Glossary

In a media plan the audience is described by measurable attributes — age, sex, education, household size or income. “Modern families” cannot be found in survey data; “women 25–44 with children in the household” can.

The choice of audience changes the whole buy: the cost per rating point, the choice of stations and how many people the campaign actually reaches. Too broad an audience dilutes the budget; too narrow makes every contact dearer.

Reach is given as a percentage and often with a frequency threshold: 1+ reach means at least one contact, 3+ reach at least three. The second figure is usually more useful, since people rarely remember a single exposure.

Reach does not grow in line with budget. The first points of a campaign reach new people; later ones mostly reach those who have already seen it — so beyond a certain level it is cheaper to add another medium than more points in the same one.

Frequency is counted among those reached only. The average can mislead: a campaign with a frequency of five may give some people one exposure and others fifteen. So the distribution is tracked alongside the average.

How much frequency is enough depends on the message. A new brand or a complex offer needs more repetition than a reminder for a familiar product. Excessive frequency, on the other hand, means paying for contacts that add nothing.

OTS rests on survey data: the viewer was watching when the spot aired, the listener had the radio on, the reader read that issue. It does not say whether they paid attention to the ad — no standard measurement captures that.

In plans OTS serves as the unit of contact from which frequency and cost per thousand are calculated. It is the common denominator that lets television, print and outdoor be compared.

One rating point equals one per cent of the target audience who saw the spot. A 300-GRP campaign therefore generated contacts equal to three times the audience; put differently, GRP = reach × average frequency.

GRP alone does not show how contacts are spread: 300 points could mean 60% of people five times, or 30% ten times. That is why plans and evaluations always state reach alongside it. Ratings come from Nielsen Admosphere’s electronic audience measurement.

In practice GRP and TRP are often used interchangeably. The difference is what the points refer to: TRPs always to the audience the campaign is really after, GRPs sometimes to the station’s general buying audience.

Broadcasters sell airtime against their own buying audiences, but the campaign wants its own target group. Converting between the two shows how many of the bought points land on the people who matter.

An affinity of 100 means average representation; above 100 means over-representation. A programme with an affinity of 150 for young men has half as many young men again among its viewers as their share of the population would suggest.

High affinity is not enough on its own — a small niche medium may have excellent affinity and negligible reach. So planning uses affinity together with the absolute number of target-audience members.

CPT is the cost of the space divided by the number of contacts, multiplied by a thousand. It lets a TV spot, a full-page ad and a billboard — each sold in entirely different units — be set side by side.

A low CPT is not automatically the better choice. A contact with a billboard lasts a second, with a spot thirty, and with a print ad as long as the reader likes. CPT compares price, not contact quality.

Media complement each other in a mix: television builds reach quickly, radio adds frequency at lower cost, out-of-home reminds people of the brand near the point of purchase and print explains a more complex offer.

The mix is built from the objective, audience and budget, not from habit. A small budget split across five media often reaches an effective level in none of them — then one medium done properly is the better call.

A short, intense burst builds reach fast and suits a launch or a time-limited offer. Continuity, by contrast, keeps the brand in mind steadily at lower weekly weight and suits products bought at any time.

Waves are often placed in the seasons when the product sells most, with gaps in cheaper or less important periods. Viewers’ memory does not fade instantly between waves, so well-timed pauses save budget without much loss of effect.

TV groups publish point prices for their buying audiences, and the campaign cost is the number of points bought times the CPP, adjusted by the length coefficient, seasonal index and position surcharges.

CPP is also the main subject of negotiation. The rate-card figure is only the starting point — the final price depends on volume, period, the split between stations and other terms.

Spots are bought in fixed lengths — for instance 10, 15, 20 or 30 seconds. A shorter spot is cheaper, but not in proportion to its length: a 15-second spot costs more than half a 30.

That is why spot length is settled while the script is written. A spot that overruns its length is bought in the longer category and makes the whole campaign dearer; a well-written shorter cut, conversely, buys more repetitions for the same money.

Prices reflect advertiser demand: in summer, when less is advertised, indices tend to be lower; in autumn and before Christmas, highest. The same number of points can therefore cost markedly more in November than in July.

For the client that means a choice. A campaign that need not run in the most expensive period can achieve more reach elsewhere in the year for the same budget. Seasonal indices are used in TV, and a similar principle applies in other media.

The amount of advertising on air is limited by law and by the station’s licence, so every break has finite capacity. At popular times and seasons breaks sell out and a spot may not fit.

A break’s value depends on the programme it sits in and who is watching at that moment. When buying in GRPs the broadcaster places spots in breaks, but the plan can set conditions, such as the share of prime time.

The first and last spots in a break are seen by more viewers, since some switch channel or leave the screen during it. Broadcasters charge a surcharge on the point price for these positions.

Whether the surcharge pays off depends on the campaign. For a short campaign focused on recall it can make sense; for a long one building frequency, usually less so.

Unlike a commercial, a sponsorship ident must not directly urge viewers to buy or offer a specific product with a price. Its strength lies in repetition in the same setting and in linking the brand to a programme viewers enjoy.

Sponsorship is the only commercial route onto ČT1, which has carried no spot advertising since 2012. On commercial channels it is bought alongside a spot campaign or instead of one.

A programme containing product placement must be labelled as the law requires, so viewers know it includes paid presentation — at the start, at the end and after an ad break. It is not permitted in certain programme types, such as news or children’s programmes.

Product placement does not work like a spot: it does not say why to buy, but shows the product in natural use. It suits brands that already have awareness and want to strengthen their image.

Teleshopping runs for minutes, demonstrates the product in detail and ends with a call to order. It airs in separate, labelled slots and follows different rules from an ordinary commercial.

For most brands a shorter spot is more effective. Teleshopping makes sense for products that need demonstrating and where sales are measured directly through orders.

The viewer watches normal broadcast television, and on a connected set an ad format can appear — an overlay, content behind the “red button”, or a spot that replaces the broadcast ad for selected households only.

It is usually bought in impressions rather than GRPs, and can be targeted by region, for instance. It sits at the boundary of TV and digital: it uses the big screen but offers some of the possibilities of online advertising.

Broadcasters’ video libraries offer advertising alongside their own content, watched on computers, phones and TVs. It is bought in impressions or views and can be combined with a linear campaign.

VOD tops up reach among viewers who watch less linear TV, typically younger ones. Campaigns on video platforms such as YouTube are a different discipline — within the group, OMNIA MEDIA runs those.

Radioprojekt is a questionnaire-based survey establishing who listens to which stations and when. Results are published regularly and underpin station selection and price comparison.

For a plan, listenership within the target audience and region matters more than the headline figure. A national station with a large audience is not necessarily better for a regional campaign than a smaller one your customers actually listen to.

Radio is most listened to in the morning, as people get up and commute, and prices reflect that. Afternoon and evening dayparts are cheaper and reach partly different listeners.

So a plan decides not only the station but also how spots are spread through the day. A campaign aimed at drivers will be scheduled differently from one for people who listen at work.

Readership is usually higher than copies sold, because one copy is read by several people — at home, in a waiting room, in the office. For a media plan readership matters more, because it says how many people may see the ad.

The survey also profiles readers, so reach and affinity in the target audience can be calculated just as for TV. Trade and regional titles are often absent from the survey — there, planning relies on circulation and knowledge of the readership.

There is usually a gap between copies printed and copies sold — some come back unsold. An audited figure from ABC ČR (the Czech audit bureau of circulations) therefore carries more weight than the number in a publisher’s rate card.

Circulation is the main yardstick where readership is not measured — trade magazines, newsletters and smaller regional titles. For those it pays to ask how many copies actually reach readers.

An advertiser buys an advertorial just like a display ad — paying for the space and setting the content. It must be clearly labelled, with words such as “commercial content” or “advertisement”, so readers do not mistake it for editorial.

An advertorial is paid media: the advertiser is certain of the size, date and wording because it has bought them. An editorial article is earned media — it appears when a journalist judges the subject newsworthy, which is why readers trust it more, but it carries no guarantee of publication. The two complement each other, and both suit messages too long for a display ad.

Every medium has its own deadlines — print by issue date, TV and radio by air date, out-of-home by posting date. After the deadline it may no longer be possible to place or correct the ad.

So deadlines go into the campaign timeline alongside time for production and approval. The most common reason a campaign slips is not the buying, but materials that are not ready on time.

Billboards stand by roads and in towns and are rented by period, typically a month or a fortnight. Printing and posting the poster are added to the rental.

A billboard is read in a few seconds from a moving car, so the message must be short and legible from a distance. Sites are chosen by location, direction and traffic volume; after posting the client receives photographic proof.

Bigboards stand mainly along motorways and main roads, where a site must be visible from a long way off. Like billboards, they are rented by period.

They suit awareness building on routes with heavy traffic, such as the approach to a city or a tourist destination. Suitable sites are fewer, so it pays to book early.

A citylight sits at pedestrians’ eye level and, being backlit, is visible in the evening too. People often stand and wait beside it, so it can carry a little more text than a billboard.

Citylight campaigns are usually bought as networks of panels across a city or a particular district. They suit urban audiences and reminding people of a brand close to the point of purchase.

Screens stand in cities, shopping centres, stations and on public transport. You buy time or the number of plays in the loop, or impressions; some inventory can also be bought programmatically.

The advantage is flexibility: a campaign launches without printing or posting, the message can change by time of day, and you can buy selected hours only. The drawback is the shared screen — your spot is visible only part of the time.

For television the evaluation draws on audience data and shows achieved GRPs, reach and frequency against plan. For radio it evidences the spots aired, for print the ads published, and for out-of-home photographic proof of the sites.

An evaluation is not a formality: if a broadcaster under-delivers points or fails to air a spot, it is the basis for compensation. It is also the best input for planning the next campaign.

Large TV groups sell airtime through their own sales teams; smaller and thematic channels often go through a sales house that offers several at once. Sales houses work similarly in radio, print and out-of-home.

For an advertiser that means many sellers, each with its own rate card and terms. An agency compares them and negotiates with each, so the client does not have to conduct dozens of separate talks.

A rate card lists base prices for space, coefficients and surcharges. The real price of a campaign usually differs — depending on volume, period, media combination, positions and other negotiated terms.

The rate card is only the opening bid. The buyer’s job is to get from it to a price that fits what the campaign needs, while making sure a discount is not paid for with worse positions or lower-quality reach.

A good press release puts the essentials in the headline and first paragraph — what happened, who, when, where and why it matters to readers. Details, a spokesperson quote and a contact for questions follow. A newsroom may run it, shorten it, add its own sources, or not use it at all.

Sending out a release with no news in it does not help: journalists receive dozens of texts a day and pick those of value to their readers. So fewer releases with a clear story, sent selectively to the outlets that cover the field, work better.

An embargo gives newsrooms time to prepare a better piece — research the context, do an interview, source photographs — and gives the client certainty that the news will not appear before it is ready. It is stated clearly at the top of the material.

An embargo rests on trust. It is not enforceable by contract, and a breach is usually dealt with by the outlet not receiving advance material next time. It is used for results, studies or product launches, not for routine announcements.

A press conference makes sense when the news is strong enough for journalists to come for it, or when something needs showing — a new product, a building, a location. For a routine announcement a press release is enough; an empty room does more harm than the conference brings.

The date is chosen with newsroom deadlines and competing events in mind, and the invitation goes out early with a clear subject. A downloadable press kit and a spokesperson prepared for awkward questions are part of it.

A database is only a starting point. Journalists change outlets and beats, and a list that is not kept up to date means news goes to people who do not cover the field or no longer work at the outlet.

For each story a narrower circle is drawn from it — trade media, regional newsrooms, the sections that cover the subject. The contacts are personal data and are handled under data protection rules.

Outlets value an exclusive because it brings something competitors lack, and they often give it more space and care in return. The client gains more in-depth treatment in the outlet that matters most to its audience.

The cost is that other outlets pick the story up later, or not at all. An exclusive is therefore chosen where the quality and context of one piece matter more than the number of mentions, and it must be honoured — offering an “exclusive” to two outlets at once loses the trust of both.

Typically this means editorial articles, interviews, features or mentions in programmes. Because someone other than the client decided on them, audiences trust them more than advertising. But the client cannot control when, where or in what form the coverage appears.

The opposite is paid media — advertising and advertorials with a guaranteed date and wording. They work best together: the paid campaign secures reach and frequency, while earned coverage lends the message credibility and context.

Paid media are advertising and advertorials, earned media are editorial coverage, shared media are content spread on social platforms, and owned media are the website, newsletter or company magazine. Each channel differs in cost, control and credibility.

The point of the model is the connection: a press release runs on the owned website, an editorial article becomes shared content, and a paid campaign amplifies a theme already present in the media. One message is planned across channels rather than four separate activities.

In public relations it is calculated from coverage — how many mentions went to the brand and how many to competitors over the same period in the same media. In advertising the same term is used for a share of category ad spend or impressions.

Share of voice shows change over time better than an absolute count of articles: when the whole category gets less attention, coverage may fall while the brand’s share still rises. Together with tone, it gives a more realistic picture than a single figure.

Tone is assigned to each piece by predefined rules so that it can be compared over time. Automated tools estimate it quickly but misread irony, technical texts or mixed articles — sound evaluation therefore combines automation with human reading.

Tone alone is not enough: a neutral mention in a major outlet can be worth more than a positive one in a marginal one. So it is read together with the outlet’s reach and whether the piece carried the key messages.

AVE was long popular because it yields a simple figure in currency. Professional public relations bodies, however, reject it as misleading: an article and an ad are not the same thing, a critical piece has the same “value” as a favourable one, and the result says nothing about whether the coverage reached the audience or changed anything.

Instead of AVE, PR results are judged against the objective — reach in relevant media, tone, the presence of key messages, share of voice and what the communication actually achieved. OMNIA PR does not use AVE.

It contains likely crisis scenarios, a crisis team with contacts and deputies, an approval procedure, templates for initial statements and rules for communicating with the media, staff and authorities. The aim is that the first hours are not spent deciding who is responsible for what.

A manual is only useful if it is known and rehearsed. So it is paired with a crisis simulation and media training for spokespeople, and updated when management or operations change.

Training teaches people to put key messages briefly and clearly, answer awkward questions without evasion, and know what may and may not be said. It usually includes a mock interview recorded on video and a debrief.

It is useful before a major interview or press conference, and for members of a crisis team. Someone who has practised an interview under pressure comes across more calmly when it is real, and is less likely to say something that is later quoted against them.

A spokesperson may be a press officer, a director, an expert, or a combination depending on the subject — the director on results and strategy, an expert on technical questions. What matters is that they have the mandate, the information and the time to respond when a newsroom calls.

In a crisis the one-voice rule applies: all enquiries go through the designated person so messages do not contradict one another. Journalists also remember who answers quickly and to the point, and go back to that spokesperson.

Seeding relies on the product having something to show. The recipient tries it and decides alone whether and how to write or film about it — the result is an independent opinion the audience takes more seriously than a paid presentation.

Choosing recipients matters more than their number: a package sent to people whose audience has no interest in the category is a wasted product. If seeding comes with payment or an agreed post, it is no longer seeding but a paid collaboration that must be labelled as advertising.