Unit 12-13

Media planning
importance, process, terminologies
role of each medium, their bene its and
limitations

Dr.Kiran Gehani Hasija

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 Media Planning
• Media planning is the process of identifying and selecting media outlets like
television, newspapers, radio, magazines, etc., on which paid advertisements can
be done.
• The person who is in charge of evaluating these media options and strategizing
the advertising campaign to promote the said products or services is known as the
media planner.
• Media plans help in inding the most e icient way to deliver the advertiser’s
message across its audience.
• Delivering messages to your audience is an essential and also crucial step to
advertising.
• Media planners help the right message reach the right audience.
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 Importance
1. Optimum Utilisation of Resources:
Advertising involves huge cost. In media planning, such combination of media is selected and such time is selected, that helps
the advertiser in communicating the advertising message to largest number of target audience at lowest possible cost.

2. Helps in Achieving Advertising Objectives:

Media plan is a part of overall advertising plan. Media planning includes all such decisions like selecting appropriate media,
appropriate media mix and deciding the scheduling of advertisement. All these decisions help to communicate the message
to target audience and thus to promote sales.
3. Selection of Appropriate Media:
In media planning, di erent media are compared on the basis of cost per reader, cost per viewer, media-image, media-
coverage, media-rating etc. While selecting media the advertiser ensures that selected media matches with the features of
target audience.For example,
if our target audience are teenagers, then OTT/Social Media will be appropriate media;
if target audience are literate, then print-media can be selected;
if target audience is a speci ic professional group, then professional journals and magazines will be appropriate media.
Media planning also ensures that selected media is as per the message requirements e.g. if message involves demonstration,
the media with audio-visual e ects (viz. T.V.) will be selected.
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4. Selection of Optimum Media Mix:
Using di erent media combination ensures wide and intensive coverage of target audience. It improves the chances
of achieving advertising objectives. A single media may not ensure communication with all the target audience. A
well planned media mix ensures wide coverage of target audience at minimum cost.
5. Helps in Allocating Advertising Budget:
Media planning helps to decide the amount to be spent on di erent media. It helps the advertising manager in
allocating the ad-budget among di erent media types/media vehicles.
6. Ensures Appropriate Timing of Advertising:
Advertising can ensure best results only when ads are shown at the right time. Media planning includes media
scheduling i.e. it decides the time and space of advertisement in media. It decides the month, day and time of
advertisement. It ensures that advertisement is shown more frequently in seasonal months and less frequently in o -
season months. It also ensures that advertisement is shown at that time when more target audience can be
contacted e.g. if ad is for school going kids, it is not shown in the morning or before noon time.
7. Helps in Controlling:
In media plan some standards of performance are ixed. These standards are with regard to coverage of target
audience. Such standards help the management in evaluating the e ectiveness of media, i.e. actual coverage is in
accordance with the standards or not. If coverage is less than standard, then it points to the ine iciency of media. So
in future, advertising manager can think of some other media type/media vehicle. Or take other necessary action.
Thus, media planning helps in exercising control over media.
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 Forms of Media Planning
To create an e ective media strategy 3 types of media are
considered :
Paid Media - Paid media refers to advertising that is the result of
paid placement from the brand. This includes pay-per-click
advertising, display ads, and branded content. This is the most
common way for brands to get exposure and boost sales.
Owned Media - Owned media is content that is owned by your
brand, i.e. blog posts and social media accounts. By increasing the
use of the company’s owned media, you can increase your
customer reach and increase brand awareness.
Earned Media - Earned media refers to the publicity the brand
gets from outlets other than their own company. For example,
customer reviews, media coverage, and word-of-mouth are all
forms of earned media. This form of media is valuable because it
often comes directly from consumers. This feedback can also help
improve the quality of the product or service you are o ering.
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 Media Planning vs. Media Buying
• Media buying is the process of purchasing ad space across various channels and
platforms in coordination with the agreed-upon media plans and monitoring
campaigns as they run.
• This means evaluating platform formats and rates to ensure they coincide with the
plan, negotiating costs, keeping abreast of media trends and building relationships
with counterparts at various channels and platforms.
• Media buying often leverages one of the following popular strategies:
• Manual bidding
• Direct buys
• Programmatic buys
• Real-time bidding
 Programmatic Buys: AI and algorithm-enabled real-time bidding on ad
space that matches consumer pro iles (e.g. fashion designers leveraging a
platform that will automatically bid on and place ads on fashion-oriented
channels).

Direct Buys: When a media buyer negotiates ad rates and run times with a
speci ic advertiser (e.g., fashion designers working directly with the Vogue
team to place ads on their site or magazine).

Manual Buys: Bidding on ad space and managing bids directly through an

ad platform such as AdWords.
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 Media Panning- Process
Step 1. Determine Media Goals and Objectives
Goals may vary by department, or there might be multiple objectives for one campaign. For
example, for the sales team and sales goals, increased revenue is the objective. However,
marketing objectives might be to increase brand awareness. Knowing the main goal of the
campaign will determine how it runs, as well as messaging.

Step 2. Determine Target Audience

First, marketers need to examine which segment of the overall audience they are trying to engage.
From there, marketers need to look at attribution measurements and engagement analytics to
understand the types of ads these users engage with, which creative is most e ective, and
importantly, which channels these consumers use.
While marketers often utilize demographic information such as age, location, general interests,
etc., they should be sure to incorporate person-level data gathered through a uni ied measurement
approach to get the most tailored results.

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Step 3
Step 3. Consider Frequency & Reach
Another key component of a media plan is considering reach and frequency.
There are a few popular approaches that marketers take when selecting frequency.
• Continuity: This approach to frequency means that ads will run on a consistent schedule over the course of
the campaign: for example, two ads per week. This strategy is often used for goods that are not seasonal and
require regular reinforcement to stay top of mind.
• Flighting: “Flights” refer to internment or alternating periods of advertisements followed by pauses in
advertising on the channel altogether. This strategy works well for seasonal products or for those with less ad
budget. For example, when there is a pause in a lighted television campaign, marketers may choose to run
print ads instead.
• Pulsing: This is a combination of lighting and continuity. Pulsed campaigns will incorporate low-intensity
consistent advertising that is augmented by lights of higher-intensity ads during times when additional
messaging can have a high impact.
Step 4: Analyze and Optimize Campaign Performance
One of the most important steps to building a media planning strategy is to continuously monitor, track, and
analyze performance.
Marketing campaigns are not “set-it-and-forget-it,” instead, they require ongoing management to drive maximum
ROI. This hands-on approach allows teams to identify opportunities to optimize performance in real-time based on
what is or isn’t working for each campaign.
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 Bene its
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 Limitations
1. Insu icient Information:It also needs information about competitors, media
strategies of competitors; information about media like their rates, Image, rating
etc. Collecting all such information is a tedious job.
2. Time Pressure:It exerts a lot of time pressure on media-planners, to take quick
decisions. So decisions taken in a hurry may be wrong.
3Di iculty in Audience Measurement
4.Di iculty in Cost Comparison:Like in case of print media, cost per word or per
square centimetre is known; in case of broadcast media, cost per second is
known, in case of outdoor media, cost per sign board/sky balloon, etc. is known.
All these costs are on di erent basis. Hence, cost comparison of di erent media is
very di icult
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 Limitations
5.Changing Environment Factors:
For example, if at present a particular T.V. programme is very popular, but soon its popularity may
decline with the launch of another popular T.V. programme at the same time in another T.V. channel. So
the viewership of irst T.V. programme may decline.
6.Media Decisions Based on Guess Work:Many media decisions are based on judgment of ad-
manager e.g. mangers have to make guess regarding image of a particular media in the market.
7.Confusions Regarding Di erent Terminologies:
Di erent terms are used for measuring di erent forms of media. It is di icult to measure the total e ect
of the advertisements, focused through di erent media. For example, in print media the e ectiveness is
calc lated on the basis of cost to reach a thousand people i.e., cost per thousand or CPM.
In broadcast media like TV or radio, the e ectiveness is calc lated on the basis of cost per ratings point
or CPRP.
But the media planner should be interested to know the reach and the coverage of a particular medium
to assess the ultimate e ectiveness of the exposures.
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 Challenges
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 e ectively 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 lexibility in a budget and plan to allow marketers to
course correct as campaigns run and new insights are discovered. Modern media planning
requires the lexibility to allocate budget to di erent channels if they prove to be more
successful.
Integrating Measurements: Because there are so many channels online and o line, it has
become in initely more di icult for marketers to measure the success of these campaigns
alongside each other to determine which are most e ective and which should be updated.
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