Question

You are evaluating two magazines in which to advertise and reach the 18-34 year-old female audience. These two magazines are Field & Stream (a hunting and fishing enthusiasts’ magazine whose readership is 75% male) and Cosmopolitan (a fashion/lifestyle magazine targeting young women in their 20s and 30s). One page in Field & Stream costs $50,000 with a circulation of 1,500,000 readers. One page in Cosmopolitan costs $150,000 with a circulation of 2,500,000 readers, 90% female under the age of 40. What is the CPM of both magazines ( Field & Stream and Cosmopolitan) and briefly discuss the efficiency and effectiveness of each media vehicle, given the target audience of 18-34 females.

Field & Stream CPM =


Cosmopolitan CPM =


Efficiency:


Effectiveness:

Answer 1

Field and Stream CPM: One page costs $50,000 with a circulation of 1,500,000 readers. Cost per mille essentially means the price of 1000 advertisement impressions, this is found by taking the cost of the advertisement, and dividing it by the total impressions which are the readers and then multiplying it by 100. Thus the CPM of this is (50,000/1,500,000)*1000 = $33 for every 1000 impressions.

Cosmopolitan: (150,000/2,500,000)*1000=$60 for every 1000 impressions.

Efficiency: Field and stream costs less than cosmopolitan for every 1000 impressions but the audience is 75% male which is not the target audience. 25% could be anyone of the other age groups and not necessarily women. Thus in terms of relative costs Field and stream is much more efficient. But it doesn't meet the target audience requirement.

Effectiveness: In terms of effectiveness, Cosmopolitan is much more effective as even though its CPM is high, its readership constitutes 90% of women under age 40 and this perfectly meets with the criteria of reaching the women of age group 18 to 34.