Make Your Ad Dollars Work Harder for You

By Cathy Bowen



"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don't know which half." - John Wanamaker, 1901.

The most common misperception about cable television advertising is that it is cost-prohibitive for the small to mid-size advertiser.

In fact, after analyzing the efficiencies of most media, cable television makes great sense. Why? Because it can target not only geographically, but demographically as well. That means the advertiser's marketing dollars are working much harder than they would in traditional, non-targeted media.

Drilled down to layman's terms, if you can target your marketing dollars both geographically and demographically, you stand a much better chance of achieving successful results from your advertising.

Not long ago, broadcast television advertising (ABC, NBC, CBS) was the only choice if you wanted to advertise on television. Many businesses in a specific demographic area (e.g., Howard County or Anne Arundel County) felt that ad signals reaching as far north as York, Penn., and as far south as Fredericksburg, Va., would have too many unwanted exposures to an audience that wouldn't consider traveling 50-plus miles to shop or receive their services.

Cable television advertising can be purchased by the entire DMA (designated market area), which would encompass the entire metro area, or purchased in a specific county. Some larger counties are further split into several zoned areas (for example, Anne Arundel County is split into North, Central and South), allowing the advertiser to target the ad message even further.

With more than 42 networks to select from, all sectors of demographics can be targeted efficiently (Children: Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network; Women: Food, Lifetime, Style, E!; Men: ESPN, Spike, Discovery, ESPN2; Adults 65-plus: news and movie channels, just to name a few sample demographics and matching networks).

Cable television has been gaining viewership for years, but 2007 may have been the first time the medium really approached broadcast in terms of delivering the sort of must-see events that used to be the province of the Big Four. In 2008, the line between cable and broadcast promises to blur even further.

In 2007, cable aired TV's most watched movie, the bulk of the Major League Baseball postseason, the most talked-about finale and the most critically acclaimed new series in a season when broadcast television saw rating declines.

This year, 35 cable networks posted their best-ever primetime numbers among adults aged 18-49 by offering programming that, while often highly targeted, was produced just as slickly as broadcast TV and often marketed as well or better.

AMC's "Man Men"; FX's "Damages"; TNT's "Closer" and "Saving Grace"; and Showtime's "Dexter" were all nominated at last month's Golden Globe Awards.

And with the writer's strike continuing [as of this writing] and broadcast shows mired in a swamp of quick-fix reality shows, cable will employ strategies it usually saves for summer with fresh episodes of popular series coming out earlier than usual.

So when it comes to evaluating your marketing strategies, targeting both geographically and demographically makes great economic sense.



Catherine Bowen is an account executive for Comcast Spotlight, Howard County Division. She can be reached at 443-539-9145 or e-mail catherine_bowen@cable.comcast.com.