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MKTG 2P91: Introduction to Marketing

Finding Mass Media & Advertising Cost Data

Many mass media and advertising channels (such as newspapers, magazines, radio stations, etc.) produce media kits and/or advertising rate cards, which can help companies as they develop their advertising and promotion strategy.

  • Media kits contain information about the audience (circulation figures for print-based products, and online or mobile audience demographics (age, gender, income) for online/digital media.
  • Advertising rate cards may provide current prices for placing advertisements on websites, in print publications, or across media channels with the same media company. 

To locate the media kit and rate card for a specific source, do an internet search for the name of the source and the words media kit rate card

  • Sports Illustrated media kit rate card
  • Globe and Mail media kit rate card

The following sources provide additional insight in specific media channels. Some reports are updated annually, while others may have been "one-time only" studies.

Best Bets!

Other Sources

Finding Data on Company Marketing Expenses

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It is possible to obtain some data on how much companies spend on advertising and promotional activities by examining financial statement data using these Canadian sources.

Use the Financial Performance Data Benchmarking Tool to view data by industry (NAICS code). Advertising and Promotional Expense data is included ("covers all advertising expenses, such as promotions, signs, window dressings, catalogues, etc.") and may be viewed in actual dollar figures, or as a percentage of total revenue.

Large, publicly-traded companies, such as Microsoft, will report total spending on Sales and Marketing as a line on the Income Statement in their Annual Report. Visit the company's website and look for "Investor Relations' or links to their Annual Report and Financial statement data.