PROFILES OF MAJOR TYPES OF ADVERTISING

Medium

Advantages

Limitations

Newspapers

Flexibility; timeliness; good local market coverage; broad acceptability; high believability

Short life; poor reproduction quality; small pass-along audience

Cost- $1,300 per week for 2″ x 2″ ad

Television

Good mass market coverage; low cost per exposure; combines sight, sound, and motion; appealing to the senses

High absolute costs; high clutter; fleeting exposure; less audience selectivity

Cost- $200,000 for one 30-second commercial (during prime-time)

Direct Mail

High audience selectivity; flexibility; no ad competition within the same medium; allows personalization

Relatively high cost per exposure; “junk mail” image

Cost- $1,500 for 1,000 4×6 postcards (includes postage)

Radio

Good local acceptance; high geographic and demographic selectivity; low cost

Audio only, fleeting exposure; low attention (the “half-heard” medium); fragmented audiences

Cost-$90 to $120 per week on a rotator (prices higher if time slots for ad are selective)

Magazines

High and demographic selectivity; credibility and prestige; high-quality reproduction; long life and good pass-along readership

Long ad purchase lead time; high cost; no guarantee of position

Cost- $1,200 to $5,000 per month or per issue (depends on ad size and demographics)

Outdoor

Flexibility; high repeat exposure; low cost; low message competition; good positional selectivity

Little audience selectivity, creative limitations

Cost- (billboard) – $3,000 to do artwork and install media on billboard; rates depend on impress level, ranges from $5,000 to $500,000 (the higher the qualify of the artwork and the larger the demographic group, the higher the price); minimum contract is 16 weeks

Online

High selectivity; low cost; immediacy; interactive capabilities

Small, demographically skewed audience; relatively low impact; audience controls exposure

Cost- $0.60 pay-per-click or $1,200 – $1,800 a month for aggressive campaigns (does not include search engine optimization) or $200 to $1,200 per year per banner ad on websites

Sponsorships

High selectivity; brand recognition; subtlety; consumer involvement; brand linking; relational; cause oriented

Shared sponsorship decreases mentions; hard to track spending to consumer response;

Cost- Variables depend on exposure, credibility, time, on-site staging and promotional materials, product samples, etc. Can be as little as $200 up to millions per event.

Word of Mouth

Low cost; viral potential; expanding centers of influence; interactive
capabilities; easily duplicated

Little control; driven by exceptional product or service value; can be hard to initiate

Cost- Little to no cost unless incentives are offered. Good products and services
purchased by satisfied customers at a profit is often the catalyst that starts word of mouth advertising.