4.2. Major Advertising Media

The following sections will be devoted to each of the major advertising media, placing considerable emphasis on each medium's strengths and limitations. Because it would be easy to misinterpret these discussions and the conclusions to be drawn, a few words of caution are in order. In particular, it might be tempting to play a counter game when examining each medium's strengths and limitations. That is, the reader might erroneously conclude that one medium is superior to another simply because more advantages and fewer limitations are listed. But this assuredly is not the intent of the following discussions.

The overall value or worth of an advertising medium depends on the advertiser's specific needs in a particular situation and the overall budget available for advertising a brand. No advertising medium is always the best. The value or worth of a medium depends on the circumstances confronting a brand at a particular time: its advertising objective, the target market toward which this objective is aimed, and the available budget.

An analogy will clarify this point. Suppose someone asked you: "What type of restaurant is best?" An immediate single answer is difficult to offer, because you undoubtedly would recognize that what is best in a restaurant depends on a person's particular needs on a specific dining occasion. In some circumstances price and speed of service are of essence, and restaurants like McDonald's would win out by this criterion. On other occasions, ambiance rules the day, and a classy French restaurant might be considered ideal. In yet another situation, the consumer is looking for a balance between dining elegance and reasonable price, and hence a middle-of-the-road eating establishment would serve the purpose. In sum, there is no such thing as a universally «best» restaurant.

The same is true of advertising media. What medium is "best" depends entirely on the advertiser's objectives, the competitive challenge, and budget availability. The best medium, or combination of media, is determined not by counting advantages and limitations but by conducting a careful examination of the advertised brand's needs and resources.

The presentation of ad media progresses in the following order: First discussed is the smallest and most unique ad medium, out-of-home advertising. Coverage turns next to the two print media, newspapers and magazines, and then to the two electronic media, radio and television.

In addition to these major media, later sections are devoted to the so-called new media-primarily advertising on the World Wide Web, or Internet. Finally, a brief discussion is devoted to a variety of unique advertising media (e.g., blimp advertising) that are relatively small in comparison to the major media but which nonetheless play an important role for advertisers in select situations.

4.2.1. Out-Of-Home Advertising

Out-of-home advertising, or outdoor for short, is the oldest form of advertising with origins dating back literally thousands of years. Although billboard advertising is the major aspect of out-of-home advertising, outdoor encompasses a variety of other delivery modes: advertising on bus shelters, giant inflatable (e.g., the Goodyear blimp; see the Focus on Marketing Communications), various forms of transit advertising (e.g., ads painted on buses and trucks), skywriting, T-shirts emblazoned with brand logos, and so on. The one commonality among these is that they are seen by consumers outside of their homes (hence the name) in contrast to television, magazines, newspapers, and radio, which are received in the home (or in other indoor locations).

Outdoor advertising is regarded as a supplementary, rather than primary, advertising medium. Out-of-home advertising expenditures in 1996 amounted to approximately $1.69 billion, which represents less than 2 percent of total advertising expenditures in the five major media.

Product categories that historically have spent the most on outdoor advertising include tobacco products and alcohol. However, these two categories, which increasingly have come under fire for excessive outdoor advertising in inner-city areas, have dramatically reduced outdoor advertising. For example, although still the largest outdoor advertiser, tobacco represents approximately only 10 to 15 percent of outdoor revenues today, compared to 40 percent less than two decades ago.