Share of voice is about airtime, not budget. We'll explore how brands with less budget outperform their competitors.
There's a beautiful myth that many advertisers still believe: to get noticed on air, you simply need to spend more money than your competitors. It makes sense on paper. In practice, it doesn't work that way.
Television advertising operates on two different currencies, and confusing them is a costly mistake. The first is share of costs (SOS): how much money have you invested in airtime relative to the entire category. The second one is share of voice (SOV): how much actual on-air presence did you ultimately achieve? The client pays for the former. But it's the latter that's memorable to the viewer.
Share of voice and share of costs are not the same thing.
The difference between SOS and SOV is the difference between "how much I spent" and "how much I received." And it can be huge.
Imagine two brands. The first goes to the most expensive national channels during prime time and buys up a substantial amount of space. The second distributes the same—or even smaller—budget more intelligently: some of it goes to channels with a better cost-per-contact/reach ratio, and some to time slots where the audience is still there and the per-minute price is significantly lower. The second brand is more modest in budget. But in terms of actual contacts—GRP's—it easily outperforms the first.
That is why a professional media person thinks not in terms of budget, but GRP's — the real weight of the campaign in the eyes of the audience. The budget is the resource. GRP's are the result.
What does this mean in numbers?
Let's take real logic from our practice - case Сбербанка. In a June TV broadcast in Tajikistan, in a tight banking category where six players competed at once, the brand found itself only second in budget — it was overtaken by a competitor with almost twice the share of costs.
But if you look not at the money spent, but at the presence on the air, the picture turns upside down:
- By GRP's the brand took first place in the category - more than twice ahead of his closest pursuer;
- his the share of voting was 52.4% at the share of costs is only 23.3%.
Let's translate it into human language: the brand has secured itself more than half of the category's total airtime presence, while spending less than a quarter of the market's total money. Not the biggest wallet, but the loudest voice.
How to achieve this: not magic, but discipline
First - GRP's as the main KPI, not the budget. As soon as a team measures success by ranked contacts, rather than by the money spent, every somoni begins to work towards reach.
The second is a flexible split of channels and formats. National and regional channels, prime and off-prime, and commercials of varying lengths are all levers of control. Regional channels often deliver disproportionately more contacts for less money and increase the overall campaign's impact.
Third, optimization is on the fly, not after the fact. The airwaves are a living environment. A campaign that's monitored manually and timely shifted to where the impact is highest will always outperform one purchased as a package and left unattended.
What should I take away from this?
If you're going on air against wealthier competitors, the key message is this: You don't have to overpay for attention. It is not purchased directly by the budget – it is obtained through precise media planning.
Three questions for your agency before the start:
- Are we optimizing for the budget or for the GRP's? (The correct answer is: for the GRP's.)
- What is the forecast for share of voice relative to share of costs? (If SOV is close to SOS, planning is weak.)
- Who and how manages the campaign on air, and not just at the purchasing stage?
Having the biggest budget in a category is nice, but not essential. Having the loudest voice at a reasonable price is what drives recognition. It's not a question of wallet size, but of quality. media partner.
Want a big voice on a budget?
TAG builds media campaigns that convert money into attention with maximum efficiency. Tell us about your goal, and we'll offer a plan tailored to your market and budget.