Media planning is an important part of any process of promoting a product on the market, whether it is a new and unknown product or a popular brand.
The essence of planning an advertising campaign
The basics of media planning implies a competent approach to the creation, placement and promotion of an advertising message through the classic media and otherdistribution channels. In other words, this is a set of measures that allows you to distribute the advertising budget in such a way as to achieve maximum benefit in accordance with the main goals underlying the advertising campaign. In addition, media planning is one of the stages in the process of the overall organization of the activities of any company, but at the same time it is not only the process of choosing the most optimal means of placing an advertising message, but also a multifaceted activity for the psychological and economic reinforcement of all ongoing campaigns. Only if these rules are followed can you expect maximum efficiency.
The very concept of media planning is to draw up a media plan that takes into account the placement of advertising in the media, taking into accountachieve maximum efficiency.
Stages of media planning
Before you start planning an advertising campaign, you need to decide on the main and secondary goals. Traditionally, the main thing is to promote a service or product to the market, stimulate sales growth, increase awareness or consumer loy alty to a product or brand, and form the image of a product, company or person. Goals are expressed in specific indicators (numerical or percentage), which can be characterized by the level of sales, loy alty or awareness of the target audience, as well as response from potential customers. After formulating the tasks, you can start writing the media plan itself.
Media planning
The media plan consists of the following items:
- Full description of the selected type of advertising.
As a rule, this item is the most extensive. Here the approach to solving the advertising problem is chosen (whether the advertisement will be rational or emotional), the nature of the planning of the promotion (media, non-media, complex), the presentation of the advertising message (soft or hard forms), the degree of use of the image of the advertising product (direct, indirect, hidden) etc.
All these parameters are determined by the life cycle of the product and the awareness of the main part of the target audience about the product or service, the desired end result and financial capabilities.
This paragraph also describes the type of advertising based on whatthe placement channel will be used to implement the plan. It can be printed materials, video or audio clips, an exhibition or PR campaign.
In the same paragraph, all private characteristics are indicated, including the parameters of the target audience, the nature of the advertising object, its geographical distribution and the intensity of the impact on the consumer.
- Determining the distribution channel or channels.
Classic media, online advertising, BTL, etc.
- Determining the timing of placement.
In addition to the total duration of all events, this item involves scheduling the broadcast of a commercial on television or radio, indicating the date of publication of a printed message, the timing of participation in exhibitions and other time characteristics of the campaign.
- Determining the cost of an advertising campaign.
This part of the media plan lists all financial costs for the creation, placement and promotion of the message.
- Defining payment methods.
You can pay for advertising space in a batch way, one-time, barter, based on sponsorship, etc.
- Efficiency.
The effectiveness of an advertising campaign is determined by the indicator of achieving the set goals.
What tasks does media planning solve?
Media planning tasks include:
- analytical activity (determination of all parameters of the target audience, market situation, competitors, marketing opportunities, etc.).etc.);
- formulation of the objectives of the advertising campaign;
- planning stages and setting the time frame for their implementation;
- definition of advertising message distribution channels;
- determination of the desired efficiency based on the main indicators of media planning;
- budget distribution.
Media planning options
Media planning in advertising can be theoretical and practical. The complex of the theoretical part includes the calculation of advertising campaign performance indicators, the collection of the necessary data and the processing of all secondary parameters based on modern statistical methods.
The practical part already implies direct work with client companies, the implementation and support of all planned activities within the advertising campaign. A qualitative approach to practical media planning helps to save the budget, while achieving all the goals. Thanks to these studies, advertising messages are divided into categories according to the duration of campaigns, product groups, display time, which further provides the most competent approach to creating the media plan itself.
Key indicators of media planning
- Rating or TVR value - the percentage of the entire target audience that saw a unit of a media event at a certain moment, to the one that could see it.
- Reach & Cover (reach and coverage) - a measure of the total number of people who were able to see or hear advertisingmessage within one campaign.
- TRP is the total rating calculated for this target category.
- OTS is a measure of the potential number of times a given message could be seen.
- GRP is the sum of the ratings of all advertisements in all media during one advertising campaign.
- Frequency (purity of contacts) - the number of advertising messages that each person from the intended target audience will contact.
- Index T/U (correspondence index) – the percentage ratio of the audience of the publication from the target group to the total audience of the publication.
- CPP - the cost of a rating point, the cost of achieving it.
- CPT is the value of a thousand contacts.
New trend in media planning
One of the newer elements of media planning is online advertising. In this context, the Internet can be considered as one of the platforms for placing an advertising message. With its popularization and extensive penetration into our daily lives, it has become almost one of the key points included in media planning. Examples of the use of this distribution channel are varied. This can be both contextual advertising and banner placement, pop-ups and much more. Media planning is a set of promotional activities, a meaningful approach to which is a fundamental component of successful product promotion.
What does media planning look like in action?
Media planning is an important part of any promotional activity. And a well-written media plan is the key to success in achieving your goals. What does media planning look like in action? For example, let's take the planning of placing an advertising message about an upcoming event on the radio. We need to inform the public about the opening of the supermarket. Before we can decide which radio station will be our placement, we need to analyze its target audience and understand how it meets our criteria.
As a rule, opening a supermarket is more interesting for family people of any age. Most of these ads are designed for a female audience. So, based on this, we are interested in radio stations that are focused on women. This audience will be divided into two segments: housewives and working ladies. Both listen to the radio during the day while doing office or housework, so spending more money on prime time doesn't make sense. Here, greater efficiency can be achieved due to the frequency of repetitions. To save money, you can also opt out of advertising on weekends or minimize the number of repeats.
Traditionally, advertising on the radio is better to start at least two weeks before the official event. In the media plan, this item is indicated without fail, because it is the number of days multiplied by the number of repetitions during one of them that determines the amount of basic expenses. In the cost item, you must also indicate the cost of creating the commercial itself.
To optimize the cost of an advertising campaign, you can also offer full or partial barter to the radio station. For example, you can offer them to broadcast in your supermarket for a certain period of time. In turn, they may agree to lower the cost of a single spot (airing) for your audio clip or place your ad for free.
After the advertising campaign is carried out, its effectiveness is determined in accordance with the goals set and the level of their achievement.
