Strategic Media Planning makes your advertising campaigns perform better!

At Marketing Performance Group, we believe there is a discipline and science to designing and planning the most effective media campaigns for our clients.  We use the discipline and science of media planning to determine the “who”, “how”, “when”, “where”, “which”, and, sometimes even the “why”, that will define the recommended media plans and produce the best results.

Disciplined media planning will ensure you are putting your advertising message in front of the right audience … using the right media channels, where your customers are most likely to see it … and advertising at the times when they are most likely to respond and you are best able to engage with them.  It will help you utilize your advertising budget more efficiently.  It will provide specific goals for the media buyers that will result in lower negotiated media rates.  And, most importantly, effective media planning will improve your advertising ROI.

This comprehensive media planning process starts with a review of the industry and competition and an evaluation of available media research to understand the consumer habits and motivations that may impact their response to your advertising.  Then, we design a customized media strategy, based on a careful examination of your business, your competitive position and your unique marketing goals and objectives.  Finally, a strategic calendar of advertising activity is recommended that provides for effective utilization of your advertising budget. This media plan will provide a framework within which the media buyers can evaluate various media proposals … and then negotiate, purchase and schedule the media.

Media Management, as practiced at MPG, involves four distinct steps. MPG’s experience over the past 25 years is that employing this type of comprehensive approach lowers media costs and improves media results. Placing a media buy might sound simple, but creating and executing a media plan that will reach the greatest number of target consumers… in the most effective way… and generating the most effective response… at the lowest possible cost takes hard work… much of which comes well after the media runs.

Too often, effective media planning is overlooked or “short-cutted”, in favor of jumping right into the media buying; but at Marketing Performance Group, we know from over twenty-five years of both client-side and agency experience that the best performing media plans come from a foundation of solid media planning.  If you’re not confident that your current advertising agency or in-house media buying department is providing you with effective media planning, click here or call us today and ask us about our free media evaluation offer.

MPG’s media planning services and deliverables include:

• Evaluating available third-party industry and consumer research
• Reviewing competitive spending levels, where available
• Evaluating past/current media plans
• Posting current television buys and negotiating any make-good weight
• Reconciling current/recent media invoices against plans and negotiating credits and make-good weight as necessary
• Developing customized media strategy
• Providing advertising calendars, flow charts, etc.
• Managing and reconciling advertising budgets
• Forecasting media weight and delivery, media costs, results
• Providing quarterly media cost/rate targets for media buyers
• Assessing geographic spill outside your target geography (media waste)

Media Research

The media planners at Marketing Performance Group leverage a wide array of online and offline research tools   to understand consumer habits and motivations.  We can mine your existing customer list to research and identify the demographics of your ideal customer and zero on their behaviors and psychographics.  Our media planners utilize Scarborough and Snapshots to better understand your customers’ media usage habits and utilize media tracking services such as Nielsen, Arbitron and SQAD to effectively forecast media costs and set buying goals.  Finally, using advanced media planning and tracking software, MPG media planners develop more efficient and effective media plans for our clients

Click on the research sources listed below for more information on how each aids in developing better media plans.

Media Strategy

Based on exhaustive research on industry and competitor trends and customer demographics, habits and media usage, our media planners develop a customized media strategy that is born out of each client’s specific business objectives, marketing goals, overall positioning and creative approach.   We don’t believe in “template strategies”.  Each client’s strategy is unique and reflective of their business model and the specific objectives and goals they wish achieve with the advertising investment.
While each strategy is tailored to each client’s business, the media strategy usually includes discussion and recommendations associated with the following areas:

Media Plan Objective(s)

What are the specific and measurable objectives of the media plan?  What do we want the advertising campaign to accomplish?  What do we want customers to do as the result of exposure to the advertising?  Do we want them to set an appointment?  Call a call center and purchase product over the phone?  Visit a website?  Make an online purchase?

Target Audience

Who is the target customer?  What are the demographics of the target customer that will allow us to choose media channels more effectively?

Geography

What is the geographic area in which we wish to advertise?

Seasonality/Continuity

Is there seasonality to the industry or category?  Are there times we don’t want to advertise, or conversely, periods of the year during which we want to advertise more heavily? Do we want to advertise continuously or is “flighting” the advertising an option?

Media Channels

What are the primary channels we wish to utilize for the advertising campaign?  Are there particular media channels that lend themselves better to the category, the target consumer or the advertising message?

Creative Units

If creative already exists, what are the size of the ads, length of the commercials, shape of the banners, etc.?  If creative doesn’t yet exist, what creative units are best and what are the specs for this creative so that the necessary creative can be developed in support of the campaign?

Daypart Mix

What days or times of day are best to advertise?  Are there times or days we don’t want to run advertising?  Does the advertising need to reflect business hours?

Media Delivery Goals

What are the specific measurable media weight goals for the campaign (reach, frequency, GRP’s, impressions, visitors, etc.).  If the budget is limited, is reach or frequency more important? 

Measurement

How will the results of the advertising campaign be evaluated?  What methods will be use to track and analyze the results of the campaign.

Executional Considerations

Are there any other considerations that will impact the design and execution of the media plan

Media Plan

The media planners at Marketing Performance Group use media forecasts to predict the number of impressions you will achieve, CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions), GRPs (Gross Rating Points) and customer acquisition. This will give you a sense for how many times your advertising message will be viewed, and how the costs vary by network and/or day part. To be effective, the Media Plan can’t be a “cookie-cutter” schedule, but rather should be customized to your specific business, your specific competitive position, and your specific marketing goals and objectives. Like a good road map, your Strategic Media Plan will help ensure your advertising campaign gets you where you want to go.

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