Media Consulting
When your current marketing resources just aren’t enough, MPG is here to help …
Many companies with which we speak employ outside advertising or web marketing agencies to handle their advertising. Others choose to handle the implementation of their advertising plans in-house. And, they are often reasonably satisfied with their advertising strategies and execution and aren’t looking to “change horses”. But, there are times when these companies are looking for some additional outside support and advice to help complement or refine their existing marketing strategies and plans. To satisfy this need, MPG offers several consulting services to assist improve their advertising results.
Media Strategy Development
MPG works with clients to develop or refine their overall Media Buying Strategy. Many companies don’t revisit their media strategies often enough to ensure they are investing their advertising budgets effectively and efficiently. And, all too often, companies are buying significant amounts of advertising without a well designed or articulated strategy to dictate how, specifically, their advertising budget should be allocated. As such, even with sharp media buyers and good negotiators, they may not be getting the results they should from their media buys. MPG can develop and conduct market research to define or refine a client’s target audience, and can work with their media buyers to define a specific media strategy or set of planning goals.
Media Plan Audits
For clients who are reasonably happy with their media plans, but desire an objective, outside evaluation of their plans’ effectiveness, MPG can conduct an independent audit of a client’s traditional media plan or pay-per-click search marketing program to ensure these plans are being executed effectively and are generating the results they should. Typical questions that are being asked by companies that benefit from this kind of audit are:
- Does our company have the right media strategy? Is our media strategy in line with our business goals? Is our plan optimized to achieve the desired results?
- Are our media plans being executed consistent with our media strategy? Are we actually buying what we thought we were getting?
- How competitive are our rates? Are we overpaying for our television and radio buys?
- Are we getting all the value we can get out of our advertising investment?
- Is our Paid Search campaign properly organized? Are we bidding on the right keywords? Are we taking advantage of all the local search opportunities to optimize our plans.
For audits of broadcast media (television and radio), existing media strategies are reviewed and actual media plans are evaluated against the existing strategy and the company’s marketing goals and objectives. Then, a comprehensive audit is conducted to review and audit past, present and future plans, as appropriate. Media plans are reviewed and reconciled against actual invoices to ensure advertising is running correctly. Invoices are scrutinized to confirm there was acceptable spot rotation and spot separation and that all promised make-goods were delivered in equivalent (or better) programming. Post-buy analyses are conducted, if necessary, to identify and correct any weight under delivery. Finally, MPG will make specific recommendations for improving the plans in the future. Through these audits, MPG has saved clients thousands — and in some cases — millions of dollars in media cost. Click here to read a case study about a client who were able to save over $2,000,000 per year in wasted advertising expense. (Read more … )
In-House Training
Some clients (and even one ad agency) have engaged MPG to train their in-house media buyers. In these cases, MPG’s media management staff can bring their years of experience across a wide range of media, markets and methods to help a company’s in-house buyers improve the way in which they plan, negotiate, and place their media buys and to more effectively measure their results. Based on the company’s needs, MPG will develop a customized training program for the client’s staff to ensure ongoing quality plan development and execution.
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