Some of you may wonder at this point where I'm getting my topics from. I suppose I should reveal the source of these prompts that I write so engagingly about at this point. I am auditing an advertising and promotion class, during my Masters in Sustainability, and am 'screening' each topic we discuss with a sustainability lens.
Personally, my ultimate goal is to understand how to appropriately and innovatively combine creative advertising with sustainability messaging. Simple!
Here is today's post topic - what is waste coverage? Waste coverage lives in the domain of media planners, and is something to be avoided, just like excess waste in sustainability-speak. A cleaner definition from the Design and Marketing dictionary is as follows:
"A situation where the coverage of the media exceeds the target audience. This term is used for ad coverage that reaches people who are not potential buyers and/or users. One of the goals of the media planners is to minimize the waste coverage to the extent possible, as some waste coverage cannot be avoided."
Business to business advertisers, who for example are selling copy machines will show ads during NFL Sunday or Monday Night football. Do these buys lead to a high level of waste coverage? Let's explore!
Who might be watching football on Sunday and Mondays - largely men (AND women - my future mother-in-law is one of them!), who have a variety of careers, possibly many in businesses with copy machines at the ready. How insightful of me, right? So how on earth can media buyers and the ads they hope to showcase reach people trying to potentially get away from work and relax with a football game? On the other hand, this is a rather captive audience (especially if the game is good) who might recall the copy machine ads later in the week when the current one in the office goes on the fritz.
I personally believe that whether or not an advertising message ends up as waste coverage depends on just how captivated your audience is, which relies on a number of other factors, such as knowing who will be tuned into your media channel. Media planners' basic goal is to reach as large a market segment as possible with their message by utilizing a combination of the right tools at the lowest cost (Belch and Belch, p. 330).
Let me get to the point - what are ways we might reduce waste coverage? I have theory based on a combination of other people's theories: knowing the personality of your audience, their work choice, and where they spend the most time with any particular media. I emphasize personality, because a report by Steve McClellan titled "Are Demographics Dead?" suggests that overall its personality, not necessarily pure demographic data that suggest how audiences perceive and respond to advertising.
This could be an interesting insight into how we make ads in the future - especially for sustainability purposes.
This brings me to share insights from one of the world's top thought leaders driving business-oriented, positive behavior change communications. John Marshall Roberts and his consulting business, Worldview Thinking, create effective communication strategies based on behavior science. This means all sorts of great things for creative strategies around sustainability communication, that are informed by the strong field of behavior science.
If we know personality types, which may be gleaned form how individuals use media, suggested by McClellan, then I believe there is a hardly-explored, wide open world of possibility for messaging through advertisers - the world's great word and picturesmiths - that can use their powers for sustainability ideas across business and lifestyle, while cutting down on waste coverage that is the result of not understanding who will be tuning into your channel.
Sources:
Design and Marketing dictionary. (2014, Feb 12). Waste coverage. Retrieved from: http://design-marketing-dictionary.blogspot.com
Belch, George and Michael Belch. Media planning and strategy. Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective. McGraw-Hill, 2012.
McClellan, Steve. (2013, Feb 23) Are demographics dead? Adweek. retrieved from: http://www.adweek.com/news/television/are-demographics-dead-101671
Roberts, John Marshall. (2014 Feb 12). About. Retrieved from: http://worldviewthinking.com/about/
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