Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers
Q: Now I know a little something about Ratings, Impressions, and CPMs… but how do I start putting together a full media schedule?
A: In order to handle multiple insertions – and purchase several media forms at once – it’s best to start with the concept of Gross Rating Points. GRPs stand for two things:
GRPs = Total number of rating points in an advertising campaign
GRPs = Reach x Frequency
Going back to our Super Bowl example in The Ad Man Answers #3, we know that one spot in the big game equals a 42.6 Household Rating, which translates to 93,890,400 advertising Impressions.
If you happen to be Anheuser-Bush and you’ve purchased 8 Budweiser/Bud Light commercials in the Super Bowl –- for enough money to buy Portugal, I might add -– that means you’ve purchased 340.8 GRPs (42.6 Rating per spot x 8 spots = 340.8 Gross Rating Points).
It also means Anheuser-Bush purchased a whopping 751,123,200 Impressions (93,890,400 per spot x 8 spots) during that one football game. But that’s more than double the population of the United States… how can that be?
Because when you’re dealing with multiple spots, Impressions measure DUPLICATED audience. After the first Bud/Bud Light commercial, the subsequent beer ads started getting viewed by the same people.
Instead of “Reaching” new people, some Super Bowl viewers saw 1, 2, 4, or even all 8 ads (depending on how many bathroom breaks they took). The number of times the average viewer was exposed to a Bud/Bud Light commercial is called the “Frequency” of the campaign.
Reach = % of people within a target population who’ve seen your message one time or more
Frequency = The number of times the average person in your target audience has seen your message
Remember the formula at the top of this article… there’s a direct relationship between Reach, Frequency, and Gross Rating Points.
So if you knew Anheuser-Bush purchased 340.8 GRPs in the Super Bowl, and the average viewer saw 5 of their commercials:
340.8 GRPs = Reach x 5.0 Frequency
Solving that basic equation means Anheuser-Bush “Reached” 68.1% of the overall audience (340.8 / 5.0 = 68.1).
Aiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee!! Too many numbers! You’re giving me a headache, Ad Man… I’m a simple writer – why should I bother with this crap?
The concept of reach & frequency is important for figuring out the all-important question: “How much is enough?”
Which, coincidently, will be the topic of my next column. So stay tuned for when we talk about reach/frequency curves and the “Three Times” rule-of-thumb.
But before I go, here’s some additional GRP fun facts:
* GRPs are most applicable for buying TV and Radio. When buying outdoor media (posters, billboards, etc), campaigns are commonly sold as “showings.” A “100 showing” means you are receiving the audience equivalent of 100 GRPs per day. Newspaper, magazines, and online are commonly purchased using Impressions and CPMs as the primary negotiating tool.
* GRPs are additive across media forms. Ultimately, it all translates to a measurement of audience size. So if you run 200 GRPs of cable TV and 125 GRPs of radio within the same month, that means you’ve achieved 325 GRPs of total media.
* GRPs are sometimes referred to as TRPs, or “Target Rating Points.” Essentially, the only difference between the two is that GRPs refer to a total audience (like Households) figure, and TRPs indicate you’ve attached a target Demographic (like Adults aged 18-34).
Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald’s, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with “Ask The Ad Man” in the subject line.
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