coverage

Definition:
A rather loosely used term. Sometimes describes only a statement of how well a MEDIA VEHICLE can reach a particular audience, expressed as a percentage. Thus the coverage of all British adults by the Daily Mirror is 27 per cent, meaning that 27 per cent of the UK population read the paper on a statistically average day. But the term can mean more than this. The Media Research Group says: 'the most widely used (and most probably misunderstood) use of the word coverage is the description of the performance of an advertising schedule. To try to put it simply, the net coverage . . . of a schedule is the proportion of a target group who will have at least one opportunity ofseeing the advertisement. Thus, if a press campaign is said to achieve 70 per cent net coverage amongst all adults, 70 per cent of the adult population will have at least one chance of seeing the advertisement. The MRG strongly emphasizes the significance of this coverage figure to media planners: 'Coverage is also a vitally important concept in television media planning . . . Coverage is probably the most important concept in the planning of media' (ADMAP, JULY 1979). The INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF BRITISH ADVERTISERS' Glossary of Advertising Media Terms defines several types of coverage calculation, as follows. (a) Gross cover: the total number of television viewing ratings (TVR) achieved by the individual SPOTS in a television or radio advertising campaign: it makes no allowance for viewers seeing more than one and is directly proportional to the total impressions achieved. An example is given: if three spots individually score 15, 25 and 30 TVRS, the 'gross cover' is 70 TVRS. (b) Gross OTS: the total duplicated coverage of a press advertising campaign; calculated by adding together the OPPORTUNITIES TO SEE achieved by each advertisement and expressed in thousands. The equivalent of the 'gross cover' of a television campaign. (c) Net cover: the percentage of the target audience exposed at least once to a spot in a television or radio advertising campaign. They note that, as the campaign extends over time, each new spot can be expected to contribute less than earlier ones to the increasing of net cover, to the extent that some may add no additional viewers at all. (d) Net coverage or reach: the total unduplicated coverage of a press advertising campaign, expressed either in thousands or as a percentage of total potential readership. The precise equivalent of 'net cover' of a television campaign. (e) 4+ cover: the percentage of the target audience exposed at least four times as the television or radio campaign proceeds. The figure four is used on the hypothesis that a television commercial should be fully familiar after four exposures and that subsequent re-exposures will make little extra contribution to effectiveness. (f) Cumulative cover: a press advertising term expressing the idea that, although the number of people reading the average issue of a publication remains constant, there is a cumulative build-up of total readership because the individual readers of each successive issue are not entirely the same people. Measuring the coverage of poster advertising campaigns accurately used to be a difficult task based on a complex general formula developed by the JOINT INDUSTRY COMMITTEE FOR POSTER AUDIENCE SURVEYS, but has recently been greatly simplified by the development of the OUTDOOR SITE CLASSIFICATION AND AUDIENCE RESEARCH operation, known as OSCAR. The measurement of cinema advertising coverage has not yet reached the levels of sophistication attained by other media, despite the recent establishment of CINEMA AND VIDEO INDUSTRY RESEARCH LTD, known as CAVIAR.

Cross-References:
[Joint Industry Committee for Poster Audience Surveys (JICPAS)] [Outdoor Site Classification and Audience Research (OSCAR)] [OSCAR] [opportunities-to-see (OTS).] [CAVIAR] [Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA)] [media vehicle] [spot] [Admap] [spot] [TVR] [Cinema and Video Industry Audience Research Ltd (CAVIAR)]

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