Below The Line Advertising

What is 'Below The Line Advertising'

Below-the-line advertising is an advertising strategy in which a product is promoted in
mediums other than radio, television, billboards, print and film. Types of below-the-line
advertising commonly include direct mail campaigns, trade shows and catalogs, and targeted
search engine marketing. This advertising type tends to be less expensive and more focused.

BREAKING DOWN 'Below The Line Advertising'

Below-the-line advertising seeks to reach a consumer, instead of a mass audience, directly
rather than through an intermediary, such as with a commercial during a television show. This
type of advertising is often centered on specific localities and is used to promote products that
a consumer wants to see in person. It can be coupled with in-store sales to help explain the
features of the product.

Above-the-Line vs. Below-the-Line Advertising

Above-the-line advertising is designed to reach a mass audience, typically through mediums
that reach large numbers of people at various levels of engagement. Perhaps the epitome of
above-the-line marketing is a Super Bowl television ad, which costs millions of dollars for
mere seconds of airtime. While this type of advertising reaches a lot of people, it is not
focused, and many of the ad's recipients are likely not target customers.

Below-the-line advertising, by contrast, reaches fewer people but is more selective about the
people it reaches. In most cases, extensive market research is done first to identify a target
niche of hungry buyers. Once these potential customers are pinpointed, below-the-line
advertising reaches them directly in a more personal manner, such as direct mail sent to their
houses, face-to-face contact at a trade show or a paid search engine result when they enter a
specific query.

Below-the-Line Advertising Advantages

Perhaps the biggest advantage to below-the-line advertising is the cost. While TV and radio
ads tend to hit the pocketbook hard, direct mail and search engine marketing are not only
more reasonable but can be scaled up or down in cost much more easily.
It is also easier to track conversions with below-the-line methods. When relying on TV or
radio ads, the only way to gauge effectiveness is to ask customers how they heard about the
business. Responses are often unreliable. With email and search engine marketing, a business
can track link clicks and email opens with precision.

Below-the-line marketing allows for better engagement with customers. This is critical in a
21st century business landscape where reputation matters more than ever. Above-the-line
methods are great for getting a name out there and developing brand awareness, but below
the line is preferable for fostering actual relationships with potential customers.

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Difference between above the line and below the line

advertising
Kiran Manral |
22 August 2011

Above The Line (ATL) and Below The Line (BTL) advertising are two terms that are bandied
around often these days in the advertising world and often have the lay person confused as to
what they stand for. It might be worth our while to begin this by defining what constitutes the
metaphoric Line. To quote Michael John Baker from The Marketing Book , the terms
Above The Line and Below The Line came into existence way back in 1954 with the
company Proctor and Gamble paying their advertising agencies a different rate and separately
from the agencies who took on the other promotional activities.

What are ATL and BTL activities? They seem simple enough. Above The Line (ATL)
advertising is where mass media is used to promote brands and reach out to the target
consumers. These include conventional media as we know it, television and radio advertising,
print as well as internet. This is communication that is targeted to a wider spread of audience,
and is not specific to individual consumers. ATL advertising tries to reach out to the mass as
consumer audience.

Below the line (BTL) advertising is more one to one, and involves the distribution of
pamphlets, handbills, stickers, promotions, brochures placed at point of sale, on the roads
through banners and placards. It could also involve product demos and samplings at busy
places like malls and market places or residential complexes. For certain markets, like rural
markets where the reach of mass media like print or television is limited, BTL marketing with
direct consumer outreach programmes do make the most sense. Says Raghu Khanna, CEO,
CASHurDRIVE, When budget is issue and the brand wants to have a consumer connect
BTL has better ROI.

Other BTL activities could include roadshows, or moving hoardings with the ad of the
product, and vehicles with promotional staff interacting with people demonstrating the
product and distributing literature on the product. BTL advertising is advertising that uses
less conventional methods of advertising that the specific channels of advertising that may or
may not be used by ATL advertising to promote products and services. According to Iya
Malhotra Bhatia, Marketing Professional, BTL is a preferred tool when test marketing a
product, sampling and also in case of a targeted campaign in related to another bigger
phenomenon. Also when TG is very niche, BTL makes more sense.

BTL promotion might include direct mail promotional campaigns, PR and sales promotions
which are handled directly by the company itself or outsourced to specifically PR agencies
and sales promotion agencies and may or not be related to the advertising campaign. BTL
advertising might include email campaigns, telemarketing, etc with targeted groups of
potential clients. Says Megha Ghosh, Account Director, Client Services at Encompass, BTL
is preferred on several occasions but the foremost would be when you need to have a personal
interaction with the consumer.

Says Kapil Taneja, Regional Head, North, FUN Cinemas (Esselgroup company), Sometimes
BTL is preferred over ATL due to budget issues, the need to physically display the product, to
conduct a hand on product contest as well as for new launches and teasers campaigns.
Companies prefer adopting BTL as a means of reaching out to their target consumers when
their product is something they need to engage the consumer in a touch and feel experience
with.

Some people would consider ATL and BTL antiquated terminologies in an era which uses the
internet and lightening speed changes in modes of communication to reach out to the
consumer. When you are communicating with a niche audience BTL is better. However,
digital media has more or less broken these boundaries of ATL versus BTL as digital
communication can address both at the same time., says Namrata Rana, Director,
Futurescape.

Interestingly, there is a new phrase called Through the Line, or TTL, which integrates both
ATL and BTL activities. BTL communications from brands is rapidly becoming a dying form
of reaching out to the audience with agencies and clients going adopting the Integrated
Communication approach.

To end with a quote O&Ms Piyush Pandey, from a previous interview, on the two forms of
brand communication, Below-the-line is extremely important, but then when wasnt it? It is
just that till now it was taken a bit for granted and not too many innovations were made. I am
glad the industry is planning to revolutionise this game. It is not a question of mass media
versus below-the-line. It is an era of mass media plus below-the-line.

Promotivne tehnike
,

Iznad linije (Above the line - ATL) i Ispod linije (Below the line - BTL) predstavljaju dva
tipa tehnika promocije. ATL tehnike su usmjerene na masovni auditorijum, dok su BTL
tehnike vie usmjerene na pojedinca. ATL tehnike mogu da razviju brend preduzea, a BTL
tehnike su usmjerene na kreiranje prodaje. Rezultati preduzetih aktivnosti kod ATL tehnika su
teko mjerljivi, dok su kod BTL tehnika lako mjerljivi i pruaju preduzeu jasan uvid u stopu
povrata na investicije.
Promotivne aktivnosti koje koriste masovne medije, kao to su TV, radio i novine,
predstavljaju promociju iznad linije. Promocije ispod linije se odnose na aktivnosti van
masovnih medija i imaju rastui znaaj u komunikacionom miksu brojnih kompanija, ne
samo kod potronih, ve i kod industrijskih proizvoda.

Meutim, neki autori identifikuju i treu vrstu tehnika promocije - Kroz liniju (Through the
line - TTL). Ona predstavlja promotivnu strategiju koja kombinuje obje prethodne tehnike -
ispod linije i iznad linije.

Linija razdvajanja
Postavlja se pitanje koja to linija razdvaja dvije glavne tehnike promocije. Kao to je ve
reeno, ATL se odnosi na masovne medije. Meutim, slika medija se dramatino izmjenila,
tako da autori mjenjaju definiciju masovnih medija.

Posmatrajui AIDA model, linija razdvajanja ove dvije tehnike se moe povui izmeu
marketinkih aktivnosti usmjerenih na kreiranje svijesti o proizvodu (Awareness or Attention
focused marketing) i aktivnosti usmjerenih na zainteresovanost i elju za kupovinom
proizvoda (Interest + Desire focused marketing). Brojnost auditorijuma se smanjuje u
Interest + Desire fazi AIDA modela u odnosu na Awareness fazu, pa se linija razdvajanja
moe povui tano ispod seta aktivnosti usmjerenih na kreiranje svijesti o proizvodu
(Awareness faza).