THE BASIC FORMS BROADCAST ADVERTISING CAN BE USED FOR MARKETING

Shalom Solomon 19th October, 2021

After the first radio broadcast on Christmas eve in 1906, the radio broadcast was introduced to the world. Advertising using broadcast media really started around the end of the second world war when radios became really popular and almost every household had one. At that time, radios were the major broadcast media and businesses began to exploit the reach of radio channels to spread the word about the products and services.

As technology advanced, television sets were invented and people were soon able to afford having a television set in their homes. Soon, television more or less took over the position of radio as the top broadcast media. Businesses too sought to advertise their products using the media with the most reach which was television. The values of advertising using broadcast media also changed, marketers used more powerful, image heavy messages to promote their products.

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FORMS OF BROADCAST MEDIA ADVERTISING

The basic forms of broadcast media advertising are clearly stated in its definition. Broadcast marketing or advertising is simply advertising using television or radio commercials. Most definitions of broadcast marketing concur with this statement.

However, MSG defines broadcast advertising as promoting products using:

Radio channels

Television channels

And internet advertising.

This definition will therefore place broadcast media advertising as a form of digital marketing when it is really a form of traditional marketing.

Be that as it may, the basic broadcast media for advertising are:

Television

and Radio

Radio advertising

As stated in the introductory part of this write up, radio advertising was more or less the pioneer of broadcast media advertising. A business can market its products, services or brand on radio using Radio commercials Interviews Mentions from radio hosts, etc.

The most commonly used form of radio advertising is the use of commercials. A radio commercial must use strong, persuasive, compelling and catchy language accompanied by simple, fun jingles that will appeal to the target listener.

This is important because with radio advertising, the marketer has only the ears of the target audience to work with, hence, the ad should be able to pass as much as it can in simple, powerful language.

Radio ads should also be aired multiple times in order to ensure that the target audience remembers the message being passed. Repeating a radio ad increases the memorability of the radio ad itself in the minds of the listeners.

Television advertising

Since the advent of television advertising, it has risen to become the big dog of the advertising industry although only big corporate organisations seem to benefit the most from this form of advertising. In the past, people watch at least one television programme a day. Currently, some people do not even watch televisions at all with recent distractions like Netflix, social media channels like TikTok and YouTube, commercial TV is slowly losing its relevance to digital marketing.

Be that as it may, television advertising is still very much effective. Though it is very important that a marketer clearly understands the contact points of the target audience before seeking to reach them using television commercials. New companies can use the reach of popular television channels to reach their prospective customers and most importantly create awareness for their brand.

Finally,

I find that, with marketing, it is best practice to combine both traditional and digital media to promote a business. A prospective customer is more likely to click on your facebook ad after repeatedly seeing your business' commercial on TV.

Why because, the consistency breeds a foundation of trust for your brand and in turn will help boost the ROI for your advertising campaign.

Thanks for reading ; -)