Social Marketing

Marketing Mix 57
Advertising
“decision points” where you can check in to ensure that everything is on track. For example,
you would probably want to see the moderator’s guide before you attended a focus group.
Then you can ensure that the key issues are covered.
You also want to monitor the creation of advertising products, especially more costly and complicated
ones, such as television and radio spots.
There are a number of points where advertising clients can monitor the progress of these
types of products. These are a bit different depending on the product and your time constraints.
In any case, work with your agency to ensure that you are an appropriate part of the entire
creative process.
Types of advertising
Public service announcements
A public service announcement, or PSA, is a TV or radio message
that serves a useful public interest and is offered by a
broadcasting station free-of-charge. However, free doesn’t
mean that there isn’t a price.
How do I run a PSA?
You can produce your own PSA
or you can provide a script for
the station’s own on-air talent
to read. In the United States, some
PSAs are distributed through the
Ad Council. Generally, radio and
Stations are required to run a certain percentage of PSAs, and television stations will not allow
they are bombarded by requests from many causes. When they paid spots to be used as PSAs.
run the spot – often during the day or the middle of the night –
is up to the broadcaster. After all, you are not paying them to place the spot. This is one of the
downsides of using PSAs – you can’t control how often they run or when they run. Therefore, it is
hard to know if your target audience will ever see or hear the PSA.
Paid spots
These are television or radio commercials for which you pay a fee to get airtime. The advertising
agency or media buyer negotiates this charge. Because you are paying to air the commercial,
you can decide when and where it runs. Typically, an ad agency will recommend a certain
reach (the percentage of your target audience to see your spot) and frequency (the number of
times the audience will see your ad) or “total rating points,” which is the reach multiplied by the
frequency. They may also ask you to decide what general time of day to air different portions
of the media costs (for example, you may want 30 percent of your television campaign to air
during prime time). Then the agency and the station will negotiate exactly when and where the
commercial will appear.
Print ads
Generally, print ads are ads written and designed by the ad firm, then placed for a fee in newspapers,
magazines, or outdoor space. Again, the ad firm will negotiate the fees, based on the
number of times it will run, time of year, size of the space, and so forth.
Social Marketing Behavior A Practical Resource for Social Change Professionals