I need a statistic on how the frequency of advertisements (could be
print, direct mail, or signs) relate to the effectiveness of an
advertising campaign.  A good answer would say, The National
Association of Print Media (if there is such a place) in a recent
study, shows that advertisments that were placed a minimum of 3 times
in a publication were noticed by readers more than just 1 time. 
Please provide the qualifed source.

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Clarification of Question by jmontauk-ga on 19 Feb 2006 20:12 PST

yes, general guidelines regarding the frequency/effectiveness
correlation would work for me- thx.

Hello again,
Well I learned something: there IS a rule of thumb for frequency and
effectiveness. But before I get to that, let me draw your attention to
a web page that contains thoughts on the subject from 1885, when the
consumer society and advertising were still in their infancy.
http://advertising.mcdar.net/8704.php
Hammer it home through repetition, Mr. Smith says. I doubt he used
sophisticated data collection to reach his conclusion, but nonetheless
he hit upon a truth and principle of advertising effectivess that
still stand today.

As it turns out, there is also empirical evidence for the role of
frequency in advertising recall and effectiveness. It is something
called the Ebbinghaus Retention Curve.

http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/120/Ebbinghaus.html

"After some number of repetitions, Ebbinghaus would attempt to recall
the items on the list. It turned out that his ability to recall the
items improved as the number of repetitions went up, rapidly at first
and then more slowly, until finally the list was mastered. This was
the world's first learning curve."

Note the implication that advertisers may overspend by going beyond
the point at which repetition has no further effect on recall.

Now for that "rule." I found it at a site that you may be find
especially useful, assuming (I probably should have asked) that you
are the owner of a small business and are planning to advertise. It is
the website of the National Federation of Independent Business.
http://www.nfib.com/object/3985727.html

Here's what they have to say:
"When designing and placing ads, many small business owners search for
the magic bullet: an ad that is so compelling that customers will
immediately pick up the phone and call to make an appointment.

The reality is, however, that advertising is a process, not a one-time
event. Advertising research has shown that a consumer usually needs to
see an ad five to seven times before responding. This is what the ad
industry calls the rule of seven.

Following are ways to incorporate the rule of seven into your
advertising efforts..."
It ought to be well worth your while to read the rest of this web page.

Finally, some other sites I thought you might find of interest.

One is an interesting case history in which a decision to put more
money into frequency and less into space (ad size) led to greater
advertising effectiveness:
http://www.thomathoma.com/index.php?fuseaction=p0006.view&mod=25&start=1&rec_id=20

The other site, an academic paper, concentrates on frequency in online
advertsing and the special problems posed by an environment in which
"clutter" takes on new meaning.
http://www.psu.edu/dept/medialab/research/webclutter.html

This next site illustrates how extremely sophisticated and complex
media planning and buying can become when a big advertiser is spending
big bucks across many media, including "new media." (Also shows why
media planners earn big bucks!)
http://www.msu.edu/~hairong/docs/choices2.html#anchor471564

Finally, some words of wisdom on frequency in online advertising from
the folks at Ogilvy.
http://www.psu.edu/dept/medialab/research/webclutter.html
They recommend capping frequency at a level determined by their
"mFrequency" tool to be sufficient...and beyond which level money will
be wasted. (We can be sure that "mFrequency" is proprietary and
expensive.)

I enjoyed looking into this question for you, and I hope all this is
interesting and useful to you.
All the best,
scribe_ga

Great, thanks for your tenacity.  This works perfectly.

Hello jmontauk,
First, thanks for the rating and the tip. 

I would like to help you with this advertising question, and have done
some preliminary research. As someone who worked in  advertising
(though not in media planning), I do know something about the subject.
I know enough to know that no such rule of thumb exists like the one
you are seeking. There are too many other variables (size of ad if
print, time of commercial placement if TV, for two examples) that also
impact ad impressions/ recall. (In my mind, as a former copywriter,
the creativity of the advertising is also a very BIG factor--a lame ad
can be seen 10 times and ignored each time, while a powerfully orginal
and gripping ad can be seen once and recalled easily.)However, there
do exist some general guidelines regarding the frequency/effectiveness
correlation. I could gather the best of these for you. Would that be
okay?
scribe_ga