Demographics

• Major cities/towns included Tyler, Kilgore and Longview. The combined population of these three cities is nearly 195,000.
• The campaign covered 10 counties (Anderson, Cherokee, Gregg, Henderson, Rusk, Smith, Upshur, Van Zandt and Wood). The combined population of these counties is just above 615,000.
• The radio rating service, Arbitron, estimates that in its definition of the Tyler-Longview market (including Kilgore, and the counties of Smith, Gregg, Cherokee and Rusk), there are 306,500 people, aged 12 and older (“12+ population”) in this market.

Advertising logistics

• Advertising ran between Aug. 9 and Sept. 5, 2008.
• Themes included the value of oil and gas to people’s daily lives; the need to drill more throughout the U.S.; the industry’s environmental record is better than the public realizes; the industry has high-tech capabilities; Congress shoulders some of the blame for high gasoline prices, etc.
• Ads ran three times/week (Sun./Tues./Thurs.) in one daily newspaper (Tyler Morning Telegraph).
• The circulation of this newspaper is 38,850 on weekdays and 44,407 on Sundays.
• Ads ran on three radio stations:
  • KNUE-FM (Country)
  • KTBB-AM (News/Talk)
  • KDOK-FM (Greatest Hits)
• This is the 144th largest radio market out of 300 markets tracked by Arbitron nationwide.
• There are 25 radio stations in the Tyler-Longview market. Our ads ran on the 3rd-ranked (KNUE-FM), 5th-ranked (KTBB-AM) and 11th-ranked (KDOK-FM) stations. These stations were chosen on the basis of their programming formats (to ensure a proper demographic mix) and ratings (to ensure reaching as large an audience as possible).

Results

• A pre-advertising survey and a post-advertising survey were conducted through the auspices of Gap Broadcasting affiliate KNUE-FM. The same questions were asked in both surveys, to ensure the ability to measure changes in public attitudes resulting from the advertising.
• Results showed that the advertising generated positive changes in public attitudes on a number of industry issues. In particular, significant improvement occurred on the following topics:
  • The industry’s concern for the environment and related matters
  • Whether people believe that the industry’s image is better than 5 years ago
  • The largest polluter offshore is shipping vessels, not production platforms