Advertising and the advertising media
Definition
Advertising: communication about a product that a business pays to place in a chosen medium, to tell customers the product exists and persuade them to buy it.
Advertising media: the channels that carry the advert, such as newspapers, magazines, television, the internet, billboards, radio, cinema and leaflets.
- Because the space is bought, the business decides the exact wording, the pictures and where and when the advert appears.
- There are two questions to ask about any medium: who does it reach and what does it cost. The answers rarely point to the same medium, because the media that reach the most people are also the dearest.
- The cost of advertising is really two costs: producing the advert itself, and buying the space or airtime to show it.
Note
Advertising is the paid part of promotion, so it is only one promotional method; sales promotion, public relations, sponsorship and social media are covered in the next guide.
Television, radio and cinema
- Television: one showing reaches millions of viewers at once, with sound, colour and movement to show the product being used, which is why Aldi and Warburtons build national campaigns around it.
- Filming the advert and buying peak-time airtime runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds, and most of those viewers are not in the target market, so a large slice of the spending reaches people who will never buy.
- Radio: airtime costs a small fraction of television, and a station covering one city reaches listeners in a defined area, which suits a single-branch garage or estate agent. There is nothing to look at, so the product cannot be shown, and drivers often treat adverts as background noise.
- Cinema: the advert fills a large screen in a dark room where nobody can look away, and the age certificate of the film tells the business roughly who is in the seats. Each screening reaches only a few hundred people, so building a large audience takes a long and costly run.
Example
- Aldi runs its Christmas campaign on television because it needs every grocery shopper in the UK to see it in the same fortnight.
- A family-run garage spends far less on local radio and reaches only drivers within a few miles, which is exactly the audience it can serve.
Newspapers, magazines, leaflets and billboards
- Newspapers: a national title reaches millions of adult readers in a single day and a local paper covers one town cheaply, and print gives room for detail such as prices, addresses and opening hours, which is why Currys advertises offers this way. Readership is falling and is weighted towards older readers, and the paper is thrown away the same day.
- Magazines: readers choose a magazine by interest, so a walking title puts the National Trust in front of the people most likely to join, on glossy paper that is kept and read again. Each issue reaches a small number of readers and space is booked weeks ahead, so a magazine cannot carry an urgent message.
- Leaflets: printing and posting leaflets through chosen streets costs very little, which is why a new takeaway or gym uses them to reach nearby households. Most are binned unread, so thousands must be delivered to win a handful of customers.
- Billboards and posters: a site by a main road or in a station is seen again and again by the same commuters, and the cost for each person who passes is tiny. A passer-by has two seconds, so the advert can carry only a few words and one image, and it is seen by everyone rather than by a chosen group.
Example
- A new Greggs opening in a town centre posts leaflets to the offices around it and takes a billboard site at the bus station, so the people who walk past every morning see it twice.
- Neither medium could carry the detail of a Currys price list, which is why the two businesses advertise in different places.
Advertising on the internet
- Search advertising: a paid listing appears when someone searches for that type of product, so the advert reaches a customer who is already looking to buy rather than interrupting one who is not.
- Targeted display and video adverts: adverts on websites, apps and video platforms can be set to appear only to chosen ages, areas and interests, so far less of the budget is spent on people outside the target market.
- Cost and flexibility: a small business can start on a few pounds a day, change the wording overnight and switch a campaign off, none of which is possible once television airtime is booked. Gymshark grew into a national brand on online promotion long before it had a shop.
- Measurement: the platform reports how many people saw the advert, clicked it and then bought, so the business can run two versions and keep the one that sells more.
- The internet is crowded, many users scroll past or block adverts, and a click is not a sale, so online advertising is cheap to start and easy to waste.
Note
Paid adverts on social platforms belong here, while a business's own accounts, its influencers and the content customers share count as social media promotion rather than advertising.
Which media a given business is likely to use
- The audience: the medium has to be one the target customers actually use, so a brand aimed at sixteen-year-olds advertises on video platforms rather than in a local paper.
- The budget: a sole trader with £300 to spend is choosing between leaflets, a billboard site and online adverts, and television is simply not on the list.
- The product: a product that needs explaining, such as a Dyson vacuum cleaner, needs a medium that carries detail and shows it working, while a familiar chocolate bar needs only a reminder.
- The area served: a business that can only serve one town wants local media, because reach outside that town is wasted however cheap it looks.
- A national business such as Tesco runs several media at once so the same message reaches shoppers on television, in the press and online, while a single-site business concentrates its whole budget on the one or two media its customers use.
Common Mistake
- Do not choose television just because it reaches the most people, because reach that falls outside the target market or outside the budget is worth nothing.
- Do not describe online advertising as free: the account costs nothing, but the adverts, the images and the staff time all cost money.
Exam technique
- When you are asked to recommend an advertising medium, pick one, name the customers it puts the advert in front of, and say why the alternative is worse for this business.
- Write what the medium does for this business, so "the billboard is seen by the commuters who walk past the shop" rather than "billboards reach a lot of people".
- The mistake to avoid is recommending an expensive national medium to a business whose customers all live in one town.
Self review
- What does it mean to say that advertising is paid for?
- Give one benefit and one drawback of television advertising.
- Why does a magazine advert suit a specialist product better than a national newspaper advert?
- Why can a billboard carry only a few words?
- Name two things a business should check before it books an advertising medium.
