Advertising is an important part of an organization’s promotional activities, with a clear view as to whether the retailer or the consumer is to be targeted and whether it is the product or the organization which is to be promoted.

Many medium –sized and large organizations seek the specialist services of and advertising agency. Agencies provide expert advice and carry out or mange a number of tasks, including copywriting; design and layout; film production for television or cinema use; space buying in medial and other outlets, such as billboards; and evaluation.

One of the major decisions associated with an advertising campaign concerns choice of media. Channels of communication include newspapers, magazines, television and radio, cinema, and displays. To ensure that the marketplace is adequately covered, it is often appropriate to use a mix of media.

Newspapers

Every modern society has a large coverage of national tabloid and broadsheet newspapers, with a vast daily readership.

Significant indicators of readership include age, sex, career, income and so on. This sort of information helps to determine where an advertisement should be placed so as to have the most impact on its target audience.

Advertising agencies can give advice by profiling readership profiles for newspapers which identify typical buyers in terms of social class and income. Also, newspaper themselves give advice on the best days to place detriment. Regional and local free newspapers also provide extensive coverage. They often group after advertisements can be confident that their advertisement will be read by those who are most interested.

Magazines

In most countries there are a wide range of magazines aimed at the mass market, including many that target women. Again, considerable variations exist in the age and gender of readerships .

As for newspapers, advertising agencies can give on readership profiles and supply details of other types of the magazines, such as those produced by produced by professional associations, those aimed at particular retail and trade groups and those covering specialist hobby and leisure interests. One of the major advantages of placing an advertisement in a magazine, rather than a newspaper, is that the publication is likely to have a longer ‘life’: it may be reread over many months and seen by many more people among the target audience

Television

The vast majority of households have television, making it an important advertising medium. It is particularly attractive to advertisers as it allows a combination of music, speech and pictures, as well as the use of jingles, well-known personalities and mini-dramas as aids to the creation of brand interest and identity.

The effectiveness of television advertising depends on a large number of the target group of consumers watching the advertisement at the same time. Therefore, its placement in an appropriate programme slot is vital. ‘Prime time’ programme, especially soap operas, provides some of the most ‘penetrative’ opportunities for advertising to a mass market.

Radio

Radio has the advantage over television of having much lower production costs. Local radio can help to develop a strong community feeling which small local business may benefit from in buying advertising.

China is a country with large rural areas, some of them are too remote to be covered by TV programs , or the residents in some areas are unable to afford to buy TV sets, radio is quite an efficient means of advertising. In some cased, radios can deliver advertisements to some special groups of people of customers, such as taxi drivers, passengers on buses and trains, which are hard to be reached in some period of time.

Cinema

The introduction of multi-screen cinemas and the consequent revival in cinema attendance has benefited advertising in the 1990s. Cinemas provide advertisers with a captive audience, which can be reached relatively cheaply. As a medium, it is of particular value to local retailers, businesses, hotels and restaurants.

Outdoors display

Use may be of parking meters, sandwich boards, taxis, buses and tube trains, telephone kiosks, hoardings and flashing signs.