Strengths and Weaknesses of Different Mediums for Media Planners:

TV

TV has a number of strengths for media planners. It has traditionally been viewed as the most ‘effective,’ however, it has also traditionally been the most expensive. Broadcast, cable, and satellite TV placements are all quite expensive. Advertising on this medium is perhaps the most effective for a large company that wants to reach a large number of people (a company that can afford to target the masses, and aim for a high CPM). Overall, it is a highly saturated medium, and the ever-increasing amount of channels available makes it even harder to break through the clutter. However, a number of satellite channels are highly specialized in terms of interests, so this may make targeting a specific group or demographic a bit more easy. For a smaller company that only wants to get their message out to a certain geographic area, it is more expensive to buy placement regionally than it is (on a CPM basis) to simply place an ad to be aired nationally. This is why most of what is seen on the larger network stations are ads that are relevant to the entire continental U.S.

Radio

Radio is, debatably, a dying medium. Obviously, TV took over the radio’s spot as the main American living-room centerpiece a long time ago. The availability of other entertainment mediums, such as TV, CD’s, and MP3’s and the iPOD for music have also made the radio somewhat obsolete in many respects. Nonetheless, radio is still much more cost effective than television advertising. Radio is also, by its nature, usually regional in its broadcasting, which makes it more accessible to smaller companies that only want to hit a certain geographic region. Radio also leaves a lot more to the listener’s imagination than TV does. However, it certainly lacks the visual capabilities of TV, so it may be harder for a radio commercial to retain attention, and maintain a captive audience. Also, Sirius, XM radio, and “high definition radio” have become new mediums within the overall radio medium that are somewhat untapped in their potential, partially due to the fact that they have not been as successful as they were projected to be at their conception.

Magazines

Magazines are a pretty good way to cater to a specialized target market. Most magazines, or at least those than span beyond the scope of a simple general interest magazine, are, themselves, highly specialized. Due to this fact, it is possible for a company to place something in a magazine that they know is more likely to be reached by the actual target market. By cutting out many of the sets of eyes that would not even give an ad another second of their attention (upon realizing that the ad isn’t about a product or service that interests them), an advertiser may have more luck actually generating interest in their products or services through a mag. ad. Due to the aforementioned fact, it may also be more possible to take a less peripheral route in the ad’s message, and, rather, to be more central to the function of the product or service, as the reader may very well already know more about the market for said product, and thus be more interested in hearing the more intricate details of its workings, etc…

Billboards

Billboards can be extremely effective in generating brand awareness, at the very least. If they are placed effectively, especially in a place where there is a high amount of traffic, preferably traffic that is stopped for some of the time, like rush hour traffic in a city. Unfortunately, they are most often placed on a quickly-moving highway or smaller road, and, for this reason, they are passed by (literally) relatively quickly, and, the driver or passenger in a car may not give them a second thought. For this reason, you cannot have an extremely wordy billboard, which makes conveying a concrete message about a product pretty hard. If you want to generate brand awareness, or point out the location of something, such as a restaurant, hotel, or ski mountain, near the billboard, then they can be pretty good. Also, if people are able to come up with clever ways to catch a driver’s attention, a billboard can be extremely effective due to the fact that it is innovative and different. Here are a few examples (and their verbatim write-ups) that I found on Adverblog last summer, that I think are amazing:

“You can think of Orwell's Big Brother or, as you prefer, of Dick's Minority Report. Whatever the case, it's no longer science fiction, it's real. MINI Usa has launched a scary (sorry I must say it) outdoor campaign targeted at MINI owners. In cities such as Chicago and Miami they have installed digital billboards who are able to receive identification messages from the MINI's passing by. As the car is tagged with information about the owner, the billboard is able to recognize the driver and greet him/her with a personalized message.



This campaign sets a new frontier in 1to1 marketing, but it's also important to say that the drivers involved in this promotion actually opted-in to be part of the game. Fools or curious it's impossible (yet) to say. However the campaign is rising comments and polemics not only for the extremely personal yet public relationship MINI wants to establish with its clients, but also for the potential risks of such campaign in terms of driver distraction and road safety.”


McDonald's solar clock



"Via Brainstorm #9 a great outdoor for Mc Donald's created by Leo Burnett. Look at the sun, check the time and find your perfect McD snack!"


Youtube

Youtube is a crazy (relatively) new medium that has taken the nation, and the world, by storm. It is extremely effective for generating interest through word-of-mouth, and other viral and guerilla marketing campaigns. The tremendous amount of content available on the website makes it another saturated medium, but if an ad’s creator is clever enough, and generates enough interest in a video, it can reach thousands, if not millions of people, and these are people who are not having the message in the ad or video thrown at them, like in traditional advertising, but rather people who seek out the video, and eagerly watch it. There are numerous examples of successful videos of this nature, one of my favorites is Smirnoff’s Tea Party music video. The other nice thing about this kind of video is that after it is made, you don’t have to spend money to air it…you may want to promote it one way or another, but you don’t have to constantly pay for placement on TV. Also, the amazingly large amount of user-generated content on Youtube can be either positive or negative for a brand or product…depending on what someone is saying about it.

Blip.TV

I knew nothing about this site before it was mentioned for this assignment. From what I can see, it is a medium with tremendous potential for advertisers. However, judging from the fact that I had never heard of it, and the people that I asked about it haven’t heard about it either, it may not be a good way to get your message out right now. Perhaps if it gained the kind of fame that Youtube has, it would be a bit better.