Television has always had the capacity to reach a large number of people in one go. For example a spot in Coronation Street could deliver 13 million or a spot in X Factor could deliver 10 million people. However, these days TV also has the ability to deliver small, niche, highly targeting audience.  Twenty years ago, it would have been impossible to find a spot that delivered an index over 100 for an audience like 25-44 year old AB adults. These days, with more targeted channels and programmes that appeal specifically to this audience, there are plenty of programmes that deliver indices of over 100. For example, Lost has an index of 275, Brothers and Sisters 296 and The Big Bang Theory 266.

It might be that you want to target a very specific audience in order to sell a particular product aimed directly at them. For example, if you were a nappy brand you might want to target housewives with kids aged 0-3. In which case, you could use programmes such as Katie and Peter Stateside (index of 348 for HW+Kids vs adults), Wide Swap (index of 258) or Big Brother (index of 214).

It’s not just regular demographics that can be targeted with television these days. With the help of TGI, you could for example; target organic food lovers. Organic food buyers are 115% more likely than all viewers to watch The South Bank Show on ITV1 or 155% more likely to watch 24 on Sky 1.

Some television channels also offer the ability to target viewers regionally. ITV offer a full regional service with 12 different regions. These are London, Central, Granada, Border, Tyne Tees, Yorkshire, Anglia, Meridian, West Country, HTV Wales and West, Scotland and Ulster. In addition, you can combine some of these regions to create larger macro regions. There are 6 ITV macro regions: Granada & Border, Yorkshire & Tyne Tees, North (Yorkshire, Granada, Border and Tyne Tees), South East (Anglia and Meridian), West (Wales & West & West Country) and Midwest (Wales & West & West Country & Central). In addition, you can also buy micro regions in some areas for even tighter targeting. Channel 4 offer 6 macro regions: London, South, Midlands, North, Ulster and Scotland. Channel five offer 4 macro regions: London, South Central, North and Scotland. GMTV also offer advertisers the ability to buy airtime regionally although this is on a fairly limited basis. There are no regional options when you buy airtime on any multi-channel.

Although BARB measures over a hundred different audiences, most broadcasters will only trade on about 20 audiences. You will need to convert the audience you are trying to reach into the buying audience that best fits. For example, if you want to target the main shopper in the house then your buying audience would be housewives. If you want to target men who like football then your buying audience might be 16-34 men. If you want to target women who earn over £30,000 per annum then your buying audience would probably be ABC1 Women. Within the buying audience you have selected, you will be able to select programmes that are most appealing to your real target audience.