Have you been snared by a Media Trap?

Dimension X defines a "Media Trap" as a media agreement where dollars are committed by an advertiser without the likelihood of reasonable return on investment. The following are three very common examples that cause many businesses to waste thousands of dollars each year from their advertising budgets.

1. Businesses are enticed to purchase a schedule by a low Cost-per-Spot. I've seen clients so excited and proud of their negotiating skills because of this number. They couldn't wait to sign the contract. Unfortunately, spots don't sit in a college class room, test-drive a new automobile, or walk into a hair salon - People Do. The value of a schedule is based on how many listeners or viewers will be exposed to the message compared to the price you pay. This can easily be determined by measuring the Cost-per-Thousand or the Cost-per-Point. Example: Imagine an advertiser who is considering a schedule that provides 50 spots at a cost of $20 per spot. Total cost $1,000. To incentivize the offer, the sales person will double the spots; thereby, cutting the Cost-per-Spot in half. Now instead of paying $20 per spot, the company is paying $10. Sounds great! Unfortunately, all of the additional spots will air between the hours of midnight and 5 AM. There is virtually no additional audience exposure added to the campaign; yet, the Cost-per-Spot is half that of the original offer. Advertisers who think Cost-per-Spot is meaningful should know that media buying software doesn't measure Cost-per-Spot. Why would it?

2. The programming that you love to watch may not match up to the target audience for your product. I remember an advertiser, in his early sixties, whose net worth was in the millions of dollars. We started a television campaign for his company a few days after Christmas one year. About five days into the campaign, I received a call from him in which he expressed his displeasure in not seeing his commercials. I asked what he had been viewing the past several days. The programming that he was watching was not the programming that the target customer would be seeing.

3. One of my favorite "media traps" is what I call the Plus Factor. Example: Pittsburgh has a high percentage of residents over the age of 65. One radio station prides itself on being very high in the rankings for persons 18+. They promote this fact to all advertisers regardless of their target demographic. What they often leave out of the sales pitch is that over 60% of their audience is over the age of 65. This means that the station will be one of the top stations with any age as long as they put the plus after the number. If you own a business that has a primary target demographic of 18 to 24 and this station pitches you that they are the number 1 or number 2 station in the market for persons 18+, you may have an interest. Unfortunately, in the demo 18 to 24 or 18 to 44, the station doesn't show up in the top ten for any of the major dayparts. If you have a young to middle age target audience, buying this station would be a significant mistake.

These are just a few examples of media traps but most, if not all of them can be avoided with a little due diligence. If you are going to invest large sums of money buying media, you need to know for certain everything you can about your customer. Make a decision on the demographic that you will be targeting and don't settle on a vague age range. To the best of your ability, profile your ideal customer. Make sure that you define the geographic area where you have the best opportunity to win new customers. There is a tremendous amount of research that is available on-line and from media providers. Find out what you need to know to make good media decisions and do the research. Being informed will help prevent your company from falling into the many media traps that exist.