THE EPHRON LETTER OCTOBER 2007 1

ERWIN EPHRON WWW.EPHRONONMEDIA.COM

THE BRITTLE BONES OF MEDIA
Why Reach isnt Reach any more
___________________
My kids favorites are Dinosaurs. They run right past
the sea anemones, which barely leave a smudge,
straight to those big white bones.
Theres a lesson in media planning buried with the
fossils: Media has a skeleton too. Its called Reach
and Frequency. Those bones hold the softer stuff,
Receptivity, Attentiveness and Engagement. And like
the time-bleached Dinosaur, medias bones are
getting old.
LIGHTER THAN AIR
Have you noticed the epidemic of lighter than
air research in advertising? Measures like
brand resonance, consumer engagement,
inattentive attention . . . all because people are
avoiding advertising.
The problem is not with Print. Thats an off-
line version of Search. Readers skim and stop.
If an ad is of interest, readers read.
The problem isnt Radio either. Radio intrudes but is hard to avoid
because you cant shut your ears. If the PPM in your pocket hears a
Radio you will hear it too.
THE EPHRON LETTER OCTOBER 2007 2

ERWIN EPHRON WWW.EPHRONONMEDIA.COM
VIEWERS TURN THEIR HEADS
The problem is with TV and seeing, because you turn your head
and close your eyes. That means some people Nielsen counts as
viewing are not seeing advertising.
We understand this, but not its significance. It
means reach, a major reason we buy television,
isnt reach anymore (if were talking about
people seeing advertising).
Today it takes more than one TV exposure for a consumer to see an
ad. But Reach at a frequency of two costs too much to be an option.
Half of viewers account for 75% of all viewing and the other half,
25%. Trying to reach light-viewers more than once means reaching
the heavy viewers 5, 6 and 7 times. Thats what wastes the money.
Buying more TV to build frequency to increase sees-the-ad reach is
a dead-end, but there is a solution. Those problematic light viewers
are average Radio listeners, so substituting Radio for part of a TV
schedule can balance message frequency across the entire TV
audience and restore TVs lost reach.
DUPLICATION PLANNING
This is not a radio if theres extra money option. Its using radio
to make Television work better. Its called duplication planning.

THE EPHRON LETTER OCTOBER 2007 3

ERWIN EPHRON WWW.EPHRONONMEDIA.COM
Mixing radio and TV makes great sense, but until now weve
havent had the data to prove it. The 2005 Arbitron PPM Houston
database has detailed measurements of both TV and Radio
exposure from the same panel. It is ideal for TV/Radio duplication
planning and is used for the following analysis.
A major agency was asked to prepare two plans:
1) A typical high weekly reach TV schedule for one of their
advertised brands targeting adults 25-to-54.
2) A modified plan shifting 25% of the TV dollars into Radio, again
focusing on weekly reach of target.
The TV only plan achieves a weekly reach of
38. The TV/Radio plan increases the reach to a
51. An advantage of 34%. This is the mix effect
we have long suspected.
But those reach numbers are exaggerated
because there are TV viewers counted as
reached who may not have seen the advertising. And we are
counting Radio exposures as equal to TV
exposures.
We correct this by discounting each exposure
by 35%, to a value of 0.65. This makes two
assumptions. First that a TV viewers eyes are
not on the screen during the commercial about
ADJUSTED REACH COMPARISON
(Weekly, Metro Area)
TV
ONLY 33
TV +
RADIO 43
TV/RADIO
ADVANTAGE OF 30%
Source: Arbitron Houston PPM, 2005
TV ONLY
Reach
38
Freq
2.21
GRPs
84
TV +
RADIO
51 2.10 107
TV/RADIO
ADVANTAGE OF 34%
Source: Arbitron Houston PPM, 2005
Table 1
TV-ONLY/TV-RADIO COMPARISON
(1-Week, Metro Area)
THE EPHRON LETTER OCTOBER 2007 4

ERWIN EPHRON WWW.EPHRONONMEDIA.COM
a third of the time, and that all radio messages are heard, but that
sound only is worth only 65% of sight and sound together.
The adjusted weekly reach for the TV-only schedule is a 33. The
adjusted sees and hears the message weekly reach for the mixed
TV/Radio schedule is a 43. The Reach advantage of the adjusted
mix schedule is 30%.
Today TV Reach requires more than one
exposure. But TV Reach at any
threshold frequency above one is
unaffordable.
Radio, which reaches light TV viewers,
is far more cost-effective than TV in
delivering that second exposure.
That is why a TV/RADIO schedule will easily out-perform TV
alone in reaching consumers with advertising.
Erwin Ephron