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TCH – Great advertising is only as effective as the audience it reaches

Introduction

John Wanamaker was born in Philadelphia in 1838. He was a much respected and admired merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure. He is often referred to as the ‘father of modern advertising’. He is famously quoted as saying that ‘half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half’.

This quotation perfectly captures the challenge for advertisers – making sure that they get the correct message to the correct audience, without wasting money getting it to everyone else as well. The individuals that advertising is intended to influence are known as the ‘target market’ or ‘target audience’.

In this case study, we look at how advertisers tackle these challenges and how the Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) group of companies presents a range of advertising media which gives access to a wide range of different target audiences.

Thomas Crosbie Holdings Ltd

Thomas Crosbie Holdings is a modern, Irish, progressive multimedia company with its headquarters based in Cork. The history of the company goes back to 1841 with the launch of The Cork Examiner newspaper. When John F Maguire, founder of The Cork Examiner died in 1872, Thomas Crosbie, editor of the paper became the owner of the business. Today the company is fifth generation family-owned. This is rare in Irish business.

TCH comprises 17 newspapers including Irish Examiner, The Sunday Business Post, Evening Echo and 14 weekly regional titles. In addition to the newspaper businesses, TCM - the New Media Division of TCH - offers advertisers a strong portfolio of national, regional and local online brands that deliver to key audiences. These brands include RecruitIreland.com, BreakingNews.ie and Motornet.ie. TCH is a shareholder in WLR FM, Beat 102-103, Red FM, 4FM and MidWest Radio.

Irish Examiner

Irish Examiner delivers strong news and sports coverage offering a six-day range of supplements, all of which contribute to its unique profile. Irish Examiner journalists are recognised experts in business, finance, politics, law, technology, property, sport, culture and health as well as in topics of general interest.

The Sunday Business Post

As Ireland’s only financial, political and economic paper, The Sunday Business Post has the most committed business readership with the highest profile of readers in key decision making roles of any Sunday newspaper. It has the most specific target market out of all the papers within the TCH portfolio.

Regional newspapers

Advertising audiences may be local or regional and TCH has the spread of leading regional newspapers that deliver results for advertising brands. TCH regional newspapers deliver because they have the reporters on the groundreporting on the stories that matter to local communities. Advertising to local communities brings awareness of brands and products to loyal and active readers.

TCH regional newspaper titles include The Evening Echo, Western People, Roscommon Herald, Sligo Weekender, Newry Democrat, The Irish Post, The Kingdom, Waterford News & Star, Wexford Echo, Enniscorthy Echo, Gorey Echo, New Ross Echo, The Nationalist, Kildare Nationalist and Laois Nationalist.

Radio

TCH delivers radio audiences for advertisers through local and regional stations and the four-city radio station 4FM. The youth market stations include Red FM in Cork and Beat 102-103 broadcasting to Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford and South Tipperary. WLR FM covers Waterford City and County, while MidWest Radio broadcasts in Mayo. 4FM is targeting the over-45 audience in the cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and in County Clare.

Online

Thomas Crosbie Media (TCM) is the online subsidiary of Thomas Crosbie Holdings. TCM manages an extensive network of online brands providing news, sport, business, motoring, travel and recruitment services to consumers. In addition to managing the websites for the newspaper titles, other TCM online brands include RecruitIreland.com, BreakingNews.ie and Motornet.ie.

With a large portfolio of media brands, TCH provides advertising packages to clients on a national, regional or local basis. Using a combination of newspaper advertising along with radio and online advertising, means it is possible for businesses to reach a wider audience with their product message.

Defining the target market

In order to communicate the advertising message successfully, an advertising campaign, rather than a single advertisement, will normally be used. The advertising campaign will be aimed at the target market – also called the target audience. The target audience will be defined in demographic terms under headings such as:

• age
• gender
• geography/location
• interests and hobbies
• income
• family status – single/couple/parent
• career status – student/working/not-working/retired
• education – second level/third level.

For example, different cosmetic products will be advertised to male and female target markets. Business-class travel will be advertised only to business people. Advertising a shop in a small town will be aimed only at the population living in or near that town. Toys will be advertised to a young audience. Classifying the market under these headings is called ‘demographic segmentation’.

The readership of newspapers and other publications are often segmented in terms of their ‘social class’. This helps advertisers to identify which publications’ readers best match the target market. The table shows the letters used to describe each social class. Readers from the A,B and C social classes are likely to have most disposable income. Newspapers compete for readers across all social classes.

Social class	Description
A	Upper middle class
B	Middle class
C1	Lower middle class
C2	Skilled workers
D	Other working class
E	Lowest level of subsistence
F50+	Large farmers
F50-	Small farmers

Circulation and readership

Circulation and readership are two important measures of the popularity of newspapers and magazines. Circulation is the number of newspapers or magazines that are actually printed and distributed. Readership is a measure of the number of people who actually read the publication. The readership is higher than the circulation because more than one person will normally read each copy of the newspaper.
For example:

• a single copy of a newspaper brought into a house will normally be read by several family members; and
• magazines are often shared between friends or even left in places like doctor and dentist waiting rooms where many people will read them.

Advertisers will want to choose a publication with the highest readership among its target audience. In order to help with this, readership information is measured and published by companies like the Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS). Its market surveys contain a wealth of valuable research on the readership of newspapers and magazines, including demographic information of the readership.

The JNRS covering the period July 2008 to June 2009 had further good news for the Irish newspaper industry. It found that more than 58% of Irish adults are now reading at least one daily newspaper and 71.4% are reading a Sunday newspaper. This places Ireland among Europe’s elite when it comes to newspaper readership.

Listenership and viewing audiences

Radio and TV audiences are also measured. In Ireland, AGB Nielsen Media Research has been providing TV ratings since 1996. It carries out this research on behalf of the TAM Ireland Board of Management, which is comprised of representatives from all subscribing TV channels and the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland.

Listenership figures are published regularly and provide information on radio audiences for national and local radio stations in Ireland.

Media planning

An advertising campaign will usually include many different advertisements placed across the range of advertising media. Advertising media may include billboards and posters, newspapers and magazines, radio, television and online. The message will be reinforced by repeating the same advertisements regularly during the campaign.

Deciding on the number of advertisements, how often they will be run and the media that will be used is called ‘media planning’. This is a very important part of the advertising campaign. Providers of advertising space produce a ‘rate card’ that details the charges for advertising through their media. The rate card also includes demographic information regarding the newspaper readership, television station viewership, or radio station listenership.

TCH advertising media

TCH offers a range of media outlets for advertising:

• national newspaper
• Sunday newspaper
• local newspapers
• local, regional or multi-city radio
• online.

Each of these media present different challenges and opportunities for advertisers, and these must be considered when developing the media plan.

Print media

The benefit of print is that it can contain a lot of detail in terms of the product and allow more specific directions for the target audience in terms of where and how to buy it. Newspaper advertisements can be placed in the relevant section of the paper, for example the business, motoring or property supplements. Companies will often place the same advertisement in the same location of the paper on consecutive days in order to reinforce their message.

Radio

Radio benefits from the strength of an audio message. Radio is particularly suited to advertising campaigns where a message or brand is developed through repetitive advertising. The sameadvertisement might be aired several times a day for several days or weeks. Airing the same advertisement at the same time each day is also recommended particularly if the target audience is known to be listening at that time.

Radio is considerably less expensive than television and local radio can deliver a targeted message to listeners within a particular area, allowing local businesses to advertise very cost-effectively. TCH Radio Stations target a variety of demographics including under-35s and over-45s. Red FM and Beat 102-103 are youth stations. Red FM is local to Cork, while Beat 102-103 is a regional radio station covering five counties. WLR FM and MidWest Radio are local stations with mass appeal.

Online (new media)

Online advertising is cost-effective and can present a ‘front door’ into the online shop. A small advertisement can invite the person to click for more details. By doing this, the audience can be brought into the website where detailed multi-media (text/audio/video) product information can be provided. The sale can then be completed online.

An added advantage of online advertising is that many websites charge for advertising based on the number of actual hits, so the advertiser only pays when someone sees the advertisement and responds to it.

Product / Service	Target Market	Geography	Publication
A car maker advertising a new luxury motor car	AB readers, e.g. business managers or wealthy individuals.	Nationwide.	The Sunday Business Post. Irish Examiner – Friday ‘Money and Jobs’ Supplement.
A chain of grocery shops in the South West region advertising its weekly special offers.	Adults in all social classes.	Cork and Kerry.	Evening Echo. The Kingdom. Red FM. Irish Examiner.
A club in Waterford advertising a Junior Certificate results party.	Junior Certificate students.	Waterford.	Waterford News and Star. Beat 102-103.
A company in Dublin advertising for telesales vacancies.	Young adults.	Dublin and its commuter belt.	RecruitIreland.com, The Sunday Business Post. Irish Examiner.

TCH rate card

The TCH rate card contains information to help media planners decide which combination of the TCH publications best meets their needs. Below are some examples of how different TCH media and publications might be chosen for particular advertising campaigns.

Measuring advertising effectiveness

An advertising campaign will normally involve different advertisements being run at the same time in different publications and media. It can therefore be difficult to know which advertisements have been effective and which have not.

There are many different techniques used to track the response from different advertisements. For example, some:

• provide a different phone number or contact email in each publication. The number of calls made to each number will provide a measure of the effectiveness of each advert
• ask the customer to quote an advert when ordering, e.g. ‘Get a further 10% discount when you mention this ad’
• use vouchers or coupons, e.g. special deals on pizza delivery where a coupon must be given to the driver
• measure online advertising by the number of hits that are received, i.e. how many times someone clicks on the advert.

Summary

This case study has shown that the TCH group of companies provides advertisers with a broad range of outlets and media. It highlights the need for advertisers to develop their advertising messages and to identify clearly their target markets. The most effective campaigns can then be developed. This activity is known as media planning.

To assist with media planning, the case study shows how published readership, viewership and listenership figures and demographics are used. These provide advertisers with regular surveys regarding the audience that is being reached by each of the newspapers, radio stations and television channels. Rate cards allow media planners to estimate the budget for their advertising campaigns.

Advertisers will regularly measure the effectiveness of each advertisement in order to fine-tune the media plan and to improve the effectiveness of future advertising campaigns.

Student activity

1. Your school is planning a fund-raising concert. Design a newspaper advertisement for the concert. Identify suitable newspapers where you might place the advert. What other media could you use as part of the advertising campaign? How could you measure the effectiveness of each individual advertisement?
2. You have €100,000 to spend on advertising a sale in a national chain of clothes shops. The sale begins in three weeks’ time and will last for one month. Develop a media plan that will best deliver the message to the target audience. Present the plan for each of the seven weeks between now and the end of the sale.