A Word on Frequency

Planning the right frequency in a TV buy requires Buying Window knowledge.

Adam Armbruster

Probably the most over-discussed and misunderstood topic in television advertising is the subject of frequency. “Frequency” means the appropriate number of times that a given amount of television viewers will see a specific commercial over a specific amount of time.

Although the television industry prides itself on its ability to reach the masses quickly, repetition of message is what causes a television campaign to actually work. In any given week most broadcast television stations will reach 98% of the local population so today television truly stands alone today as a mass reach medium.

Many years ago of marketing researcher at General Electric Co. named Herbert Krugman developed the classic three-time frequency formula. His argument was that people learn in threes. His theory holds that the first time we see television commercial we identify the commercial and we begin to understand what it is. The second time we see the same television commercial we decide if this message is of interest to us or not. The third time we see television commercial we've or decided that we are interested and we pay close attention and absorb the message in detail.

Krugman goes on further to state that the fourth, fifth and sixth time we see the same message it has no additional value to us and simply serves as a reminder of the third exposure.

So does this mean that a three frequency should always be the goal? Usually not. Please keep in mind that this research was done many years ago prior to the massive explosion in media choices including hundreds of television channels, dozens of radio options, dozens of magazines, millions of web sites, outdoor, mobile phone, and in the daily barrage of direct mail. So it stands to argue that we need to re-examine what the proper frequency is for television in today's age.

I grew up in a home where the daily newspaper was considered a must read, but now with two teenagers I see how they refer to the newspaper as a dead tree medium….They look at newspaper as yesterday's news. So why discuss newspaper considering the topic of frequency? Because anyone who buys print advertising those that multiple exposures of the same ad is required to generate impact and sales results.

In our work across the country with thousands of advertisers we've learned many things about television, not the least of which is how to design the proper frequency into a television plan so that the advertiser in generating immediate and measurable sales results.

A good rule of thumb is that when planning a television campaign in an extremely competitive category is a 4 or 5 campaign frequency recommendation. A higher frequency can help your message overwhelm the messages of the competition and strike a chord with the viewer faster.

In contrast, if you're consulting a client who stands alone as the only television advertiser in their category in a specific market then they can be adequately served with a high reach and a basic 3x campaign frequency. In other words this client has the luxury of reaching out to more people less often since they are not competing directly with another similar television campaign.

A few examples of frequency done right are as follows:

The Macy one-day sale plan targets several hundred targeted rating points of television over a 30 hour time period. Macy's will air 4 to 6 television commercials in each hour of programming across three or four television stations. This generates a powerful result since this approach combines the power of classic “road-blocking” with hyper frequency. The net effect of the Macy one-day sale is massive reach along with massive frequency. It's no wonder that when you shop a Macy's the day of one of these events you will see the store filled with buyers.

WebMD.com is another example of a television advertiser who distinctly understands their buying window. In a recent conversation with the folks at Web M.D., we discussed the role television in their plan. As a dot com business their singular goal is to generate massive inquiries on the web site on the same day as their television campaign airs. WebMD.com focuses on Sunday advertising as Sunday is often the number one most popular day for health-care research online. Knowing this WebMD.com dominates Sunday afternoon sporting events with a very high frequency plan over a limited time.

Let's get down to what it takes to do this right.

First is the need to understand the buying window of the product. For example a car dealer advertising a television is a very different buying window then say, a furniture store. A car dealer needs to motivate massive amounts of car buyers very quickly over a 15 day buying cycle. In contrast, a furniture store needs to generate frequency over longer buying cycle since many people will shop for furniture for weeks instead of days.

For example, how do you design the appropriate frequency into an auto dealer campaign? For many retail automotive dealer television campaigns we will design a plan to generate a 3X frequency over 72 hours. That means we will plan to reach about 35% of the entire population 3 times. Now, several things are factored into this frequency recommendation including competitive dealers, competitive nameplates, and used car dealers. All of these play a role as a competitor to an individual dealers’ television campaign.

Only by understanding the actual buying window for each specific advertiser are you able to make appropriate frequency recommendations. In the end, making the right frequency recommendation of television plan is not so simple.

So first do your homework. Discuss with the client the actual buying cycle for their product. Then, anticipate this buying cycle by one or two days prior so that your television commercials have achieved the recommended frequency by the time the actual buying cycle begins. This is necessary because of what we now call Internet lag. Internet lag is the process with which people see television commercials and then go to the advertiser's web site before they actually contact the advertiser. This is a phenomenon has occurred over last 10 years and was not factored into the original three-time frequency model.

In the end the right frequency factors many things into the final equation. Massive sales and profit increases await an advertiser who embraces the power of television with the massive reach and the right frequency.

Adam Armbruster is a senior partner with the retail and broadcasting consulting firm Eckstein, Summers, Armbruster & Company and can be reached at adam@esacompany.com.