The Affinity – one of the basic terms in media planning
Target group affinity shows what percentage of the targeted target group is represented in the total user base of a medium. Usually, affinity is represented by an index. The higher the affinity, the lower the scatter loss, and the higher the target audience coverage. The average value is 100. An affinity index of 100 means that the audience of an advertising medium within the target audience corresponds exactly to the percentage of the general population. An index of 150, for example, means that the share of the target audience in the relevant medium is 50% higher than in the general population.
Example of Affinity
- Advertising medium: Euro am Sonntag
- Share of securities buyers in the readership is 60% (purely fictional value)
- Share of securities buyers in the general population is 10% (purely fictional value)
- 60% divided by 10% x 100 = 600
In this example, the affinity index is 600, meaning the share of the target audience with an interest in securities in “Euro am Sonntag” is extremely high. The goal of media planning is to select media that are frequented by the target audience and have high affinity. In our example, the group of securities buyers uses media such as “Euro am Sonntag,” while the target audience of a new and trendy fitness chain is more likely to enjoy a participation campaign on digital screens, while drivers respond very well to radio campaigns.
Formula for calculating affinity or the activity index:
Net reach of a medium in the target audience in % divided by the net reach of a medium in the general population in %, multiplied by 100. (The calculation using structural shares leads to the same result.)
High affinity of the target audience is the goal
The higher the affinity to a medium, the lower the scatter loss and the higher the target audience coverage.
For successful media planning, it is important to consider certain key figures such as affinity, GRP, CPT, average contacts, etc. during the planning process. Only then can different planning variants be compared, and the differences between the variants be clearly visible. The task of the media planner is to get the best out of each selection and to integrate evaluation criteria such as affinity.
Your contact for the right target audience
If you want to know which media channels best reach your target audience, talk to our media specialist Heike Oeckinghaus (oeckinghaus@trebbau.com, Tel.: 0221/37646 – 391). She is an expert in evaluation criteria for media planning.