How do you calculate opportunities to see a print ad?

Question

If you plan an advertising campaign and place ads in three different publications how do you calculate OTS for your target audience?

Answer 1

Consumer magazine audiences are measured by MRI and SMRB.  If your agency does not subscribe you will not be able to get it.  If they do subscribe, use the software to generate a report.  Total audience includes multiple readers-per-copy and will far exceed circulation.

The term, "Opportunities to see", is used to clarify that all reported audiences are not the same.  In magazines, a reader has recognized the magazine and some editorial to prove that they read the magazine.  In local TV, viewers watched five minutes out of the quarter-hour in which the ad ran -- these are not necessarily comparable measures of audience.  Media planners/analysts will often then adjust the OTC by some noticing adjustment:  what percentage of each vehicle is actually likely to notice the ad.  OTS clarifies that no further adjustment has been made to the gross audience estimates, that it is the number of people who have read the magazine not the number who read a particular ad.

FYI, a print auditing service such as Verified or the Audit Bureau of Circulation measure circulation only -- not audience.  A magazine like Good Housekeeping generates a huge audience being read my multiple people in Dr offices and hair salons.  An OTC is generated everytime someone picks up a copy, and that can be more than 10 times the circulation.

Answer 2

There are auditing companys that report those statistics for free to potential advertisers. If a magazine is not audited then you are working from information supplied by the magazine itself which is subject to questionable reporting.

We use Verified for ours there are others. Google 'magazine audits'

Answer 3

Your advertising agency would probably subscribe to the sercvices that would allow that calculation.