UNIT 4

Advertising Campaign

An advertising campaign is a set of advertisements that work together to promote a product or

service. An ad campaign is designed around a specific and unique theme to create brand
awareness about the company's product or service. Marketers use advertising campaigns to reach
their potential customers.

Developing Advertising Campaign

1. Define Clear Objectives:

Objective Definition:
 Clearly articulate the primary goals of the campaign (e.g., increase brand visibility by
20%, generate 500 leads, achieve a 15% sales lift).
 Align objectives with broader business goals and marketing strategies.
Measurable Targets:
 Establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) targets.
 Use key performance indicators (KPIs) like click-through rates, conversion rates, and
social media engagement to measure success.
2. Know Your Target Audience:

Audience Profiling:
 Develop detailed buyer personas based on demographics, psychographics, and behavioral
traits.
 Identify pain points and motivations that can be addressed in the campaign.
Segmentation:
 Divide the target audience into segments for more personalized messaging.
 Tailor campaigns for different segments, considering factors like geography or
purchasing behavior.

3. Unique Selling Proposition (USP):

USP Clarity:
 Clearly articulate what makes the product or service unique.
 Emphasize how the USP directly benefits the target audience.
Competitor Analysis:
 Analyze competitors to ensure your USP stands out in the market.
 Identify areas where competitors may be lacking and capitalize on those.

4. Choose the Right Channels:

Channel Selection:
 Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various advertising channels.
 Choose platforms based on where your target audience is most active.
Multichannel Strategy:
 Consider a mix of channels for a broader reach.
 Ensure consistent messaging and adaptation to each channel's unique requirements.

5. Consistent Branding:

Brand Guidelines:
 Develop comprehensive brand guidelines for consistent visuals, messaging, and tone.
 Ensure all creatives adhere to these guidelines.
Brand Personality:
 Define and communicate the brand's personality across all channels.
 Maintain a cohesive brand image to enhance recognition.

6. Compelling Creative Elements:

Visuals and Copy:

 Create visually appealing and memorable creatives.
 Craft compelling copy that resonates with the target audience and reinforces the
campaign message.
Storytelling:
  Integrate storytelling to evoke emotions and connect with consumers.
 Ensure the narrative aligns with the brand and campaign objectives.

7. Budget Allocation:

Channel Budgeting:
 Allocate budgets based on the effectiveness and relevance of each channel.
 Consider factors like production costs, ad placement fees, and ongoing management
expenses.
Flexibility:
 Allow for some flexibility within the budget to adapt to changing circumstances.
 Prioritize high-impact channels while staying within financial constraints.

8. Timeline and Scheduling:

Phased Approach:
 Break down the campaign into distinct phases (launch, peak, wind-down).
 Align the timeline with specific events, holidays, or industry trends.
Ad Scheduling:
 Determine the optimal times for ad placement based on audience behavior.
 Adjust schedules for different time zones if targeting a global audience.

9. Monitor and Measure:

Analytics Tools:
 Implement reliable analytics tools to track campaign performance.
 Regularly review metrics and adjust strategies based on real-time data.
A/B Testing:
 Conduct A/B testing for different ad variations to identify the most effective elements.
 Use insights to refine and optimize the campaign.

10. Feedback and Adaptation:

Feedback Mechanisms:
 Establish channels for receiving and analyzing audience feedback.
 Monitor social media, customer reviews, and other platforms for insights.
Agile Approach:
 Be prepared to make real-time adjustments based on feedback and performance metrics.
 Embrace an agile mindset to adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

11. Legal and Ethical Considerations:

Compliance Checks:
 Ensure all campaign elements comply with relevant laws and regulations.
 Conduct legal reviews for content and visuals to prevent potential issues.
Ethical Messaging:
 Uphold ethical standards in advertising content.
 Avoid misleading or deceptive practices and prioritize transparency.

12. Contingency Plans:

Risk Assessment:
 Identify potential risks and develop contingency plans.
 Have a crisis communication strategy in place for unforeseen challenges.
Scenario Planning:
 Anticipate possible scenarios that could impact the campaign.
 Develop responses and actions for each scenario.

13. Post-Campaign Evaluation:

Performance Analysis:
 Conduct a comprehensive analysis of campaign performance against set objectives.
 Evaluate the effectiveness of each channel and creative element.
Learnings and Recommendations:
 Document key learnings from the campaign.
 Provide recommendations for future campaigns based on successes and areas for
improvement.
Measuring Advertising Effectiveness – Pretesting and Post Testing
The managerial responsibility in the area of advertising does not come to an end with
the execution of an advertising programme. Any sound managerial effort is finally interested in
goal attainment and, therefore, always ready to evaluate the results.

Evaluation of advertising or advertising effectiveness refers to the managerial exercise aimed at

relating the advertising results to the established standard of performance and objectives so as to
assess the real value of the advertising performance.

What is to be measured?

It is quite obvious that in the area of ad effectiveness evaluation, the advertiser is to measure the
ad effectiveness.

However, it is not clear as to what is ‗ad effectiveness‘?

Ad effectiveness evaluation is a research activity and by its very nature, it is to establish

the cause and effect relation between the efforts and the results. This ad effectiveness is to be
seen in five areas namely, markets, motives, messages, media and overall results.

When to test?

Testing of ad effectiveness is possible at any stage of advertising process. It can be done before
the advertising campaign begins or during its run or after the campaign is fully run. Pre-testing
gives the maximum safety as much is not lost; concurrent testing makes him to lose little more as
the advertising process has advanced.

How to test?

Fortunately, the advertising has wide range of testing techniques or the methods to choose for
evaluation purpose. What methods or techniques he is going to use is dependent on when he is
going to measure the ad effectiveness.

Accordingly, there can be three sets of methods to meet his needs namely, pre-testing, concurrent
testing and post-testing methods.

I.Pre-testing methods

1. Check-list test

A check-list is a list of good qualities to be possessed by an effective advertisement. A typical

check- list provides rating scale or basis for ranking the ads in terms of the characteristics.

These characteristics may be honesty, attention getting, readability, reliability, convincing

ability, selling ability and the like. The ad that gets highest score is considered as the best.

2. Opinion test
Opinion test or consumer jury test is one that obtains the preference of a sample group of typical
prospective consumers of the product or the service for an ad or part of it. The members of the
jury rate the ads as to their head-lines, themes, illustrations, slogans, by direct comparison.

Getting preference from a juror is better than getting it from a member of general public or an ad
expert.

Jury‘s preference is arrived at by seeking answers to the questions as to which ad was seen first?

Which was most convincing?

Which was most interesting? And so on. Accordingly, the top ranking ad gets selected.

3.Dummy magazine and port-folio test

Dummy magazines are used to pre-test the ads under conditions of approximation
resembling normal exposure. A dummy magazine contains standard editorial material, control
ads that have been already tested and the ads to be tested. The sample households receive these
magazines and the interviews are conducted to determine recall scores.

4.Inquiry test
It involves running two or more ads on a limited scale to determine which is most effective in
terms of maximum inquiries for the offers made. These inquiry tests are used exclusively to test
copy appeals, copies, illustrations, and other components.

Any of these elements may be checked. The point that is to be checked is changed and all other
components are unaltered, to get the score.

5.Mechanical tests
These mechanical tests are objective in nature unlike the one already explained. These help in
provide good measures as to how respondent are eyes and emotions reaching a
given advertisement.

The most widely used mechanical devices are:

Eye Movement Camera

Perceptoscope
Psycho-galvanometer and
Tachistoscope.

II. Concurrent Testing Methods

1. Co-incidental surveys
This is called as coincidental telephone method also whereby a sample of households is selected,
calls are made during the time programme broadcast, the respondents are asked whether their
radio or television is on, and if so, to what station or programme it is tuned? The results of the
survey are used to determine the share of response for the advertisement or the programme.

2.Consumer diaries
This method involves giving the families selected in advance of diary or individual diaries to the
members of the family. The selected families and individual respondents are asked to record the
details about the programme they listen or view. The diaries are collected periodically to
determine the scores.

3.Mechanical devices
The mechanical devices used to measure the ad differences concurrently are more common to
broadcast media.

These are:

Audio meters
Psychogalvanometer
Tachistoscope and
Truck Electronic Unit.

4. Traffic counts
Traffic counts are of special applicability to outdoor advertising. One can get good deal
of information through traffic counts. This counting is done by independent organisations may be
private or public. This work is also undertaken by advertising agencies. For instance, how many
automobiles and other vehicles were exposed to a bulletin board or a poster or a wall painting
and how many times? Can be determined.

III. Post-testing methods

1.Inquiry tests
It is controlled experiment conducted in the field. In inquiry test, the number of
consumer inquiries produced by an advertising copy or the medium is considered as to the
measure of its communication effectiveness.

Therefore, the number of inquiries is the test of effectiveness which can be produced only when
the ad copy or the medium succeeds in attracting and retaining reader or viewer attention. To
encourage inquiries, the advertiser offers to send something complimentary to the reader or the
viewer, if he replies.

2.Split-run test
A split-run test is a technique that makes possible testing of two or more ads in the
same position, publication, issued with a guarantee of each ad reaching a comparable group of
readers. It is an improvement over the inquiry test in that the ad copy is split into elements like
appeal layout headline and so on. Here also, the readers are encouraged to reply the
inquiries to the keyed or the given address.
3. Recognition tests
Recognition is a matter of identifying something as having seen or heard before. It is based on
the memory of the respondent. It attempts to measure the ad effectiveness by determining
the number of respondents who have read or seen the ads before. To arrive at the results,
readership or listenership surveys are conducted.

4. Recall tests
Recalling is more demanding than recognizing as a test of memory. It involves respondents to
answer as to what they have read, seen or heard without allowing them to look at or listen to
the ad while they are answering.

There are several variations of this test. One such test is Triple Association Test which
is designed to test copy themes or the slogans and reveals the extent to which they
have remembered.

5. Sales tests
Sales tests represent controlled experiment under which actual field conditions than the
simulated are faced. It attempts to establish a direct relationship between one or more
variables and sales of a product or service. It facilitates testing of one ad against another and
one medium against another.

To sum-up, ad effectiveness testing is a must to avoid costly mistakes, to select the best
alternative from the apparently equal alternatives, to resolve the differences of opinion
and to add to the store of knowledge having deep bearing on advertising effectiveness and
efficiency. Ad effectiveness testing can be at three levels namely, prior to, during and after the
release of an ad.

There are many methods to choose. The final results depend on the validity, reliability and the
relevance of each method employed. Testing, if done in good faith, can payout its costs and
rich dividends too.
Media Planning and Strategy – Media Types and their Characteristics

Media Planning
Media planning is the process of identifying and selecting media outlets – mainly newspapers,
magazines, websites, TV and radio stations, and outdoor placement – in which to place
paid advertisements. The person responsible for evaluating the many media options and
strategizing campaigns to support a particular product, service, or brand is called a media
planner. Media planners typically are employed by advertising agencies.

Creating a Media Plan

The goal when creating a media plan is to reach target customers – those who are most likely to
buy from you, at the exact moment that they have decided to buy. Using advertising, you can
educate and inform those likely customers, to make them aware of your business and to persuade
them to buy a particular product from you rather than another business.

To make that happen as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, it is important to weigh the
following when developing your media plan:

Reach: One of the two most important factors to consider, reach is the number of people you
want to get in front of during a particular timeframe, such as a week or a month.
Frequency: The second most important factor is frequency, which is the number of times your
target customers will see your ad. Obviously, the higher the number, the better, but cost is also a
factor. For example, you may want to run an ad daily in your local newspaper, but the cost for
such a purchase may exceed your annual budget.
Cost-per-thousand: One way to measure the cost of advertising is to divide the total
cost of advertising in a particular outlet by the media‘s thousands of customers, to get
the cost-per- thousand value. For newspapers and magazines, you‘d divide the cost by total
subscribers. For blogs, you‘d divide by subscribers.
Selectivity: Depending on how targeted your product is, you may want a measure of how well
the media outlet reaches your particular prospect. For example, advertising Rolls Royces through
the local newspaper will attract attention, but what percent of the newspaper‘s subscribers fall
into the target market of prospects likely to buy? It might be too low a number to make sense.
Impact: How many senses can the media outlet being considered reach? Magazines can appeal
to sight, and perhaps smell (with those perfume inserts), while websites can appeal to sight and
sound. The same is true with TV. You should consider what senses will make the biggest impact
on a customer‘s purchase decision.

Media planning is a science designed to generate maximum sales from all the advertising your
company invests in.

Media Strategy
Media strategy can be defined as the usage of an appropriate media mix in order to
achieve desired and optimum outcomes from the advertising campaign. It plays a key role in
advertising campaigns. The objective of Media Strategy is not just about procuring
customers for their product or services but also focusses on placing a right message towards the
right people at the right time and ensuring that the message is relevant and persuasive. Media
Strategy is designed to achieve the above mentioned target but the budget is always kept in mind.
Media Planning Steps

1.Define Goals
Before any planning first, you need to know what you want to achieve with the plan. Therefore,
evaluate the organization‘s main goals and how the future campaign aligns with the company‘s
main goals and objectives.
Once you do that, you can define the media goals and objectives which are the goals for the
campaign. To achieve it, the marketer needs to analyze the current marketing position,
including the competitive environment so they can approach the present marketing problem.
When you have a complete analysis, then you can put these objectives into goals you can
measure with key performance indicators (KPIs).
2.Identify Target Audience

Now is the time to define exactly who you are directing the campaign for. The golden rule is the
more targeted the message, the better the outcome. Since different audiences react to different
media, ad types, and messages. You need to consider this when creating the media plan.
Your target audience also has preferences for specific content types and platforms. That‘s why it
is important to market to the audience where they use to spend their time online. Without
researching the target audience, the message can be too broad or scattered and it won‘t be
measured accurately.
Once you find your target audience, you need to gather as much information as possible. Not
only the demographics but their habits, interests, and how they consume media, then define the
rest of the plan around these data.

3. Consider the Budget, Frequency, and Reach

Next, it is important to determine how much and how often you will serve the ads to your
audience. Marketers should take into consideration to avoid alienating the audience, serving
them too many ads.
There are three main approaches to ad frequency:
Continuity: this refers to running an ad on a fixed schedule so the audience is constantly
exposed. This approach works well with generic consumer products and awareness campaigns.
Flighting: this method involves running ads intermittently. This method works best with
seasonal items.
Pulsing: this is a combination of both methods. Here you run a consistent stream of ads at the
most convenient times and pulse reminders at other times.
Finally, you need to define the reach of the campaign. This is determined by the size of the
audience. The larger the audience, the broader the reach.
4. Select the Media Channels
At this stage, you already know who is going to consume your audience and what‘s the goal for
your campaign. Now you need to select which channels you are going to use to reach them.
Take into account which pricing method you will use, which platform you will sign on, etc.
5. Write the Plan
Once you have all the pieces in place, it is time to write the plan. A media plan should be specific
and measurable. It should include details like the specific media channels, the number of
impressions,s and development specifications.
6. Monitor, Measure, Analyze and Repeat

Now comes the part of executing the campaign. Analyze the measurable goals by tracking the
engagement, conversions, and all the rest of the KPIs. Thus you can check what is working and
what it isn‘t. There should be continuous optimization in a constant loop of monitoring,
measuring, and analyzing.

Benefits and Challenges of Media Planning

Challenges of media planning

Platform preference: brands need to reach consumers in the various channels and platforms
that the target audience uses while keeping the campaign within budget.
Too focused on the budget: campaigns that revolve too much around the budget don‘t have the
flexibility to allocate a bit extra to different channels that prove more successful.
 Inaccurate measurements: because of the diversity of online and offline channels, it is difficult
for marketers to compare the performance of each other and detect which are the most effective.
 Not targeted at the consumer level: to be successful, a campaign needs to be able to reach at
consumer level with in-depth marketing.
Benefits of media planning
 A deeper knowledge of your target audience.
 Keep control of the budget
 More decision-power over which platforms and channels to share your content
 Monitoring advertising efforts on a deep level

Types of Media
Modern media comes in many different formats, including print media (books, magazines, and
newspapers), television, movies, video games, music, cell phones, various kinds of software, and
the Internet. Each type of media involves both content, and also a device or object through which
that content is delivered.

(i) Print Media

Print media also include telephone directories, books, notebooks, reports, community and
professional directories, bus or railway tickets and timetables, and special publications on
the special events by schools, colleges, universities, local bodies, cooperative societies,
companies, or governments.

(iii) Magazines

Magazine is another popular and wisely used advertising medium. It is similar to newspapers
with regard to many aspects. To consumers, magazines are treated as source of information and
entertainment. A large variety of magazines or periodicals are published weekly,
fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually.

(iv) Outdoor or Mural Media

Nowadays, outdoor advertising media are widely used for almost all types of goods and services.
Outdoor media are excessively used by manufacturers and dealers, hotels, restaurants, academic
institutions, airways, banks, insurance, etc.

Cold drinks, cements, cigarettes, petroleum products, and cosmetics products widely use these media
for advertisement. They are also known as mural media. Those companies, which are not in
position to spend huge amount on television, radio, newspapers or magazines, may opt for
these media.

(v) Television – TV
 It is the newest, fastest growing, and most popular advertising medium. It is a powerful medium
for entertainment and advertisement. Now, television set is available at affordable price. Most of
TV channels and local cable operators carry commercial advertisements. It appeals the people
through the eye and the ear, i.e., it creates audio-visual effect. Products can be demonstrated as
well as explained.

Written words, description, and slogans can also be depicted with pictures, package, and brand
names and/or products. Now, film starts, cricketers, artists, and modeling personalities are
excessively used to advertise different types of products.

Media Characteristics
There are two types of media for communication – mass media and interpersonal media.
Interpersonal media is an expensive medium but highly useful for focused reach. On the other
hand mass media like television, or radio, or newspaper are cost efficient and characterized by
wide reach. Now, let‘s examine the characteristics of each of the mass medium.

1. Television

Following are the specific characteristics of television:

 It is more impact-full as it is the combination of sound, sight, and motion,

 It has broad reach and mass coverage,
 It is highly intrusive medium,
 It has high absolute cost but cost per thousand is moderate.
 2. Radio

Following are the specific characteristics of radio:

 It can reach out to remote audiences,

 It is most cost efficient among all mass media,
 Radio can reach mobile population,
 Radio has local market identification.
3. Newspaper

Following are the specific characteristics of newspaper:

Newspaper is a better option to provide detailed information,

A publication have different editions for different areas, so there is a geographic flexibility
in newspaper,
Newspaper have different sections, so there is opportunity of targeting special interest
groups,
Newspaper are vehicle for coupon delivery.
4. Magazine

Following are the specific characteristics of magazine:

There are magazines for sports, corporate, business, women. children, etc., so we can
say magazines have specific audience selectivity, as they are specialized,
Magazines have longer life,
Magazines provide them opportunity for message scrutiny, and geographic and
demographic flexibility.
 5. Outdoor

Following are specific characteristics of outdoor media:

 Outdoor media is easily noticeable, and it provides 24 hours coverage,

 Outdoor is location specific media, it has local market presence,
 Outdoor media is Cost efficient medium,
 It can be good reminder media.
 Setting Media Objectives

How is a media plan developed?

Media planning is a four-step process which consists of

(1) Setting media objectives in light of marketing and advertising objectives,

(2) Developing a media strategy for implementing media objectives,

(3) Designing media tactics for realizing media strategy, and

(4) Proposing procedures for evaluating the effectiveness of the media plan.
Target Audience

The first objective of a media plan is to select the target audience: the people whom the media
plan attempts to influence through various forms of brand contact. Because media objectives are
subordinate to marketing and advertising objectives, it is essential to understand how the target
audience is defined in the marketing and advertising objectives. The definition may or may not
be exactly the same, depending on the marketing and advertising objectives and strategies.

Demographics and Psychographics

The target audience is often defined in terms of demographics and psychographics. Syndicated
research services such as Simmons Market Research Bureau (SMRB or Simmons) and
Media mark Research Inc. (MRI) provide national data on a number of demographics of
U.S. consumers, including gender, age, education, household income, marital status,
employment status, type of residence, and number of children in the household. Using
demographic variables, for example, the target audience of a media plan could be ―individuals
who are 26-to-45 years old with yearly household income of $50,000 or more‖ or ―all
households with children age 3 years or younger.‖

Generational Cohorts

In addition to demographics and psychographics, generational cohort is another useful concept

for selecting the target audience. Because the members of a particular generational cohort
are likely to have had similar experiences during their formative years, they maintain
analogous social views, attitudes, and values. Generational cohorts in the U.S. are the Baby
Boomers (about 70 million people born 1945-1964), Generation X (about 17 million people born
in 1965-1978), and Generation Y (about 60 million people born between 1979 and 1994). Each
of the cohorts possesses distinct characteristics in their lifestyles and often serves as a
reference group from which finer segments of the target audiences can be selected for specific
advertising campaigns.
Product and Brand Usage

Target audiences can also be more precisely defined by their consumption behavior.
Product usage includes both brand usage (the use of a specific brand such as Special K cereal or
Dove soap) and category usage (the use of a product category such as facial tissue or chewing
gum). Product use commonly has four levels: heavy users, medium users, light users and
non-users. The levels of use depend on the type of product. For example, Simmons defines heavy
domestic beer users as those who consume five or more cans in the past 30 days, medium beer
users as those who consumer two to four cans, and light users as those who consume one can in
30 days.

Primary and Secondary Target Audience

The target audience in a media plan can be either primary or secondary. A primary
target audience is one that plays a major role in purchase decisions, while a secondary target
audience plays a less decisive role. In the case of video game players, for example,
children‘s requests often initiate a purchase process; parents often respect their children‘s brand
selection. Thus, it is reasonable to consider children as the primary target audience and their
parents as the secondary target audience. If the parents are aware of the advertised brand, it will
be easier for children to convince them of the purchase. Media planners need to examine
and identify the role of
consumers in shopping, buying and consuming a product or service to target the right groups of
consumers effectively.

The Size of Target Audiences

In the process of defining a target audience, media planners often examine and specify the actual
size of a target audience — how many people or households fit the definition. Knowing
the actual size helps advertisers to estimate the potential buying power of the target audience.
For example, if the target audience of a campaign is defined as working women 26-to-44 years
old who are interested in receiving daily news updates on their mobile phones, media
planners should estimate the number of these women in the U.S. to quantify the sales potential.

Communication Goals

After media planners define the target audience for a media plan, they set communication goals:
to what degree the target audience must be exposed to (and interact with) brand
messages in order to achieve advertising and marketing objectives. For example, one
communication goal can be that 75 percent of the target audience will see the brand in
television commercials at least once during a period of three months. Another
communication goal is that 25 percent of the target audience will form a preference for a
new brand in the first month of the brand launch. The different communication goals can be
better understood in a hierarchy of advertising objectives, such as Bill Harvey‘s expansion of
an earlier model of Advertising Research
 Media Strategy

Media strategy can be defined as the usage of an appropriate media mix in order to
achieve desired and optimum outcomes from the advertising campaign. It plays a key
role in advertising campaigns. The objective of Media Strategy is not just about procuring
customers for their product or services but also focusses on placing a right message towards the
right people at the right time and ensuring that the message is relevant and persuasive.
Media Strategy is designed to achieve the above mentioned target but the budget is always kept
in mind.

There are three ―W‖s to be decided. They are:-

Where to advertise?

The question is to find out where the advertisement should be displayed to the current
and prospective customers. The common available options are – TV, radio, newspapers,
blogs, hoardings on roads, sponsorships, ads during breaks in theatres, etc. It can be done
at international/national/state/city level as per the requirement of the brand.

When to advertise?
The timing of advertisement is very critical especially with respect to the seasonal
products. There is no point in airing advertisement for room heaters in summer season. It should
be aired right at the end of monsoon and beginning of winter season.

Which type of media to use?

It is very important to use a correct media type for delivering the message. There are two basic
media approaches which can be adopted –

(i)Media Concentration approach

In this approach, firms concentrate their campaigns only on a few media types (generally two or
three) in order to reach their target consumers instead of using a wide variety of media types.

(ii)Media Dispersion Approach

In media dispersion approach a wide variety of different media categories is employed to reach
the target customers. It is employed when the entire target market can‘t be reached by a
few media types.