Is there a strategy behind buying advertising time and space?

The purpose of this paper is to note the advertising business overspending on advertising messages that is often done with minimal consideration to the impact or effects of many consumer exposures.

The paper notes textbooks statement of advertising budget spending as the money needed to attain pragmatic communications goals and compares this to the ongoing business reality of media planning that mostly devolves into maximization of audience exposures to mass media vehicles carrying the brand or company name.

The pragmatic business need is for more questioning the value of media spending, not as return on investment, but how it contributes to overall communications concerns. The media planners dilemma is the uncertainty of the effects of every additional audience exposure, thus (and too often) they take the easy route and simply resolve to purchase as many target audience impressions as possible for as low a price as can be negotiated.

This paper asks an important question that many people in the advertising business try to avoid: “Why is so much money being spent?”. While it is difficult to track the impact of every single vehicle placement, the media planners should at least try to question what is the real strategy behind efforts to maximize target audience exposures to vehicles carrying the company logo.