How Leading Advertising Agencies Perceive Effective Reach and Frequency

Recent developments in media planning theory suggest that an important element of the media decision-making process should be the evaluation of reach and frequency in terms of advertising exposures or communication effects rather than vehicle exposures. The extent to which these theoretical extensions are practiced by leading U.S.-headquartered advertising agencies is the topic of this article. Over 90 media directors provide information concerning a number of media planning practices. These include the extent to which communication effects data are used in evaluating media plans, the adequacy of various commercial sources of such data, and whether communication effects data are used to weight media vehicle audiences to estimate potential advertising audiences or impact.