Conversely, if items are left up too long — a very common problem — people will stop paying attention. And once they do that, retraining them to pay attention can be a long slog.
So while there are many considerations such as type of message, cycle speed and length of message, how new the concept is, how complex it is and how many frames of content are being displayed simultaneously, there is one primary rule of thumb. That is the rule of three. This rule is one I often refer to because of its simplicity and basic logic. And while it was devised decades ago, before digital signage was invented, the idea applies to 21st century messaging as well as it did back then.
What this rules says is that you want to adjust your digital signage content so that the average person walking by it will see any particular message at least three times. This basic theory was developed by Dr. Herbert Krugman at GE in the 's when he was studying the effects of attention and learning of GE's advertising. Equally as important to the third exposure is that it's also the beginning of disengagement and withdrawal of attention.
In other words, it's time to take that piece of content out and replace it with something new. Once a person has seen a message more than four or five times, any further learning comes to a halt, and the piece is just taking up space. This simple rule of three can be applied to any digital signage system. Whatever system you use, just make sure to adjust the content controls so it will stay up long enough to be viewed an average of three times — and not much more.
This will significantly increase the communication, learning and engagement between you and your viewers. Sign up now for the Digital Signage Today newsletter and get the top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
Purchase Cycle and Usage Cycle. Ostrow 27 states that frequency level depends on the purchase and usage cycle of a product. The longer these cycles, the lower frequency is required. The recency concept, however, made purchase cycles irrelevant. Thus, there are always some customers in a marketplace.
According to media director A, there are always 13—17 per cent of the market who are ready to buy big ticket items such as a car right now. Media director B adds that the key consideration is not usage or purchase cycles, but paydays. Adding frequency to the schedule around the first and fifteenth of the month paydays increases effectiveness of advertising in terms of sales.
People usually have spending money when they receive their paycheck Media director B. Number of Media Used. Ostrow 27 states that the more media outlets used in a campaign, the higher the frequency goal.
The reason is that it is necessary to have some minimal frequency level within each medium in order to achieve a reasonable presence in the medium threshold. However, contrary to Ostrow's suggestion, local media professionals consider that there is no need to establish a higher frequency goal when many media are used in an advertising campaign.
On the contrary, a higher frequency must be a goal for one medium campaigns, because of a greater number of distractions viewers can flip from channel to channel Media director C.
For example, with high frequency on one TV channel, there is a better chance for a commercial to be seen even if a viewer is switching between different channels. Type of Media Plan. Ostrow 27 states that a continuous media plan requires lower frequency levels while pulsed or flighting media plans require higher frequency levels. Ostrow's conclusions are natural within a fixed budget. However, there is no empirical evidence to establish particular frequency levels based on the type of media plan.
Within different budgets there can be some situations calling for lower frequency levels in flighting media plans and higher frequency levels for continuous media plans. The only thing that is required with any type of plan is to establish at least a threshold frequency level Media director A.
Some of the clients are advertised the whole year and this is a good excuse to have less frequency for their campaigns Media director D. Local experts consider that after achieving the threshold frequency level, the remaining budget should go to setting up the highest possible frequency. Message Content. Ostrow 27 states that copy, just showing a product or service, requires lower frequency than image copy.
The reason is that imagery factors are generally more subtle and complex. Other research also indicates that more complex copy needs more repetition.
However, image advertising is disappearing from local television. Contrary to Ostrow, media director C suggests that direct product-oriented advertising needs more repetition because people tend to forget specific prices and addresses faster than images. Some of Ostrow's suggestions were found to be not applicable for local media planning because of limited advertising budgets of local clients and some other characteristics of local advertising media planning.
Opportunity for Media Repetition. According to media director E, commercials are not stuck to programs anymore. Stations drop in new spots when the program reruns. In addition, local print advertising have shorter life cycles. As a result, the concept of getting a free airing is not relevant today. Editorial Environment. Ostrow 27 states that where there is very strong and appropriate synergy between editorial content and advertising, lower frequency is generally required. In this situation, the advertiser can get more advertising value for the same money.
Ostrow 27 advises advertisers to increase frequency in the case of a non-compatible editorial environment. However, local rotation system of placing commercials does not allow media planners to predict the editorial environment for each message media director A.
Hence, increased frequency in case of a non-compatible environment may actually be counterproductive because of unfavorable associations. This is not a problem for print advertising. Local advertisers do not agree to place their advertisement in a non-compatible environment even when they are offered lower rates media director B. Degree of Copy Complexity. Ostrow 27 states that simple messages require lower frequency levels than complex messages. Obviously, perception and processing of complex messages take more time and effort.
All five media directors agree that local clients do not have financial resources to experiment with different copy options in terms of their complexity. When an advertiser has a limited budget, creative strategy is usually simple. Media director A considers automotive advertising to be among the most complicated advertising copies because they contain not only lots of words but also subtitles that are required by law. However, this factor does not affect frequency level for local advertising campaigns because most consumers just ignore this part of advertisement.
Message Variations. Ostrow 27 states that greater the number of messages used in advertising campaign requires higher frequency. For each execution, lower frequency will probably be assigned, but overall frequency will be higher because usually everything is tied by the same idea Media director E. Generally speaking, copy variations for local clients do not differ drastically and have a common theme or slogan. In most cases, media planners do not want to complicate the campaign further or confuse the audience by exposing it to different message variations.
Message Uniqueness. Ostrow 27 states that more unique copy requires lower frequency. Indeed, message creativity can add a lot to overall advertising effectiveness. Hollis 29 says that copy uniqueness tends to improve communication effectiveness of the advertising message. However, the uniqueness factor is very subjective and hardly a measurable factor. Local media directors deal more with new copy version rather than truly original ones.
According media director D, it is hard to have anything unique in a local market. This exploratory study shows that a number of considerations used in the academic literature might not be particularly relevant when applied to a local media planning. The following preliminary conclusions can be drawn from the study. Frequency often overpowers reach in local media planning calculations because of inability to guarantee precise targeting.
Such inability is a result of media fragmentation and greater audience's control over media exposures. Although there is no formula to calculate the frequency threshold level, achieving such a threshold in any advertising campaign is a necessary condition for advertising success.
However, media objectives may only be achieved with appropriate budget, which may be viewed as additional constraint for local media planners. The frequency threshold for a particular campaign should be determined based on research and professional experience. A higher frequency level should be established in the following situations:. There is no reason to lower the frequency level artificially, even in situations where there is potential for lower advertising frequency to have greater impacts.
Advertising money should be used solely to keep or advance current advantages of the advertised product such as high market share, high brand awareness and so on. Any such guidelines should not carry precise figures. There is no universal answer to how to establish an effective frequency level for an advertising campaign. According to Schultz, 31 the marketplace is so complex, the communication systems so intertwined and the consumer so impacted and influenced by the plethora of communication channels that any approach which attempts to separate out individual elements is probably misleading at best and may actually be incorrect.
The concept of effective frequency is likely to be in demand until it can be replaced by better approach. There are some limitations with qualitative studies, mainly because of sample size and generalizibility of results. Hair, Bush and Ortinau argue that exploratory research is designed to gain preliminary insights into problems and opportunities.
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You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Correspondence to Igor Makienko. Dr Makienko has extensive experience in advertising and marketing. His research has been published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing, Marketing Education Review and others and presented at numerous conferences.
Reprints and Permissions. Makienko, I. Effective frequency estimates in local media planning practice. J Target Meas Anal Mark 20, 57—65
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