The A to Z of advertising

The right editorial coverage in the right media is thought to be worth four times the value of bought advertising space. While adverts are often skim read or ignored, people are more likely to read, absorb and engage with editorial content.

Editorial coverage appears to the reader to give your story that particular media outlet’s endorsement. Of course the greatest benefit of editorial coverage is that it’s free (though not all advertising needs to cost an arm and a leg).

Advertising can be particularly useful if you're trying to reach communities who don’t engage with traditional or new media.
Catching people’s attention with a strong advert on the tube, while waiting at their bus stop or while listening to their favourite podcast can be a great way to inspire people to volunteer.
Advertising guarantees you media space but it can’t guarantee you results.

Purchasing advertising/ media space

In 2006 UK advertising expenditure passed £19 billion in total:

43.7 per cent spent in the press
24.1 per cent on television
12.2 per cent on direct mail
10.6 per cent online
5.7 per cent on outdoor advertising
2.8 per cent on radio
1.0 per cent on cinema
(figures taken from Advertising Association)

Negotiation is everything when purchasing media space.

Do your research about what media your potential volunteers use.
Contact the outlet’s sales department and ask for a “media pack” or advertising “rate card”. (This should contain all the technical specifications you’ll need and the costs).
Don’t be afraid to bargain with advertising sales departments. They are usually desperate to fill their advertising space and the best deals can usually be done last minute before the paper or magazine goes to print.

Newspaper and magazine advertising

Right hand pages in magazines and newspapers always cost more but more readers will see your ad. The best advert positions are: Front page, inside front cover, centre pages, inside back cover, back cover.

For crib sheets on all the national newspapers with sales figures and advertising advice have a look at The Newspaper Marketing Agency (free to register to get access).

Media UK is also a free local and regional media directory.

Don’t forget to consider trade press, in-flight magazines and High Street shops’ own magazines:

Have a look at www.ink-publishing.com.
See how The Scout Association has advertised for volunteers in Sainsbury's magazine.
Titles such as Tesco’s Club Card Magazine reach over 8.5million people.
The Association of Publishing Agencies has more information about these titles.

Some charities purchase space on the “jobs” pages in newspapers to advertise volunteering opportunities. See how CSV have placed volunteering ads in national newspaper’s job pages. Have a look at how Billion Minutes placed advertorials (adverts which look like editorial content) in magazines.

Television advertising

TV advertising can be very effective in raising public awareness in your organisation. Remember if your target audiences are young professionals buying an advertising slot in the middle of the daytime schedule is pointless. In this case you’d need to buy premium advertising time during early evening popular programming.

The higher the viewing figures a programme brings in, the higher the cost for an advert slot.
TV advertising means working with agencies, production companies and ad brokers. It is not cheap.
Thinkbox provide research, an advert archive and support to anyone interested in advertising on TV.

See how National Blood Service and Special Constables have used TV adverts for their volunteering campaigns and which companies they worked with. WRVS won a BBC Wales competition and had a short advert made for them. Find out more about working with agencies in the article Hiring help.

Direct mail

To date direct mail advertising has tended to be used by commercial companies to sell their products or by charities for fundraising purposes. Few charities have used direct mail to recruit volunteers.

Start off with Royal Mail’s beginners guide to the direct mail services they offer.
You can also purchase target mailing lists from brokers such as Dudley Jenkins or www.selectabase.co.uk
You’re likely to also need to employ the services of a mailing house to manage the packaging, addressing and posting of your mail shot. Make sure to get several quotes as prices can vary dramatically.

Have a look at Home-Start's direct mail campaign and the National Blood Service's quarterly mailer called The Donor. For more inspiration have a look at this campaign director's blog and her direct mail case studies on ideagarden.co.uk.

There are lots of email marketing companies who will track your campaign and supply email lists. For example, have a look at Pure, Adestra and eMailCampaigner. If you want to create and send out a regular e-newsletter then have a look at phplist.

Online advertising

Website adverts (banner ads) are purchased by page impressions/ number of views of that page (e.g. you buy 5,000 page impressions).
Some sites charge an advertising rate based on click throughs (number of people who actually click on your advert) For big well known sites this can be costly.
Smaller sites, with a more niche audience, may have fewer visitors but they could match your target audience perfectly.
Smaller websites often have very low advertising rates, so it’s worth approaching them.

www.e-consultancy.com has Internet marketing information including an online advertising supplier directory. It's also worth having a look at Big Mouth Media, a marketing agency who specialise in new media.

Some organisations are now advertising on social network sites such as YouTube. To find out more have a look at this Guardian article, First ads appear on YouTube.

There are also plenty of free ways to use the Internet and new media to promote your campaign and find volunteers. Find out more in New Media Adventures.

New media advertising

Many companies are testing out advertising via mobile handsets.

The benefit is that your audience is captive when they receive your advert on their phone. On a website the average user scrolls past an advert in 8 – 10 seconds (you have to work hard to catch their attention!).
Young people are particularly keen to receive information via their mobiles.
As more phones are able to accept multimedia content companies are starting to distribute their TV programmes via mobile phone. The opportunities for advertising using mobiles are set to increase.

There are many mobile marketing companies springing up at the moment such as Blyk, Sponge and Incentivated. But as this article in The Guardian points out, mobile marketing isn't guaranteed to make you popular.

Organisations are also experimenting with podcast advertising.

Podcast adverts have to be brief (15 seconds) to stop people fast forwarding past the ad and should be imbedded in the middle of the podcast.
The ad needs to be aimed at quite a niche, techno-savvy audience.
Don’t imitate brash radio broadcast adverts. Podcast ads should be clear, concise and informative (and funny if possible).

Outdoor advertising

The biggest billboard companies are JCDecaux, CBS Outdoor (Viacom), Titan Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor.

For inspiration and more info on advertising on buses, in train stations, on petrol pumps, on taxis and on billboards have a look at the Outdoor Advertising Association's online library.

Solent Youth Action and Victim Support Greater Manchester purchased space on their local buses. Contact the Elderly persuaded Viacom to post their ads for free on the London Underground.

Radio advertising

Most charities go to specialist radio ad production companies for help in putting together a broadcast campaign (for example audio production company www.space.co.uk)
Commercial radio stations usually offer an advert production service too (at a reasonable rate).
Local radio advertising can be relatively inexpensive.

Free advertising

For those organisations with no budget, there is a free way to advertise:

Ask for pro-bono work from advertising agencies and ask for free media space. Inspire commercial agencies and media outlets to get involved with your charity’s work.
Don’t forget the value of the old fashioned poster and blu-tack. A clever, low-key, local campaign can sometimes beat an expensive advertising campaign. Place the poster in local shops, sports centres, doctors’ surgeries, libraries, schools, dentists’ waiting rooms, hairdressers, cafes – anywhere where people have time to spare or have to wait. See how Crime Concern distributed their flyers.
You can also find a media partner or mentor via the Media Trust

Read the next article in this section... What's news? How to get editorial coverage