Optimization of the Advertising Policy for a Recreation Park

This paper deals with the problem of the desirable level of advertising expenditure, the optimal distribution of this expenditure in time, and the allocation over the media -- TV, radio, and newspaper -- for a recreation park in the Netherlands. First, a model is specified and estimated, relating number of visitors to advertising effort. It also takes into account nonadvertising variables that affect the number of visitors. Then this model is used in a heuristic advertising planning procedure Which, by means of incremental analysis for a given budget level, searches for the optimal allocation of the advertising budget over media and time. With this procedure ways to readjust the advertising policy are found by allocating the budget differently over media and time and by changing the overall budget level. According to the model, these changes lead to considerably more visitors and increase profit.