Hasta La Creative!

The big four broadcast networks’ prime-time programming still gets the highest TV ratings, and with them the highest advertising prices. So it’s no surprise to see advertisers and their agencies steadily adding cheaper alternatives, like prime-time cable, and decreasing their share of dollars spent with broadcasters. But an increasing amount of evidence suggests that not every rating point is created equal.

There was a strong correlation between how much broadcast prime-time a packaged goods brand bought and the return on its TV spending, for example, according to the Advertising Research Foundation’s Adworks II study in 1998, which used over 400 BehaviorScan tests — about $200 million in research.

Brands with 31% or more of their gross rating points in broadcast prime-time achieved 67% higher sales response, according to the study. Putting about half of the brand’s dollars in broadcast prime-time, about 24% of its gross rating points, turned out to be the optimal allocation. The rest of the TV gross rating points would optimally be 31% daytime broadcast, 31% cable and 14% syndication and spot TV.

Continue reading at AdAge.com