The Online Advertising Playbook: Proven Strategies and Tested Tactics from The Advertising Research Foundation

Daypart Targeting

Radio introduced the idea of daypart targeting—a widely practiced targeting approach for decades. Radio’s morning drive, midday, and evening drive reach most listeners when they’re driving to work or home from work, or during lunch break. Television’s myriad dayparts span the full day, from early morning to prime time to late night. Dayparts vary by medium. Television prime time runs from 8 P.M. to 11 P.M., while radio prime time is the morning and afternoon drive times.

Each daypart has unique audience size, viewer characteristics, and product category affinities that advertisers use to target their advertising messages. On television, for example, syndicated talk shows like Ellen, game shows like The Price Is Right, and soaps like General Hospital typify the TV daytime daypart, generally targeting consumer packaged goods advertising to women aged 25 to 54 with a high school education. The core notion of daypart targeting is timeliness and cost-efficiency—exposing your message to large numbers of the target market at the right time. Now think of advertising doughnuts, floor cleaners, vacations, luxury cars, or beer. Which part of the day would you choose?

Consumers Use Media Differently Throughout the Day

Media consumption is not monolithic; people choose and use media throughout the day. Media seemingly, and seamlessly, hand off their audiences from one to another. The Online Publishers Association (OPA), with research partner Millward Brown IntelliQuest (MBIQ), ...