Journey from Concept to Creation : demographics

Broadcast Media (Part Two).

Adman — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Ok…we’ve established that the proper way to begin development of a media plan is to establish a GRP target for your proposed market(s). It is critical to have a sufficient number of GRP’s in order to achieve adequate reach and frequency. GRPs are presented according to ratings of demographic groups within specific market areas as defined by Nielsen’s® proprietary Designated Market Areas (DMAs) [or Arbitron® ADI]. They are presented according to programs or dayparts. Television dayparts include Early Morning (5am-9am), Daytime (9am-4pm), Early Fringe (4pm-8pm), Primetime (8pm-10pm), Late Evening (10pm-1am) and Late Night (1am-5am). Broadcast media reaches very large geographic markets.

The above map of the Atlanta market (my home market) shows how the Nielsen DMA encompasses a large part of the state of Georgia, as well as counties in Alabama and North Carolina [with 2,310,490 TV households, Atlanta is ranked as the 8^th largest DMA]. This is great if you are promoting a chain of stores with locations throughout the DMA, or a product such as our skin creme (from the previous blog) which has broad appeal. In these cases broadcast television would be an efficient buy; possibly more efficient than other media. On the other hand, if you are advertising a single store location that draws from a small area you would be wasting money by reaching beyond your geographic target market. Cable television would be a much better option [I’ll talk about cable TV in an upcoming blog]. Demographics can change significantly across large geographic areas -- from urban to rural, upscale to downscale, blue collar vs white collar, etc. Nevertheless, for many products larger markets mean far better economies of scale. It is the cost per thousand (CPM) (not overall cost) of reaching your target market that dictates a solid media buy.
The ratings services have tightly defined market areas. Nielsen defines their coverage in terms of their proprietary “Designated Market Area” or DMA [Arbitron defines theirs as the “Area of Dominant Influence” (ADI).] These market areas are ranked annually by market size and the top-ten Nielsen markets are highly revered. The current ranking of DMAs is as follows:

Nielsen DMAs are areas that receive the same television programming from a specific group of broadcast television stations. There are 210 Nielsen DMAs in the United States [286 Arbitron ADIs].

Developed in the 1940’s by Arthur Nielsen, the Nielsen Ratings are provided for specific demographic groups (Demos) for each DMA. These ratings have been measured in a number of ways, including telephone surveys, diaries, and Set Meters, and People Meters. Out of the 210 measured Nielsen markets, the 56 largest are measured by meter technology. The remainder is measured by diaries only. Nielsen measures all local markets during designated "sweep" months of November, February, May and July. The ratings are used by local stations and cable systems to set local advertising rates and to make programming decisions. The term "sweep" came from the beginnings of the ratings system in the 1950's when diaries were mailed and processed, starting with the east coast and "sweeping" to the west coast -- people meter markets are measured 365 days a year. The networks go to great effort to attract viewers during the sweeps...the higher numbers they get during the sweeps, the more they can charge for advertising time. They are often criticized for their rates not reflecting typical programming...during the sweeps there is more special programming and original programming, etc., while outside of the sweeps it is more common to see reruns.
Nielsen data is expressed as percentages and presented in terms of rating and share. A rating represents people who watch a particular program or daypart, expressed as a percentage within the universe of all TV households or a specific demographic group (demo) -- a rating of one represents one percent of TV Households. Demos are broken into 66 specific age group segments such as 18-49, 25-54, etc. Share represents the same viewers as a percentage of TV households or total persons actually watching television during the program or daypart -- it can be used as gauge of how a program or daypart competes with other available programs or dayparts.
Nielsen has recently started providing consumer segmentation based on socio-economic data from PRIZM NE lifestyle group clusters -- Blue Blood Estates (six figure income executives and professionals), Young Digerati (tech savvy, fashionable, urban fringe), Bohemian Mix (progressive mix of young singles, couples, students and professionals), among others...as the ratings system has been criticized for being quantitative at the expense of qualitative. Nevertheless, qualitative data is available from numerous other sources. I will talk more about quantitative vs qualitative analysis in an upcoming blog.

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The boardroom.

Adman — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 23:38:00 GMT

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As I mentioned, the boardroom is not the place for opinions without solid support. I remember a meeting with an Atlanta based Fortune 500 company that was planning on opening several retail stores in the Atlanta metro area. After the presentation of my “big idea,” one of the board members said he had only two concerns -- “we better do this before the competition finds out about it” and “how are we going to pay for it.” I explained that aside from the widely-known provider of the life-sized celebrity puppets to be used in the television commercial, and a wildly-popular local radio personality whose voice and likeness [a custom-made puppet -- he had a “face for radio” -- not everyone can have my rugged, good looks, eh?] would be featured in the work, only the vendor co-op manager and media sales rep at a local TV station and those present at the meeting were aware of it. I then handed out my budget with details on how product vendors would match (co-op) client funding.

I had also explained how the demographics and socio-economics of the talent (including the puppets) was selected to appeal to the company’s highly defined target audience… how the creative theme was carefully constructed to sell through specific product and consumer benefits... how the mission and positioning of the client were incorporated into the copy-points… and how we had created a unique “brand personality." The work incorporated our corporate identity design and “page style” to ensure consistent branding. The challenge was to accomplish this in a highly-creative, 30-second "donut" TV spot.

The media strategy was to use television and radio spots, “scotch-truck” newspaper ads, and a periodic direct mail circular (mini-catalog). We had arranged for prize drawings (including a scale model mini-racecar), numerous giveaways, and local radio station remote broadcasts, complete with live music and celebrities. Everything was carefully planned for relevance to the target market, the company and its products.
When I drove out to the first grand-opening I couldn’t find a parking space -- cars lined the streets for several blocks and the new store was packed with excited and more important, paying customers. We had achieved success within a comparatively tight budget (our competitive spending research indicated that the competition spent dramatically more for grand openings) through careful strategic planning (and I was recognized for being way more than just another pretty face).

In business school, I was told about a research study on entrepreneurs. The study found that the vast majority of them put more planning into their holiday vacations than they did in starting their new businesses. It is no wonder that, according to the Small Business Administration, two-thirds of the approx. 700,000 new businesses started in the U.S. fail within five years.

In starting a new business, a new advertising campaign, or a new video production (or a vacation -- I sure could use one!); planning is crucial. Proper planning starts with proper research. I'll talk more about this in my next blog.