Effective Frequency: One Exposure or Three Factors?

Abstract

Faced with increasingly competitive markets and higher media costs, advertising managers keep looking for research findings that can tell them exactly how often to run an ad campaign. Two schools of thought have emerged on this issue: minimalists who assert that one exposure is enough and repetitionists who believe that repetitive advertising is necessay. Which view is correct?. This paper argues that neither view is correct. Effective frequency depends on three factors rather than on a single exposure level. These three factors are brand familiarity, message complexity, and message novelty. The opposing views in the literature can be explained by differences in research context on these three factors.

Keywords: advertising, frequency, effectiveness