Campaign Shapes

When buying television campaigns, it is important to think about flighting. This means the weight of ratings that you buy each week. Examples of flighting are as follows:

Burst – this is a heavyweight of advertising over a short space of time. It is used then you want to reach a large number of people quickly. If you were buying 400 ratings, a burst of advertising would most likely be 100 tvrs per week over 4 weeks

Drip – this is a much lighter weight of advertising over a longer time frame. This type of flighting might be used when you want your campaign to have a slow burn and build cover slowly over time. It also means that you will be on air for as long a time as possible. If you were buying 400 ratings, a drip campaign would most likely be 25 tvrs a week over 16 weeks.

Pulse – People have the ability to remember television advertising pretty well. Therefore if money was limited and you wanted to be on air for as long as possible you might opt for a pulse campaign. This means advertising week on week off. If you were buying 400 ratings, a pulse campaign would most likely be 50 tvrs every other week for 16 weeks.

It is also necessary to think about the levels of coverage and frequency you want to achieve. Cover means how many people in your target audience you reach and frequency means how many times they see the ad. Ideally, you will reach as high a proportion as possible of your target with a frequency that is appropriate to your ad.

If you have a very interesting high impact ad with a clear uncomplicated message, it will only need to be seen once or twice for the message to be understood. However, it you have an ad with an in depth message that is in a low interest category, viewers will need to see the ad several times in order for the message to be received loud and clear.