Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
Step 4: Media Metrics and Analytics
Media plans are driven by questions of accountability. And because media decisions
are based on measurable factors, identifiable costs, and budget limitations, media
planners are engrossed in calculating the impact and efficiency of their media
recommendations. With millions of dollars at stake, clients want data to justify
media recommendations.
Impact: Gross Rating Points and Targeted Rating Points
Among the most important tools media planners use in designing a media mix is a
calculation of a media schedule’s gross rating points and targeted rating points.
Reach and frequency are interrelated concepts that, when combined, generate an
To find a plan’s GRPs, you multiply each media vehicle’s rating by the number of
ads inserted into each media vehicle during the designated time period and add up
the total for the vehicles. Once the media vehicles that produce the GRPs have been
A good media planner will look at several different mixes of programs that reach the
target audience, figure the GRPs for each, and then break this calculation into R&F
How do you decide which is best? If a brand has a tightly targeted audience and
wants to use repetition to create a strong brand presence, then a plan that has a
higher frequency would be important. If a brand has a fairly simple message where
frequency is less important, a planner would probably choose a plan with higher
reach.
For products that have a mass-market appeal, households are often used in targeting.
However, for more specialized products, target audiences can be more narrowly
defined. Since the total audience obviously includes waste coverage, the estimate of
Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
Another reason to tightly describe a target audience, especially in terms of lifestyle,
is to take advantage of the many media vehicles such as magazines, TV programs
and channels, and special events that connect with various types of lifestyles.
New media plans also are substituting GRPs with something called total audience
impressions, which are designed to better estimate the impact of an integrated
campaign—including digital impressions as well as those delivered by measured
media. Total audience impressions are derived from impression management
Cost Efficiency
As mentioned earlier, one way to compare budgets with the competition is called
share of voice. It sets the budget relative to your brands and your competitors’ market
share. For example, if your client has a 40 percent share of the market, then you may
decide to spend at a 40 percent share of voice in order to maintain your brand’s
At the end of the planning process, after the media mix has been determined,
the media planner will prepare a pie chart showing media allocations, a term that
It is useful to note that the other IMC disciplines are also concerned about proving
their efficiency. The A Matter of Practice feature located in this chapter explains how
Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
Cost per Thousand, Targeted Cost per Thousand, and Cost per Point
Advertisers don’t make decisions about the media mix solely in terms of targeting,
geography, and schedule considerations. Sometimes media decisions are based on
cost. The advertiser wants prospects, not just readers, viewers, or listeners; therefore,
The process of measuring the target audience size against the cost of reaching that
audience is based on calculations of efficiency, cost per thousand (CPM) and cost
per point (CPP).
The term cost per thousand (CPM) is industry shorthand for the cost of getting
1,000 impressions. Marketers often prefer the CPM metric when their main goal is
To calculate a CPM for a broadcast commercial, you need only two figures: the
cost of an ad and the estimated audience reached by the vehicle. Multiply the cost
of the ad by 1,000 and divide that number by the size of the broadcast audience.
You multiply the cost of the ad by 1,000 to calculate a “cost per thousand.”
In the case of print, CPMs are based on circulation or number of readers. Time
magazine has a circulation of 4 million but claims a readership of 19.5 million.
The difference between circulation and readership is due to what is called pass-along
readership.
Beyond CPM
As marketing communication spending online and on mobile have surged, additional
metrics have emerged to help assess the effectiveness of messages on these platforms.
Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
Cost per action (CPA): CPA assesses a digital ad based on how many users click it
and then a certain action (e.g., sign up for your newsletter, download one of your
white papers, make a purchase).
Media Optimization
Tools that help estimate the most optimum use of various media plans using computer
models involve calculating the weight of a media schedule and optimizing the
schedule for the greatest impact. These optimization techniques enable marketers to
determine the relative impact of a media mix on product sales and optimize the
efficiency of the media mix.
HOW DO MEDIA BUYING AND NEGOTIATION WORK?
The media plan is a recommendation that the client must approve before any further steps
are taken. In fact, planning is only the first stage in advertising media operations. Once
the plan directions are set, media buyers convert objectives and strategies into tactical
decisions. They select specific media vehicles and negotiate and contract for the time and
space in media. A media buyer has distinct responsibilities, as outlined in Figure 15.6 in
the textbook.
Media Buying Basics
Buying is a complicated process. The American Association of Advertising Agencies
lists no fewer than 21 elements of a media buy for traditional media. The most
important one is matching the media vehicle to the strategic needs of the message and
the brand. In addition to media selection, media negotiation makes the media plan
come to life in a cost-effective way.
Provide Inside Information
Media buyers are important information sources for media planners. They are close
enough to day-to-day changes in media popularity and pricing to be a constant source
of inside current information.
Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
Select Media Vehicles
The media planner determines the media mix, but the buyer is responsible for
choosing the specific media vehicles.
Online vehicles are also offering programmatic buying, which means that
algorithms are used to purchase and place ads that target individual viewers, not just
aggregated audiences based on their digital tracking data.
While programmatic buying can optimize the ad placement process and help brands
achieve their goals, the marketers may not be sure exactly where their ads will appear
online. Recent stories have emerged of companies surprised to find their brands
Negotiation Costs
A media buyer negotiates for the best prices. The key questions are whether the
desired vehicles are available and whether a satisfactory schedule and rates can be
negotiated. Aside from finding the aperture of target audiences, nothing is more
crucial in media buying than securing the lowest possible price for placements.
In buying network television time, the bulk of prime-time inventory is presold at a
negotiated discount rate for the upcoming season during the up-front market.
Networks sell the rest of their inventory in the scatter market, which means that the
buys are made closer to the date.
Every traditional medium has a published rate card, but media buyers often negotiate
special prices for volume buys. The buyer must understand the trade-off between price
received and audience objectives. Here are some other negotiation considerations:
Bargain for Preferred Positions Media buyers must bargain for preferred
positions, the locations in magazines and other print media that offer readership
Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
Demand Extra Support Offers With the current trend toward using other forms of
marketing communication in addition to advertising, buyers often demand
Monitor Performance
A media buyer’s responsibility to a campaign does not end with the signing of space
and time contracts. The media buyer is responsible for tracking the performance of
the media plan as it is implemented, as well as afterward, as part of the campaign
evaluation. Buyers must also fix problems. Poorly performing vehicles must be
replaced, or costs must be modified.
Here are other responsibilities of media buyers:
Post-campaign evaluation: Once a campaign is completed, the planner’s duty is
to compare the plan’s expectations and forecasts with what actually happened.
Such analysis is instrumental in providing guidance for future media plans.
Monitor billing and payment: Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the advertiser
to make payment for the various media. However, the agency is contractually
obligated to pay the invoice on behalf of the client. Keeping track of the invoices
and paying the bills is the responsibility of the media buyer in conjunction with
the accounting department.
a move to help advertisers untangle the complexity of marketing across multiple
platforms, Nielsen launched its Total Content Ratings service in 2017, which
consolidates all traditional, digital, and other TV/video viewing under one
measurement system. The Practical Tips feature provides additional ideas on how to
buy interactive media.
Media buyers also have to deal with situations that crop up and complicate the
planning. They are also troubleshooters. Temporary snags in scheduling and
production are sometimes unavoidable. A policy of compensating for such errors is
called “making good on the contract,” known as make goods. Here are some
examples:
Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
Program preemptions: Special programs or news events often interrupt regular
programming and the commercial scheduled is also interrupted. In the case of
long-term program preemptions, such as war coverage, buyers may have
difficulty finding suitable replacements before the schedule ends.
Missed closings: Magazines and newspapers have clearly set production
deadlines, called closings, for each issue. Sometimes the advertising materials do
Multichannel Buying (and Selling)
It should be clear from this review of media buyers’ responsibilities that this is a
challenging job. A number of media services are available to help make buying for
complicated media plans easier. Comcast and one of its media arms, NBC Universal,
for example, promote their media opportunities using a multichannel plan that
includes broadcast, cable, and the internet as well as original programming on its own
channels. The idea is to match the media use of the target audience in all its
complexity.
Newspapers have long offered simplified buys through such companies as
Nationwide Newspapers and can handle classified and display advertising in more
than 21,000 newspapers. The Newspaper National Network is a trade association
representing some 9,000 newspapers that also handles ad placement.
In the digital world, DoubleClick’s DART for Advertisers service helps advertisers
manage online display and search marketing campaigns across online channels. All of
Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
Global Media Buying
A true global medium does not currently exist, which means that global media plans
have to piece together worldwide coverage using a variety of media tools. No one
network controls this global transmission. An advertiser seeking global exposure
must therefore deal with different networks and different vehicles in different
countries.
The definition of global media buying varies widely, but everyone agrees that few
marketers are doing it yet. However, many are thinking about it, especially computer
and other information technology companies that are being pursued by media such as
AT&T.
Today, the growth area is media buys across a single region, but as media becomes
more global some marketers are beginning to make the leap across regions.
Satellite transmission now brings advertising into many homes, but its availability is
not universal because of the footprint (coverage area of the satellite), technical
limitations, and regulations of transmission by various governments. Satellites beam
signals to more than one country in Europe, the Asian subcontinent, North America,
and the Pacific, but they are regional, not global, in coverage.
Despite its regional limitation, satellite transmission is still an enormous factor
in the changing face of international advertising. For example, Sky satellite TV,
Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
MEDIA PLANNING AND BUYING TRENDS
Advertising experts have been proclaiming the demise of mass media advertising for a
number of years. The media landscape is dynamic and changing so fast that it’s hard to
keep track of how the media business is practiced. All of these changes create new ways
of operation and new opportunities for innovative media planners and buyers.
Unbundling Media Buying and Planning
Occurring in the media industry is a shift in the way the industry is organized. This
shift is called unbundling media services. Because media companies can aggregate
the buying function across many different clients, that enables them to negotiate
better rates for their clients. Because these companies control the money, they have
become a powerful force in the advertising industry, leading to a tug-of-war over
control and planning.
Online Media Buying
A bigger threat to agencies than media-buying services comes from Google and
Yahoo!, which, although not ad agencies, are making inroads into media buying and
selling. Google is using its website to sell ads primarily to small advertisers and
New Forms of Media Research
One challenge media planners face is the lack of reliable audience research and
measurement metrics for the new media. The metrics for online media – hits and
clicks – don’t really tell us much about impact, and comparing TRPs and clicks is
like comparing apples and oranges.
Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
Viral marketing is equally difficult to measure, although YouTube is developing
analytic data to help media planners assess the impact of the video-sharing site. Other
companies, such as Visible Measures, Unruly Media, and Millward Brown’s Link,
END-OF-CHAPTER SUPPORT
REVIEW QUESTIONS
15-3. Explain the differences between media planning and media buying.
15-4. What is aperture and how is it used in media planning?
15-5. How are gross impressions and gross rating points calculated?
15-6. Explain the differences among continuous, flighting, and pulsing schedules.
A continuous schedule spreads the advertising evenly over the campaign. A flighting
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15-11. In performing an aperture analysis, choose one of the following products: video
games (Nintendo, for instance), men’s cologne (such as Axe), computer software (such as
PhotoShop), or athletic shoes for aerobics (Reebok, for example). For the brand you
selected, analyze the marketing situation and give your intuitive answers to the following
questions:
a) How does aperture work for this product?
b) Which media vehicles should be used to maximize and leverage the prospect’s media
aperture?
c) Explain how the timing and duration of the advertising can improve the aperture
opportunity.
TAKE-HOME PROJECTS
15-12. Portfolio Project: You have been asked to develop a media plan for a new reality
show that you have created. Focus on the internet as a primary medium for this launch.
Go to both www.google.com/adsense and https://blog.hootsuite.com. Indicate how you
would use the information provided by these sites in developing your media plan for this
new reality TV show.
15-13. Mini-Case Analysis:
Outline the key decisions in the Icelandic Men’s cancer
campaign. What were the media strategies that contributed to the success of this
campaign? Using your analysis as a model, develop a proposal for a media plan for next
year’s follow-up campaign.
Chapter 15: Media Planning and Negotiation
The Icelandic Men’s cancer campaign challenged the target to get comfortable with their
bodies so that they would perform self-examinations, detect male-related cancer and seek
medical assistance when needed. The aim was to create a campaign that literally broke
TRACE NORTH AMERICA CASE
Planning and Buying Multicultural Media
Read the TRACE case in the Appendix before coming to class.
15-14. What media would you recommend to reach the TRACE target market of
Multicultural Millennials (age 18 to 29)?
15-15. Based on TRACE’s $100 million advertising budget, draw your own pie chart
indicating the media you would select with a dollar figure attached to each medium.
HANDS-ON CASE: Making Milk Cool
P4-1. What advice about media would you give to someone who wanted to market to
teens?
P4-2. Describe the brand experience. How did this campaign combine the use of
digital and traditional media? Was it effective?
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P4-3. In what ways were the media choices for this campaign creative?
P4-4. Imagine you had this account. What would you plan for the next campaign?
What media would you use?
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
ASSIGNMENTS
Individual Assignments
1. Research and write a report on the current state of media planning and the upheaval in
2. Locate any major consumer magazine. Request a copy along with an advertising kit,
and speak with the advertising representative. Who is the target audience for this
publication? What kind of demographic information is contained in the kit to support
his/her conclusions, and how was it obtained? What kinds of advertisers appear to be
Think-Pair-Share
1. According to your textbook, media buying these days is about more than just
choosing from a longer list of media options. Clients are looking for engaging
experiences and brand-building relationships. What are some examples of this,
and how might it be measured using newer media platforms? Debate this question
as groups, and then debrief as a class.
