Basics: Frequency

Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to share with you some of the basics of advertising; specifically geared to understanding what to look for and what to avoid when deciding on what and how to do your advertising.

You'll see it's not as complicated as some media salespeople would have you believe. The best advertising program is built around peoples habits, behavior and relationships.

Today the topic is Frequency.

Frequency is the number of times a person sees/hears an ad. In the world of radio listening, people pretty much listen to the same station(s) at the same time each week.

Let's say Bob is a 40 year old white collar worker who works an 8 to 5 job. He wakes up at 6:15am to his clock radio and is out of the house by 7:15. He spends 25 minutes in the car driving to work. At noon, he leaves and drives 10 minutes to eat lunch and another 10 minutes back to work. He is back in the car at 5:10pm and gets home around 5:45. He does this 5 days a week.

If your commercial airs between 7:15 and 7:45 in the morning, Bob will hear it on his morning commute. This is a Frequency of 1.

If it plays every weekday morning at the same time, Bob will hear it 5 times. This is a Frequency of 5. Most experts look for a frequency of 3 as a minimum number of times a person like Bob needs to hear a commercial before they notice it.

Frequency is one of the key factors in planning an advertising campaign.

Feel free to send me your questions: Scott@ScLoHo.net