Through the line promotion is an aspect of promotion that relies on the use of combining both above the line and below the line promotional strategies. For example, a movie production company might choose to supplement television advertisements with trailers of the latest blockbuster film with point of sales promotions at the cinema as well as selling merchandise related to the movie.

Developments in Internet technologies have created many opportunities for marketers, such as in-app adverts on online gaming platforms. Cookies and other digital algorithms are used to provide consumers with highly personalized adverts and marketing messages to target their specific needs or wants based on their online activities. Hence, through the line (TTL) promotion uses an integrated approach to reach as many customers in as many ways as possible.

A commonly used form of TTL promotion is 360 degree marketing. This is a marketing campaign that uses a consistent marketing message through the use of all ATL and BTL platforms. For example, movie producers may use the same marketing message to promote a new film on television, radio, newspapers, Facebook, YouTube, buses, train stations, and so forth. Large multinational companies such as Adidas and McDonald's also use 360 degree TTL marketing during major sporting events that they sponsor, such as the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games.

 Watch this video about the successful use of 360 degree promotional campaign by Dunkin' Donuts in Seoul, South Korea. The goal was to encourage people to choose coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts by releasing the aroma of coffee along with Dunkin’ Donuts radio advertisement and billboards. The result was a 16% increase in the number of visitors, with the sales of Dunkin’ Donuts located by bus stops increasing by 29%.

Another commonly used TTL promotional technique is digital marketing. This is a form of marketing use to promote and sell goods or services on the Internet. It involves using different online marketing channels, such as search engines, social media platforms, and emails to reach the desired target markets. Examples include the use of online banners, pop-up adverts, social media posts, blogs, and vlogs.

TTL promotion continues to grow in popularity and be a lucrative business across the world. With more and more homes having access to the internet, online promotion can reach out to an international audience especially with the growth in social media and social networking. Its main advantages are that it is easily accessible and widely used by customers. The greater degree of visibility of TTL promotional methods also means that it can lead to improved brand exposure and brand awareness.

The 9-minutes video below explores how Instagram and Facebook earn revenue. Some accompanying questions have been included below. Each day, more than 2 billion people use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger - all owned by Facebook. That is more than a quarter of the world's population. Despite a rising number of privacy scandals and public backlash, Facebook is still growing. Since the apps are free to use, how does Facebook earn revenue? In fact, more than 99% of Facebook's revenue comes from one main source.

 Watch the video to discover how Facebook's targeted advertising model works.

Questions

1. How many people a day use Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp?

2. What was Facebook’s total revenue generated in 2018?

3. What does Facebook almost exclusively rely on for its revenue?

4. How many advertisers are there on Facebook?

5. In 2019, what was digital advertising expected to surpass for the first time?

6. How does Facebook know what its users are interested in?

7. What can corporations do to target advertisements to suit individual Facebook users?

8. How many Facebook users had data stolen to help influence the 2016 US presidential election?

9. How many active users use Instagram stories daily?

10. What is the main concern of Facebook's advertising model?

 Teacher only box

Answers

Video timings have been included for reference only.

1. How many people a day use Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp?  0:01
   More than 2 billion people

2. ---

   What was Facebook’s total revenue generated in 2018? 0:16
   $55.8 billion, i.e. $55,800,000,000 (to put this into perspective, that equates to more than $1 billion per week, or $6,387,362 per hour!)

3. ---

   What does Facebook almost exclusively rely on for its revenue? 0:46
   Advertisements - Facebook has always relied on targeted advertising for its revenue

4. ---

   How many advertisers are there on Facebook? 1:07
   At the time of production of the video, there were (at least) 7 million - but these are targeted ads (all ads are specifically targeted at the individual Facebook user)

5. ---

   In 2019, what was digital advertising expected to surpass for the first time? 2:52
   Traditional forms of advertising

6. ---

   How does Facebook know what its users are interested in? 3:40
   Gathering data on its users, e.g. user profile, joining groups, liking certain pages / posts, joining events, sharing locations, the Facebook pixel etc.

7. ---

   What can corporations do to target advertisements to suit individual Facebook users? 4:29
   Using Facebook's advertising profiles of its users, based on their interests, what type of phone you have, political preferences, ethnicity or income levels

8. ---

   How many Facebook users had data stolen to help influence the 2016 US presidential election? 5:35
   87 million users - to put this into perspective, the figure is more than the population of Turkey (84.5 million), Iran (84 million), and Germany (83.8 million), and significantly more than Thailand (70 million), the UK (67.9 million), and France (65.3 million).

9. ---

   How many active users use Instagram stories daily? 6:20
   500 million (at the time of the video production)

10. ---

    What is the main concern of Facebook's advertising model? 7:15
    Overuse and over-reliance on social media (hence Facebook's introduction of 'Screen Time' to help users to monitor the time they spend on social media platforms)

However, the main drawback of TTL promotion is the high costs involved as implementing both ATL and BTL 
promotional strategies across multiple platforms can be highly expensive. Hence, smaller firms may not have the necessary funds to implement TTL promotional strategies. Furthermore, some forms of TTL promotion such as pop-up adverts or online banners are perceived as SPAM, which irritates online users and often gets ignored. For example, there is so much advertising on the Internet that it creates advertising clutter. Hence, it can be difficult to measure the effectiveness of TTL promotional activities.