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Discipline

Advertising (TV, radio, print, cinema)

Paid messages in mass media: television, radio, print and cinema.

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Advertising in television, radio, print and cinema buys attention in bulk: one message, seen or heard by many people at once. Its strength is building fame and memory that pay back over months and years, which makes every other discipline in the plan work harder. It earns its place when many people need to know, remember and feel something about a brand, and it works best paired with the disciplines that turn that fame into action.

Start with the 101Advertising (TV, radio, print, cinema) 101: the whole pictureHistory, how it works, where it is used, what it costs, the rules, its limits and when to choose it, with every claim sourced.Read the 101

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What matters when choosing

  • Reach and frequency measured against the people who buy the category, not only the audience a channel is proud of.
  • Enough weight to be noticed: one medium or one region done properly beats a thin spread across many.
  • A creative idea that carries the brand's distinctive assets, so people remember whose advert it was.
  • Clear roles between the creative and the media side, with someone accountable for joining them up.
  • A measurement plan that follows brand effects and sales over months, not only the first weeks.

Questions to ask vendors and agencies

  1. What reach and frequency will this plan deliver among our buyers, and how will you check it once it has run?
  2. How will we know the brand effect is building before sales show it?
  3. How much time does clearance need in each market, and what evidence will our claims require?

Common mistakes

  • Judging a brand campaign on its first weeks of sales, and cutting it before it has had time to work.
  • Spreading a small budget across too many media, so that nothing reaches enough weight to be noticed.
  • Planning on traditional broadcast audiences alone while part of the audience now watches through streaming.

What it is good at

  • Reaching many people quickly, in an edited and regulated setting people trust.
  • Building fame and memory that make every other discipline more effective.
  • Telling a story with sight, sound and motion, or with room for detail in print.

What to watch for

  • Waste is built in: a broadcast also reaches people who will never buy.
  • Results arrive slowly, and audience measurement is changing and hard to compare across systems.
  • Production, talent, music rights and clearance add to the bill on top of the media.

How it is bought and priced

Bought from media owners, usually through a media agency: television time is priced against the audience it delivers, while radio, print and cinema are often sold by slot or space from a rate card, discounted for volume, position and timing. Production, talent, rights and clearance are paid separately, and creative and media agencies charge fees or retainers.

Typical disciplines Advertising (TV, radio, print, cinema) Digital advertising Out-of-home and digital out-of-home Search (SEO and paid search) Sales promotion

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