If Not Effective Frequency, Then What?

The question of what is effective frequency in a media schedule has been around for a long time without clear resolution.

If Not Effective Frequency, Then What?

Kenneth A. Longman

Over 50 years ago, the Ted Bates advertising agency set out to discover why 'certain brands were spurting ahead in sales.' In his 1961 book, Reality in Advertising, Rosser Reeves, then the agency's chairman, said they found out that those brands were adding expensive non-network spots to their regular network radio schedule (remember, there was virtually no commercial television at the time). Why did this strategy pay off in greater sales?

According to Reeves an analysis of Nielsen audience data showed it was because the spots greatly increased...

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