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Key Steps in Media Planning
The media plan is a written document that summarizes the objectives and strategies
pertinent to the placement of a company’s advertising messages. The goal of a media
plan is to find the most effective and efficient ways to deliver messages to a targeted
audience.
Media plans are designed to answer the following questions: (1) who (target
audience), (2) what for (objectives), (3) where (the media vehicles used), (4) where
(geography), (5) when (time frame), (6) how big (media weight), and (7) at what
cost (cost efficiency). The first three are media objectives and the second group
represents media strategies.
When IMC planners develop a media plan, they also take into consideration the
media of all the marketing communication functions as well as consumer and target
audience contact points. Contact points include exposure to traditional mass media
as well as word of mouth, place-based media, in-store brand exposures, and the new,
interactive media.
Media planning is more than just choosing from a long list of media options.
Traditional measured media are chosen based on such metrics as GRPs and CPMs.
The new media lack similar metrics and are characterized more by such
considerations as the quality of the brand experience, involvement, and personal
impact.
Old-line advertising media planners are intent on buying reach and frequency, but the
problem is that many of their clients are looking for more effective outcomes, such as
engaging experiences and brand-building relationships.
The four basic steps in media planning are targeting, setting media objectives,
developing media strategies, and analyzing the metrics of a media plan.
Step 1: Target Audience
A key strategic decision is identifying a target audience. The challenge is to select
media vehicles that (1) are compatible with the creative executions and (2) whose
audiences best match those of the brand’s target audience. Does the group of
people who read this magazine, watch this television program, or see these posters
include a high proportion of the advertiser’s ideal target audience? If so, then
these media vehicles may be a good choice for the campaign, depending on other
strategic factors, such as timing and cost.
The breadth of the target, as defined in the marketing communication plan,
determines whether the media planner will be using a broad mass media approach
or a tightly targeted and highly focused approach.
Principle: The tighter the focus on a target market, the easier it is to find
appropriate media to deliver a relevant message.
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Every media vehicle’s audience is different and therefore varies regarding what
percentage of its audience is in the brand’s target audience. The internet is the
ultimate niche medium in that people turn to it to find out about any topic that
interests them.
In addition to information compiled by the team’s media researchers, consumer
insight research also is used to identify and analyze the target audience’s media
use patterns. Industry research helps. For example, research has determined a
major shift in media use with online media taking over from traditional media
forms as the beginning spot in the search process.
Even though search begins online—and that’s true for B2B as well as consumer
purchases—researchers say most customers still make purchase decisions using a
combination of old media, new media, and old-fashioned conversations.
Consumer insight research is used to identify and analyze the target audience’s
media use patterns. This type of research, which asks consumers what they think
influences their behavior, is best used when combined with other consumer
behavior findings. Why? Because most consumers don’t really know what
influences them.
A note about the changing dynamics of media planning: This traditional approach
to media that we’ve been describing is based on exposures, but newer approaches,
particularly those coming from an IMC perspective, focus on moments when a
message becomes a relevant brand experience.
IMC planners have talked about consumer-based moments of truth for years, but
now that concept is making its way into media planning. Procter & Gamble used
the term FMOT, which refers to first moment of truth—the initial point of contact
with a brand, say, is on a shelf; the second moment of truth is later when the
product is used.
More recently, planners are focusing on what Google has called the zero moment
of truth—the point when consumers search for information online or share brand
experiences in a discussion with a friend. That moment typically precedes the first
moment, hence the zero designation.
Advertising has always “exposed people to products before they see them in
person. The Internet provides more in-depth communication about products.”
You can see how this shifts the focus away from traditional targeting of
households. Modern views of planning find ways to engage personally with
consumers as individuals rather than as a member of a household at important
moments when they are forming brand impressions.
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Interactive communication, the targeting concept expands to include consumer
initiation of messages to friends as well as to the brand organization. All of these
new ways of looking at consumers are shifting the concept of targeting and have
implications for how media planners look at their media opportunities.
Step 2: Communication and Media Objectives
Marketing communication objectives describe what a company wants target
audiences to think, feel, and, most importantly, do, and provide guidance to media
planners. With the increasing variety of media options available, smart clients and
agencies are having up-front cross-functional planning meetings that include
creatives, media planners, and account executives. The point is that the media and
message strategies are interdependent and decisions in one area affect decisions in
the other.
Media objectives describe what a company wants to accomplish regarding the
delivery of its brand messages and their impact on the target audience. The two
basic media objectives are reach and frequency.
The Reach Objective
The percent of people exposed to a brand message one or more times within a
specified period of time is called reach. A campaign’s success is due in part to its
ability to reach as much of the targeted audience as possible within a stated
budget and time period.
Principle: Reach is the first place to start when setting objectives for a media
plan.
Using demographic and lifestyle data, planners can focus on reaching specific
types of households. This enables planners to better match media profiles with
the characteristics of the campaign’s target audience.
Most media reach large numbers of people who are not in the target market.
However, most marketers are more interested in targeted reach, which is the
percentage of a vehicle’s audience that matches the brand’s target market.
Targeted reach is particularly important to calculate in order to estimate the
amount of wasted reach, which is the number of people in the vehicle’s audience
who are neither customers nor prospects.
Assessing the media for target audience opportunities is a major challenge for
media planners.
Consumers are now being viewed as participants in brand conversations, so
planners are thinking less about reach and more about finding the appropriate
way to connect.
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The Frequency Objective
Frequency refers to the repetition of message exposure. You should keep in mind
that the frequency number for a media buy is actually the average number of
exposure opportunities of those reached.
Because frequency is an average, it can be misleading. Average frequency, then,
can give the planner a distorted idea of the plan’s performance because all of
those people reached vary in the number of times they have the opportunity to be
exposed to a message.
For this reason planners often use a frequency distribution model that shows
the percentage of audience reached at each level of repetition. A frequency
quintile distribution analysis divides an audience into five groups, each
containing 20 percent of the audience. Employing media-usage modeling, it is
then possible to estimate the average frequency for each quintile.
Effective Frequency
Because of the proliferation of information and clutter, there should be a
threshold, or minimum frequency level, that produces some type of effect, such
as a request for more brand information, a change in attitude toward the brand, or
the most desired effect—purchase of the brand.
A standard rule of thumb is that it takes 3 to 10 exposures to have an effect on an
audience. The “right” frequency number is determined by several factors,
including level of brand awareness, level of competitive “noise,” content of the
message, and sophistication of the target audience.
Because so many different things can impact a response (i.e., an effect),
audience response research is necessary. If the desired effect/response is not
achieved, you may need to increase frequency of exposure or change the
message. Research diagnostics, such as tracking studies, provide direction.
Principle: Effective frequency means you add frequency to reach until you get to
the level where people respond.
Media Waste
There are two sides to waste, both reach and frequency. The goal of media
planning is to maximize media efficiency, which is to eliminate excessive
overlap or too much frequency. Efficiency is achieved by reducing media waste.
When additional media weight ceases to increase the response, it produces
waste.
Writing Media Objectives
Usable media objectives focus on the relationship between reach and frequency.
Here are some examples of media objectives:
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1. Reach 60 percent of target audience with a frequency of 4 within each
four-week period in which the advertising runs.
2. Reach a maximum percentage of target audience a minimum of five times
within the first six months of advertising.
3. Reach 30 percent of the target audiences where they have an opportunity to
interact with the brand and users of the brand.
4. Reach category thought leaders and influencers in a way that will motivate
them to initiate measurable word-of-mouth (WOM) and other positive brand
messages.
The first objective recognizes that you can seldom ever reach 100 percent of your
target audience. It also acknowledges that a certain level of frequency will be
necessary for the brand messages to be seen/heard/read.
The second objective would be for a product where the message is more complex;
through research (and judgment) it has been decided that prospects need to be
exposed to the message at least five times to be effective. In this case frequency is
more important than reach.
Objectives 3 and 4 deal directly with impact. To achieve these objectives, media
buyers will have to find media vehicles and contact points, such as events and
sponsorships, where interaction with the brand and its users is possible as opposed
to using more passive media such as traditional mass media. Note that objective 4
is not measurable, as stated.
Step 3: Media Strategies
Strategic thinking in media involves a set of decision factors and tools that help
identify the best way to deliver the brand message. The goal is to reach the right
people at the right time with the right. There are always multiple ways to reach an
objective. The difficult question is which way is the best.
Media Mix Selection
Traditional media planning is a process of selecting advertising media to reach a
certain audience and accomplish reach and frequency objectives is based on the
advantages and limitations of the available media to the needs of the campaign
strategy.
Most brands use a variety of targeted media vehicles, called a media mix, to
reach current and potential customers. Media mixes are used for a number of
reasons. The first is to reach people not reached by the first or most important
medium. Using a variety of media vehicles distributes the message more widely
because different media tend to have different audience profiles. Other reasons for
spreading the plan across different media include adding exposure in less
expensive media and using media that have some attractive characteristics that
enhance the creative message.
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The reason for choosing a particular medium or a set of media vehicles depends
on the media objectives. What media will best deliver what effects—and can you
reinforce and extend those effects with a mix of media? If audience reach is an
objective, then television still reaches the largest audience; if frequency is
important, then radio may be the best media vehicle to use. Print and television
are considered more trustworthy, so they might be used by a media planner for a
campaign that seeks to establish credibility for a brand or believability for a
product claim.
The choice of media in the media mix is based on an analysis of their strengths
and limitations and how those factors relate to a specific marketing situation.
Figure 14.3 summarizes the various media in terms of their strengths.
Part of the problem is that in the past, media plans have been dominated by one
medium—a television-based campaign, for example. With media fragmentation
and the diversity of consumer media use, these kinds of campaigns are rarely
found anymore. Almost all are integrated with a wide variety of media, including
social media and other online vehicles.“Silo-driven campaigns” have given way
to integrated campaigns focused on brand experiences rather than specific types
of media forms.
Media choices are sometimes designed to deliver the strategy of using one
medium to deliver an audience to another medium or marketing communication
tool. For example, mass media have frequently been used to promote special
events and sales promotions. The emergence of the Internet has intensified what
you might call a two-step media platform. Print and broadcast, which are basically
informative and awareness building media forms, are often used to drive traffic to
a brand’s website, which is more interactive and experiential.
Geographical Strategies
Planners analyze the target audience using geography. Are potential customers
found all over the country, therefore calling for a national campaign, and does the
client have the budget to afford such an extensive media plan? In most cases, the
media plan will identify special regions or DMAs to be emphasized with a
heavy-up schedule,which means proportionately more of the budget is spent in
those areas. The company’s sales coverage area (i.e., geography) is a major factor
used to make this decision. Most national or regional marketers divide their
market geographically. The amount of sales produced in each geographic market
will vary, and marketers try to match advertising investments with the amount of
forecasted sales or the sales potential.
To determine which geographical areas have the highest (and lowest) rate of
consumption for a particular product category, marketers compute a category
development index (CDI) for each market in which they are interested. Then
they calculate a brand development index (BDI), which estimates the strength of
their brand in the various geographical areas. A CDI is calculated for product
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categories. It is an index number showing the relative consumption rate of a
product in a particular DMA or region as compared to the total universe (national
or regional). A BDI is an index of the consumption rate of a brand in a particular
market.
Principle: The CDI tells where the category is strong and weak, and the BDI tells
where the brand is strong and weak.
Planners typically don’t make heavy allocations in weak sales areas unless strong
marketing signals indicate significant growth potential. Conversely, strong sales
markets may not receive proportional increases in advertising unless clear
evidence suggests that company sales can go much higher with greater advertising
investment. When there is a lot of competitive activity, a heavy-up strategy may
be used to defend the brand’s market share.
Another change resulting from the digital revolution is that media plans are
deemphasizing national campaigns and focusing on local connection points.
Media planners are looking at local marketing in the same way they are looking at
consumers as initiators of brand contact rather than just targets.
Search advertising and mobile marketing are driving this local trend. Google has
found that almost three- fourths of all online activity is related to local content,
meaning that, for marketers, “local is no longer just a nice add-on option” and
“more and more marketing is moving to the local level.” The term for this new
emphasis on local marketing is SoLoMo (which stands for the convergence of
social with local and mobile marketing), described as “the perfect storm of
popular technologies and platforms that promises to deliver information you want
where you are, usually via social apps.”
Scheduling Strategies
Scheduling strategies are designed to identify the best times for consumers to
come in contact with a brand message. For many product categories, prospective
customers have one or more ideal times or places at which they are most receptive
to receiving and paying attention to a brand message. This ideal time/place is
called an aperture, and becomes an important factor in scheduling media
placements.
Principle: Advertising is most effective when it reaches the right people at the
right time and place with the right message.
Media planners manipulate schedules in various ways to create the strongest
possible impact given the budget. Three scheduling strategies involve timing,
duration of exposure, and continuity of exposure.
Timing Strategies: When to Advertise?Timing decisions relate to factors such
as seasonality, holidays, days of the week, and time of day. These decisions
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are driven by how often the product is bought and whether it is used more in
some months than in others. Timing also encompasses the consumers’ best
aperture and competitors’ advertising schedules. Another consideration is lead
time, or the amount of time allowed before the beginning of the sales period to
reach people when they are just beginning to think about seasonal buying.
Lead time also refers to the production time needed to get the advertisement
into the medium. There is a long lead time for magazines, but it is shorter for
local media, such as newspapers and radio.
Duration: How Long?For how many weeks or months of the year should the
advertising run? If there is a need to cover most of the weeks, advertising will
be spread rather thin. If the amount of time to cover is limited, advertising can
be concentrated more heavily. Message scheduling is driven by use cycles.
For products that are consumed year-round, such as fast food and movies,
advertising is spread throughout the year. In general, if you cannot cover the
whole year, you should heavy up the schedule in higher purchase periods.
Another question is how much is enough? At what point does the message
make its point? If the advertising period is too short or there are too few
repetitions, then the message may have little or no impact. If the period is too
long, then ads may suffer from wearout, which means the audience gets tired
of them and stops paying attention.
Continuity: How Often?Continuity refers to the way the advertising is spread
over the length of a campaign. A continuous strategy spreads the advertising
evenly over the campaign period.
Two other methods to consider are pulsing and flighting. A pulsing strategy is used
to intensify advertising before a buying aperture and then to reduce advertising to
lower levels until the aperture reopens. The pulse pattern has peaks and valleys, also
called bursts. Pulsed schedules cover most of the year, but still provide periodic
intensity.
After a media schedule has been worked out in terms of what media will run when
and for how long, these decisions are plotted on a media flow chart. Across the top is
the calendar for the period of the campaign and down the side is the list of media to
be used in this campaign. Bars are then drawn across the calendar that identifies the
exact timing of the use of various media. When the chart is complete, strategies such
as pulsing and flighting are easy to observe.
A flighting strategy is the most severe type of continuity adjustment. It is
characterized by alternating periods of intense advertising activity and periods of no
advertising, called a hiatus. This on-and-off schedule allows for a longer campaign.
The hope in using non-advertising periods is that the consumers will remember the
brand and its advertising for some time after the ads have stopped.
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If the flighting strategy works, there will be a carryover effect of past advertising,
which means consumers will remember the product across the gap until the next
advertising period begins. The critical decision involves analyzing the decay level, the
rate at which memory of the advertising is forgotten.
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