ABSTRACT
Whether communicating the corporate or communicating the brand, an ad must generally break through in order to work most efficiently. Reach is a media term that simply means the percentage of people who have had an ‘opportunity to see’ that ad. This is a very low level of mental processing and for many ads not much more than this low level of mental processing takes place. However even with such minimal amounts of attention, an ad may nevertheless register enough to at least provide some brand reinforcement and help maintain the brand’s salience in people’s minds. Mental reach is defined as the percentage of the target audience that people can demonstrate had at least some level of mental contact with the ad. In other words the ad registers with them, enough for them to at least recognize having seen it. This chapter provides information on the difference between ‘reach’ and ‘mental reach’.
