Marketing Communications

260 CHAPTER 8 MEDIA PLANNING

When the same message comes in different media or multiple times in the same vehicle, a

distinction can be made between gross reach and (net) reach. As illustrated in Figure 8.6,

gross reach is the sum of the number of people in the target group that each individual

medium reaches, regardless of how many times an individual is reached. In other words, a

person who is reached by medium x and medium y counts as two. Net reach, often simply

referred to as ‘reach’, is the sum of all people reached at least once (a person reached by x and

y counts as one). In other words, reach equals gross reach minus the duplicated audience.

Gross reach, expressed as a percentage of the target group, is referred to as gross rating points

(GRP). The weight of a campaign is typically expressed by GRP. For example, an objective of

Gatorade could be to realise a total of 400 GRP in a month for a target group of sports people.

These GRP can be realised by means of different media and different media vehicles.

A measure often used by media planners is opportunity to see (OTS). OTS is defined as the

average probability of exposure that an average reached target consumer has. It is calculated by

dividing gross reach by net reach. For instance, suppose that Bacardi Breezer wants to reach the

adult Polish population. Reach of an ad during the break of the daily soap Clan on the Polish

TV channel TVP1 is 57.2%, of an ad during the break of the daily soap ‘L’ like love on TVP2 is

51.5%, of an ad on Polskie Radio is 17.3% and of an ad on Radio RMF FM is 22.6%.^24 A four-week

campaign consisting of four ads during the Clan and For Better or for Worse programmes, six ads

on Polskie Radio and eight ads on radio RMF FM results in 719.4 GRP. To compute reach, we cannot

just add the reach of the four vehicles since we can expect that some people will watch several

channels or watch TV and listen to the radio. Assume therefore that reach is not 100% but 65%.

In this case, OTS would be 11.1 (GRP divided by reach in percentage, or 719.4 divided by 65).

To come back to GRP, the latter means that GRP can actually be calculated in two different ways:

   By multiplying reach (in percentage) and frequency for the different media vehicles used:

GRP=×

=

∑()frii

i

n

1

where: n = number of media vehicles

fi = frequency of media vehicle i

ri = percentage reach of media vehicle i

   By multiplying reach (in percentage) and opportunity to see:

GRP = Reach × OTS

where: Reach = audience across different media vehicles minus duplicated audience

Table 8.3 Example of reach by medium

Total reach (thousands) (Useful) reach (thousands) (Useful) reach (%)

SVT1 2193 409 30.9%

SVT2 1234 69 5.2%

Source: Based on IP Peaktime (2004), Television 2004. European Key Factors. Neuilly-sur-Seine, Cedex, Brussels: IP.

Figure 8.6 Gross reach and net reach

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