Tampa Commercial Production Team Talks Sweeps Basics and More

Now that the 2014 November sweep has come to an end, our Tampa commercial production team can’t help but reflect on what happened and look forward to the next. For those of you that don’t know what sweeps are, how they work and why they’re important, please allow us to elaborate for a moment or two. We’ll start with the basics:

There are traditionally four sweeps held each year and they coincide with the seasons, sort of. For instance, the first sweep of 2015 will run from January 29th through February 25th, which basically covers the winter months. The sweep that follows will take place April 23rd through May 20th, which takes care of the spring. The summer sweep is expected to run July 2nd through the 29th and the fall one is set for October 29th through November 25th.

During those time periods, the viewing habits of people that previously signed on to be Nielsen Families are monitored. What they watch will help determine what companies will pay for two minutes of precious, local advertising in markets across the United States, including our own beloved Tampa. The two minutes of air time that we are talking about occurs every half hour of television programming. The other 28 minutes of programming are typically devoted to the broadcast itself and national advertising.

So now you know why television networks tend to schedule all of their best programs for sweep periods. The more Nielsen Families watch, the more network executives are likely to see their advertising income rise in the year ahead. But who exactly are these Nielsen Families and are they representative of the people advertisers are hoping to reach? Good questions right? Our Tampa commercial production team has the answer to those questions too.

Nielsen is actually in the proverbial driver’s seat when it comes to selection. They randomly choose which families to approach and then send them an invitation to become a part of their metered panel or diary group. By the way, according to the company’s published information, their yearly sample pool consists of more than one million households. If the targeted people choose to participate, their information is what’s used to set the rates we mentioned previously. To learn more about sweeps and how our Tampa commercial production team can help advertisers make the most of their local air time, please contact us today 813-907-1010. www.vistamax.com