AS1 - Task 7 – Sources of Information in Advertising

When a company does an advert, they must make sure that they had done their research towards the target audience. They can get this information through a company called BARB (the Broadcast Audience Research Board). 

BARB (the Broadcast Audience Research Board), is a business that measures tv shows audience ratings, so that companies can see how many people are watching specific channels at certain times. These channels include the BBC Channels, itv, Channel 4, Channel 5 and more. At the moment BARB are monitoring 5,100, which around 11,500 participants, they gather this information by placing a box into the tv, and records what they watch through their indivdual remote (so they know whos watching the show). The data is then collect overnight and published at 9:30 the next morning for the tv stations and advertising industry to use.

The program profiles is the division between what type of person / people what a specific program, such as an adult mate, to a young female. Therefore it is important for companies to research this so that they know what programs are attracting their targeted audience.

A rate card is how the time slots for adverts cost, such as if the rate of the card has a higher rating it means that there are more people viewing the show at the specific time, meaning it will cost advertising companies / businesses more money to buy the time slot for their advert.

The information below, shows the ratings collect throughout the week. This will help the advertising companies as it will help them to decide on when they want to try and get their advert shown, as this table shows how many people are watching the specific program, therefore it will notify what shows are the more popular to the public.