Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Fall 2011 - (Page 15)

TODAY! Generally, the cost of running an ad is proportional to the circulation of the newspaper – a local paper in a small market will have low prices while a leading paper in a large city or a nationally distributed paper will have higher prices. As real estate ads are generally intended for the local audience, the advertising prices of local papers or local editions of national papers are more relevant for estimating the value of free publicity. In performing an estimate of the value of free GREEN R OOF GET YOU R publicity, it would be very difficult to account for all the variations in advertising cost between different media outlets and different times of day, in the case of radio and television. Ultimately, the key determinant of the cost of radio and television airtime and column inch price in a major newspaper is the size of the market, which is proportional to the population of the area covered by the given radio or television station or the distribution area of a newspaper. For the purpose of estimating free publicity, we propose using the population of the census metropolitan area (CMA) in Canada and of the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the U.S. as proxies for market size. We propose that the size of the audience for any of the three media be assumed to be five percent of the metropolitan population. A sample of average advertising costs for the three media are summarized in Table 1. Where data was unavailable, costs are estimated. For the cost of television ads, a cost of US$10 per 1,000 viewers was assumed. For example, if a green roof in Toronto was covered in four 30-second radio news stories, two one-minute newscasts on TV, and in a newspaper article that took up 14 column inches, the value of the press coverage would be: b = (rradio • tradio) + (rtv • ttv) + (rpaper • l) = ($250 • 4) + ($2,778 • 4) + ($392 • 14) = $1000 + $11,112 + $5,488 = $17,600 This type of benefit can make a big difference in terms of selling units in both commercial and multiunit housing buildings. Additional benefits, discussed in previous articles related to noise reduction, property values and stormwater retention. D Dr. Ray Tomalty is principal of Smart Cities Research Services and adjunct professor of urban planning at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. LEARN MORE This is the last article in a series of articles about calculating the many so-called soft benefits of green roofs, based on research conducted by Dr. Ray Tomalty for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. See the Members’ Living Architecture Toolbox section at www.greenroofs.org to download the full report. http://www.greenroofs.org http://www.sempergreen.com http://www.sempergreen.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Fall 2011

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Fall 2011
Contents
From the Founder
Strata
On the Roof With…
Research
Marketing
Policy: The Game Changer
Policy: Toronto’s Green Roof by-Law
Policy: Energy Code Break-Through
Tools
GRHC: Update
GRHC: Welcome New Members
On Spec

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Fall 2011