Task 7– Sources of Information in Advertising

When advertising companies first develop ideas for adverts they want to produce for companies they need to research into what information they will need to produce this advert. Without this information the advert will not be able to be produced.

In the industry companies have been set up that allow users to view audience ratings of tv shows. An example of this is Barb. Barb was set up in 1981 and  runs in 5100 homes monitoring 11,500 people. The company works by having a box set up in the general publics homes to monitor what channels are being viewed by audience . This are all collected and added together to show what channels where popular and get an estimate of what people are view at certain times. These are taken as an average of the whole country and used to collate viewing totals. This information is then posted the next day to be view by the tv channels and advertising agencies. This information is seen as very important to advertisers because they can see when and where to put the advert because it will show what channels and times most people are watching tv. Also it gives the advertisers an idea of  what sort of advert to make compared to what channel is watched by the most amount of people . E.g on E4 on the week of may 26-June 01 2014 the big bang theory was viewed on 2008000 tv's

In the industry there is also a platform put in place to count viewing figures for different shows. The platforms is called a program profile. A program profile is a graphic representation of the viewing figures of tv shows which is shown in a graph. This shows what shows are most popular on a certain day. Simmerily to Barb a program profile is viewed by the television companies and advertisers to give them an insight in to how popular a show is . This is important so the producers know if the show is popular enough to carry on making the advert.This information is important to advertisers because it gives them a chance to see what shows are popular so they know what times and channels to put there advert.Also it gives the advertisers a chance to see what sort of show is popular, so they can make a advert a similar style. E.g. if the real housewives of atlanta was the most popular show , the advertiser would put the advert on itv2 at 4 pm , and the advert with be a reality tv style.

Another platform in place is a rate card. A rate card is the cost to put an advert in the advert brake either during on after a programs. This cost is one set cost set up by the tv channel to put an advert on there channel. At different time the rate cards will be different prices. So a highly view channel and time will cost more than a less viewed channel and time . These are use to make it easier to put an advert on tv because there is no negotiations on price because there is only one set price. This is important to an advertiser because the advertiser can look at the prices of putting an advert on tv so they can stick to a budget.

On the tv channel websites they offer users the chance to view a pack made for users by the channels it self. This pack is a starter pack which supplies a lot of information about the channel and  what it can offer an advertise. It includes , facts and figures about viewing numbers of the channels, facts about who views there channel. tells the advertiser what each channel offers so they can decide which channel to put their advert on, what previous adverts and ad campaigns looked like, how the channel can help you and the cost of advertising. This pack is important to advertisers because it gives them an idea of what where and how they can advertise there advert. This pack opens the market to advertisers and gives them more of an understanding of what to advertise and where to advertise it.