Tie It All Together

Now that you have read this chapter, you should be able to determine how to execute on media platforms:

• You can define the execution process.
• You can list and characterize the various media platforms available to the advertiser.
• You can compare and contrast the print media against the broadcast media with respect to ability to solve creative problems.
• You can describe the role music plays in the execution process.
• You can recognize the downside of licensing music for advertising purposes.
• You can list the factors that impact the effectiveness of radio ads.
• You can characterize outdoor advertising and some of its new technologies.
• You can describe the similarities and differences between online advertising and other media advertising.
• You can explain how search engine marketing and search engine optimization are related to behavioral targeting.
• You can discuss the concept of branded entertainment and its usefulness to marketing and advertising.
• You can summarize how advertisers evaluate ad executions.
• You can explain how copy research is accomplished.
• You can illustrate how pretesting and posttesting of advertisements takes place.

Use What You’ve Learned

1. The big winner at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China, was the American “swimming machine” Michael Phelps. Phelps has won fourteen Olympic gold medals in swimming, and eight of those came in the 2008 games. Phelps has signed endorsement deals with companies such as Visa, Speedo, Omega, Hilton, and AT&T. According to Facebook, more than 750,000 people have declared themselves to be fans of Mr. Phelps.

   Examine the various mass media reviewed in the first part of the chapter for execution characteristics. After learning more facts about Mr. Phelps and his skills, devise a media mix that would make the best use of Mr. Phelps’s endorsement for any of the given companies listed previously (pick one company). What do you believe is the key to effective execution in Michael Phelps’s case? What should potential advertisers guard against in using Michael Phelps to endorse products? What do you think the future holds for Michael Phelps as an advertising spokesperson and personality? Share your comments and findings in a class discussion.

2. The Outdoor Advertising Association of America Inc. is the place to go to get information on the outdoor industry and its campaigns (see http://www.oaaa.org). The OAAA is famous for donating time and energy to help with social causes that are in the public interest. Go to the organization’s Web site and review the current public service campaigns. Pick one of these campaigns and critique the execution effort. Be sure to examine the creative itself, prospective target audiences, and locations of the message boards. After examining the information, assess the usefulness of outdoor advertising in public service advertising. What do you think should be added or withdrawn from the industry’s and the OAAA’s effort? Discuss your conclusions in class.

Digital Natives

Daniel Starch was one of the advertising industry’s first researchers. He developed the famous Starch test that has been used to test advertising effectiveness. The Starch test is still in existence today. Using Google or another search engine, research Daniel Starch and his famous readership effectiveness test (see http://www.starchresearch.com). Using the information you find, compare the Starch test with other advertising readership effectiveness tests you will find mentioned during your general search. Summarize your findings on Starch and other sources of readership effectiveness. What are the similarities and differences between the tests? Which one do you think has the most potential for advertising research? Explain. Bring in an example of the Starch test to class (it can be downloaded from most search sources).

Ad-Vice

1. Find a nationally advertised product that uses both broadcast and print advertising. Collect (or describe) samples of the product’s advertising from both the broadcast and print media. Briefly describe which of the general media formats provides the best execution of the product’s advertising. Explain your position. Be specific in your justifications.
2. Assume that you have just been hired to devise a new outdoor advertising campaign for Coca-Cola; design (or characterize) two ads for any Coca-Cola product for the outdoor medium. One ad should be for the standard outdoor poster. The other ad should be for some new technological form of outdoor advertising (such as mentioned in the chapter). Critique your creative effort. Which execution is best? Why?
3. Describe how keyword searches can be used by advertisers to find the “right customers.” Find an illustration that you believe uses your keywords to alert an advertiser to your potential interest in particular products. Comment and explain. Discuss your findings in class.
4. As indicated in the chapter, the overall effectiveness of an ad is a combination of three variables. List and describe these three variables. Pick a print ad and demonstrate how these three variables can be used to determine the effectiveness of the ad. Explain your assumptions and conclusions. Discuss the ad and your evaluation in class.

Ethical Dilemma

Do you think it’s a good idea to place “cookies” on a consumer’s computer? The use of cookiesFiles that get inserted into computers by Web sites that tell Web site owners and advertisers who views that page. tells Web site owners and advertisers who views the ad. Nothing wrong with that—right? After all, many registration-based sites collect key demographic data such as the user’s address, age, interests, and browsing history. This information, however, allows the organization to use online media for behavioral targeting. As mentioned in the chapter, the ability to “buy” keywords means that advertisers can target very narrow contexts. Again, there seems to be nothing wrong with this approach to marketing. So where might the ethical dilemma reside?

Critics point out that cookies are data sources that just “keep on giving.” Many consumers complain that cookies never go away and are the source of endless viruses. This little back door into the consumer’s purchasing habits, preferences, and demographics has become a big issue. Consumers with health problems (e.g., cancer), risky behavior (e.g., sky diving), addictions (e.g., alcohol or smoking), or alternative lifestyle choices claim that cookies allow them to be profiled and discriminated against by product, health, and insurance companies. In some instances, the U.S. government even uses this technology to track consumer actions and preferences.

Investigate the use of cookies and organizational policies that are intended to protect consumer information (see company Web sites for disclosure and privacy statements). Take a stance: (a) Cookies are harmless and help marketers target the correct market with messages and don’t significantly invade privacy; or (b) Cookies are harmful, invade privacy, lead to discriminatory practices, and should be banned. Summarize your stance. Participate in a minidebate in class.