Meaning of Media Planning, Scope of Media planning

Media planning that requires knowledge of both marketing and mass communication skills is the process of determining deals with the biggest portion of the advertiser’s budget in terms of cost for buying placement of advertisement.

Media planning refers to an analytical method for making media decisions, and describes the process of taking the message across to the target audience at the right time and place, and using the right media vehicle.

Media planning is the process of identifying and selecting media outlets mainly newspapers, magazines, websites, TV and radio stations, and outdoor placement in which to place paid advertisements. The person responsible for evaluating the many media options and strategizing campaigns to support a particular product, service, or brand is called a media planner. Media planners typically are employed by advertising agencies.

Scope of Media planning

Media planning in simpler terms refers to planning each stage of media executions for brand promotions, product launch, sales push campaigns and allied. The relevance of media planning varies accordingly based on the selection of integrated media mix such as Newspaper & Radio, Digital & Out of Home or individual promotional such as on television. Media planning is extremely important for the following 3 reasons:

Brand Objective: Defining a brand; campaign objective is paramount while considering media planning. What are we looking to achieve? Is it mere sales promotion or a new product launch etc. Whom are we going to communicate with? Where is my audience?

Budgets and Reach: A very crucial aspect of determining your ad spends (media spends). If you cannot measure your spends and reach, you are not doing it right. You will never know where you ad spends are. Is it even reaching the right audience. i.e. An average 30 seconds commercial on television on a non-prime time television show can cost you in thousands while the same ad, which is part of your television campaign can cost you up to a lakh during an IPL, Prime Time Breaking News or on a top GEC (General Entertainment Channel) show. It is always a good practice to approach a media planning consultant who take off the burden and complexity and work along with you and your brand by creating the cost-effective media solutions which can be monitored and tailored as per your brand’s need.

Measurability & ROI: With technology in today’s times, any advertising spend on media such as digital or television can be targeted and measured for effective reach and increase in a brand’s share of voice (among its competitors on the media space). With solutions from Amagi MIX, you can now create your advertising plan in few minutes. Currently the media solutions are provided for television, but with geo targeted options, you can now create your regional media plan on national channels for your geography. You can also speak to their consultant on a possible ROI / Measurability and define success factors for your ads, while getting one created for your brand at truly affordable cost.

Media Strategy

Media strategy can be defined as the usage of an appropriate media mix in order to achieve desired and optimum outcomes from the advertising campaign. It plays a key role in advertising campaigns. The objective of Media Strategy is not just about procuring customers for their product or services but also focusses on placing a right message towards the right people at the right time and ensuring that the message is relevant and persuasive. Media Strategy is designed to achieve the above-mentioned target but the budget is always kept in mind.

Challenges include but are not limited to:

Consumer-Level Targeting: The media plan must understand consumers at a granular level to determine what types of messages resonate with them, requiring in-depth marketing analytics.

Platform Preference: Brands must also know the various channels and platforms that target audience members engage with and when. This will allow them to effectively choose media on which to run campaigns. All of this must be done with budget and media spend in mind.

Heavy Budget Focus: Media planning continues to revolve around budget rather than customer engagement. There is limited flexibility in a budget and plan to allow marketers to course correct as campaigns run and new insights are discovered. Modern media planning requires the flexibility to allocate budget to different channels if they prove to be more successful.

Integrating Measurements: Because there are so many channels online and offline, it has become infinitely more difficult for marketers to measure the success of these campaigns alongside each other to determine which are most effective and which should be updated.