Task 7

Sources of information
Information can be gathered from the audience in different ways and they gather this information because it will let them know how much it will cost to advertise before putting it on air. Information is gathered through information packs and rate cards and these methods are useful because the company will know if they can or cannot afford to put the advertisement onto the television.

Rate cards
Rate cards are documents which contain information of the price of a advertisement placement. There are rate cards on the Itv website and most of the cards are identical. This type of rate card shows which region the people live in and the category of the television programmes that they like to watch.
For example when Eastenders is on it gets a lot of views and a lot of people will be watching it and maybe as a family which would make it a great moment for the advert to be shown. The rate cards are also beneficial to the company because they will know when the best time to show the advert will be. On the other hand, a negative thing is that people may have coincidentally turned the channel at the exact time that the advert starts or the television could have just been left on that channel by accident whilst they were doing something else.

Advertiser information packs
This pack is essential to advertising companies because they help them to plan an advertisement. For example, channel 4 have online advertising. It is essential for companies to get this information because they need to plan their advertisement. Air time is basically the duration of time that they have at their disposal and it is usually measured in seconds. They are usually known as quick awareness advert, which would be the short adverts on programme breaks. All adverts time duration can vary from 5 seconds to 120 seconds and the more air time required for the advert means it will be more expensive, this is because they are using up more air space which other adverts could use. A pro of using a quick awareness advert is that it creates awareness to people in a short amount of time. On the other hand this all depends on how well the company plan it.

Online advertising
This is a strategy which companies can use to spread their advert across the nation. It is a good way to promote things such as brands and devices because a lot of people use the internet meaning a lot of people will get to see it and it will be seen a lot on social medias such as Facebook and Twitter.