Target Audiences and Social Media Ads

Every day we are targets by ads in social media on the internet or television. Many of the ads are informative to help the consumer decide that this is the product you need and want.  I remember the shopping network and how it was advertising and selling every product imaginable to housewives and people who staying home raising children, and watching television. Saturday morning was a time for cartoons for children in the 1960’s with their countless ads at selling cereal and toys to young children, especially during Christmas.

              Christmas is the most commercialized holiday whereby corporation make 75% of their revenue during the year. Commercials for everything from new cars for the family, toys for the kids, new appliances for the home, and ads to promote families taking vacation to Disneyland, or any of countless destinations were targeted at families. Toys and children’s cereals were targeted on children’s television shows, while women’s health care products were targeted to the housewives of that era.

Television broadcast approximately 53 minutes, and 7 minutes of commercials every hour. Today that number is down to 43 minutes of network televisions with 17 minutes of commercials broken up into 8-12 increments.  You would see that demographics showed men 18-50 watched football games, and commercials targeting men for beer, cars, and other things thought a man of that each group would want to buy.

              With Internet everywhere, we now have popup ads in all websites, advertising based upon the type of people have been calculated to be on those websites. Social media algorithms have been developed to target the traffic on the internet. In 2021 75% of Gen Zers and 48% of millennials make purchasing decisions based upon the influence of social media ads. Facebook, Tiktok, Twitter and many more generate massive amounts of revenue by placing ads on their websites to promote products paid for by their sponsors.

When movies or television shows come out, they are heavy advertised on competing streaming platforms. Films that cost $250 million or more, commonly spend $50-$100 million or more on advertising. Social media ad spending is over $150 million in 2021 with many third-party tools like AdEspresson or Revealbot optimized for use on Facebook ad campaigns.

              With the advent of AI (Artificial Intelligence) can manage entire campaigns to select the websites, and television and streaming sites to advertise products based upon the likes and demographics of the population.  You see ads for products for those over 60 on website and television and streaming aps and sites based upon the feedback as to the age group of the people visiting those sites.

We utilize advertising strategy to sell products. We first have to determine what to sell, then research your audience as to the functionality and identity of the product including its physical characteristics. Today the ad agency uses a creative platform such as Snapchat, Facebook and hundreds of others to send thousands of 1.7 second ads to catch the attention of the consumer. The ads have to be in a format to be read on Tablets, Cellphones, Televisions, and computers. Once you determine the audience a budget of how sophisticated will the ads be. The Super Bowl commands over $6.5 million per ad. That breaks down to $217,000 per second. So that ad for beer, movie, car, snack, or similar product is usually very sophisticated and was very expensive to produce. The best commercials and ads in America are on the Super Bowl. The audience is the deciding factor as to the cost of the ads. When you have 50 million people see the Super Bowl the cost is higher for commercials due to the number in the target audience.

              Today, many products such as cigarettes, and a few others products are not allowed anymore. But, beer, alcohol, and every drug known to man is now advertised heavily on the internet and television. Smoking commercials used to target the youth of our country along with middle age people. Movies and television shows had people had placement ads in their television shows and movies to sell products.

              Today most people don’t realize that scientists have discovered that compression of time in ads from speeding up a commercial from 45 seconds to 30 seconds, people remember that ad more than at normal speeds. The effect of time compressed advertising was processed to increase speed 105% and 130% normal speed. These become perceptual and evaluative models whereby people remember these types of commercials more than any other form of advertisement.

Jingles used to be famous for getting people to buy products. Part of the reasons that the products associated with the company’s jingle is responsible for successful sales. It is a type of brainwashing whereby you are bombarded thousands of times a day for a wide variety of products and eventually sub-consciously buy these products because the ads make you feel good.

• McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It"
• Kit Kat® "Give Me a Break"
• Oscar Mayer "I Wish I Was an Oscar Mayer Weiner"
• Subway "Five Dollar Foot Long"
• Empire "800 Number"
• State Farm "Like a Good Neighbor"
• Lucky Charms "They're Magically Delicious"
• Huggies "I'm a Big Kid Now"

 

          With the changing times, the demographics of selling products has changed and become extremely sophisticated. Product placement has come a long way since the days of selling laundry detergent, new cars, and cereals for kids on daytime television. We have come a long way from mom-and-pop advertising agencies like shown on the old show "Bewitched". 

 

References

(n.d.). Retrieved from Quality Logo Products: https://www.qualitylogoproducts.com/promo-university/top-10-advertising-jingles.htm

Buller-Russ, A. (n.d.). Sportsnaut. Retrieved from Super Bowl LVI commercials cost $6.5 million per ad: https://sportsnaut.com/super-bowl-lvi-commercials-cost-6-5-million-per-ad/#:~:text=Most%20people%20will%20tune%20in,amounts%20to%20%24217%2C000%20per%20second.

Reed, H. (n.d.). Navigating Social Media Advertising in 2022: How to Choose the Right Platform and Ads for Your Brand. Retrieved from Big Commerce: https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/social-media-advertising/

The Effects of Time Compressed Advertising on Brand Attitude Judgments. (1986). Retrieved from The Association for Consumer Research: https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/6474

Where Targeting Meets Television. (n.d.). Retrieved from Agility: https://agilityads.com/connectedtv/?utm_source=google&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=television&utm_campaign=13426558969&utm_content=124018857523&utm_term=tv%20audience%20targeting&hsa_acc=4048112516&hsa_cam=13426558969&hs