Key Elements of Our Approach

Guided by frameworks to maximize annual net reach and drive growth

Attend to Metrics

Keep a tight reign on metrics to ensure maximum audience reach delivery.

This takes on a new level of importance within the context of a reach strategy.

Audience Science

Return to the basics of audience science to translate "big numbers" into comparable metrics across media.

Audience Accountability

Require third party audits and post reporting of audiences to ensure delivery of reach.

Considering that advanced bot nets and fraud are pervasive, it is critical to evaluate campaigns for invalid traffic.

Avoid Fragments

Media fragmentation has created the perception that marketing must be complex.

If acted upon, this misperception can consume budgets without producing significant reach value.

Be Conservative

Use conservative rating estimates to ensure post delivery which contributes to achievement of reach goals.

Negotiate

Negotiate ratings in addition to rates, so that there is no push back on UDW.

Based on authoritative sources

  • Ehrenburg-Bass Institute and How Brands Grow I and II +

    World-renowned for pioneering research into marketing effectiveness, the Institute has conducted decades of research into marketing and a meta-analysis of this large body of research includes the discovery of a number of law-like patterns of buyer behavior and brand performance. They refer to the law-like patterns as Laws of Growth and they apply to media as well as marketers.

    The primary assertion is that what works in growth is getting more customers as opposed to changing or influencing buyer behavior.

  • Nielsen Catalina Research (NCS) +

    Backed by 6 billion lines of empirical data, in a major research study, How to Build Brands, that included Nielsen, The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and a consortium of advertisers, media companies and industry organizations.

    At the center of the analysis is 3.5 years of actual purchase data for 50 brands that represent a range of categories at different life stages. In addition, it includes advertising spend, pricing, and promotional data, ad exposure and the resulting sales outcomes for those exposed to the advertising.

    The study demonstrated the tangible impact of advertising on sales outcomes. Simply put, the conclusion is that advertising works and new reach that drives penetration is what makes it work.

  • Irwin Ephron's Reach Optimization Shelf Space Model and Recency Planning +

    Based on the How Brands Grow theory that emphasizes the importance of penetration for growth, this model focuses on maximizing unique consumer exposure through continuous advertising. The Recency Planning strategy advocates for distributing a fixed advertising budget across a prolonged period rather than in short bursts to maximize reach. This is because most new audience members are reached after just a few exposures, known as net unduplicated reach or 1+ reach, after which additional exposures primarily increase frequency. Spreading media buys over more weeks can therefore achieve a greater total net unduplicated reach, attracting more occasional category users and enhancing brand equity.

Grounded in the Application of Fundamental Laws of Growth

  • Double Jeopardy Applied to Media +

    Media with less market share (lower average quarter hour audience ratings and time spent) have fewer UNIQUE viewers/listeners and of these viewers/listeners, the audience spends less time engaging because there is a limit to the content offerings and distribution. Media with greater market share (bigger average quarter hour ratings/bigger net reach) have far greater UNIQUE viewers/listeners and these viewers/listeners spend more time engaging with the medium because the medium has more content.

    Double Jeopardy is why broadcast television is still the best medium for growth, period. Still. The size of the audience at any given average quarter hour and the size of broadcast markets, which is the distribution, out rank all other media to this day. (Rome wasn't built in a day). Taken together, average quarter hour audience is an ideal KPI to assess the 'net reach' building strength of a media vehicle.

    This is the 'unique users" and the most important concept in media buying. Consider the unique user as the 'unmoved mover' that everything is built upon…the rock (as opposed to building on the sand of 'impressions')

    Double Jeopardy in Media - Picture 1

    Brands with less market share have so because they have far fewer buyers (first jeopardy) and these buyers are slightly less brand loyal (second jeopardy).

    Double Jeopardy in Media - Picture 2

    Television is still by far the strongest medium because it still has the highest average quarter hour ratings and offers the most programming with the highest average quarter hour ratings.

  • Natural Monopoly Applied to Media +

    Media with more market share (higher average quarter hour ratings) attract a greater proportion of light users and have larger penetration overall. Primetime and super bowl are the most obvious but this also includes every day programming like Good Morning America and local news on a smaller scale.

  • Duplication Principle Applied to Media +

    In a time period, a medium or program's audience overlaps with a rival program in line with its audience share. In a time period, a higher rated media will share more of its viewers with another higher rated media and will share fewer viewers with another lower rated media. Taken together, we look for wider dispersion of spots/advertising across time, and we look for partitions of higher rated and lower rated media that have minimal duplication in a time period.

  • Law of Buyer/Viewer/Listener Moderation Based on Regression to the Mean +

    'Regression to the mean' is a phenomena that voids the assumption that with advertising, we are influencing, or changing buyer behavior. In actuality, heavy, light, and non-buyers are not distinct labels that individual people carry and that make up groups that can be isolated by advertising. Rather, individual people can be heavy, light and non-buyers depending on any given point in time and space. As time periods occur, heavy buyers buy less often than the base period that was used to categorize them as heavy buyers. Light buyers buy more often. And non-buyers become buyers.

    Similarly, regression to the mean applies to programming and media. The audience of a given program or medium is not the same each day or week at a given point in time. Some people are heavy viewers, some light and some drop out during any given airing. The heavy, medium and light viewers are sorted out naturally by their behavior and are different people in any given airing.

  • Pareto Distribution Applied to Media +

    This law gives structure to the Law of Buyer/Viewer/Listener Moderation and Regression to the Mean. As heavy, medium and light viewers are sorted out naturally by their behavior, they are different people during any given airing. The proportion of heavy to light hover around 60/40. Slightly more than half of a given program's audience (60%) comes from the top fifth heaviest quintile of viewers. 40% of the audience comes from the bottom lightest four quintiles.

    The pareto distribution applies to a company's sales as well. If you divide sales into 5 groups, slightly more than half of a company's sales comes from one heaviest quintile. The other four quintiles make up the less frequent buyers.