Journalism Chapter 11 Homework As discussed in the chapter, there are a number of problems with the sweeps ratings periods used to measure local TV viewing audiences

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Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio

Digital video recorders and video on demand (VOD) are major technological developments impacting

the way people watch television and will continue to do so in the future. DVRs allow shows to be

recorded and saved to hard drives that can hold hours of programming. DVRs also allow users to

rewind or pause in the middle of a live broadcast while the device keeps recording, resume watching

potentially on a pay-per-view, commercial free basis.

Digital video recorders and VOD will have a major impact on television’s traditional advertising

business model as households will not have to watch programs at scheduled times and will have the

ability to fast forward through commercials or skip them altogether. This will make it more difficult

to measure viewing audiences and make it more difficult to develop media plans for television.

is occurring with the increase in channels available through digital cable and satellite systems. The

four major networks have been impacted by this as their collective viewership has declined by 42

percent over the past 15 years and they now account for only 25 percent of the prime time viewing

audience. Top rated shows that used to be watched by 20 percent of the TV households now struggle

to get double digit ratings as viewers are being lost to cable channels that offer programs that appeal

Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio

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2. Discuss the advantages and limitations of television as an advertising medium and how these factors

affect its use by both major advertisers as well as smaller local companies. (L02)

Television has often been described as the ideal advertising medium because of the many advantages

it offers. These include the opportunity TV offers for developing creative and imaginative messages

with high impact; its wide coverage and ability to reach large audiences in a cost-effective manner;

Television advertising can be particularly valuable for creating emotional or entertaining appeals that

help make a low involvement product more exciting or interesting.

Of course there are limitations to television as an advertising medium, even for major advertisers with

large budgets. Television can be a very expensive medium for national advertisers and production

costs for high quality commercials are also very high. The viewing audience for television programs

3. Discuss some of the ways companies that advertise on the Super Bowl are using it as an integrated

marketing opportunity and leveraging their involvement with the game, both leading up to and after

Super Bowl Sunday. (L02)

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There are a number of reasons why companies spend large amounts of money to advertise on the

Super Bowl. The Super Bowl has become the most important advertising showcase of the year. The

big game usually delivers the largest viewing audience of any program and it is the one program

IMC opportunities as well. As discussed in IMC Perspective 11-1, marketers have become very

creative in finding ways to extend their Super Bowl advertising and get consumers involved. A very

good example of this is the “Crash the Super Bowl” contests Frito Lay has developed for the past few

Super Bowls which have included having amateurs create their own commercials and writing and

producing songs that embody the brand image of the company. With the growth of the Internet and

be better off spending the nearly $3 million they might spend for one spot on the Super Bowl on ads

spread across a variety of media and over a longer time period. Many companies are looking to other

major events that deliver a large audience but do not cost as much as the Super Bowl such as the

Academy Awards and Grammy’s. The Super Bowl has also become a showcase for new commercials

that use humor and other types of emotional appeals. Thus it may be difficult for a rational appeal

message to generate much attention and/or interest among Super Bowl viewers.

4. The most popular form of television commercials is the 30-second spot. Discuss why 30-second

spots are so popular among advertisers. When might a marketer be able to effectively use a 10 or 15

second commercial? (L02)

Thirty second commercials have become the most popular form of commercials because most

marketers and agencies view this as the optimal amount of time for a TV commercial. Marketers

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Marketers recognize that there are some situations where they do not need 30 seconds to deliver an

effective message and can use a 15 or even 10 second spot. The growth in the use of 15-second

peaked at 38 percent in 1989 and then declined in the early ‘90s to a low of 30 percent in 1994. Since

then their use has stabilized and they now account for a little over a third of all network commercials.

It appears that 15-second spots are not taking over as predicted. The trend toward shorter

commercials resulted from several factors including increased demand for a limited amount of

broadcast time on the major networks, which led to very high rates for commercial time. Many

5. What are the various options available to advertisers for purchasing advertising time on television?

How does the use of these options differ for national versus local advertisers? (L03)

A number of options are available for purchasing advertising time on television. Advertisers can

purchase time in a variety of program formats and it can be purchased on a national, regional or local

basis. Advertisers can also sponsor an entire program, participate in the sponsorship of a program, or

use spot announcements between programs. For national advertisers, one of the basic decisions is

6. Discuss the reasons for the growing popularity of sports programming on television. What are some

of the ways advertisers can capitalize on the popularity of sports programs as a media vehicle? (L02)

Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio

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As discussed in IMC Perspective 11-2, sports programming has become very pervasive on television

reflecting the general popularity of sports in society. The public’s love affair with sports continues to

grow as there is tremendous interest in professional sports including the National Football League,

Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League.

Interest in college sports has also grown, particularly NCAA football and basketball. In addition to

now have their own cable networks such as the Big Ten Network. Media companies are willing to pay

large amounts of money to the broadcasting rights for sports programming because they can deliver

good ratings and sporting events are usually watched live rather than recorded and played back later.

Sports programming also are a good way to reach young males who are an elusive, yet very valuable

target audience for many companies. Advertisers are capitalizing on the growing popularity of sports

programs in several ways. First, they are making sports programs a major part of their media buys

and airing more commercials during sporting events. They are also taking advantage of the

7. IMC Technology Perspective 11–1 discusses the debate between the television networks and

advertisers over measurement of TV viewing audiences. Evaluate the changes that have been made to

provide advertisers with better measures of television viewing audiences as well as commercials.

(L03)

The major television and cable networks have been battling with Nielsen Media Research for years

over the best way to measure the television viewing audience, particularly given the penetration of

DVRs into nearly 40 percent of television households. The two sides reached a compromise in 2007

when Nielsen Media Research began making commercial ratings available rather than program

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Television and cable networks use rating data from Nielsen Media Research to set prices for

television advertising time and changes in that data can have a major impact on the prices advertisers

ultimately pay. Nielsen’s new “C3” ratings mean the networks now have to negotiate with advertisers

8. Evaluate the use of sweeps ratings periods as a method for measuring local television viewing

audiences. Do you feel think sweeps ratings provide reliable and valid estimates of local television

viewing audiences? How might they be improved? (L03)

As discussed in the chapter, there are a number of problems with the sweeps ratings periods used to

measure local TV viewing audiences. One of the major concerns is over the tactics used by the

networks and their local affiliates to bolster their ratings during the sweeps periods such as special

programming, contests games, and other promotional gimmicks. These extraordinary programming

9. What is a commercial rating and how does this measure differ from a program rating? Discuss why

advertisers and media planners prefer commercial ratings rather than program ratings. (L03)

Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio

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A commercial rating is a measure of the number of viewers of actual commercials in a program rather

than the program itself. Traditionally, Nielsen Media Research has provided advertisers and media

planners with program ratings which are a measure of the percentage of households in an area that are

tuned to a specific television program during a specific time period. However, the advertising

10. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of advertising on radio. Discuss how radio advertising

might be used by national versus local advertisers. (L02)

Advantages of advertising on radio include its low cost and efficiency. Radio commercials are

inexpensive to produce and the cost of advertising time on most stations is relatively low. This allows

advertisers the opportunity to build more reach and frequency into their media schedules. Another

major advantage of radio is the high degree of audience selectivity available through various program

11. Discuss how radio stations, as well as advertisers, can deal with the clutter problem on radio and draw

attention to their commercials. Provide an example of an advertiser who might be able to benefit

from the contextual programming service offered by Clear Channel. (L03, 4)

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One of the problems facing radio, like most other advertising media, is that of clutter as most radio

stations carry an average of nearly 10 minutes of commercials each hour and during the popular early

morning and evening drive times the amount of commercial time may exceed 12 minutes. Some

stations have begun offering “commercial free” blocks of programming time (such as music) but this

often results in listeners switching to another station when they begin airing commercials. The clutter

Additional Discussion Questions (not in text)

12. Television is often described as a mass medium that offers little selectivity to advertisers. Do you

agree with this statement? What are some of the ways selectivity can be achieved through TV

advertising? (L02)

For many years television was essentially a mass medium as there were only three major networks

which accounted for over 90 percent of the prime-time viewing audience. However, some selectivity

has always been available due to variations in program content, broadcast time and geographic areas.

For example, Saturday morning cartoon shows appeal primarily to children while weekend sports

13. Discuss how the growth of Spanish-language television networks in the United States such as

Univision and Telemundo affects the media strategy of marketers targeting the Hispanic market.

(L02)

Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio

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As discussed in the chapter, the Hispanic market is very large as there are now 40 million Hispanics

living in the U.S. and this group is estimated to grow another 15 percent by 2010. The availability of

Spanish-language TV stations is important to marketers who want to reach this segment as there are

14. The text discusses the Extended Home study conducted by Nielsen Market Research to measure the

television viewing patterns of college students living away from home. Discuss why the results of this

study are of value to televisions networks (including cable) as well as advertisers. What are some of

the other away-from-home viewing audiences that are of importance to advertisers and show be

measured? (L03)

The results of this study are of value to television networks, including cable, for several reasons. First

of all the results show that college students watch as much TV as other 18 to 24 year olds which

refutes the notion that they are busing studying, socializing or doing other things that keep them from

watching television. These results should not be surprising since many college dormitories, fraternity

and sorority houses, and off-campus housing make cable television service available to residents. The

study also provides insight into the particular shows that are popular among college students as well

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15. Discuss how the concept of image transfer can be used in radio advertising? Find an example of a

radio campaign that is using this concept and evaluate it. (L02)

Imagery transfer refers to a technique whereby the images of a TV commercial are implanted into a

radio spot. This can be done by establishing the video image of a TV commercial and then using the

16. Discuss some of the factors that media buyers should take into consideration when buying advertising

time on radio. (L03)

Media buyers take a number of factors into consideration when buying advertising time on radio.

First they must decide whether they want to make a network, spot or local buy. National advertisers

such as automobile companies or major business–to-business marketers are likely to purchase time on

one of the three major radio networks since they are generally trying to reach a national audience.

Companies who are interested in buying time in certain geographic markets would make a spot buy

IMC Exercise

There are many advantages to advertising on cable TV including the opportunity for narrowcasting or

reaching a very specialized market and greater flexibility in the type of commercials that can be used.

Select a popular cable network from the list shown in Figure 11-4 of the text. Analyze several of the

different programs on this network and the types of companies who advertise on these shows. Discuss the

types of commercials used by the advertisers on these programs with respect to factors such as creative

style, objectives, length and format. Do the commercials appear to differ from those found on the major

networks? If so, in what ways?

Chapter 11 – Evaluation of Media: Television and Radio

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AdForum Exercise: Advertising on Major Sporting Events

(See Advertising and Promotion Playlist, Chapter 11)

Part I: 2010 FIFA World Cup

The playlist for this chapter contains five of the most popular commercials from the 2010 FIFA World

Cup soccer tournament that was played in South Africa. Watch these five spots and answer the following:

1. Analyze the type of appeal used in each commercial and discuss why this type of advertising works

well during the World Cup.

Part II: 2010 Super Bowl

The playlist for this chapter also includes five of the most popular TV commercials from the 2010 Super

Bowl based on the results from the 22nd Annual Super Bowl Ad Meter study conducted by the newspaper

USA TODAY. The Ad Meter study is conducted by recruiting 250 consumers and electronically charting

their second–by-second reactions to ads shown during the Super Bowl. Watch these five spots and answer

the following:

1. Analyze the type of advertising appeal and creative execution technique used for each ad and discuss

why you think it was used for the Super Bowl spot.

3. Discuss the specific objectives that each marketer might have for each commercial. Do you feel this

ad can be used to achieve these objectives when aired during regular programming? What particular

TV shows would be a good place to run these commercials?