abhishreshthaa
Abhijeet S
HOW TO GET BETTER MEDIA PLANS
Here are nine suggestions:
1. First, establish marketing objectives.
How should the media plan fit with other parts of the business, including the creative direction? Have you given the planner all the latest marketing data?
2. Agree-in advance-on media objectives and strategies.
Make sure you understand the implications of the need for impact or continuity, minimum reach or frequency goals, the values assigned to magazines or outdoor. Are the objectives reasonable, or is the budget spread too thin?
Air your prejudices early. What have you learned from past experiences? What special needs should be accommodated in the plan?
3. Encourage meetings between media and copy groups.
There should be an active understanding of how both work together. The media planner should be at all meetings where media is discussed.
4. Make the timetable reasonable.
Schedule work far enough in advance to allow the planner to be thorough and innovative. If there’s not enough time, you’ll get a plan-but maybe not the best one.
5. Look beyond the obvious.
Why not direct mail instead of newspapers, or radio instead of TV? Can you deliver your message in half-pages instead of full pages, or even 10-second commercials instead of 30?
But don’t look for difference for the sake of difference. Look for what is right?
6. Look beyond the cost per thousand.
Efficiency is a starting point, but CPM is the weakest evaluation tool. It measures cost, not effectiveness.
7. Recognize that all media plans are a compromise.
Media plans are a balance between options-reach, frequency, weeks of advertising, geography…. and budget. Don’t expect simple answers.
Media is simpler in other countries. Geographical differences alone are much greater in India. There are far more media choices here, and media outlets.
8. Don’t lose perspective.
There’s a temptation to forget the total media environment, particularly noise level. A plan that is the biggest in a category may not dominate a medium.
Don’t overread small differences in large numbers when selecting between alternatives. Stand back and react to the total plan.
9. Take a media planner to lunch.
It pays to see the media group when there is no problem and no urgent need for a plan. That’s the time for updating-and thinking.
Here are nine suggestions:
1. First, establish marketing objectives.
How should the media plan fit with other parts of the business, including the creative direction? Have you given the planner all the latest marketing data?
2. Agree-in advance-on media objectives and strategies.
Make sure you understand the implications of the need for impact or continuity, minimum reach or frequency goals, the values assigned to magazines or outdoor. Are the objectives reasonable, or is the budget spread too thin?
Air your prejudices early. What have you learned from past experiences? What special needs should be accommodated in the plan?
3. Encourage meetings between media and copy groups.
There should be an active understanding of how both work together. The media planner should be at all meetings where media is discussed.
4. Make the timetable reasonable.
Schedule work far enough in advance to allow the planner to be thorough and innovative. If there’s not enough time, you’ll get a plan-but maybe not the best one.
5. Look beyond the obvious.
Why not direct mail instead of newspapers, or radio instead of TV? Can you deliver your message in half-pages instead of full pages, or even 10-second commercials instead of 30?
But don’t look for difference for the sake of difference. Look for what is right?
6. Look beyond the cost per thousand.
Efficiency is a starting point, but CPM is the weakest evaluation tool. It measures cost, not effectiveness.
7. Recognize that all media plans are a compromise.
Media plans are a balance between options-reach, frequency, weeks of advertising, geography…. and budget. Don’t expect simple answers.
Media is simpler in other countries. Geographical differences alone are much greater in India. There are far more media choices here, and media outlets.
8. Don’t lose perspective.
There’s a temptation to forget the total media environment, particularly noise level. A plan that is the biggest in a category may not dominate a medium.
Don’t overread small differences in large numbers when selecting between alternatives. Stand back and react to the total plan.
9. Take a media planner to lunch.
It pays to see the media group when there is no problem and no urgent need for a plan. That’s the time for updating-and thinking.