Archive for October 19th, 2009

19
Oct
09

Principles of media buying

By Mr Media Leave a Comment
Categories: media buying
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Media buying involves the implementation of media plans.   The media plan will cover the media channels that have been selected for use and the amount of budget that is to be invested in each channel. If the media planner has developed a direct response or online traffic driving plan, the media plan will detail the likely amount of response to be generated from the investment in each media channel.

The role of the media buyer is to turn the media plan into a reality that will be seen and heard by the target audience. This involves negotiating with media owners.  Both the media buyer and the media owner have similar and competing objectives. Both sides want a deal, but…

  1. The media buyer wants to secure as much weight of communication as possible  – this is usually measured as reach, size, impact or campaign duration.
  2. On the other hand, the media owner usually has a fixed amount of inventory to sell. Here’s an example: pages in a magazine for example are a bit like airline seats – there are a fixed number and the amount of revenue is driven by the amount of money generated from each page. If too little money is generated from each page in a magazine, the magazine risks running at a loss so the media owner’s objective is to maximise the amount of revenue from the medium.

So we have competing objectives – the media owners wants to maximise media revenue and the media buyer wants to minimise cost.  This means there has to be a negotiation.  It is this negotiation that is at the centre of the media buying process.

The different aspects of media buying

Because media buying involves negotiation, each side identifies area in the negotiation where they may be willing to compromise in order to reach a deal. In media buying, these areas are typically:

  • Price
  • Access
  • Timing
  • Format
19
Oct
09

Principles of media planning

By Mr Media Leave a Comment
Categories: media planning
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Media planning is the business of identifying the media opportunities that will allow your brand to connect with its target audiences.  The media world of today is highly fragmented with lots of individual opportunities across TV, press, radio, magazines, and online  – affiliates, display, search and social media. In amongst all this choice, brand managers need to ensure that their media budgets are being deployed as effectively as possible. Media planning is the agency process of evaluating these options in relation to a given marketing communications brief to ensure that the desired cost effectiveness is delivered.

Media planning considers the following

  • Helping to define the target audience in media planning terms
  • How the target audience behaves
  • How the target audience consumes media – time of week, time of day, at home, at work, on the move,mindset etc
  • How the different media are consumed – for information, for relaxation, for entertainment
  • The suitability of the medium in question to deliver marketing communication effects – to launch new products, to offer purchase reminders, to build loyalty etc
  • What effects the editorial context of the media channels available have on the recipient of the communication
  • How likely each channel is to deliver the desired media communication  effect
  • The cost structure of each media channel – usually based on the unit cost of delivering the target audience
  • How performance of each channel should be evaluated.