Managing the Advertising Campaign

Length of Exposure

Some products require customers be exposed to just a little bit of information in order to build customer interest.  For example, the features and benefits of a new snack food can be explained in a short period of time using television or radio commercials.  However, complicated products need to present more information for customers to fully understand the product.  Consequently, advertisers of these products will seek media formats that allot more time to deliver the message. 

Media outlets vary in how much exposure they offer to their audience.  Magazines and other publications provide opportunities for longer exposure times since these media types can be retained by the audience (i.e., keep old magazines) while exposure on television and radio are generally limited to the time the ad was broadcast.

Advertising Clutter

In order to increase revenue, media outlets often include a large number of ads within a certain time, space or location.  For instance, television programs may contain many ads inserted during the scheduled run-time of a program.  A large number of advertisements create an environment of advertising clutter, which makes it difficult for those in the targeted market to recognize and remember particular advertisements.  To break through the clutter advertisers may be required to increase the frequency of their advertising efforts (i.e., run more ads).  Yet greater advertising frequency increases advertising expense.  Alternatively, advertisers may seek opportunities that offer less clutter where an ad has a better chance of standing out from others.  This can be seen with online downloads (e.g., podcasts) of sports and news programming where a 5-10 minute story will be presented with a single 30-60 second ad.