Marketing Communications

MEDIA OBJECTIVES 261

Effective reach is the number of target consumers who are expected to be exposed to the

advertiser’s message at an effective frequency level. Suppose an advertising campaign reached

60% of its target consumers with the frequencies reported in Table 8.4. If the consumer needs

to be exposed at least three times to be effective, then the effective reach is 24.0% (11.5% +

6.0% + 3.5% + 1.8% + 1.2%).

A company defines its target group as all males aged between 30 and 40. The total size of the target group is

10 million consumers. The company plans a newspaper campaign. The newspaper has a total readership of 18 million

and a useful readership of 5 million. Ten ads are placed in the newspaper. The table below gives the distribution of

percentage reach as a function of the exposure frequency.

The reach of the campaign is 5 million or 50% of the target group. The weight of the campaign is 238 GRP (5 ×

1 + 6 × 2 + 3 × 3 + 9 × 4 + 8 × 5 + 7 × 6 + 6 × 7 + 3 × 8 + 2 × 9 + 1 × 10). As a result, the gross reach is 23.8 million

exposures (238% × 10 million). OTS is 4.76 (238/50 or 23.8/5). Effective rating points (ERP), or effective gross

reach, defined as at least three exposures, are 221 GRP.

Frequency Newspaper reach (% of target group)

1 5

2 6

3 3

4 9

5 8

6 7

7 6

8 3

9 2

10 1

business insight

Calculating gross reach, OTS and effective gross reach

Table 8.4 Reach and frequency distribution

Exposures Reach

1 20.0%

2 16.0%

3 11.5%

4 6.0%

5 3.5%

6 1.8%

7 1.2%

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