Profiles of Major Media Types

PROFILES OF MAJOR MEDIA TYPES Medium Advantages Limitations Newspapers Flexibility; timeliness; good local market coverage; broad acceptability; high believability Short life; poor reproduction quality; small pass-along audience 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 Direct mail High audience selectivity; flexibility; no ad competition within the same medium; allows personalization Relatively high cost per exposure; “junk mail” image Radio Good local acceptance; high geographic and demographic selectivity; low cost Audio only, fleeting exposure; low attention (the half-heard” medium); fragmented audiences Magazines High and demographic selectivity; credibility and prestige; high-quality reproduction; long life and good passalong readership Long ad purchase lead time; high cost; no guarantee of position Outdoor Flexibility; high repeat exposure; low cost; low message competition; good positional selectivity Little audience selectivity, creative limitations Online High selectivity; low cost; immediacy; interactive capabilities Small, demographically skewed audience; relatively low impact; audience controls exposure Average Costs for Advertising*: Newspapers – $1,300 per week for 2” x 2” ad Television – $200,000 for one 30-second commercial (during prime-time) Direct Mail - $1,500 for 1,000 4x6 postcards (includes postage) Radio - $90 to $120 per week on a rotator (prices higher if time slots for ad are selective) Magazines - $1,200 to $5,000 per month or per issue (depends on ad size and demographics) Outdoor (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 - $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 *Note: Prices reflected are negotiated prices for a 12-week campaign