad is carried. 2. Advertising Rate. Most advertisers are constrained by their budgets and thus a newspaper that offers a competitive rate is most attractive. Publishing groups such as the Times of India offer special rates for booking space in several newspapers from the same group. (for example, an advertiser would get a competitive rate if he placed ads in the Times of India, Navbharat Times, The Economic Times and the Illustrated Weekly. 3. Newspaper Ad Rates: The rates of the ads, production specifications and ad deadlines and other relevant details are given in a rate card. When no discount is offered, it is called a flat rate. Some newspapers offer a volume discount for repetitions. Open rate is highest rate for the single ad. We have to pay open rate first, and then qualify for a discount by buying further space. Contract rate or earned rate is based on agreement. It gives a scheme of the number of ads or the amount space to be bought for earning a discount. If this condition is not satisfied an additional charge is levied called the short rate. Various Rates options: a. Preferred-position Rates: Each newspaper specifies its preferred-position rates. b. Combination Rates: A number of combinations are available to advertisers. What they all have in common is the advantage of greatly reduced rates for purchasing several papers as a group. c. Multiple Rate card: Many Newspapers offer a number of rate cards for different categories of advertisers. Basically, ad rates are ROP run of press, and ads can be placed anywhere on any page. But for special position, we have to pay more. If the same publication house publishes more than one newspaper, it can offer a combination rate which is lesser than the rate of buying in each individual media. 4. Split Run Facilities. Many newspapers offer split run facilities. The split run test is a service used for testing print advertisements in which the media cooperate with an advertiser in allowing the same space for two or more copy variations to appear in systematic rotation through the entire circulation. This permits simultaneous circulation of two or more advertisements in identical editorial surroundings with comparable audiences.

5. Space Available. When the advertisement is to be published urgently, space availability may be the only determinant. The positions available in the newspaper are also of a prime consideration. The front page is the most attractive commands the highest rate. Certain other positions close to a popular section are also sought after by advertisers. 6. Type of Readers. In an age where product segmentation is the key to success, it is important to know the characteristic of the newspapers readers while deciding its capabilities as an advertising medium. For instance, a survey done by NRS- ORG (National Readers Survey of the operations Research Group) reveals that almost 45 percent of Times of India readers are graduates and post graduates. Thus while advertising an encyclopedia; Times of India would make a good vehicle. 7. Language. This consideration is closely related to the profile of the readers. For products that have local markets, regional language newspapers are attractive. When an advertiser wants to appeal to a specified ethnic group he may use regional language newspapers. For example, a music group catering for Dandia Raas enthusiasts would find Gujarati newspapers the most suitable medium. 8. Colour. Many newspapers offer colour supplements which are more attractive than the black and white section. Advertisers are willing to pay higher rates to enjoy the colour advantage. 9. Time of Issue. Morning newspapers attract advertisers of new products who make announcements that require immediate attention. The copy is short and it has less technical information. Afternoon newspapers attract advertisers of household products and entertainment, while Sunday newspapers attract a great deal of advertisers catering for women (colour ads of Garden saris), children (ice-creams), men (industrial products). 10. Editorial Policy. This factor plays a crucial role in todays changing political scenario. Newspapers that are pro-government may find it easier to attract advertisers. Advertising in anti-establishment newspapers would imply that the advertiser is against the government and this may create problems such as delay in granting license and so on. Some newspapers are owned by political groups such as Samna by the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. This also influences the reader profile.

b. Magazine buying:
Magazine are of three types general interest magazines like India Today and Outlook or business magazines like Business India, Business World or Business Today or special magazines for niche markets like Eastern Pharmacist for pharmacists. Professional journals are also specialized magazines like the journal for chartered accountants, company secretaries and costs and works accountants. The advertisements at the top left and top right hand of a newspaper are called ears.

Advantages of Magazine Advertising

The newspapers and magazines have different advantages though both belong to the print media. The peculiar advantages of magazines are: 1. Demographic selectivity: Every magazine has a different audience whose demographic and psychographic characteristics are different. Thus Femina is a magazine for young women, whereas Savvy is a magazines for mature women. Manohar Kahaniyan has a typical audience of north Indian middle class. Each magazine thus helps us to target at a particular age group, gender group and income group. Special interest magazines provide a specific audience. 2. Geographic Selectivity: Some magazines have all-India circulation like India Today. Some magazines are confined to a region like Malayalam Manorama. So magazines help us target a geographic market we require without considerable waste. 3. Creative Flexibility: High fidelity reproduction is a specialty of magazines on account of their superior quality of paper and printing. They also provide opportunities for innovative adds like pop-up ads, samplebearing ads, scented ads, outside inserts as booklets. 4 .Durability of Message: Magazines are kept for a longer time, and are read again and again. More time is devoted to reading a magazine. It means that the chances of the ad message being seen are more in magazines. As the magazines are preserved for a longer time, the message has a durability of longer duration.

Disadvantages of Magazines Advertising In spite of several advantages, magazines have many drawbacks as advertising media. 1. Lead Time Longer: The ad material will have to be submitted much in advance because a magazine requires elaborate production plan. The lead time is sometimes 90 days before the release of an issue. It is difficult to change the message on account of changed circumstances and contingencies. These days magazines are trying to shorten the lead time as much as they can. 2. Limited Reach and Frequency: Magazines have limited reach as far as the total number of households are concerned. To reach a larger audience, it is necessary to buy a lot of magazine space. As their periodicity is either a month or a fortnight or a week, it is difficult to have higher frequency. To overcome this drawback, a media planner uses several magazines or adds other media to supplement magazine ads. 3. No Sound and Motion: Magazines rely upon the printed copy and visuals to convey the message, and lack the sound of radio or motion of TV which makes these audio-visual ads greatly effective.

Magazine buying:
Factors affecting the choice of Magazine are as follows While planning magazine ads, we have to consider factors like circulation and readership, ad rates, placement of ads, special facilities given by the magazines. 1. Circulation and Readership: Circulation figures indicate the number of people who will get to see the ad. But circulation for magazines keeps on fluctuating. The ad rates are based on guaranteed circulation. It is the figure of those least number of copies which will be delivered. Primary readership of a magazine is the readership of actual buyers or subscribers. Secondary readership get to read the magazine as it is passed on by the primary readers. Secondary readership is a matter of research. It always exceeds the circulation. (ABC) Audit Bureau of Circulation certifies a magazines circulation. Because the guaranteed circulation is the number of readers advertisers purchase, it is also known as the Rate Base i.e. the circulation that magazines guarantee advertisers in computing advertising costs. 2. Magazines Ad Rates: The rate card shows the rate to be paid and production specifications. It also spells out agencys commission policy and provides other relevant information. There are separate rates for Black and White and colour ads. The rates increase depending upon the number of colour used. Bleed ad has its background colour spread all over the page till its edges. It carries an extra charge. Magazines offer a variety of sizes full-page, half-page, quarter-page ads. Fractions of a page in several combination can be offered. Gatefold ad opens like a safe, when its two folds are opened. It occupies an extra-wide page. Run-of-press ads are placed anywhere. The preferred positions are the first-cover, the front inside cover (second cover), the inside backcover (third cover) and the outside cover (fourth cover). Generally, ads are not sold on first cover. Cover ads get more altention, and command higher rates. Preferred position is opposite to the contents, or near popular editorial features. Even a run-of-press ad can be made effective by using appropriate copy and layout. 3. Audience Selectivity: As we noted earlier, the audience niche reached by a publication is normally the starting point for evaluating a magazine. Successful magazines tend to appeal to relatively audience segments, especially compared to the general magazines of the 1950s such as Life, Look, and The Saturday Evening Post. However, today even the largest circulation publications have an identifiable editorial focus. Sports Illustrated, TV Guide, and Modern Maturity all reach millions of readers but concentrate on relatively few topics. The closest publications to the general circulation magazines of the past are Readers Digest and the newspaper distributed supplements USA Weekend and Parade. However, it is apparent that the typical consumer magazine reaches a particular demographic or lifestyle category. The combination of clearly defined demographics and compatible editorial environment make magazines important to many advertisers, either as the primary building block of a media schedule or as a valuable supplement to other media. 4. Exposure to a companys primary target audiences. Magazines can reach narrowly defined audience segments, especially among high income households. There is no question that magazines represent the most efficient means of reaching a significant segment of affluent prospects. Furthermore, the majority of this audience are not heavy users of other media. Therefore, when the marketing objective is to reach affluent customers, magazines will almost always play a central role in the advertising plan.

For more and more national advertisers, the decision is not one of deciding between magazine and television, but rather how to use them as complementary media. A study commissioned by the MPA found the following: The combination of print and television produces greater communication of brand attributes than print alone or television alone. The selection of a brand versus its competitors increases more when print and television are used in conjunction with each other than when television or magazines are used separately. It is evident that advertisers must plan their creative strategies and executions to strengthen and enhance the communication objectives for both media. The complementary advantages of combining magazines and television are greatly reinforced when creative strategies are complementary for both media. 5. Long life and creative options. A TV commercial is over in 30 seconds, we whiz by a highway billboard so quickly that only a fleeting glance is possible, and the average newspaper is in the recycling bin before we leave for work. In this disposable media world, magazines stand alone as a tangible vehicle. Magazines are often used as reference sources. Articles are clipped, back issues are filed, and readers may go back to a favourite magazine numerous times before finally discarding it. Advertisers potentially benefit from each of the exposures. Magazines also offer advertisers a wide range of flexible formats such as double-page spreads, bright colours, even product sampling. Magazines are particularly suited to long copy. Discussions of detailed product attributes for automobiles and appliances as well as advertising for financial services all lend themselves to magazines. 6. Qualitative factors. Advertisers buy magazines based on their ability to deliver a particular audience at a reasonable cost. However, more than any other medium, magazines depend on less easily measured, qualitative criteria that advertisers traditionally look for in magazines are the following: 7. Credibility. Many consumer magazines are considered the leading authority in their field. Car owners look to Road & Track, hunters to Sports Afield, stockholders to Fortune, and gardeners to Southern Living as sources of reliable information. As we discussed earlier, it is this position of magazines as authoritative sources that led to so many cross-media spinoffs into other media. Sometimes the relationship between media credibility and advertising is direct. For example, the Good Housekeeping Seal has been used by Good Housekeeping magazine for more than 50 years as a method of endorsing products that are advertised in the publication. In other cases, the connection is less obvious but nevertheless an important part of the qualitative selling environment of magazine advertising. 8. Compatible editorial environment. When a person picks up Golf Digest, Glamour, or PC Computing, there is little doubt about their interests. These same readers also watch prime-time television, listen to the radio on the way home from work, and see numerous billboards each day. However, it is difficult o anticipate what they are thinking about on these moments. On the other hand, specialized magazines can practically guarantee a synergism between reader and editorial content. 9. Reader involvement. The average reading time for a consumer magazine is 52 minutes. More importantly, the more highly educated a reader, the more thoroughly he or she reads a magazine. Studies show that readers with a college degree are exposed to the average magazine page more frequently and also are more likely to see the advertisements. Reader involvement is related to the credibility and editorial relationship that readers develop with their favorite magazines. While not easy to quantify, these factors play a role in determining in which medium advertisers will invest their dollars. 10. Long closing dates. Unlike the spontaneity of radio and newspapers, magazines require a long lead time between when advertising material must be submitted and when the ad will run. For example, a magazine advertisement may run 8 to 10 weeks after an advertiser submits it. This long lead time makes it difficult for advertisers react to current marketing conditions either in scheduling space or developing competitive copy. The long closing dates are one reason why most magazine copy is very general. 11. Ad Banking. While not an inherent disadvantage of all magazines, ad banking is a practice that some advertisers do not like. Ad banking is the practice of publications such as National Geographic to cluster (or bank) all the advertisements toward the front and back of the publication. Advertisers fear that banking creates

advertising clutter and makes it less likely that their advertising will gain high readership. Some advertisers exclude such publications from their media schedules. 12. Availability of demographic and geographic editions. On a national scale, magazine demographic and geographic editions meet the same demands of large advertisers. It is very rare that a national magazine does not offer some type of regional or demographic breakout of its total circulation. These special editions are called partial runs and are very common and important to magazine advertising. Demographic Editions. Major magazines routinely offer advertisers those ZIP codes with the highest average income. Advertisements can limit their ads to subscribers in those areas. Vocational Editions. A magazine may identify professionals or executives among its readers and allow advertisers to purchase a partial-run directed only at these readers. Geographic edition: The oldest, and still most available, form of partial-run is the geographic edition. Depending on the publication, a magazine may offer a combination of city, state, or regional editions. One advantage of geographic editions is that they can be used for both subscriptions and newsstand sales, whereas both demographic and vocational editions are confined to subscribers. It is extremely common for even relatively small circulation magazines to offer some form of partial-run advertising. Split-Run Editions. It is a special form of the partial-run edition. Split-run editions normally are used by both advertisers and publishers for testing purposes. The simplest form of split-run test is where an advertiser buys a regional edition ( a full-run is usually not bought because of the expense) and runs different advertisements in every other issue. Each advertisement is the same size and runs in the same position in the publication. The only difference is the element being tested. It may be a different headline, illustration, product benefit or even price. Partial-run and split run editions offer a number of benefits to advertisers. 1. Geographic editions allow advertisers to offer products only in areas where they are sold. 2. Partial-run can localize advertising and support dealers or special offers from one region to another. As advertisers, increasingly adopt local and regional strategies, the partial-run advantages will become even more apparent. 3. split-run advertisement allows advertisers to test various elements of a campaign in a realistic environment before embarking on a national rollout. 4. Regional editions allow national advertisers to develop closer ties with their retailers by listing regional outlets. This strategy also provides helpful information to consumers for products that lack widespread distribution. Partial-run editions also have disadvantages: 1. CPM levels are usually much more expensive than full-run advertising in the same publication and close dates can be as much as a month earlier than other advertising. 2. In the case of demographic editions, the lack of newsstand distribution for these advertisements can be a major disadvantage if single-copy sales are significant for the publication. 3. Some publications bank their partial-run advertising in a special section set aside for such material. Various Kinds of rebates, discounts and rates offered in magazine buys: 1. Frequency & Volume discounts: Discounts based on total time or space bought, usually within a year. Also called bulk discounts. 2. Other discounts such as continuity discounts for advertisers who agree to advertise at a certain rate over a period of time, usually 2 years.

3. Remnant Space: Unsold advertising space in geographic or demographic editions. It is offered to advertisers at a significant discount.

Television Buying
Merits and Demerits of TV Advertising Special Merits of TV: 1. TV has immense impact: No other medium can ever complete TV as far as effective presentation is concerned. It attracts attention immediately. Computer graphics has made it still more effective. It arouses interest in the product. In print ads, these two steps require deliberation. Here it comes spontaneously. TV commercials and sponsored programmes are impactive; even when the viewer is temporarily not before the set. 2. Excellent Quality of Production: TVs sponsored programmes and DD programmes have been improving in terms of quality content wise as well as product wise consistently over a period of time. The agency exercises overall supervision. We have cadre of TV producers now. Sometimes the movie moghuls themselves produce a TV serial (e.g. Sagar produced Ramayana and B. R. Copra the Mahabharat). So skilled hands this medium. Some sponsored programmes are lavishly made. They do a lot of outdoor shooting. But most of the programmes are indoor shot programmes. 3. Retailers also watch TV: Both consumers and distributors are TV viewers. The retailers might miss out the ads in print media. But they are exposed to TV ads. Thus they fell inclined to stock these products. Nand Kishore Khanna & Sons, a local firm making Homacol liquid soap has definitely improved its distribution after TV advertising. The single medium does a double job. 4. It is a Comprehensive Technique: In TV, there is a unique blend of sight, colour, movement, sound, timing, repetition and presentation in the home. Put together it has more attributes than any other medium. It, therefore, produces quick results. Only the product should be a nationally marketed consumer product. 5. Evocation of Experience: it stimulates the experience of using and owning the product. 6. Demonstration: Product benefits can be shown most effectively by TV. Benefits may accrue over a period of time. But by using the technique of time compression, product benefits can be shown in a 10 second spot. 7. Animation: It is possible to vest the product/logo with human qualities. Animated characters do not alienate us. 8. Image Building: TV succeeds in building a powerful image of the company and its products. It can also project an image of the users rendering it excellent for life-style advertising. 9. Emotional Content: TV triggers off nostalgia, tenderness, generosity kindness and such other emotions. The special effects enhance the impact. You have to be extremely genuine on TV. Special Demerits of TV Ads 1.It takes time to produce commercials and sponsored programmes: This medium requires planning and deliberation. The consent for sponsorship is hard to come by. It lacks the flexibility of press and radio. If not rightly produced, the ads look very crude. But once produced as per our requirements, these ads can be repeated over a period of time (Nirma ad). 2. It is a transient medium: Here the commercial flickers for a few seconds and goes off the air. We work over hard with insistent jingles and repeated sales message. Sometimes, the commercial is repeated frequently. TV ads alone may not be sufficient. They need supportive ads in other media. More than one or two spots are necessary to be as noticeable as one insertion in print. 3. Time gap to purchasing: If TV advertisement sinks into the mind, it is okay. But otherwise, a mind that is well prepared for buying a certain product cannot do so immediately because there is a night to go by and only next morning the action can be taken. By that time, we might not have kept the product in mind. The buy now

pressure exerted on the TV viewers is totally wasted because the stimulus is often lost by the following morning. This is one of the reasons why TV needs a very high frequency to sustain the impact. 4. An immobile medium: Radio can be listened to either in car or while walking. Newspapers are read in locals, in offices and at many other locations. Right now, TV is watched only at home. It requires a captive audience. It penetrates the home. This is an advantage as well as a disadvantage. 5. Difficult to gain enquiries: TV restricts itself to typical purchases. Detailed enquiries cannot come. It is difficult to note either the telephone number or the address. Another major problem is that too much is compressed in a TV commercial lasting for a few seconds. It is a digest, and is easily assimilated and absorbed. At first viewing, there is novelty. But on absorption, this wears off. On repeated viewing, it becomes monotonous. Everything is anticipated. This problem can be overcome if we can serialize a commercial. It is better to produce several less ambitious films than to produce one super production. Slight changes make all the difference in results. 6. Time Constraint: In a few seconds, we can put forward only one selling proposition. 7. Production Costs: Cost of producing a commercial is high as compared to costs of the print production. The paying capacity of the client, the prevailing rates in the market, the nature of the product, and the commercial values of the programme that accompanies the commercial determine the final production cost. 8. Hardware Capability: The T.V. set of the viewer and its technical capability determine the overall impact of the commercial. Cinema can afford the luxury of long shots, but not a T.V commercial. All commercials should be tested in real life situations, mostly on portable B & W sets. The colour reproduction is controlled in the print media, but on colour T.V. set the capability of the set itself determines the colour reproduction. 9. Statutory Controls: T.V. commercials have to conform to a broadcast code strictly. 10. Fragmentation of Audiences: All channels have a diversity of programmes to attract viewers. They intend to penetrate the viewers of other channels by a diverse programme mix. This channels penetration at the same time gives programme options. This naturally leads to fragmentation of audiences and lower regularities of viewer ship. I is difficult to convey a message in such a situation. It can prove a blessing in disguise for the print media. The relationship with T.V. is extremely flirtatious. 11. Effect of Clutter: the viewer ship of commercials is less than the viewer ship of the programme which accompanies them. The lengthier the chain of commercials, the less is the viewer ship. Several studies in India have shown that the total audience for commercial for an average T.V. programme is substantially lower than that of the programme, sometimes below over 50 per cent. The figure is further eroded due to large passive audiences of the total commercial audience. The duration of a commercial does not seem to play a significant role in brand name recall. Top rate programmes on any channels have high clutter leading to poor and recall. Factors affecting the choice of Television are as follows: 1. Television Rating Point: TV advertisers evaluate the medium according to the delivery of certain target audiences. In the case of networks and large affiliates, advertisers tend to look for exposure to fairly broad audience segments. The basic measure of television of Television is the rating point. The rating expressed as a percentage of some population (Usually TV households), gives the advertiser a measure of coverage based on the potential of the market. 2. Share of audience: Although the rating is the basic audience-measurement statistic for TV, another measure, the share of audience (or simple, share), is often used to determine the success of a show. The share is defined as the percentage of households using television that are watching a particular show. It is used by advertisers to determine how a show is doing against its direct competition. 3. Up-Front and scatter Buys: Purchase of TV time by advertisers during the first offering for the coming season by networks is upfront buy. Scatter buys are the second phase of buying that follows the Upfront buys and are usually bought on a quarterly basis throughout the year. Among the major up-front trends are: a) Greater demand for time

b) Agency using computer models called optimizers which provides additional data to major prime-time advertisers, which gives them confidence to spread their budget. c) Globalization d) Special events The up-front season is followed by a second phase known as scatter plan buys. Scatter plans are usually bought on a quarterly basis throughout the year. They are designed for larger advertisers who want to take advantage of changing marketing conditions or, more often, for smaller advertisers who are shut out of upfront buys. Generally, scatter plans will sell at a higher CPM than up-front spots because there is less time inventory and smaller advertisers do not have the leveraged to negotiate the CPM levels of larger networks. 4. Spot Television or Spot Buys: When national advertisers buy from local or regional stations, the practice is known as spot television or spot buys. I.e. purchase of time from a local or regional station, in contrast to purchasing from a national network. 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. The primary disadvantages of spot television are that it requires a great deal more planning and paperwork than National Network since each market must be bought on a one-to-one basis and its more costly on a CPM basis than National Network buys. Primary reasons for Spot Buys: 1. Uneven product distribution or inadequate budgets for network: To provide businesses with less than national or uneven distribution, a means of avoiding waste circulation incurred by network Television. Many products have distribution patterns that are so irregular that network coverage would create unacceptable waste circulation. Also, many national companies simply lack the funds to purchase adequate time on a national television basis. However, by judiciously buying in markets where they have strong sales or sales potential, these companies can compete in selected areas. 2. Geographic targeting: To allow network advertisers to provide additional GRPs in those markets with the greatest sales potential. Few brands, even those with strong national distribution, have consistent sales patterns in every market. Spot buys allow network advertisers to control for uneven network ratings on a market-bymarket basis. Spot offers a method of building local television weight in those markets with the greatest potential while still taking advantage of the lower CPMs of network for national exposure. By combining spot and network, a company can take advantage of the sales potential of its best markets while providing adequate exposure to all markets through network advertising. 3. Local Identity: By using spot advertising, a national advertiser can more closely identify with the local market & its retailers. In addition different markets have unique viewing habits, which networks cannot accommodate. For example, spot advertisers can buy strong local news shows and other locally produced programming that fit the demographics of prime prospects in the market. National advertisers can use spot to support retailers and provide localization for special marketing circumstances. Spot offers opportunities for local cooperative promotions with retailers, which would be impossible in network. 4. Flexibility: Unlike network advertising, in which commitments are made several weeks or months in advance, spot buys allow an advertiser to immediately react in changing market conditions. Assuming commercials are ready, an advertiser can be on-air in as little as 48 hours. 5. Pre-emption rate: A considerable portion of spot TV advertising time is sold on a pre-emptible (lower-rate) basis, whereby the advertiser gives the station the right to sell a time slot to another advertiser that may pay a better rate for it or that has a package deal for which that particular spot is needed.. 6. Negotiation: Negotiation is the key to the Television buying. Since each advertising package is unique to a particular advertiser, there are no rate cards for network television advertising. In Negotiation process advertisers negotiate for time across a number of Television options.

7. Run of Schedule (ROS): An advertiser can earn a lower rate by permitting a channel to run commercials at its convenience whenever time is available rather than in a special position. 8. Product protection: Every advertiser wants to keep the advertising of competitive products as far away from its commercials as possible. This brings up the question of what protection against competition an ad will get. Although some station say that they will try to keep competing commercials 5 to 10 minutes apart, and guarantee that they will not run them back to back. 9. Stripping: Scheduling a syndicated program on a five-day-per-week basis. That is, they will run Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi or Desh-Videsh, Monday through Friday in the same time slot. This practice is called stripping since the show is stripped across a time period. It is cost efficient to buy fewer shows for multishowings and allows a station to build a consistent audience for selling commercials to potential advertisers. Channels do not want huge rating or audience composition swings from one day to another. Difference between SOA and Rating Point system: Rating Point: The basic measure of television is the rating point. The rating that is expressed as a percentage of some population (usually TV households), gives the advertiser a measure of coverage based on the potential of the market. The rating is usually calculated as follows: Rating= Program Audience/ Total TV households X 100 A rating of 15 for a program indicates that 15% of all households in a particular area tuned their TV sets in to that station. Rating is the basic audience-measurement statistic for TV. Share of Audience (SOA): Another measurement is the share of audience (or simply, the share). It is often used to determine the success of a show/program. The share is defined as the percentage of households using television that are watching a particular show. It is often used by advertisers to determine how a show is doing against its direct competition. Let us assume that a show Amul Voice of India has 5,000 households watching in a market with 50,000 households. Thus the Rating for Amul Voice of India would be 10. Rating= Voice of India viewers/ Total TV households X 100 = 5,000/50,000 X 100 = 10 The Share calculates the percentage of households using television (HUT) that are tuned to that program. If we assume that of 50,000 households, 25,000 are watching television, then the share for Voice of India would be 20. Share = Voice of India viewers/ HUT X 100 = 5,000/25,000 X 100= 20 It is understood that both the Ratings and Share of Audience are expressed as percentages (hence the factor of 100 in the equations). Therefore, we do not use decimal points to refer to the measures in the example as 10 percent & 20 percent, we say that the rating is 10 and the share is 20. Defining the Television Coverage Area: Television research uses three levels of signal coverage to designate potential station coverage of a market area. 1. Total Survey Area: This survey area is the largest area over which a stations coverage extends. 2. Designated Market Area: This is a term used by A.C. Nielsen Media Research to identify those countries in which home markets receive more viewers. 3. Metro Rating Area: This rating area corresponds to the standard metropolitan area served by a station. Rating Methodologies

As audience researchers grapple with the growing problems of measuring the fragmented audience for television, they constantly review and refine their research methodologies. The methods used to measure the television audience continue to evolve as new technology becomes available. Rating methods have gone through several phases over the years: 1. The Telephone: The telephone recall method- is to determine viewing behavior, but not on a regular basis for syndicated TV ratings. 2. The Diary: It requires that all persons in a household keep a record of their viewing habits. It used to be a popular method. 3. The Household Meter: This was introduced by A.C.Nielsen referred to as Storage Instantaneous Audimeter or SIA or simply the Audimeter. The meters give an accurate profile of the program to which the TV is tuned. However, it does not measure who is watching. 4. People Meter: It is a device that measures TV set usage by individuals rather than by households. It helps gather demographic information- what & by whom is it being watched. This is also known as TAM Meters & very popular in the West. 5. Passive Meter: An unobtrusive device that measures individual viewing habits through sensors keyed to household members. The problem, however, is that the person may be in the room with the TV set tuned in but not be watching & may be erroneously recorded as a member of the audience. 6. The Pocket People meter: The individual carries this device and it records any viewing during a rating period. 7. Television Rating Point: It is introduced to assess the viewership of TV programs by IMRB. The TRP system was launched as a Panel system and has become an important measure for buying & selling air time. The panel consists of chosen members to represent the panel. Each panel member records the viewership of different TV programs in the diary specially given to him/her. The data is then analyzed. The panel has two groups: Primary audience of adults from TV-owning households and Secondary audience of adults from nonTV owning households but who watch TV at least once a week. Programs Rating Point is the percentage of panel members who viewed that program. One TRP is equal to one per cent of TV audience. TRP monthly reports give data of frequency of viewing, overlapping of viewership amongst programs, cumulative reach for different episodes of the same program. They also give the viewers profile. 8. Cume: This measures the number of different persons who tune in to a particular station or network over a period of time. This method shows the advertiser how many different people hear their message if it is telecast at different times such as 7p.m., 8p.m., 9p.m. If the total number of people available is 100 & 5 of them view at 7p.m. & those % still view at 8p.m., but 3 new people watch, and then 2 people turn off the TV but 4 new people join the audience at 9p.m., the cume would be 12 (5+3+4=12) cumes. This is particularly important to cable networks because their ratings are very low. 9. Average Quarter Hours (AQH): This is another measurement and the calculation is based on the average number of people viewing a particular station or network program for at least 5 minutes during a 15 minute period. For example, if out of 100 people, 10 view for at least 5 minutes between 7 & 7.15p.m., 7 view it between 7.15 & 7.30p.m., 11 view it between 7.30 & 7.45p.m. & 4 view between 7.45 & 8p.m.; the AQH Rating would be 8 (10+7+11+4=32/4=8). 10. Sweeps/Sweep weeks: Because of the expense of obtaining rating information, daily measures are conducted only in top markets. Sweeps uses meters to provide overnight ratings in these markets. During the selected period (i.e. certain months) the ratings are taken for all Television markets (the entire TV audience, including metered markets is measured, or swept-sweep weeks).

Radio Advertising:
Commercial radio in the Indian context has certain inherent characteristics. Its strengths lie in: 1. Offering local coverage on its medium wave channels 2. Permeating all economic and social strata, thereby reaching the masses

3. Its daily frequency, offering scope for continued messages 4. Broadcasting throughout the day so that message may be repeatedly broadcast 5. Reaching un-educate village folk who do not read print publication 6. When the message is to be carried to a large number of people who speak different languages, radio is a most suitable medium which admirably does the job at the least cost. 7. In a country like India, where literacy rates are low, and so newspapers have limited significance, radio is a popular both with advertisers and audiences. In radio, the news service is continuous; unlike TV where we receive news in the morning transmission, and again in the network programme in the evening, which is wide spacing. To the advertisers, news breaks on radio are the peak listening points when it pays to advertise. 8. Radio commercial can be produced quickly and is not so costly also. It can be repeated over a period of time. Radio thus is afforded by even small firms. 9. Radio Creativity and Flexibility Unlike other out-of-home messages, radio commercials are not static but can be changed almost immediately to reflect different market conditions or new competition. The personal nature of radio, combined with its flexibility and creativity, makes it a powerful medium for all types of advertisers and product categories. One of radios greatest strengths is its flexibility. Copy changes can be made very quickly. When marketing conditions suddenly change, you can react instantly with radio. The short lead time in production and copy changes is an enormous benefit to advertisers who may need lastminute adjustments to their sales messages. 10. The ability to anticipate or react to changing conditions cannot be underestimated. 11. The simplicity of radio can be a major advantage in making tactical marketing decisions. Radios sense of immediately and flexibility, all at a cost within the budget of even the smallest advertiser, has made it an important part of the strategy of many advertisers. Commercial radio, however, suffers from the following weaknesses; 1. It is an audio medium only; hence it affects certain essential elements of communication 2. Certain operational limitation are imposed; for example, the minimum period of a fortnight reduces the mediums flexibility 3. Limited commercial time available. Only 10 percent of time availability restrict the frequency of message exposure 4. Limited availability of commercial radio. There are only 28 radio stations offering commercial broadcasting against 300 in a country. 5. There are possibilities of distortion in communication. Precision of script- writing is a very challenging task. In TV, vision accompanies the words and so there is no misunderstanding. 6. We know what Khurram Khurram Papad on TV commercial is but the concept is transmitted poorly on radio. Word pictures are necessary on radio. 7. There is a overselling in place of precise explanation. It is a real hazard. Much is at stake on the announcers presentation who has to do hard-selling job. An insistent voice really irritates. TV does this job effortlessly. 8. Repetitions are monotonous. Radio is also a transient medium with no durability of message. Audience research of radio is really grey area. In India, before advertisers can think of radio as a serious medium, this research data should be easily available.

BUYING RADIO Before radio salespeople can convince clients to buy the medium, they must put themselves in the place of individual clients to determine how radio will accomplish their marketing and advertising goals. The successful salesperson must approach the sale from the clients point of view. At one time, radio held a unique role in the media schedule of most advertisers. Generally, radio accomplished one of three functions for an advertiser: It supplemented other media to add weight to a schedule. It is particularly valuable for special sales or to react to unanticipated marketing conditions. Radio was valuable as a niche medium. As we have seen, radio often reaches market segments that are not heavy users of other media. For example, for many teenagers radio is the primary medium, while print is very ineffective. For a few retailers, especially smaller stores or those with narrowly segmented clientele, it was their only medium. Today, advertisers continue to use radio for each of these marketing and advertising objectives. However, the radio salesperson finds that the medium landscape is full of new competitors, each claiming to accomplish many of the same tasks as radio. The localized strategy adopted by many national advertisers, led media such as television to see the advantages of competing for local dollars as well as selling added local weight to national advertisers. At one time, radio competed only with newspapers for local dollars. Today, radio finds Yellow Pages, local cable outlets, broadcast stations, outdoor, direct mail, free shoppers and specialty books for real estate, automobiles, etc. all trying to get a share of the local advertising dollar. All of these competitors have a visual element that radio lacks. It has never been more important for radio to develop creative strategies to overcome this major disadvantage. The radio salesperson must become a marketing consultant, a partner with a client in showing how radio can solve the problems. A central element in successful radio sales is an understanding of other media-not merely to identify and take advantage of a competitors weak spots, but to be able to speak from an informed, objective point of view about the strengths and weakness of all the media, and to work with the client in developing the most productive marketing plan. It is clear that clients buy radio as a part of overall media strategy. Radio, or for the matter any medium, is rarely purchased on an individual basis. The client and the media salesperson must view the media plan as a synergistic one in which each medium complements with others. Unless radio can create a value to the other media, it is unlikely it will be a part of media schedule. Fortunately, radio offers unique characteristics that will allow it to be considered for at least a secondary role in the advertising plans of virtually all advertisers. USING RADIO RATINGS Radio also uses ratings and shares and calculates them in the same way as of the TV ratings. However, the audiences and programming of radio mandate that ratings be used in a way much different from the way ratings are used in television. In this section, we will discuss some uses of ratings that are unique to radio. Among the primary differences between the use of ratings in television and radio are the following: Radio advertisers are interested in broad formats rather than programs or more narrowly defined television scatter plans. Radio ratings tend to measure audience accumulation over relatively long periods of time or several dayparts. Most TV ratings are for individual programs. The audiences for individual radio stations are much smaller than television, making radio ratings less reliable. Since most radio stations reach only a small segment of a market at a given time, there is a need for much higher levels of advertising frequency compared to other media. FM Broadcasting

India ushered in a new era of FM broadcasting on August 15, 1993 with the introduction of private participation in the channel. Let us be acquainted with a few facts about FM : Frequency Modulation. Radio, as perhaps you are aware, is a way of combining sound waves with an electromagnetic wave. It was introduced by Reginald Aubrey Ferguson, an engineer from Canada. Who Are the buyers of outdoor media? They are tobacco companies, tyres and soft drink companies, consumer goods companies (80 p.c. business), financial advertisers (20 p.c. business). No where else in the world, financial advertising is done by outdoor media. Cinema hoarding have become a thing of the past. Buying Radio Time: Radio time is bought on total bulk time. It is bought on the basis of: Drive Time: This is the most costly and desired time (7a.m.-11a.am. & 5p.m. - 10p.m.) Run-of-station: Cheaper to buy this and usually used by small advertisers. There is no specific time but placed between any program, any time. Special Features: This is the time adjacent to special programs such as news reports, weather bulletins, traffic alerts. Package plans: This is the time with respect to total audience plans (programs that reach to the target audience). Direct Response Direct-response advertising can reach virtually any demographic, product user, or even lifestyle segments with extreme accuracy. It is a medium particularly attuned to the target marketing philosophy of the 1990s and has shown significant growth in the past decade. Advantages of Direct Advertising 1. Market Segmentation. It is possible to prepare mailing list spread across different geographical areas depending upon your target market. This is especially useful in India where people speak different language and come from across cultural backgrounds. 2. Personal Touch. Direct ad has personal touch and that appeal to consumers. It is possible to select from mailing lists and addresses letters individually. Reading every name on the cover and several times in the letter flatters the consumer and creates the right atmosphere to sell the product idea. 3. Complete attention. Unlike TV where ads is mixed with entertaining and newspaper where it is read along serious news, direct ads is read with minimum distractions. 4. Flexibility. Unlike the print medium where the ad is constrained by limitations of size and space available, literature in direct ad can come in different forms, shapes and sizes. 5. Testing the Advertisement. It is the most appropriate method of testing effectiveness by keying different mailers. It is possible to measures which ad got the maximum response. 6. Confidentiality. It is possible to control the type of audience that will be exposed to your ad message. This ensures relative secrecy and it is possible to keep the rivals guessing about your sales pitch. 7. An Aid to Sales People. A direct mailer preceded by a sales persons visit makes it easier for the sales person. 8. Industrial Advertising. Direct mailers are useful while advertising industrial products which can be explained in detail in categories. 9. Local Advertising. This medium is used by a local advertiser such as retailers, tuition and coaching classes, gyms and hobby classes. The opening of new outlets, discount sales and other special offers are also made using this medium. 10. Economical. When the market is small and can be identical it is useful to use this medium.

11. Legal Restrictions. MRTP and other legal restrictions disallow advertising by pharmaceutical companies for products other than OTC for example Crocin or Vicks VapoRub. Professionals such as doctors and lawyers also cannot advertise their services. Such classes of advertisers find direct advertising most suitable. Limitations of Direct Advertising Mailing List. The success of direct ad depends upon the mailing list. If the mailing list is comprehensive and complete and it reaches the target market it can be effective. In India with limitations of computer facilities and accurate secondary data about consumers demographic profile it is difficult to prepare a suitable mailing list. Cost: Cost per thousand is definitely more expensive than other media that is when large numbers of people have to be reached this medium is not suitable. Reader Involvement: When too many mailers are received reader involvement reduces and they tend to throw away the sales letters even before opening them. Cost of Production: Brochures and catalogues produced in colour on art-paper can be very expensive and cannot be used by small firms. VIDEO AS ADVERTISING MEDIUM Introduction: In recent times video has been one of the fastest growing medium. Most advertisers reserve a part of their advertising budget for video. Zandu Pharmaceuticals has allocated 15 per cent of its 2 crore ad budget to this medium. Around 12 per cent of Bajaj Electricals ad budget is devoted to video. The Akai Bush sound system is being pushed through video alone when the video first arrived in the late 70s its cost over Rs. 50,000. Cassettes had to be imported and there was no real prospects of growth since Doordarshan had not started the colour telecast. All this changed after 1984 with the coming of the colour telecast Advantages of Video as an Advertising Medium 1. Cost. It is much cheaper than TV. While a 10 sec spot on the National Network in the 9 pm slot costs Rs. 90,000, the comparative cost on a video cassette works out to be just rs. 6,000. According to a study done a 30 sec spot per thousand viewers on video costs merely Rs. 6 compared to Rs. 11 and Rs. 13 on TV and Cinema. 2. Segmentation. Video offers segmentation depending upon the type of movies and languages. An English movie will have a different clientele than a Marathi or a Hindi one 3. Situational Advertising. It is possible to insert an ad before or after as appropriate situation. 4. Coverage. Video has been used effectively by companies approaching the rural market. Armed with video cassettes of films and commercials of their product (called video Yatra) they have captivated the rural audience. The number of video sets is also on the increase. Limitations of video as an Advertising Medium 1. Zapping. The fast forward control has been a problem area for an advertiser. to overcome this computers have been used to super impose ads on the frame of the film itself. 2. Short Life. A large number of films are released every month and the life of a new film is somewhere between one week and two months. At the end of this period the pirated cassettes will have some another films taped on them. Thus while new films have large viewer ship and are ideal for a number of campaign, several media planners prefer old evergreen films for long term objectives 3. Variety. Though there are several video magazines the ads are more popular in film based cassettes. This limits the market penetration in up-market segments. The alternative is the English feature films which can reach the up- market consumers. But the poor quality of films imported by the National Film Development corporation (NFDC) has been a handicap. 4. Interference with Entertainment. Too much advertising on video has a nuisance value especially ads superimposed on the movie 5. Boredom watching the same as again and again leads to boredom and negative appeal. 6. Pirated Cassettes. This can be termed as an advantage since more people watch the cassette than originally paid for. But in most of these films the ads are edited poorly which may spoil the image of the product.

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING Out-of home media include outdoor posters (Billboards, Painted Bulletins and on-and-of premise signs of all descriptions. Whatever may be the slight difference in the interpretation; all outdoor ads have no editorial vehicle to carry the messages. The viewer has to incur no expenditure, nor has he to make any effort to see an outdoor advertising, where as this is not so with other media. An ad message is not brought to the audience; it is audience who go the message, though they view it in the course of their other activities. Outdoor ads offer repeat opportunities for looking at the ad messages, either at the same place on an identical Billboard at another location. Only such Billboards are qualified as outdoor media. Roadside and on premises devices, which are not of standard sizes and/or designs, are not classified strictly as outdoor ad. They are referred to as signs. These media can at the best be called Out-of Home (OOH) media. What is a Billboard? Outdoor advertising is mostly Billboard advertising. The first use of this advertising was in promoting theatrical programmes. The playbill was pasted outside the theatre, so that passer-by could see it. This was done to promote attendance at these theatrical performances, and was no doubt a primitive form of advertising; but it is existence even today. The bills were pasted on walls, fences or on boards around the town. The word Billboard has its origin in the playbill posted outside the theatre. After automobile came in and the road network became increasing the extensive, the outdoor poster at the roadside became a useful medium for advertising. The word Poster is used to convey an advertising message, and it is posted on a structure built for that purpose. The original poster was a sheet of paper, 28 inches by 41 inches. Several such one-sheets could be combined to make larger posters to fit different frames. The most popular size poster is 24-sheet poster. This is the size of a structure for which 24 individual sheets of the above mentioned size are required to fill the board. Now, with the modern printing press, bigger size sheets can be printed. The same space can be now be filled say, with only 10 sheets; but we still call this size a 24 sheet poster. A 24-sheet poster lhas a copy area which is 104 inches high and 234 inches long. A 30 sheet poster has also acquired a wide acceptance nowadays providing a copy area of 115 inches by 259 inches. The bigger posters, called bleed posters, of size 125 inches by 272 inches, have also gained popularity. Poster panels may be illuminated or regular (non-illuminated). When night traffic is dense in metropolitan areas, there is a need for illuminating the posters. Painted boards constitute another major outdoor advertising. Instead of printing on a sheet of paper, the message is painted. This is very important, particularly when the billboard is exposed to rains and is likely to get spoiled soon. Of the outdoor boards which have a longer life span, the painted poster is the most acceptable. The following are the advantages of the outdoor media: 1. The outdoor offers long life. 2. It offers geographic selectivity. Billboards give us the flexibility to vary the ad message to suit a particular segment of the market. An advertiser can use this medium nationally, globally, by region, by market and even by specific location within those markets. 3. The advertiser can incorporate the names and addresses of his local dealers or agents at the bottom of the poster. These dealer imprint strips are called snipes. 4. The outdoor offers impact. Shoppers are exposed to last minute reminders by outdoor advertising when they are driving down to the stores or a shopping centre. Outdoor displays are in large size and in bright colour, and have a provocative message- all of which make a good impact on prospective customers. 5. Outdoor advertising allows for a psychedelic display of the product, trademark and slogan.

6. Life-like Visuals and Lifestyle Advertising: New technology makes it easier to advertise the branch on hoardings. It reinforces the TV and Print advertising. Outdoor alone among all other media generates for the local governments and civic bodies. Outdoor advertising has the following limitations: 1. Since the copy of billboard ads must be brief, it places a limitation on getting the message across to the prospect in enough words. This brevity has made outdoor advertising merely supplementary advertising. The print or broadcasting media are mainly relied upon to deliver longer messages. 2. Outdoor advertising is non-selective in the sense that the audience who get the exposure are people of all ages, sexes, educational and socio-economical levels. There is no selectivity of a particular type of audience. 3. Outdoor advertising when employed on a national basis is relatively expensive. 4. Blind spot is the most dangerous thing that advertiser fear when it comes to outdoor advertising. The term is used to refer to a campaign that is sustained for a long -time. The question is how to continuously create novelty in hoardings. Amul has overcome blind spot syndrome. 5. There is a problem of getting the reliable data on the number of people who actually see an advertisement. 6. Price of message decay: Most advertisers find that it takes more and more money every year to advertise. Message decay has emerged as a major problem for all advertisers. 7. The outdoor advertising industry is mainly a local business operation. Several individual firms run by a single businessmen, own posters and painted display location. In cities, town and in road sides, which sell those individual location for outdoor advertising to advertiser. 8. Normally, the sale of a location is for a certain period of days or weeks or months. There are also large firm owning large number of locations. Selvel and Advertiser are some of the names that are popular in outdoor location selling business. There are few chain of firms operating in this business. 9. With a regard to the location of outdoor advertising, let this point be stated clearly that its value is only in its location. In order to be effective the angle of the billboard from the road, and such other accepts has helped in gaining better attention of the motorist, are important. These are many variables which make a location good for a poster or a painted display. Some of these are: Forms of outdoor advertising As we mentioned at the outset of this chapter, outdoor is only one of the several categories of out of home advertising, however in terms of revenues, public familiarity and long term usage, the two basic forms of out of home are posters and painted bulletins. In both vehicles, the message is designed by the advertising agency. The design is then reproduced on paper posted on panels,. The larger painted bulletins are prepared by outdoor company artists in a studio or on site. a) Poster panels The most common type of poster is really two posters in one. Bleed and 30 sheet posters, which use the same frame, constitute the typical highway billboard with which we are so familiar. These posters are available in some 9,000 communities. Poster buys can be made for a single location or total national coverage. The standard poster panel measures 12 feet by 25 feet. The bleed poster either prints to the edge of the frame or uses blanking paper matching the background of the poster. The term bleed is, of course, borrowed from the bleed magazine ad, which has no border. The term sheet originated in the days when presses were much smaller and it took many sheets to cover a poster panel. Today presses can print much larger sheets, but the old space designations are still used. Poster displays are sold on the basis of illuminated and nonilluminated panels. Normally, poster contracts are for 30 days, with discounts for longer periods. Those panels in locations with high traffic volume are normally illuminated for 24 hours exposure. A typical poster showing will consist of 70-80 percent illuminated posters. When buying an outdoor showing, the advertiser is given the number of displays, the number that are illuminated and nonilluminated, the monthly and per- panel cost, and total circulation or exposure.

The Eight-sheet poster One of the fastest-growing types of outdoor advertising is the eight-sheet poster. Eight- sheet posters measure 5 feet by 11 feet, about one-sixth the size of 30-sheet posters. The posters, sometimes called junior posters, were originally developed to provide small, local businesses with affordable outdoor advertising, but when the eightsheet outdoor advertising association established a standard poster size, it enabled national and regional advertisers to use the medium throughout the country. Research shows that these small displays placed low and close to the street deliver dramatic advertising visibility and impact at a reasonable cost. Since most small businesses generate 90 percent of their sales from customers who live within a 3 mile radius, eight-sheet posters are an ideal way to deliver targeted advertising messages in these well-defined trade areas while avoiding paying for costly waste circulation. One of the strengths of eight-sheet posters is that they often conform to local zoning regulations that exclude larger boards. Another advantage of eight-sheet posters is their cost efficiency. b) Painted bulletin Painted bulletins are the largest and the most prominent type of outdoor advertising. Painted bulletins are of two types: permanent and the more popular rotary. The permanent bulletin remains at a fixed location and can vary in size, since it is never moved. The rotary bulletin is a standardized sign that is three times larger (14feet by 48 feet) than the standard poster and provides greater impact than traditional posters. It can be moved from site to site to ensure maximum coverage of a market over a period of months. Both types of bulletin are located at choice sites along heavily traveled thorough fares. They are almost always illuminated. Bulletins are approximately four times more expensive than posters. In recent years, the basic bulletin has been augmented with special embellishments, such as cutouts, free-standing letters, special lighting effects, fiber optics, and inflatable. Painted bulletins contracts are usually for a minimum of one year; however, short-term contracts are available at a higher monthly rate. The rotary bulletin gives the advertiser the advantage of the greater impact of the painted bulletin along with more coverage and penetration than a single site could deliver. The rotary bulletin can be moved every 30, 60, or 90 days, so that during a 12 month period consumers throughout the market will have seen the advertisers message. c) Spectaculars As the name implies, outdoor spectaculars are large, usually unique displays designed for maximum attention in high traffic areas. They may consist of special lighting or other types of ingenious material and innovations. In some cases they utilize a building as the canvas for the message. The cost of spectaculars is very expensive and both production and space rentals are normally negotiated on a one-time basis. However, the minimum contract period for most spectaculars is usually a year. In the near future, we may see the combination of outdoor and video as a standard feature of outdoor. Regardless of what new technology comes to outdoor, it is obvious that static, paper poster soon may be history. In the future..outdoor advertising companies may be able to change the image, the text-a billboards whole look-with push of a computer button because billboards across country may be connected via satellite. For example a fast-food chain could advertise breakfast goodies for the morning crowd, and later lunch/evening meals by changing images and copy in a matter of seconds. Technology for billboards to function as video screens exists today.but at this time cost dont justify its use as a mass-market tool.

Transit advertising
Transit advertising includes a number of formats and distinctly different advertising vehicles. Among the major forms of transit advertising are the following: Bus exteriors Taxi exteriors Bus and commuter rail interiors Commuter station posters Miscellaneous displays such as terminal clocks and air terminal posters The king-sized posters dominate bus advertising space and are the most used format for both national and local transit advertisers.

Transit provides a number of advantages to advertisers and, although still a small medium by total advertising standards, has grown at a significant rate in the past several years. Estimated revenues for transit are approximately $300 million. The popularity of transit advertising are due to a number of factors: Transit prices have low overall cost and CPM levels. Transit prices are even lower than traditional outdoor. Transit reaches prospects in the market place and is attracting an increasingly upscale audience as public transportation becomes more popular in many cities. In the case of interior signs, advertisers are reaching a captive audience of riders who average almost 20 minutes per trip. The nature of transit audience allows somewhat longer messages than outdoor signs. The repetitive nature of the transit audience quickly builds high levels of frequency over relatively short periods. Transit advertising provides a low-cost option for reaching a mobile, urban audience. With likelihood that mass transit will be more popular in the coming years; the growth of transit advertising is assured. Added to its ability to reach this audience is the fact that municipal governments are seeking new sources of revenue and transit advertising rental space is one that is readily available. Types of Transit advertising: 1. Shelter advertising With traditional out of home media facing falling revenues and legal restrictions, shelter advertising is a major growth area. Shelter advertising is normally used as a complementary medium to outdoor posters. It has the advantage of being able to be used in areas where zoning regulation ban outdoor. In addition, shelter messages reach not only bus riders but vehicular traffic. In fact as much as 90- percent of the total shelter audience is vehicular. Shelter advertising has three major advantages: a) It is an extremely inexpensive medium. CPM levels are among the lowest of any advertising medium. It is also similar to other out-of home media in that it generates high reach and frequency in a short time. b) Advertisers can use shelter advertising to target specific markets. For example, a packaged good may use shelters in front of supermarkets or jeans wear on the college campus. c) Shelter advertising is illuminated for 24- hour reach and provides maximum exposure and awareness. With 4x6 signs, shelter advertising provides stopping power for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Unlike other media, it rarely suffers from clutter from other competing messages. It is obvious that shelter advertising, although accounting for a small portion of all advertising revenues, will continue to grow at a faster rate than overall advertising expenditures. As new product categories come into the medium, we may even see larger increases in the shelter sector. Finally rather than facing the regulatory problems of outdoor, the revenues generated by shelter posters are often shared with municipal transit companies, making the medium a revenue producer to many cities facing tight budget 2. Interior cards or car cards Buses and subways usually have overhead and wall mountings for advertising. Local trains also have advertising space on their walls. These are especially useful when catering for specific target group such as women. The ads can be placed inside the womens compartments of the local trains. Unlike the posters which cannot be read at length commuters in train have ample time to reach the ad. And therefore a longer copy can be used. Situational-specific advertising can also be used, for instance Godrej has used car cards very effectively. Car may be spoilt and disfigured by mischievous youngsters. The train route is drawn and below that the product is advertised. This ensures that commuters referring to the map will notice the product for its marvel soap.

Godrej used the ad line After the hot sticky journey you need the creamy freshness of Marvel. The main disadvantage of this medium is that the ads environment is not pleasing for most commuters and is not a very pleasurable experience. This may put them in hostile frame of mind. 3. Exterior Posters. Buses also have display ads on the outside space. BEST buses rent out the entire bus that can be attractively painted with the ad message. Dipys Jams was the first product that used the BEST as an advertising medium. Since then several products have used this medium effectively. This medium is not useful during the rainy season as maintenance cost increases. It has also not succeeded in rural areas and semi-urban areas where the state transport buses ply. This is because the roads are so dusty that the buses get very dirty and the advertised message loses its appeal. 4. Station and Bus shelter and Bus and Railway Tickets Point-of-purchase advertising Point-of-purchase advertising (POP) is an essential part of any sales promotion strategy for products sold through stores. It provides a final, all-important step in the process of capitalizing on brand awareness and influencing individual purchasing decisions. POP advertising is both a part of the integrated marketing mix and an impulse stimulant. What sets POP advertising apart from other forms of promotional activity is its ability to influence the purchasing decision at the very moment the consumer is selecting a product. That distinction is reflected in the following definition of POP from the Point-of-Purchase Advertising Institute (POPAI): Displays, signs, structures, and devices that are promotional, and are used to identify, advertise, or merchandise an outlet, service, or product and serve as an aid to retail selling. The key word here is promotional. Merely stocking a shelf with soap or cereal doesn't make for POP. Nor does a sign that says "Meat Department." But within POP (sometimes known as point-of-sale advertising) are dozens of bright, colorful, sometimes zany items used to encourage the sale of individual brands, product lines, or even entire product categories. Major types of POP 1. Signs differ from displays in that the messages on them are more general. They may serve notice that a given brand is being promoted or simply direct shoppers to an area of the store where a product is on sale. Signs attached to a display may include price or other information about the product. Shelf media, such as shelf-talkers and shelf strips, may be attached to existing fixtures, and they don't take up precious floor, wall, or counter space. 2. Windows Displays. These are very popular methods used by chemists department stores showrooms. In fact the term Window Shopping has been used to describe the pullthese attractive window-displays exert on every passes-by. Window display contents are used by manufactures to promote retailers to display their products attractively. At present Wipros BabyCare product have grabbed window displays at chemists outlets. 3. Displays Cards. These are elaborate cut-out models that are placed outside the retail outlet or placed near the cash-counters. Frooti, a tetra bricks pack soft drink used this medium effectively. Huge cut-outs of the model drinking Frooti were placed besides boxes filled with hay and foorti packs. This gave an impression that Foorti was as fresh as mangoes. 4. Wall Displays. Here the folders may be stringed placed across the wall

5. Merchandising of Racks and Cases. The manufactures may supply the display racks for their products. The round jar of Cadburys Eclairs placed besides the cash counters the racks to display Maggi Soups and the huge hamper with Maggi Noodles swinging at the doorway of the retail outlets are striking examples. 6. In store Commercials. This is the latest form of P.O.P advertising. The commercials are viewed by consumers within the store and act as sales people trying to effect a sale. Electronically operated display panels near cash counters or small screens near shelf-spaces can be used to exhibit the commercials. These are common in supermarkets. Advantages of P.O.P Advertising 1. It is the last advertising opportunity before the purchase and therefore the manufactures has to hardsell. 2. The P.O.P material is generally similar to the press and TV advertisements and therefore acts as a reminder of mass advertising. 3. It provides information and identification of the brand its image. 4. the most important advantage is that it increases the sales turnover and makes their outlets attractive. 5. Retailers recognize the value of P.O.P as it increases the sales turnover and makes their outlets attractive. 6. Sales promotion contents can be successful by P.O.P material, for example: A retailer may display the latest Pepsi promotional campaign. 7. At times it can be economical and convenient for the retailer to use P.O.P material, for Example: A manufacturer may be willing to supply one with advertising for his brand, at a cost lower than a retailer would pay for one without advertising. In short P.O.P advertising acts as a dealer aid as well as stimulant for consumers. 8. Manufacturers need not depend upon retailers to push their brands as the P.O.P acts as a pull technique. 9. As organized retail such as Big Bazar increases, self-service will become the order of the day. This increases the importance of P.O.P advertising Limitations of P.O.P Advertising 1. With growing competition manufactures are fighting for limited retail spaces. This increases the clout of retailers. 2. P.O.P material is useful only when it is placed at a high level or in an attractive manner. This may not be always possible. 3. A clutter of too many P.O.P materials may confuse the consumer. 4. Retailers are not too bothered about installing the display and when one salesman installs the P.O.P materials, the next salesman from the next sales firm replaces the display with his own. This limits the life of the P.O.P materials. 5. Wall displays and signs may get damaged or may deteriorate. 6. Display racks may misused by stocking it with competitive merchandise 7. Retailers usually do not pay for P.O.P material and therefore may not use it correctly and effectively. 8. Large manufactures having a long term relationship with the retailers and financial clout may enjoy premium places for their displays to the disadvantage of smaller manufactures Internet as an emerging medium in India The internet is one of the emerging mediums in India as of today. Like many other media it too has its advantages and disadvantages in the below mentioned areas:

Advantages: Effective targeting the internet as a medium poses an advantage in this aspect as the kind of people visiting a site or surfing the web can be determined and defined much better and easier then other mediums. However, one must remember that majority of the people on the net are educated and from urban backgrounds. So it makes sense only for those who are looking at this target audience to advertise on the net. E.g. It doesnt make much sense for lifebuoy to advertise on the net. Flexibility of execution - theoretically, internet as a medium provides one with a good amount of flexibility of execution. One can communicate its message in the form of print or one can create a whole audio-visual experience or even set up a virtual tour experience of the product. E.g. Many tour operators have a virtual tour site of different countries. Products like mobile phones can be seen from all angles because of 3-D animation. One-to-one with consumers: The primary attraction of the Internet is its ability to deal one-to-one with consumers. In theory, business and consumers can buy products, exchange product information, and acquire valuable research with the touch of a computer key. In practice, the Internet remains an experimental medium with vast underutilized potential Growth: However in future one expects the medium to grow across sections of society. The Internet is the ultimate research tool, with its ability to measure exactly how many people used the medium and or purchased a product The Internet is among the most flexible media, with an ability to immediately change copy in reaction to market and competitive conditions. Reach: one of the main advantages of the medium is that it exposes you to the world. The knowledge you can obtain from the internet is close to infinite. Anyone in the world can see your website; see your ad [even if it is a little banner on a small site]. It is also a medium where you can communicate to a specific target audience. Cheaper medium to advertise: It is a relatively cheaper medium to advertise. Disadvantages: To this point, the Internet is mostly promise rather than performance. It is difficult to determine the effectiveness of the service because it is largely experimental in a commercial sense. Connectivity with respect to India this is one of the main disadvantages of advertising on this medium. Its presence in the rural areas is nonexistent and in the urban areas a lot is left to be desired Despite the growing popularity of the Internet as a means of informal communication, many consumers are still reluctant to use the service for purchasing products and services. In particular, consumers seem reluctant to give their credit card numbers over the Internet, even though secure sites are available. The sheer number of commercial and non-commercial web sites makes it difficult for consumers to know what is available or, once know, have much time to spend with any single site. The limitations are that it is not widespread in the country. It is almost redundant for rural advertising. The fact that you cannot do more than animations of a website is a disadvantage. There are several other disadvantages but over a period of time this medium is bound to emerge as a strong force in media planning. INNOVATIVE MEDIA Innovative media focuses on alternative platforms of advertising which open up new avenues for advertisers. As technological breakthroughs facilitate better modes of communication, the emergence of new media has enhanced reach on several levels. The result is new advertising vehicles which are wider in reach, specific in targeting and most of all, lower in cost.

The Vidiwall: The Vidiwall is an intensely captivating advertising medium which truly represents the best of today's technology. The Vidiwall is essentially a mega screen capable of broadcasting high quality audiovisuals, banners, logos & slides of stunning size, resolution and picture quality. SMS: Advertisers are beginning to experiment with the mobile phone and text messaging as an advertising medium, but as yet, there are no fixed guidelines for the correct ways in which to use it. That means the potential for abuse is vast. There are two ways that an advertiser can potentially use SMS as an advertising medium. The first is to simply obtain a database of mobile phone numbers and send messages directly to end-users. This is similar to bulk e-mailing, which counts among the marketing tactics that irritates customers and prospects the most. However, the annoyance of unsolicited e-mail will pale beside the nuisance of having hundreds of unwanted text messages broadcast to one's cell phone every day. There is certainly a place for this kind of direct messaging, but it does need to be exceptionally well thought out and executed. Most importantly, end-users that are contacted through this mechanism need to agree to it, and should be able to easily opt out of receiving the messages if and when they wish. There is, however, another way that advertisers can reach the large audience of users that have cellular phones. It is much less problematic than direct messaging, which is believed to represents the future of SMS advertising. This approach involves the placement of a short tag-on, normally no longer than 34 characters, at the tail of every message sent out via a service such as mtnsms.com. When a user sends a message, it goes out with an unobtrusive short brand message tagged on the bottom. This is the very sort of viral marketing technique that has allowed mtnsms.com itself to grow to more than 6,5m users in less than two years. These tag-ons can also be used where content is being delivered to users who have opted in to receiving daily news, stock exchange, sports or weather updates on their cell-phones. INNOVATIVE RURAL MEDIA In addition to the conventional media vehicles, a lot of innovative mediums are used in rural advertising and marketing. Some of the most striking ones are: Puppetry: Puppetry is the indigenous theatre of India. From time immortal it has been the most popular form and well-appreciated form of entertainment available to the village people. It is an inexpensive activity. The manipulator uses the puppets as a medium to express and communicate ideas, values and social messages. Life Insurance Corporation of India used puppets to educate rural masses about Life Insurance; enlisting the help of the literacy house in Luck now. These plays were shown to the audience in villages in UP, Bihar, & MP. The number of inquiries at local Life Insurance Companies during the period immediately following the performance was compared with normal frequency and found to be considerable higher. The field staff of the corporation also reported a definite impact on the business. Folk Theatre: Folk theaters are mainly short and rhythmic in form. The simple tunes help in informing and educating the people in informal and interesting manner. It has been used as an effective medium for social protest against injustice, exploitation and oppression. Demonstration: "Direct Contact" is a face-to-face relationship with people individually and with groups such as the Panchayats and other village groups. Such contact helps in arousing the villager's interest in their own problem and motivating them towards self-development. In result demonstration, help of audio -visual media can add value. Asian Paints launched Utsav range by painting Mukhiya's house or Post office to demonstrate that paint does not peel off. Wall Paintings: Wall Paintings are an effective and economical medium for advertising in rural areas. They are silent unlike traditional theatre .A speech or film comes to an end, but wall painting stays as long as the weather allows it to.

Retailer normally welcomes paintings of their shops, walls, and name boards. Since it makes the shop look cleaner and better. Their shops look alluring and stand out among other outlets. Besides rural households shopkeepers and panchayats do not except any payment, for their wall to be painted with product messages. To get one's wall painted with the product messages is seemed as a status symbol. The greatest advantage of the medium is the power of the picture completed with its local touch. The images used have a strong emotional association with the surrounding, a feet impossible for even a moving visual medium like television, which must use general image to cater to greatest number of viewers.

Ambient Advertising
Ambient Advertising definition is: The placement of advertising in unusual and unexpected places (location) often with unconventional methods (execution) and being first or only ad execution to do so (temporal). Newness, creativity, novelty and timing are key themes in ambient advertising. This definition is deliberately narrow and attempts to exclude mainstream advertising Implicit in this definition are that Ambient is a moveable and somewhat subjective term and will shift according to the advertising norms of the day. One of the fundamental premises of Ambient is that the world is an advertising stage. Everything is a potential advertising mediumsides of cows, rockets, golf-hole cups etc. Ambient was first used in relation to advertising in 1996 by Concord Advertising, a UK agency specializing in outdoor campaigns. It evolved from a need to apply a single term to what was an increasing request from clients for something a bit different in their advertising. Clients, concerned with issues of cut-through, competition, decreased effectiveness and disinterested audiences wanted (and still want) advertising with bite from their agencies. This push by clients for something different saw agencies placing ads in unusual places, such on as floors, petrol pump handles and backs of toilet doors - previously not considered as locations for advertising. Such campaigns did not fit neatly into existing categories like out-door, print, radio or television and hence anew term was coined. Unusual locations are considered a defining characteristic for Ambient advertising. However, unusual locations lose their point of difference with repetition and time, and so cease to be something different. This suggests two things. Unusual location is not the only point of difference for Ambient. The method of execution is often unusual as well. Holographic projections, role-plays and graffiti are a few examples of this and certainly fit within the something different imperative

Media brief
The media brief is an invaluable resource that answers all of the preliminary questions that we need in order to research, plan, and present the best possible media program to achieve our clients objectives. The media brief can be referred to as a checklist for the media planners to help them prepare a media plan for a client organization. A good media brief should ideally include the following. 1. Marketing information checklist: This should reflect the marketing objectives and proposed strategies, product characteristics, distribution channels, brand category, expenditure level and ad expenditure of close competitors, ad expenditure on the brand for the current, previous years and proposed appropriation. 2. The objectives: The media brief must indicate the objective or objectives the proposed advertising is trying to accomplish. This must clearly indicate whether the objective is to introduce a new product, increase awareness about the existing brand, reinforce the current position, reposition the current brand, re-launch a declining brand, elicit direct response, improve or enhance the companys reputation or change the peoples attitudes towards the

company, brand or product category. It would also indicate the source of business i.e. the target audience profile of the current users, proposed users etc. 3. Product category information: It is pertinent for the media planner to have thorough knowledge of the product category and the positioning of the brand being handled. This helps in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the brand and also helps in setting achievable targets. The information deals with the following broad areascategory definition, competitive brands, market share of various brands, sales volumes of each brand etc.to determine the scheduling pattern. 4. Geography/Location: The media brief helps the planner in knowing his media markets. In other words; if the product is available in only the metros, then the planner will restrict his media options to those vehicles which reach the target audience in the metros. In case, however, the product is being launched on an all country basis, the media planner although keeping in view the holistic approach will also keep in mind the consumption pattern in various geographical locations for giving relative weightage to work areas, where the product usage is more. Besides this he will also keep in view the brand development index, sales volume and local market problems and opportunities. 5. Seasonality/Timing: Information regarding seasonality of the product is an important consideration for the media planner. In the Indian context where there are extreme climates in different parts of the country at the same time, some products are season specific. The sale of woolen products is always there in the hilly regions especially, Himachal Pradesh and higher reaches of Utter Pradesh, while in southern India, except probably in some parts of Karnataka, woolen products are generally not available. The North experiences severe cold for some months, hence one sees a spurt in advertising Besides, the planner should keep track of the sales patterns, influence factors such as festivals, holidays and the weather, spending considerations, specific sales promotions drive and cl0.ient mandated spending constraint, etc. 6. Target Audience: A profile of those who buy the existing product category as also those who buy competitive brands is a very important consideration for the media planner. Buying habits must also include information about buying cycles, purchase points, frequency of purchase, etc. this helps the planner to know the consumer characteristics by category, brand and competitor; demographicsage, income, education, occupation and motivation; special market segmentations like doctors, architects, children, etc. As also media usage data for heavy users, light users of various media vehicles.

Communication Mix
Communications component (or communication mix) is that portion of the media plan that considers the effectiveness of message delivery as contrasted to the efficiency of audience delivery. When we use the word creativity in advertising context, we usually do not think about the media function. However, the effective media planner must consider the creative goals, the message themes, and the actual creative execution in developing the media plan. Because of high cost of time and space, there is a tendency to become so concerned with media cost analysis that we forget that effective advertising must communicate to our listeners and readers. The communication mix consists of the following considerations; Creative Predispositions of the audience: for example, teens are predisposed to radio in a different way than print. Qualitative Environment for the message: Golf magazine reaches readers who are in the proper frame of mind for ads for golf balls and golf clubs than any single medium used alone Elements of the communication mix Advertising: 1. Print: a. News Paper b. Magazine 2. Broadcasting: a. Television b. Radio c. Cinema

d. Video 3. Outdoor: a. Billboards b. Hoardings c. Cloth banners d. Kiosks e. Neon signs f. electric displays 4. Ambient advertising a. Bus tickets b. petrol pumps c. Kisan melas 5. Transit advertising: a. Bus shelters b. Railway stations c. Airport 6. Sales promotion a. Price deals b. Bonus packs c. refunds and rebates d. Coupons e. Contests and sweepstakes f. Premiums g. Sampling h. Continuity plans i. Trade coupons j. Exchange offers k. Displays, trade fairs, exhibitions, and event sponsorship 7. Public Relation: a. Newsletter b. Press conference c. corporate advertising d. Public service advertising e. Special events 8. Personal Selling: Personal selling is oral communication with potential buyers of a product with the intention of making a sale. The personal selling may focus initially on developing a relationship with the potential buyer, but will always ultimately end with an attempt to "close the sale" Personal selling is one of the oldest forms of promotion. It involves the use of a sales force to support a push strategy (encouraging intermediaries to buy the product) or a pull strategy (where the role of the sales force may be limited to supporting retailers and providing after-sales service). 9. Direct Marketing: Direct marketing is concerned with establishing an individual relationship between the business offering a product or service and the final customer. Direct marketing has been defined by the Institute of Direct Marketing as: The planned recording, analysis and tracking of customer behaviour to develop relational marketing strategies The process of direct marketing covers a wide range of promotional activities you may be familiar with. These include: a. Direct-response adverts on television and radio b. Mail order catalogues c. E-commerce (you bought this marketing companion following tutor2us direct marketing campaign!) d. Magazine inserts e. Direct mail (sometimes also referred to as junk mail)

f. Telemarketing 10. Internet advertising: a. Ad Banners b. Websites c. Ad Buttons d. Sponsorship e. Interstitial f. Classified Ad 11. Database advertising: Database marketing is the technique of gathering all the information available about your customer, leads, and prospects into a central database and using that information to drive all your marketing efforts. The information is stored in a marketing database and can be used at both the strategic and tactical levels to drive targeted marketing efforts. A company that utilizes database marketing continually gathers, refines, and analyzes data about their customers, their buying history, prospects, past marketing efforts, demographics, and so forth. They analyze the data to turn it into information that supports all their marketing and sales programs. More enlightened marketing companies also use customer and prospect interests and preferences, generally gathered on their web site, to tailor marketing efforts right down to the individual level. 12. POP: a. Danglers b. Window displays c. Stickers 13 Telemarketing a. Inbound telemarketing b. Outbound telemarketing 14. Off screen selling: a. Demonstration on TV with toll free call 15. In film advertising: In-film advertising, in its most effective form, is about a brand being a part of the cinema's content. Many global brands are now turning to this medium for the sheer impact that a movie can make on its audiences. A brand using the medium of cinema to promote its message. A number of marketers are now using movies to project the core values of their brands. 16. Sponsorship: To sponsor something is to support an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. Sponsorship is typically done for promotional purposes, to generate publicity, or to obtain access to a wider audience. Sponsorship may be an arrangement to exchange advertising for the responsibility of funding a popular event or entity. For example, a corporate entity may provide equipment for a famous athlete or sports team in exchange for brand recognition. The sponsor earns popularity this way while the sponsored can save a lot of money. This type of sponsorship is prominent in sport, the arts, media and the charity ('cause-related') sector. It is also becoming increasingly important in education. Many companies want their logo on sponsored equipment in return. 17. Exhibition & Trade fairs: Exhibiting at Trade Shows is usually expensive. But then it is the most effective and respectable way to present company in the local and international market.

The impact on prospective buyers/partners cannot be so strong in any other way in todays world that is overloading with suppliers and exporters. But still, an exhibition cannot guarantee business as most still depends on how you use the opportunity. 18. Brand identity: How you want the consumer to perceive your product or your brand. Companies try to bridge the gap between the brand image and the brand identity. 19. Corporate identity: Corporate Identity has become a universal technique for promoting companies and improving corporate culture. It means any form of advertising, which has as its objective, the building up of a companys reputation. Advertising whose purpose is to promote the image of a corporation rather than the sale of a product or service. Also called "Image Advertising." The main aim is to build a positive image for the firm in the eyes in internal and external public in institutional advertising. It does not attempt to sell anything directly. However, it does a lot of good to the organization as a whole. It forcefully tells how the organisation is a socially responsible institution. It also tells about the nationalistic learnings of the organization. It shows how its actions are consistent with overall national objectives like environmental protection, employment generation, literacy, loss prevention, health for all etc. It is integrated to public relations function of the organisation. Corporate advertisements may be addressed either to consumers or other groups like government, suppliers, financial institutions etc. Effective Corporate advertising evokes a positive response amongst the target group and creates goodwill. Corporate advertising may introduce products indirectly or may introduce the sales people indirectly. 20. Event sponsorship: A type of promotion whereby a company develops sponsorship relations with a particular event such as a concert, sporting event, or other activity.

Socio-Economic Classification
The relevance of SEC to media planning SEC is essentially judged by two broad categories education and occupation of the chief wage earner of a household. According to Socio Economic Classification, the groups SEC A and SEC B represent educated urban consumers, making up 5.88 million households in sixteen cities. More than 75% of SEC A and B homes live in eight cities of India, and receive the greatest attention in respect of trendy and lifestyle products. Today, over 35 million homes comprise the effective consumer base for durables like automobiles, white goods, and consumer electronics In the early days interviews were conducted within a particular segment to identify the Target Audience required. At these interviews, the respondents were reluctant to disclose any information about their income. This made the research far more complicated, as they werent able to identify the proper target audience. So in order to avoid such circumstances the Socio-Economic Classification was developed by the Market Research Society of India. This system is based on the occupation and education of the chief wage earner of the household, so as to create an alternative to the household income, so far used as the basis of classifying households. The SEC classifies them into A, B, C, D, and E. A- being the Upper Class and E- being the Lower Class. In order to know the socio-economic classification of the various segments, one also needs to look at the SocioEconomic Classification Grid (SEC)-Urban and Rural. SEC allows researchers to classify Indian households without asking for the income details. While respondents in rural areas are usually not as reluctant as their urban counterparts to reveal incomes, they have their own

problems. Rural income is seasonal, and includes hard-to-estimate aspects like barter and self-consumption of produce. But the standard SEC definition comparing occupation of chief wage earner with his/her education level was also unsuitable. "How do you compare occupations in rural areas like artisans and farmers -- which do you rank higher?" asks Joseph. "And people's occupations aren't fixed. They might farm six months and do something else at other times." After looking at other variables like ownership of durables and tractors, and family size, ORG-Marg finally evolved a rural SEC definition which compares the education of the chief wage earner with the type of house they live in -- defined as pucca, semipucca or kuchha, depending on the materials used for the roof and walls. Media Audit Media Audit scrutinizes processes of media buying, scheduling, planning, rates across media and compares it with a benchmark. Media Audit essentially examines whether client got what it ordered, and if you they are paying for what they intended. There is various aspect of Media audit. a) Financial Audit: The first is a financial audit by Media Audit firm of the records of the Media Buying Agency (MBA). Since the MBA is an external agency, they have a contractual relationship to act on client behalf to buy media space and time. This audit essentially examines whether client got what it ordered, and if they are paying for what was intended. Another aspect of financial audit is the payment. Client pays MBA, who in turn pays the media supplier. Did client money reach them, and did it reach on the due date? That involves reconciliation between what client paid for and where it went. Apart from this, there is also a need to check if the authority is being exercised correctly. b) 'Return of rebates and discounts': The second type of audit is what is called 'return of rebates and discounts', which some media owners give the MBA directly for space or airtime bookings in excess of a certain volume. So MBAs push advertisers to spend on a given medium or channel to gain volumes, and thus rebates. It is called agency volume discount. Advertisers would want that discount passed back to them, in proportion to their spends. c) Critique: The third aspect media audit is a critique on the way media planning has been done by the agency. A campaign plan is done based on what is the optimal way of reaching your target consumers. There are numerous combinations of media / vehicles options. Media audit examine if where client advertised was correctly optimized, both in terms of cost and in terms of thinking. A critique can, therefore, go into the kind of media chosen and then make qualitative assessments and comments. The media auditor audits the media plan to examine if the plan was fair and optimum.

Aperture Marketing
Aperture: The best place and time to reach a person in the target market group. An aperture is the ideal moment for exposing consumers to an advertising message. It is the moment for exposure effective advertisement when interest and attention are high. Media planner is responsible from locating the aperture opportunity Definition: Aperture is the ideal moment for exposing consumers to an advertising message. When the consumer is in the purchasing mode, when the consumer is in the information mode (the search corridor). In either case, advertising works best when interest and attention are high. Interest and attention are high. Even the most brilliant message will fall on deaf ears if the target is not ready to listen and in a position to act. For example, a person vaguely aware of depression might pay little attention to a TV ad prompting one to your doctor" about an anti-depression drug. There are simply too many steps the consumer must take--from deciding to actually do something about the problem, to making the doctor's appointment, to actually visiting the doctor and asking for the prescription. Thus, the doctor's office would seem to be a better location to deliver the message.

But even a well-crafted anti-depression product ad in the doctor's waiting room may not motivate the patient to broach the subject if those patients are engaged in activities such as filling out paperwork or reading tired magazines. Ironic as it may seem, in the waiting room their minds are not focused on their health condition. But take that message to a location only 50 feet away--to the physician's exam room--and then you've found the right moment to prompt this very personal discussion, right in the location where doctor and patient interact. Bringing three dimensions of targeting together--the right consumer at the right time in the right place--is the discipline we like to call aperture marketing. Aperture is a term borrowed from photography to describe the opening of a lens. In marketing, the aperture is the opening of the consumer's mind to grasp your message and take action based on that message, in the perfect moment of time captured by a well-crafted program. This is the aperture moment. Aperture moments can vary widely according to the product, category, brand and consumer. If you identify and leverage these moments, you can assure yourself an audience that engages in and acts on the message you provide. Moreover, you've honed your medium not only to the best consumer, but the best moment, so you can afford to bring optimal resources to bear at that precise moment. Effective aperture marketing requires, before anything else, thorough consumer research that allows the marketer to glean insights into the dimensions of time and place that make up an aperture and consumer involvement with a decision. Without such understanding, consumer targeting becomes decidedly one dimensional, resulting in flat approaches that may not break through to the consumer, and often don't deliver results for the marketer. Armed with an understanding of aperture marketing, savvy marketers can directly influence targeted customers at the precise time and place that involvement and intensity with the brand are at a peak. Sources of media information One of the most important requisites of a media planner s familiarity with media choices and various sources of media information. Media information is available from sources within the media itself as well as external sources. Some of the media source books in the Indian context and other database publications often used by media planners include the following. 1. Population Census Conducted every 10 years, the census probably is the most broad based database offering a profile of the Indian people. The census data provides information about the population size, population strata, age, sex ratio, literacy level, family size and forms etc. Also provides information about the various castes and beliefs. Urban & Rural Classification According to the Census of India 1991, the following criteria were adopted for treating a place as urban : 1. All statutory towns, i.e., all places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee, etc. 2. All other places which satisfied the following criteria : - A minimum population of 5000 - At least 75% of the male working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits, and - A density of population of at least 400 per sq km 3. Apart from these, the outgrowths of cities and towns have also been treated as urban. All areas not identified as Urban, are classified as Rural Claimed Readership: No. of people who claim to have read a publication with a frequency greater than zero 2. Annual Economic Survey:

This provides an industrial survey; based on SEC (socio-economic classification), income and occupation, etc. The annual Economic Survey containing macro-economic review is presented one day in advance of the Union Budget every year. The annual Economic Survey makes projections that the government try to implement. 3. The Indian News and Feature Alliance INFA:It has detailed information on various newspapers and magazines. The Indian News and Feature Alliance, known as the INFA yearbook, provides detailed information on various newspapers and magazines. Information included the whos who in marketing, advertising and in the press. It also contains mechanical date about the size of the population, what kind of advertising material would be acceptable of the public, circulation and names of people in the ad department etc 4. India Yearbook: It provides a holistic view of data on various aspects of governance, demographics, progress etc. 5. Audit Bureau of Circulation: It provides advertisers with impartial and authentic check of circulation statements of members-publications. Circulation auditing organisations function in 25 countries. In Asia, audit bureaus function in Japan, Singapore, Malayasia and India. The Indian ABC is a founder-member of the International Federation of Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Audit Bureau of Circulation (of India) was established in 1948 as a voluntary effort by national advertisers, advertising agencies and newspaper publishers in their common interest to measure circulation of publications in a true and standard manner. Members of ABC are required to keep records to facilitate audits. An independent of Chartered Accountants, appointed by the member, conducts half-yearly audits according to a procedure prescribed by the Bureau. Every six months ABC provides its members with audited circulation certificates of important newspapers and periodicals. Circulation data covers distribution of copies in various States and Major cities, which are potential markets. The Certificates provide information of average figures of average circulation for the audit period, month to month net sales and average figures for the previous audit periods. Information of single copy subscription sales, copies distributed at discounted and free distribution is also given 6. National Readership Surveys (NRS) The NRS is a survey on all media, but especially the print medium, conducted by the National Readership Survey Council. This body consists of members from the INS (Indian Newspaper Society), AAAI (Advertising Associations of India) and ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation). How is NRS different from the circulation figures reported by the ABC? ABC conducts a six-monthly audit of a publications sales. But each copy of a publication may be read by more than one person, depending on the frequency and popularity of the publication. This is what is captured in readership surveys like the NRS. The survey is done on an all-India basis, urban as well as rural, amongst individuals who are 12 years and older. All town classes are covered in the urban area. However, only towns with a population higher than two lakh are reported on an individual basis, smaller towns are reported on the basis of socio-cultural regions defined by language homogeneity, geographic homogeniety, financial and economic administration, regionalisation of culture and lifestyle, caste and class homogeniety.

NRS gives information on the macro parameters like the reach of each medium among various audiences defined demographically. It also gives information on the duplication between media, as well as between vehicles within the same medium. For publications, one gets the number of readers, type of readers in demographic terms (NRS defines readers by sex, age, income, socio-economic class, occupation, education, geographical location), spread of these readers, and lifestyle parameters such as product ownership and consumption patterns. Since advertisers who relied on plain circulation (paid sales) data for the allocation of their media budgets did not have access to data on the quality of readership each publication has, they did not know whether money was being used effectively or wasted. Studies like the NRS give details not only about the number of readers, but also quality of readers, and the duplication of readers with other competitive publications. 7. Television Rating Points (TRPs) A unit of TV audience measurement based on coverage. A single TRP represents 1 per cent of the targeted viewers in any particular region. What is a people meter? The people meter is an electronic data-capturing device for measuring the member and kinds of people watching TV programmes. It is connected to the television set with a frequency running device to monitor channels being watched and requires a remote control for the viewers to register their presence in the room while viewing the channel or specific programme. To collect information on who is watching the programme or the serial, when he or she watching the programme is or how much time is spent watching, researchers use people meter technology to measure second to second viewer ship. The remote has a numbered button for every resident of the household as well as visitor buttons. Each button is programmed with the age/sex/demographic data of each household member. Visitors input their age/sex information when logging on to the meter. The people meter has a tuner sensing device and it automatically records households viewing, that is whether the set is on or not and which station/channel it is tuned on to. Individual and visitors in the house press their assigned button upon entering and leaving the room when the set is on. It also prompts as soon as television is switched on for viewers to register on the people meter remote by pressing their numbered button. Viewing is recorded continuously all through the year for 24 hours a day.

Ambient Advertising
Ambient Advertising definition is: The placement of advertising in unusual and unexpected places (location) often with unconventional methods (execution) and being first or only ad execution to do so. Newness, creativity, novelty and timing are key themes in ambient advertising. This definition is deliberately narrow and attempts to exclude mainstream advertising Implicit in this definition are that Ambient is a moveable and somewhat subjective term and will shift according to the advertising norms of the day. One of the fundamental premises of Ambient is that the world is an advertising stage. Everything is a potential advertising mediumsides of cows, rockets, golf-hole cups etc. Ambient was first used in relation to advertising in 1996 by Concord Advertising, a UK agency specializing in outdoor campaigns. It evolved from a need to apply a single term to what was an increasing request from clients for something a bit different in their advertising. Clients, concerned with issues of cut-through, competition, decreased effectiveness and disinterested audiences wanted (and still want) advertising with bite from their agencies.

This push by clients for something different saw agencies placing ads in unusual places, such on as floors, petrol pump handles and backs of toilet doors - previously not considered as locations for advertising. Such campaigns did not fit neatly into existing categories like out-door, print, radio or television and hence anew term was coined. Unusual locations are considered a defining characteristic for Ambient advertising. However, unusual locations lose their point of difference with repetition and time, and so cease to be something different. This suggests two things. Unusual location is not the only point of difference for Ambient. The method of execution is often unusual as well. Definitions: 1. Audit Bureau of Circulations: Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) is one of the several organizations of the same name operating in different parts of the world. The ABC founded in 1948 is a not for profit, voluntary organisation consisting of Publishers, Advertisers and Advertising Agencies. It has done pioneering work in developing audit procedures to verify the circulation data published by those newspapers and periodicals which have earned the right to display its emblem. ABC as it is called and understood by all, is a founder member of the International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulations. The main function of ABC is to evolve, lay down a standard and uniform procedure by which a member publisher shall compute its net paid sales. The circulation figure so arrived at is checked and certified by a firm of Chartered Accountants which are approved by the Bureau. The Bureau issues ABC certificates every six months to those publishers whose circulation figures confirm to the rules and regulations as set out by the Bureau. From a modest beginning it has grown to remarkable proportions. ABC's membership today includes 411 Publishers of national and regional importance, 151 Advertising Agencies, 51 Advertisers & 20 New Agencies and Associations connected with print media and advertising. It covers most of the major towns in India. Facts and figures which are checked and certified by an independent body is a very important tool in the hands of the advertising business community. The details of ABC certified circulation figures are available online to all Members of the Bureau (http://www.auditbureau.org) at no extra cost. An Advertiser would like to know the facts and figures before investing his money in advertising. An Advertiser ought to know how many people buy a publication and in which area. The ABC gives all these vital facts every six months. The ABC figures are not the outcome of opinions, claims or guesswork, but they are the result of rigid, indepth and impartial audits of paid circulations of member publications by independent and leading firms of Chartered Accountants working in accordance with the rules / procedures prescribed by the Bureau. 3. Advertorial: Paid-for advertising, clearly entitled advertisement or promotion, produced in the editorial style of the publication in which it appears. 4. Ambient media: Non-traditional objects/sites that carry ad messages. It is regarded as important for its proximity to the point of purchase. 5. 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 6. 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. 7. 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. 8. Bouquet: An assemblage of TV channels that are sold together for advertising purposes.

9. Break bumper: A TV commercial in the form of the sponsors logo, restricted to a maximum of 10 seconds at the start and end of a commercial break. 10. Burst strategy: An ardent phase of advertising within a concentrated period of time. 11. Clutter: A term describing a high intensity of competing ad messages that consumers happen to come across in a given time period. 12. Cooperative advertising: When the expenditure of an ad, placed by a retailer who is promoting the manufacturers brand, is shared by both of them. 13. Cost per thousand (CPT): The cost borne by the advertiser to reach 1,000 people in the target audience. 13a. C&S 4+ audiences (Cable & Satellite 4 Years and above) 13. c. 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. 14. Direct mail: When advertisers send letters, information and free samples directly to the consumers or e-mail messages to a target group of users. 15. Direct marketing: When advertisers market their product/services to customers on an individual rather than mass basis. 16. Exposure: Exposure of a target audience to an ad expressed as an opportunity to see (OTS) or opportunities to hear (OTH). 16. Full Run: 17. 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. 18. 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. 19. 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). 20. Optimization: Media schedule planning method where a computer uses data on viewers to frame an optimum schedule according to various parameters set by a media planner. OTS: Opportunities to see the advertisements in an ad campaign. 21. Overclaim: When an advertiser misleads the market research with exaggerated claims. 22. Psychographic groups: The groups defined in a survey by their attitudes, motivations and values rather than by demographics and purchasing habits. 23. 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 companys issue.

Pulse strategy: When ad messages are delivered at a reasonable level of intensity for one-week periods with one week gaps between advertising periods. A pulse strategy falls between a burst strategy and a drip strategy. We can follow a steady schedule or a pulsed campaign. Normally, scheduling is done for a 4-week period. The six types of schedules available are: a) Steady Pulse or Steady schedule: It is the easiest. For instance, one ad/week for 52 weeks or one Ad/month for 12 months could be an example. b. Seasonal Pulse Products like Vicks Balm, Glycodin Terp-Vasaka Syrup, Ponds Cold Cream follows this approach. c. Period Pulse Scheduling follows a regular pattern, e.g., media scheduling of consumer durables, non-durables etc. d. Erratic Pulse The ads are spaced irregularly. Perhaps, we want to change the typical purchase cycles. e. Start-up Pulse It is concentrated media scheduling. It launches a new product or a new campaign. f. Promotional Pulse A one-shot affair it suits only a particular promotional theme. Heavy concentration during a period is the characteristic of this scheduling. For instance, financial advertising of companys issue. 23. People meter. Slang for a broadcast ratings measurement device that records individual audience members who are present during a program. 24. 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 exposed to a medium or campaign during a specific time. 25. Share of voice: Each advertisers GRP expressed as a percentage of the total GRPs of all the advertisers belonging to a specific product /service category. 26. Split run: A facility offered by a publication that allows advertisers to run different copies in different parts of the publications circulation area. 27. Spot advertising: In broadcast advertising, spot advertising is bought on a market-by-market or station-bystation basis. 28. Stranding: A TV scheduling format where the same genre of programme is aired on particular days of the week. 29. Stripping: A TV scheduling format where programmes are broadcast on the same regular time slot throughout the week. Tagline: Memorable words at the end of an advertisement designed to summarise the ad message. 30. Tease and reveal: A two-phased poster ad campaign. The teaser comprises of a series of intriguing and confusing ads that do not disclose the advertisers identity. It is then followed by the reveal, the ads that clarify everything. 31. Telemarketing: Using the telephone as a marketing tool in contacting prospective buyers, database building, cash-flow management and customer service. Teleshopping: A TV programme-format demonstration of products that is also equipped with a direct response advertising mechanism. 32. Tracking: A process of evaluating advertising that provides quantitative data about consumers awareness and perception of the ad campaign and their awareness of other brands in the market. 33. 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. 34. Wastage: When an ad reaches the consumers whom the advertiser does not want to reach. 35.Wearout: The level at which an ad campaign loses its effectiveness after repeated exposures. 36. Zapping: Using a remote control to switch channels during commercial breaks on TV. Zipping: Fastforwarding a commercial break while watching a programme recorded on a video. 37. Short rate

: Charges resulting from the recalculation of an advertiser's rate after failing to fulfill contract stipulations. 38. 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. 39. Audience Duplication : A measurement of the overlap of audience between different media (external) between successive issues, or broadcasts of the same medium (internal). 40. Gatefold: Double or triple-size pages, generally in magazines, that fold out into a large advertisement. 41. 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. 42. Gutter : The inside page margins where a publication is bound. The inside margins of two pages that face each other in a print publication. 43. 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. 44. 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. 45. Run-of-schedule: A station's option to place a commercial in any time slot that they choose. 46. 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. 46. a : 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. 47. Split run: Testing two or more print advertisements by running each only to a portion of the audience, usually in a single issue. 48. Up-front Buys: The purchasing of broadcast or print advertising early in the buyings 49. 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. 50. Infomercial: A commercial that is similar in appearance to a talk show, news program, or other nonadvertising program content. Infomercials are the broadcast equivalent to an advertorial. 51. 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. 52. 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. 53. 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.) 54. 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. 55. Spread: (1) A pair of facing pages in a periodical; or (2) an advertisement printed across two such pages. 56. 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. 57. Make Goods - Adjustments made by a publisher to an advertiser to make up for a shortfall in contracted ad impressions or errors. 58. 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.

59. 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 60. Split run. Testing two or more print advertisements by running each only to a portion of the audience, usually in a single issue. 61. 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 program . 62. Share of voice (SOV). The proportion of advertising expenditures that are made for a brand versus competitive brands. Its 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. 63. Run of paper (ROP). Advertising that is positioned anywhere in a publication, with no choice of a specific place for the advertisement to appear. 64. 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 example, ROS 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Monday - Friday. 65. Open rate: The maximum rate charged by a magazine. 66. Road block : Method of scheduling broadcast commercials to obtain maximum reach by simultaneously showing the identical advertisement on several different channels. 67. On sale date: The date when Magazine hits the stand which is different from cover date. 68. Duplication: The estimated number of people who read two or more given publications. A duplication table measures the crossover of readership 69. 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 adused interchangeably with exposure and impression 70. Short rate: Charges resulting from the recalculation of an advertiser's rate after failing to fulfill contract stipulations. 71. Gutter: The inside page margins where a publication is bound. The inside margins of two pages that face each other in a print publication. 72. Stripping: A TV scheduling format where programmes are broadcast on the same regular time slot throughout the week. 73. 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 companys issue