Reach, frequency, and recency are foundational themes in advertising efficacy that have been discussed ad nauseum since the dawn of mass media. Even as the technology to track advertising approaches surveillance levels, effective reach and frequency remain central to advertising and media planning.
The continued discourse is fueled, in large part, by the fragmentation of media and the proliferation of ad formats, which chip away at some of the model’s original assumptions. Even when media channels were more consolidated and consistent than they are today, researchers understood that varying levels of attention needed to be accounted for. Definitions of effective...