How is brand advertising different to direct response advertising?

June 19, 2018By Simon FosterAdvertising Evaluation, Direct Marketing Training, DRTV Training, Media Evaluation, Media Planning, TV Media Planning Training No Comments

Brand advertising techniques are very different to direct response advertising techniques.  Even when you are running an integrated multi-channel campaign it is important to understand the key differences between the two approaches so that you can orchestrate your overall campaign plan and budget to deliver maximum ROI. To illustrate some of the key differences here … Read More

TV Media Planning Terms – calculating media reach and frequency using TVRs

April 22, 2018By Simon FosterMedia Buying, Media Planning, TV Media Planning Training No Comments

When media planners develop TV campaign plans they are often optimising the relationship between three sets of numbers: TVRs (or GRPs, or TRPs) – TVRs or TV rating points are a way of sizing target audiences across both demographics and geography. 1 TVR is 1% of a target audience universe as defined by both demographic and … Read More

Advertising Response Rates by Channel

February 15, 2017By Simon FosterAdvertising Evaluation, Direct Mail, Direct Marketing Training, Media Planning No Comments

Understanding response rates by media channel is a vital component of marketing and media planning. If you know the response rates, media costs and likely conversion rates of each channel you are using, you can forecast the ROI of your planned activity – before you spend any budget. This helps to de-risk your marketing activity … Read More

How to get the best from DRTV

November 30, 2014By Simon FosterDRTV Training, TV Media Planning Training

Many advertisers are returning to Direct Response Television (DRTV). Whilst the goal today is to maximise web response as opposed to phone response, many of the rules of traditional DRTV remain constant. Here’s a summary of how to get the best from Direct Response TV: Remember all DRTV begins with the offer. Whilst issues around … Read More

What is a TVR?

February 5, 2014By Simon FosterMedia Buying, Media Planning, TV Media Planning Training

This is a question that many marketers don’t want to ask, especially when they are halfway through the agency’s TV presentation. The trouble is, the agency team have been talking about TVRs for about 20 minutes, the coffee’s gone cold and you daren’t chip in to ask “exactly what is a TVR?” Put very simply … Read More

Advertising and Media Planning Books

March 13, 2013By Simon FosterMarketing Training, Media Planning, Media Planning Books

Here’s a selection of must-read selection of adverting media planning and buying books for those working in advertising and communications strategy. If you click the link you can find the book on Amazon. The Communications Challenge: A practical guide to media neutral planning A practical guide to communications planning. Becoming quite collectable. Even I’m in … Read More

Facebook ‘likes’ don’t increase brand preference or sales

May 9, 2012By Simon FosterAdvertising Evaluation, Digital Media, Media Planning, Social Media

Here’s an iron for the fire: “Facebook ‘likes’ do not cause increased brand preference or increased sales so marketing campaigns designed to increase the number of ‘likes’ are unlikely to increase brand preference or sales.” I was moved to develop and explore this hypothesis after reading an article on the real cost of brand building … Read More