The new exporting and reports functionality in SRDS is a great way to export custom lists of media to use in your plans and research. But what detail is included in the new Detailed Reports option?

The detail depends on the media you're working with, and the option only appears if you've selected a single media type. So the first question to ask is: what media are you tagging?

• For print Business Media listings, the detail includes frequency, total circulation, circulation source, and some rates and bleed information.
• For print Consumer Magazine Media listings, the detail includes the above, plus rate based information.
• For print Newspaper listings, the detail includes publish area, weekday circ, Sunday circ, some Display/ROP rates, some classified rates and column sizing information.
• For Radio and TV, it includes the individual personnel at the station, plus in TV we also have traffic information.
• For Digital listings, you have the most current Compete unique visitor number as detail.
• For Direct Marketing lists, you get the total universe and cost per thousand.

The reports are a fast, easy way to pull topline information into a spreadsheet format so you don't lose track of media properties you are interested in. Try them out and see why many users have said they save so much time!

Over at Business 2 Community, Eric Wittlake has a post aimed at helping address the challenges of marketers trying to reach business-to-business audiences. He offers "Six Free Ways to Find the Best B2B Advertising Opportunities." In short, they include:

1. Google
2. Free list research tools
3. Google Ad Planner
4. Media Kits and Research
5. Twitter and Content Curators
6. Delicious

It's a pretty good list, especially if you are heavily constrained by budget to the point of only using free resources.

Of course, sometimes you get what you pay for, and what you don't invest in dollars will cost you double in time. That's where SRDS comes in, with our Business Publication Media database.

While it isn't free, it is the single best place online to find the entire universe of business publication advertising options, including print journals, websites and direct marketing lists.

No detective work required:

• 9,000+ print media listings
• 5,000+ digital media listings
• 25,000+ direct marketing lists
• 60+ media brands with iPad and tablet apps at the SRDS Tablet Media Library
• Over 190 market classifications

In fact, the detailed media listings on SRDS.com also include most of the same information Wittlake mentions, including Google Ad Planner Profiles (plus audience metrics from Kantar Media Compete), links to media kits, and third-party or publisher research.

Here's a video showing the Business Publication Media database in action.

If you like what you see, learn more here.

What about you? How do you find B2B advertising options?

If you've ever tried to convince a creative-focused client just how important a strategic and well-thought-out media plan can be, or for that matter tried to explain to your parents what you do for a living, you might want to grab a copy of Millward Brown's latest POV piece: "The Overlooked Power of Media: Enhancing the Memorability of Communications" (that's a PDF link).

A bit basic for an experienced media pro, it is nonetheless a good introduction to the idea that different media strategies can be effective for different groups. I particularly liked author James Galpin's assertion that the right media choices deliver "not only messages, but memorability."

That's one to hang on the computer monitor.

Galpin makes a case for options beyond broadcast media, reminding us that "TV can be less cost-efficient than more targeted media like cinema, magazines, and online." Good ammunition if a small local client comes to you wanting to buy space during the Super Bowl.

Quoting the paper at length:

Therefore, advertisers need to go beyond the question of just how much to spend. All GRPs are not created equal; smart media decisions can significantly enhance memorability and enable marketers to get the most out of their communications investments.

How about you: what's your go-to explanation for the importance of media planning?

(via @Millward_Brown)

The latest Spot Radio and TV Cost-Per-Point estimates are now available in SRDS.

As broadcast buyers well know, one of the key ways to measure cost-efficiencies is by CPP or cost-per-point (e.g., per Gross Rating Point). Cost per point is the cost, per 1 percent of a specified audience, of buying ad space in a given media vehicle. Buyers rely on SQAD to tell them what a CPP should be in an upcoming quarter, by market, by daypart.

As a reminder radio and tv/cable subscribers can find the SQAD information in SRDS as follows:

SQAD Spot Radio CPPEstimates by MSA

Go to the Radio Media database and you will see a link to the MSA PDFs on the Radio welcome page:

TV Cost-Per-Point Levels by DMA

Go to the TV & Cable Media database and you will see a link to the DMA profile PDFs on the TV & Cable welcome page:

Need help calculating CPPs now? Use our simple calculator.

Spoiler alert: SRDS will soon be releasing an iOS app for easily determining CPP and other calculations on the fly!

As consumers, we're probably over the political ads, especially those of us living in swing states. And working in the media business, the political ads are certainly squeezing out and driving up the cost of our client campaigns. It's happening in TV, radio, and even online, including online videos. Online video advertising company Mixpo saysdemand for online video ad space will outstrip supply by 20 percent or more in 11 swing states.

But it's the last crunch before the election; there's not a lot we can do.

On a more positive note, we're seeing some advertisers using the election in their creative and social media campaigns. 7-Eleven has promoted red/blue coffee cup selection for the past 4 presidential campaigns. A FedEx Office spot shows two candidates agreeing to a "clean" campaign while one is actually picking up snarky signs about the other. Boston Market is taking what might be a safer approach asking website visitors to vote between 2 meal choices, but using right-wing/left-wing language that might be inflammatory.

We've all used borrowed interest before, either for ourselves or for clients. In this heated environment, is the benefit of relevance worth causing annoyance with our audiences? Let us know if you're seeing it work, or (perhaps more interestingly) failing spectacularly.

One thing that came up repeatedly at this year's DMA Conference in Las Vegas was: How do you optimize your direct marketing content across media channels?

The three themes of the conference– big data, customer engagement, and marketing accountability – all point to integrating channels as direct marketing's new frontier. Specifically, it's about how to make social media dance to your overall branding identity.

So far, nobody is dominating in the multi-channel direct marketing game, so the field is wide open for innovation. Blue Cross Blue Shield is one company that has been able to turned its weakness into a winner by combiningphonesaleswithmobilesearch. Instead of creating a killer app or mobile website, BCBS built in click-to-call functionality, so that mobile users could contact their customer service center directly from the SERP.

Another leader exploiting the strengths of different channels for an integrated campaign is Coach. They whipped up a buzz on Facebook for a new look-book, so the print campaign came with a built-in audience ready to buy.

There's an old saw that goes “Marketing makes plans while sales makes money.” That's what marketing accountability is going to change through big data's insights on consumer behavior. The DMA expects sales from direct marketing to grow at about 5 percent this year, and most of that will be the result of cross-channel marketing.

One way to foster tighter integration of your campaigns is to start with the customer and work backwards, according to Shar Van-Boskirk, an analyst at Forrester Research. She suggests that patterns in your customer data will point the way to your next logical step.

“Organizationally align people who are responding to different channels into the same database. Integrate a loyalty program with an outbound email program and online booking engine, for example. Instead of thinking of them as three separate groups with three separate goals going after the same customers, try to nurture the customer in a holistic way.”

As you develop your integrated campaign, don't forget that we are here to help no matter what medium your message demands. Whether you need sources, selects, costs and other valuable information to help you find and evaluate lists and refine your list strategy (using the SRDS direct marketing database) or are looking for ways to integrate your message across digital or local media, SRDS can help. 

What about you—what have you heard or learned about at this year's DMA?

In only two days, ad:tech will take place in New York City. If you haven’t heard, ad:tech is one of the best digital marketing events around and it’s worldwide.

Our Kantar Media SRDS team will be there at Booth 1803 along with team members from Kantar Media Intelligence, Audiences and Compete. We’d love to see you, so if you’re at the show stop by to introduc yourself.

We love media and all things digital, so the ad:tech conference program looks full of excellent topics. Here are some of the sessions we’re most excited about:

1. Follow the Money: Investors Place Their Bets on the Future of Advertising - Will the digital advertising bubble pop? Depending on who you ask, we’re already seeing it happen. This session will include a discussion about the future of advertising from the perspective of the people that fund it. They’ll talk about the new products, services and technologies that they’re backing – the startups they think will change the ad business moving forward – as well as how the financial performance of industry darlings post-IPO has shifted their thinking.
2. Cross-Platform Media Strategy: Advanced Reach & Targeting - There are real challenges when it comes to buying different types of media and integrating them into a single plan – but when it’s done right, a cross-platform campaign can be one of the most effective tools in digital marketer’s toolbox. The session will include examples of how to bundle search and social with TV, radio and print for maximum reach and engagement, and they’ll also explain how to measure the effectiveness of each disparate medium.
3. Mobile Marketing: Best Practices for Cracking Today’s Most Intimate Channel - According to a recent study by Ericsson ConsumerLab, more than 1/3 of smartphone users get online before even getting out of bed. So how do marketers engage these mobile consumers on a meaningful level? Senior marketers will bring you up to speed on mobile, relate it to other topics like search and social, and explore ways to take advantage of today’s technologies to extend the platform and engage consumers.
4. New Marketing Platforms: Wearable Devices, Advanced TV & More! - Google and Apple are both working on wearable devices, nearly 40 percent of American households have at least one TV connected to the internet, and location-aware mobile apps can track shoppers and send precision-targeted ads when they’re within a certain radius of a store. The “future” of advertising is now. In this session, you’ll get a first look at the cutting-edge platforms marketers have begun adding to the mix – some at scale – as well as glimpses into the products and services coming down the pike in the next 12 months.
5. Publishers and Tablets: New Strategies for Monetizing and Creating Content - Is the love affair between publishers and tablets fading? No, but is because a more mature relationship. We’ve lost the breathless headlines about new tablet apps, and feverish pushes to buy tablet-specific ads. Now the focus is on creating sustainable tablet revenue streams, including figuring out subscription models that entice print subscribers, as well as developing unique tablet content in a cost-effective manner. This session will present some of the newest strategies for creating and monetizing tablet content and audiences.

[Note: be sure to check out the SRDS Tablet Media Library to see some of the best apps from business, consumer and newspaper publishers.]

6. Next-Gen Ad Attribution: Make the Most of Effective Accountable Measurement - Click-through rates, post clicks, impressions, tracking mechanisms and site analytics all serve their purpose, but don’t always accurately account for the various influences along the purchasing path. Today’s marketers must analyze how various channels interact to determine where attribution makes sense. Much has been said about different ad attribution models. What is the best way to measure and should marketers restrict themselves to these pre-determined models? Leading brand and technology experts will share insight into today’s ad attribution and where marketers should look next.

Sensing a pattern here? All of these sessions involve some aspect of digital advertising or online marketing, two topics that we’re always trying stay at the forefront of.

What sessions look the most intriguing to you?

Click here to see the full ad:tech NY schedule.

Happy Election Day!

If you’re a media buyer who has decided to postpone your advertising decisions until after the presidential election, you’re not the only one.

According to a survey from Strata Marketing, a media buying and selling software company, almost half (47%) of non-political ad buyers are waiting until election season ends to buy ads for their clients. Why? They want to avoid competing with political ads.

“STRATA suggests this means that media buyers are becoming increasingly concerned about costs, yet lack of available inventory is another challenge.”

Other insights from the survey include stats on agency expectations for this year and next:

• Only 35% of agencies participating in the survey believe their business will be better in the second half of 2012, while 19% expect it to be worse.
• That’s a big difference as compared to Strata’s survey during the second quarter which found only 7% believing that the second half of the year to worse. 
• Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they believe 2013 will be much better. Almost one-third of agencies don’t expect their businesses to return to a strong growth period until after 2013.

You may remember we tackled the subject of integrating local media plans with congested political environments in our April 2012 Media Mixology event (slides and audio here).

If you’ve been putting off your media buying until after the election, now’s the time to get back into SRDS.com and get back to business. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help and, whatever you do, get out there and vote!

For years, mega-sized advertising agencies beat out their smaller counterparts 9 times out of 10 because they could access large-scale media buys for a better price. But Matt Murphy, Founder and Executive Director of fusion92, believes that this trend may be slowing, as hyper-local advertising allows “mid-sized and smaller firms with broad regional knowledge and full-service advertising capabilities that include digital expertise” to gain a clear advantage.

Hyper-local advertising targets individuals at the neighborhood or ZIP code level and delivers timely, relevant ads that often have a local component in the creative or messaging. Consumers are inundated daily with ads on every media channel, with most being ignored because they don’t have any relevance to the user. But hyper-local advertisers can create smarter, more targeted approaches that vary by location.

Agencies already use SRDS.com to reach targeted markets by DMA. They have access to media planning data for local websites, print magazines, newspapers, radio, TV and out of home.

But just because these agencies are tailoring their campaigns for local markets doesn’t mean they are ditching large national campaigns. On the contrary, it’s more about using data and technology to customize a large campaign so that it is better matches the targeted audience.

It makes sense that a message incorporating something about your neighborhood (a free appetizer at the Chili’s down your street, for example) has a greater chance of resonating. And not just for you, for everyone in your ZIP code. For users in Chicago, Chicago Bulls imagery or a sound clip from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra might make strike a personal (and memorable) note.

Another reason agencies should consider hyper-local advertising is that it’s cost-effective. Digital technology such as Foursquare encourages users to share location information, making it easy for advertisers to reach their target markets, both through traditional methods and digital channels. According to Murphy:

“Advertisers can segment target audiences to ZIP-code levels, build customizable creative for local components of national campaigns and use digital and traditional advertising channels to distribute hyper-local ads and generate market share gains across multiple regions.”

The ad industry is only going to get more competitive, but if smaller agencies can take the bull by the horns and become more agile, then they have a big opportunity. Plus, the technology and data is already there, so why not use it? 

If you’re currently an SRDS.com user, you may have received an email from us about upcoming changes to how you'll sign in to SRDS.com. We've just put the finishing touches on "the SRDS Signup Robot," and are looking to roll out these enhancements this coming weekend (SRDS.com will be unavailable while we move everything into place that Sunday).

If all goes according to plan, starting on Monday, January 7, you’ll be prompted to sign up for a new username (your work email) and personal password, which should be easier for you to remember and more secure for your company.

Starting Monday, there are three easy steps you'll need to take the first time you access SRDS.

1. Enter your work email address (this becomes your personal SRDS username)
2. Check your email and click the link waiting for you there
3. Choose a password and tell us a little more about yourself

We promise the process will be fast, simple, and secure. Right off the bat, you'll be able to enjoy new features like "remember me" and online password resetting (without emailing our Service Center).

Moving forward, everyone who uses SRDS at your organization should have their own personal account. You won't have to share logins and passwords, and it won’t cost you a thing. Your company's license to SRDS covers a specific number of concurrent users to the online service. Once you've registered, you'll sign in like always, just using your new credentials. Or, click "Keep me signed in" and every time you visit next.srds.com, you'll be magically signed in and ready to work!

It's important that you register with an email address associated with the company that licenses SRDS. That's why we ask for your work address. Please don't sign up with personal addresses from services like Gmail, Yahoo, or other consumer services. If you need a consumer email address to be your username, let us know. Otherwise, please register online with your “corporate” email address.

Questions? Just let us know. No matter what, we're here to help you out and get you into SRDS and finding media opportunities.

Per Ad Age, 30-second spots in this year’s Super Bowl sold for around $3.7 million - yep, they're already sold out. For any marketer buying one of these spots, this is likely the largest single advertising investment all year. Recouping this kind of investment takes a massive lift in sales and/or customer acquisition activity—a lift most companies won't see. This is why, for most advertisers, it’s an easy decision to stay away from the big game. How then, does any advertiser decide it’s a good idea to spend this kind of money?

It starts with the understanding that any marketer buying a spot in the Super Bowl won’t see a direct equal return on the money spent—not right away anyway. Buying a spot in the Super Bowl is more about being culturally relevant. There are still no other events where an advertiser can present a brand message to an American audience upwards of 100 million people all at one time. 

And boy, do we like those brand messages. We tweet, like, share, vote on, upload, blog and discuss in person what we’ve seen. The Super Bowl is also one of the few events where there’s analysis of the game and the advertising in the newspapers the day after.  You don’t see columns in the Chicago Tribune about who won and lost the advertising race on the last episode of Grey’s Anatomy. 

Astute marketers can take their participation in the game and use social media as a force multiplier to generate buzz and excitement around their message both before and after the game. Creating contests, leaking additional video content and tweeting out questions around the ads are just some of the ways advertisers create this buzz.

Sometimes the marketers don’t have to do anything. Just this week I went looking for classic Super Bowl ads via branded channels on YouTube. These ad views will register with the marketers long after the ads have run in real time. 

Advertisers/Marketers: Do you think advertising in the Super Bowl is worth the cost?

For years, many businesses focused their marketing and advertising efforts at a national level. But with the rise of social media, search and mobile, the game has changed. It’s clear that the key to cost-effectively reaching your best prospects is to laser-target campaigns and go local. In fact, an updated BIA/Kelsey forecast expects advertising revenue for all local media to reach $147.1 billion by 2016, at a 2.1% annual growth rate.

On the surface it may seem difficult to adapt a national marketing plan for a local market, but the creative itself doesn't necessarily need to change too much. It's all about determining how to best make it resonate for that audience and more importantly, where to place it so it reaches your target audience. Many marketers use SRDS.com to get the data they need to make informed decisions about local advertising opportunities. Here's why:

1. Any Media Type: Access detailed information on every available media property that accepts advertising, including websites, newspapers, radio stations, TV & cable stations, magazines and out-of-home opportunities.
2. Every Market: Conduct a DMA drilldown with comprehensive local media data for all 210 DMAs across the U.S.
3. Background Check: Research new markets with consumer demographic data.
4. Due Diligence: Even if you work with an outside agency, guarantee that they are selecting the right ad opportunities for your brand in markets you may be unfamiliar with.
5. Actionable Data: Listings include all the data points you need to compile a plan, including rates, contact info, audience metrics and much more.
6. Smart Spending: Small businesses, retailers and restaurants all use SRDS.com to find innovative and affordable ad placements that go beyond the budget-breaking TV buy.
7. Ask Around: Don’t miss out on this unique service. Marketers from Kohls, Dr Pepper, Crate & Barrel, Shoe Carnival and possibly your direct competitors already rely on SRDS.

See SRDS in action and let us know how we can help with your local marketing needs.

It’s no wonder why the Super Bowl and Academy Awards take place during the winter. Audiences are more likely to enjoy the comforts of their own homes while temperatures drop, and are more apt to turn on TV. Consequently, advertising during these highest-profile programs is a must for big names looking to reach millions of Americans.

Kantar Media has released a report containing historical advertising data for the Oscars, showcasing ad pricing trends, top marketers and other insights. Last month, they released something similar for the Super Bowl.

Here are three takeaways from the new report:

1. The Cost of Oscar Advertising: The average cost of a 30-second spot—$1.7 million in 2013—increased slightly during the past few years but has not exceeded the peak levels from 2006-08.
2. Oscar Spending By Top Advertisers: In 2012, almost half of total ad revenue came from four companies:

3. First Time Oscar Advertisers: Last year, 29% of advertising made their Academy Awards debuts, including Google and Hulu.

Check out the full insights report now.

Broadcast media buyers and planners use SQAD data for media cost forecasting, specifically to find out what a CPP should be in the upcoming quarter, by market, by daypart.

Cost per Rating Point (CPP) is a metric used to determine the cost of buying ad space to reach 1% of their target audience. It allows media buyers and planners to compare the costs of advertising on different media outlets to determine the most efficient and cost-effective placements.

Here’s where broadcast planners can find this updated information in Kantar Media SRDS:

SQAD Spot Radio Cost-Per-Point Estimates by MSA

Go to the Radio Media database and on the welcome page, click on the SQAD Spot Radio Cost-per-Point Estimates link.  It will pull up a list of PDFs with SQAD data by metro market. The radio CPP data is only available to subscribers of the Radio database.

TV Households Cost-Per-Point Levels by DMA

Go to the TV & Cable Media database and on the welcome page, click on the DMA Maps and Profiles link. It will pull up a list of PDFs with SQAD data by DMA. This data is only available to subscribers of the TV & Cable database.

If you’re interested in accessing the Radio or TV/Cable databases, let us know.

Unlike the Super Bowl, March Madness doesn’t bring to mind classic TV commercials and millions of dollars for a 30-second spot. The focus is on brackets, betting and the fear that your team will lose in the second round.

But marketers and agencies have increasingly put their chips on the table for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, making it more of a brand promotional opportunity than ever before. Trend data from Kantar Media reveals that the tournament has actually become one of the most valuable properties in all televised sporting events for advertising.

Here are the three biggest takeaways from the report:

1. Since 2004, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament produced more than $5.9 billion in national TV ad spending from 266 different marketers. In 2012, ad revenue exceeded the $1 billion mark for the first time.
2. Digital isn’t just an add-on anymore. This year’s features will include multi-screen digital access to the tournament via PC, smartphone and tablet devices, steaming-live games and ad-sponsored videocasts. There will also be a sponsored bracket game and sponsored “Social Arena” where viewers can follow game tweets and participate in fan chats.
3. The cost to advertise in the tournament has grown over the years and always peaks in the championship game. Last year, the average price of a 30-second TV ad in the championship was $1.34 million, up 8 percent from 2011.

Click over to Kantar Media for an extensive overview of trend advertising data on March Madness.

Digital marketing intelligence provider AdGooroo recently announced it added search marketing intelligence data on the Yahoo! Bing Network for clients. As part of this news, the team also published a special report on the performance of Yahoo! Bing that's essential for any digital marketer.

Full disclosure: AdGooroo, like SRDS, is part of Kantar Media.

Attention! Updated Spot Radio and TV Cost-Per-Point estimates are now available in SRDS.com.

Most broadcast media buyers understand that an indispensable method for measuring cost-efficiencies is by cost-per-point. CPP is the cost, per 1% of an indicated audience, of buying ad space in a given media vehicle. This data provides buyers with what a CPP should be in the upcoming quarter, by market, by daypart.

As a reminder, Radio and TV/Cable database subscribers can find the SQAD information as follows:

SQAD Spot Radio Cost-Per-Point Estimates

This data can be found under the Radio Search.

TV Household Cost-per-Point Levels

This data can be found under the TV & Cable Search.

Log in now to view the data or if you don’t currently have access to these databases, let us know.

When you enter the corporate world, you might assume that your test-taking days are over. Not so at AOL. ClickZ reports that AOL is the first large-scale company to require every member of its digital sales team to pass the IAB Digital Media Sales Certification exam. The goal is to ensure that employees always stay up-to-date on all topics and trends related to online advertising.

To become certified, each staff member must pass the IAB test, which covers general knowledge of the interactive advertising ecosystem, selling digital media, managing digital advertising campaigns and analyzing campaign performance.

According to IAB, the exam is designed for salespeople with 2-5 years of digital industry experience who already have a good understanding of industry issues, players and operations, along with knowledge of each major digital platform.

The test costs $400 for IAB members and $500 for non-members.

Since the exam launched, more than 900 people have applied to take the test, according to AdWeek and more than 600 individuals have passed so far.

Will AOL’s competitors like Google, Yahoo! and MSN follow suit? My guess is no for Google, since the company is already synonymous with digital expertise, but possibly for Yahoo! and MSN.

Last week, the IAB released a report showing that online ad revenues increased 22% in 2011 reaching $31 billion, a record-breaking figure. Mobile saw the fastest growth with a 149% increase to $1.6 billion, while digital video increased 29% year-over-year and search was up 27%.

So if you haven’t dabbled in digital media planning yet, what’s holding you back? We’re planning to release a white paper on the 10 best practices of digital media planning soon, but until that’s ready, let us dispel a few of the most common fallacies we hear about online advertising.

1. It’s expensive. Like all forms of advertising, there are cut-rate and costly ways to achieve your goals, reach the right audience and get your message across. The benefit of digital is that you can reach thousands of highly-targeted people at the same time, meaning it might actually cost a lot less to run an online ad campaign versus other mediums. Plus, targeting can make your campaigns more effective without a gigantic uptick in price. 

2. It’s obnoxious and scam-like. It doesn’t have to be if you use behavioral targeting and think about your target audience. Are you using the right message, is the creative clean and crisp? Your online ads shouldn’t look junk mail. A poll commissioned by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) found that 75 percent of consumers surveyed prefer the current Internet model where majority of content is free, but includes ads. Further, more than 75 percent said they should be able to choose the types of ads they see and how they are generated. Consumers want some control over their ads. Marketers and agencies need to ensure they can deliver relevant, valuable and engaging advertising.

3. It’s complicated. You don’t have to be an expert to plan and execute a digital campaign. As with other forms of advertising, objective dictates strategy. Good planning is the key to a successful ad campaign, along with audience development and research. Do your homework and start small. Make realistic and specific goals that can be measured. Google Adwords and social media advertising are often among the first online ad mediums marketers begin with.

4. Banners are dying. While it’s hard to argue that banners are exceptionally effective, marketers should still consider using them in the right context. Banners can be successful as part of an overall digital campaign, but creativity and media placement are critical. Remember that conversions are tough to achieve with any display ad, but banners do offer an easy and cheap way to introduce your brand to prospects. Plus, do you think billboards are going away any time soon? Probably not.

5. It’s unnecessary if I’m a local business. False! Digital offers a unique proposition for local advertisers and marketers, especially because smartphones and location-based apps offer enhanced ways to target the right consumers. BIA/Kelsey’s March 2013 forecast of U.S. local media ad spending reports that digital’s place in local advertising will continue to expand. They expect traditional spending to drop from $109.4 billion to $107 billion in 2013 and digital spending to increase from $23 billion to $25.7 billion.

In the SRDS.com database, we offer media planning data on more than 22,000 local and national websites. The right digital sites are out there. It’s up to you to explore the possibilities.

Hopefully this makes the world of online advertising a little bit more approachable. Just like other media types, every campaign should be backed by a well-thought plan, including objectives and specific metrics to determine if your digital effort is successful.

Stay on the lookout for our digital media planning white paper that delves deeper into these topics and more!

Broadcast media buyers and planners use SQAD data for media cost forecasting, specifically to find out what a CPP should be in the upcoming quarter, by market, by daypart.

Cost per Rating Point (CPP) is a metric used to determine the cost of buying ad space to reach 1% of their target audience. It allows media buyers and planners to compare the costs of advertising on different media outlets to determine the most efficient and cost-effective placements.

Here’s where broadcast planners can find this updated information in Kantar Media SRDS:

SQAD Spot Radio Cost-Per-Point Estimates by MSA

Go to the Radio Media database and on the welcome page, click on the SQAD Spot Radio Cost-per-Point Estimates link.  It will pull up a list of PDFs with SQAD data by metro market. The radio CPP data is only available to subscribers of the Radio database.

TV Households Cost-Per-Point Levels by DMA

Go to the TV & Cable Media database and on the welcome page, click on the DMA Maps and Profiles link. It will pull up a list of PDFs with SQAD data by DMA. This data is only available to subscribers of the TV & Cable database.

If you’re interested in accessing the Radio or TV/Cable databases, let us know.