Getting Started

  Advertising Age Datacenter (AdAge)
Advertising Age provides access to the top trade sources for news and rankings, Advertising Age and Advertising Week.

  Encyclopedia of Global Brands
Model articles that provide comprehensive brand analyses covering brand origin, elements, identity, strategy, equity & outlook.

  Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns
Marketing is advertising in context, so this is a great place to learn about historical campaigns.

  WARC
Offers information on global advertising and marketing trends including case studies, articles, reports, opinion pieces, and expenditure data. (Previous title: World Advertising Research Center)

Directories

  Gale directory of publications and broadcast media
Use this directory to identify radio, television and cable stations.

  Mondotimes
Free directory for finding newspapers, magazines, TV stations and radio (in the local listings).

Costs & Expenditures

Advertising rates are often determined in negotiations or on exchanges.  Print media such as consumer or trade magazines and newspapers still provide "rate cards" and "media kits" that offer standards advertising rates and audience demographics.  Digital properties such as websites, online news sources, cable, video and T.V. often make audience demographics available via "media kits", but not rates.  Rates can typically be benchmarked via published studies.

  Ad$pender (Kantar Media)
Creates custom reports on advertising expenditures across twelve media channels including TV, cable, magazines, newspapers, radio, outdoor and internet display on the level of industries, categories, brands, products and advertisers going back to 2007.

Media Market Guide Report from SQAD providing CCP (cost per point) and CPM (cost per mille or thousand views) for TV, cable and radio.  This print publication ceased.  We have the last issue on Reserve.  We do not have a subscription to the digital successor MEDIACOSTS.

Television


The cost for local spot TV advertising can be estimated using the Media Market Guide.  Average costs by demographics and markets based on cost per point (CPP) and cost per thousand (CPM) impressions are reported.  If estimating by CPP, the formula is SQAD CPP * Nielsen Rating= Average cost for a 30 second spot.  Get Nielsen ratings from TVbytheNumbers.com or Nielsen (note only clients have full access to their ratings).

The TVB is the trade association for commercial television and provides tips on media buying and a directory of commercial television stations by market. 

Radio

The cost for radio advertising can be estimated using the Media Market Guide.  Average costs by markets and time of day are reported.  If estimating by CPP, the formula is SQAD CPP * Arbitron Rating=Average cost for 60 second target.  Get Arbitron radio ratings from Stationratings.com or by registering with Arbitron. 

The Radio Advertising Bureau is a  source for information about terms and trends in radio advertising.  It restricts access to demographics on radio formats to members and the case studies and reports on radio advertising efficacy should be used with caution.

 Cable TV

The Video Advertising Bureau has a directory of cable networks searchable by network, programming and demographics.  The profiles provide detailed viewer profiles. 

Online/Digital

Internet advertising inventory be it display, multimedia or mobile is typically managed through ad exchanges.  Consequently the library does not have systematically benchmarked rates.  There are several payment models in use including cost per click (CPC), cost per thousand (CPM), cost per acquisition (CPA), cost per lead (CPL), and cost per engagement (CPE).  Search these payment models to find estimates based on surveys for advertising costs in trade news via ABI/Inform and more easily in e-Marketer, both linked below.  Alternately browse the Advertising & Marketing, Online Advertising Topics in e-Marketer. 

The Interactive Advertising Bureau is a good source for general information and reports on online advertising

Newspapers

Newspapers typically publish "rate cards" for advertising prices and "media kits" for "rate cards" for circulation and demographics of readership.  To identify newspapers published in you target geographic market search a newspapers directory. MondoTimes is recommended but there are others.  Once you have identified newspapers in your market, go to their web sites and browse or search for their media kits and rate cards.

Magazines

Both consumer and trade magazines usually publish "media kits" with rate cards.  These media kits include audience data and rates.  Use MRI Internet Reporter to identify magazines read by your target demographic.  Alternately search MondoTimes by topic.   Google the magazine name and the phrase "media kit"  or browse to the advertise with us section to get rates and audience data.

Out of Home

Out of home advertising encompasses billboards, signs on mass transit, malls and the like.  The Outdoor Advertising Association of America describes all of the many out of home media formats and describes   Use their membership directory to identify out of home media companies.  Browse their web site for rates and reach.

Direct Marketing

The DMA Statistical Fact Book provides excellent benchmarks for direct marketing.  The Direct Marketing Association offers a listing of direct marketing vendors.  ReferenceUSA offers a consumer search that can be used to build a mailing list based on location and lifestyle.

Collections

Ad*Access Historical digital collection of print advertising in U.S. newspapers and consumer magazines from 1911 to 1955 provided by Duke University Libraries.

AdViews Historical collection of television advertising from 1950-1980 made or collected by DMB&B provided by Duke University Libraries

Ads of the World Website that archives ads from around the globe catagorized by media, geographically and by industry.  Full access requires free registration.

AdFlip Archives of print advertisements.

AdForum Check out their creative library for examples of ads in various venues.

Digital & Interactive Advertising

  eMarketer
Offers data and reports related to digital marketing. Topics include advertising spending, digital marketing, social media, media usage, e-commerce, e-mail marketing, and device usage. Coverage is global.

  Interactive Advertising Bureau
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising.

Books & Articles

Books and articles can provide practical guidance on advertsing, scholarly research on the industry and advertising efficacy and impacts.

Search our Catalog for subjects such as these: advertising, television advertising, internet advertising, digital signage, signs and signboards, advertising outdoor, word of mouth advertising.

  Business Source Premier (EBSCO)
Provides access to a wide range of academic business journals and trade magazines. Topics include management, marketing, accounting, finance, economics, international business, operations management and management information systems. Full-text access may be embargoed for up to three years. Coverage goes back to 1965.

  Communication & Mass Media Complete (EBSCO)
Indexes academic journals, magazines, books and book reviews in the fields of communication, mass media, and other closely-related fields. Includes abstracts and full-text for selected journals. Coverage goes back to the early 20th century.

  ABI/INFORM Complete (ProQuest)
Provides access to scholarly journals, dissertations, working papers, key business and economics periodicals, and country-and industry-focused reports.

Media Kits

Media kits are informational packets made available by newspapers, magazines, and sometimes web sites, mobile sites and broadcast media that include information potential advertisers are likely to need to evaluate a property.  They typically include the editorial focus and calendar of the media, technical specifications for ads, advertising rates and most importantantly audience information.

MRI+ provides media kit links for consumer magazines only.  Most medial kits are discoverable by googling the property name and "media kit."