Media Planning

To plan communication measures.
Communication means reaching the right recipients by means of the selected messages.
Communication is the process of transferring information.

efficiently transmit
a particular message
to a particular group of persons,
as often as needed,
within a set media budget,
within the right period of time and
within a selected location
by means of suitable media channels.

1. It is about fulfilling a communication objective by using the right kind of advertising media in a cost-efficient way.

2. It means using a budget in a cost-efficient way by selecting the best suitable advertising media. (most common)

- The target Group
- Advertising message
- Advertising medium
- Time
- Location
- Advertising frequency
- Advertising budget

The media planner must make sure, that the right people come into contact with the best suitable communication means at the right moment in time. He must be familiar with the media landscape.

Media Planning is defined in quantitative (selecting different media categories) and qualitative (By different formal criteria of media: the size and presentation of advertisements or the length of radio pieces and advertisements) terms

- When and how often you need to present a message to reach your target group
- in which media

- marketing objectives and the deriving communication objectives
- plus the budget.
Problem: Advertising actions are often not enough to achieve the predefined objectives.
The budget is often already determined in advance of the media planning strategy!

-Media analysis and media consultancy,
-Media planning
-Media reports and
-Recommendations for further actions.

- to evaluate the company,
- to analyse the market,
- the society as a whole and
- the product which will be advertised.

-Company image and brand
-Strenghts and weaknesses,
-The financial power compared to the competition in the market,
-The communication style in use,
-The future range of products
-The branding.

-Market life cycle,
-Market potential,
-Market volume,
-The competition
- the trading
- consumers

- single objects,
- the brand or
- the entire company.
The type of selected advertising material (advertisements) highly determine the advertising strategy of a company.

When the budget is limited and when there is a high reach, consumers are not exposed often enough to the advertisement and therefore the desired advertising impact is not achieved.
Reach and contact frequency are in competiton against each other!

Target groups are defined based on demographic informaton (e.g. age, gender, income, profession, size of households).
Problem: Demographic information becomes less and less helpful when trying to explain consumer behaviour.

-lifestyle,
-values and
-personal preferences.
They create consumer typologies
Further factors for consumer development:
-Socio-demographic development processes
-Changes in terms of financial aspects
-Changes in terms of values

Here, people are analysed at two levels and grouped in clusters
- Social status (lower, middle or upper class) and
- Value orientation (progressive vs. conservative)

- are strategic core-decisions,
- and are among the most complex issues in the advertising field.
A communication budget is determined by three elements:
1.the type and number of people aimed to be reached,
2.the type of advertising media and
3.the necessary contact frequency.
The contact frequency is a crucial element. If the contact frequency is reduced too much, this can lead to a lower advertising impact.

Advertising material:
In which phase of their life cycle are the advertising materials? How big is the market share? What are the qualities of the advertising material?

Target groups:
Which consumers must be reached? What are the objectives?

Advertising material and advertising media:
Which advertising material and which media are necessary in order to reach the selected objectives?

Competition:

Market position:

Assigning tasks to an advertising agency, communications agency or to a media agency.
The following issues will be solved together with the agency:
- selecting the types of media and the advertising media,
- conceiving and designing the advertising message, - discussing further media decisions and
- the production of media products.

Assigning tasks to the agnecy is called briefing.

-the message
-the access to the target group
-the way the advertising media are used
-the perception of the advertisement and product
-the budget
-media technical controllability
-the advertising environment.

-Defining the target group
-Selecting the type of advertising media
-Defining the type of distribution
-Reach and contact frequency
-Designing alternative media plans
-Evaluating the media plans based on costs and output

Socio-demographic attributes or psychographic attributes

Different advertising media are suitable in different ways for delivering advertising messages to the target audience.
For example:
Bilboard advertisements are suitable for delivering few information only. The selection of advertising media/channels is therefore strongly
determined by the predefined marketing and communication objectives.

There are: Media analyses which analyse, on a regular basis, the way people use the
media and Media market analyses which additionally analyse the consumer behavior.

The advertising effect (the contact quality) is determined by the advertisement format.
-Different spot duration,
-different formats, sizes and cromatics.
Different advertising forms have different costs and the decisions are based on the budget
The perception intensity:
depends on the size of the advertisement, on the chromatic design and the duration of the spots.

Reach: The total number of people which are reached by a planned
communication action.
Contact frequency:
The number of repeated actions necessary to reach the target audience.
The number of contacts which a member of a target group has with the advertising medium (not with the advertisement)

It indicates the actual number of contacts with the the advertisement and not the mere contact with
the advertising medium.

Means assigning tasks to the media department or the media agency.
- Defining the target groups,
- defining reach and contact frequency,
- setting a time table,
- selecting the advertising media and the form of distribution,
- defining the marketing and communication objectives.

Target group affinity:
Indicated to what extent the users of a particular advertising medium coincide with the selected target group in the context of a certain advertising action.

Costs per thousand users (TNP):
Shows the costs to reach 1.000 people in the target group.
Costs per thousand users =(Advertising costs / net reach) x 1000

Criteria for building rankings The net reach:
Indicates the percentage of the target group which comes into contact with the advertising medium at least once.
The gross rating point:
Indicated the sum of all contacts. Gross rating point (GRP in %) = net reach x contact frequency (OTC)

The comparative evaluation of alternative media plans:
For example: Media plan A has a higher reach in comparison to media plan B, but it has a lower average contact frequency rate than media plan B.
Net reach X Contact frequency
The decision is taken based on the communication objectives.

-The reach,
-reaching a certain number of persons in the target group in a specific time span
-the costs

to select which media you use (TV, Radio, Billboard)
Product type:
Communication requirements for advertising messages:
Cost structure:
Availability and actuality:
Frequency and market penetration

Intra-media selection (selecting the advertising media inside a media categories) what program, what magazine

is a precondition for establishing an effective media plan:
For example: Conducting a market research on a selected target group, which should then be reached by the advertisement.
Market research can be:
Studies by market research institutes, studies by publishing houses or research carried out by agencies.

- makes it easier to reach the desired target market with the suitable advertisement and
- to adjust the price, distribution channels and sales promotion to the target group.

To expose the differences among the consumers that will create a differentiated market development.

Make that your product is exactly what the target group wants. Makes the market more transparent and helps identify opportunities, market gaps and neglected submarkets.

- Market segmentation:
Dividing the market into separate consumer groups based on different criteria. These groups will be targeted by different product campaigns and a specific marketing mix, specially selected for these groups.
- Defining the target market: The company analyses which market segments are most attractive and selects then one or more segments.
- Market positioning:
The company positions itself sustainable in the market against its competitors.

- their desires,
- resources,
- place of residence or
- their consumption preferences.
Based on these variables, any market can be segmented into different groups.

Geographical segmentation:
Dividing the market into different geographical units, e.g. countries,
counties, cities or urban districts.

Demographic segmentation:
Dividing the market based on demographic attributes like age, gender, family size, family life cycle, income, profession, education, confession and national origin.

Psychographic segmentation: Grouping consumers based on criteria like lifestyle or personality traits.

Behavioural segmentation:
Consumers are grouped based on their knowledge of products, their opinions, their consumption behavior or their reaction to a certain product.
Behavioral variables are the best research data for establishing market segments.

-target group-oriented creation of advertising messages.
-effective selection of advertising media.
Once the target group and the advertising media have been selected, the next step is to decide on the marketing mix.

-To get to know the target group as closely as possible,
-in order to precisely match the communication strategies
-to the specifics of the target group.
There are two different perspectives on the target group:
-The „outside“ view: Using statistical analyses of survey data, it is possible to derive the quantitative composition of the market segment (search for significant differences between the segments, in order to establish a highly precise
consumer profile)
-The „inside“ view: discover the target group also from an inside perspective, based on peoples‘ mentality, their desires and wishes and their emotions.
These insights are especially important for defining the content of the communication strategies.
Understanding the target group by interpretation: Comsumer Insights

-Media usage behaviour in all media categories,
-sociodemographic data,
-personal opinions and preferences,
-consumption behaviour in preferably all product categories etc.
Because all the collected data is based on surveys, studies must define some key aspects to focus on.

Conclusion by analogy: is necessary when there is no data to be analysed.
Single Source Surveys: All information comes from a single source. Is an extensive and diverse picture of the media usage of a person or a household.

Data Merging: Reflects the necessity to distribute the need for information in different
surveys and samples. The collected data can still be used for planning crossmedia campaigns.

- The quality of products is difficult to assess.
- Customers experience the products only when they
consume them.
The perception of the products‘ quality is nevertheless influenced by consumers‘ expectations.
Expectations are highly influnced by marketing communication strategies.

Informative: Is used to introduce a new product type in the market. Wants to create and stimulate a primary demand for this type of product.

Persuasive advertising: Is used to develop demand for a particular product by convincing people of its qualities.

Reminder advertising: Is used to keep the product and the brand alive in consumers‘ perception.

Top down: you have the money and have to achieve the best possible media performance (output) by implementing different marketing
strategies.
Bottom up: you have the objectives and than you get the money to do it

Starts with the marketing objectives (market shares).
From the relative number of market shares, it is possible to indirectly derive how many households, as potential buyers, need to be targeted and reached.
The number of possible household with buying potential indicates the necessary reach numbers.
The necessary contact frequency figures are then calculated based on the content of the communication plans.

1. the reach and
2. the contact frequency.

Based on the target group and the communication plan, the following
decisions can be made:
- selecting the suitable media categories and
- the characteristics of the advertisements (e.g. size and color combination of advertisements).

is the basis for media planning. It collects information about the use of media and their users. The collected data build the basis for establishing a media plan.
- It helps to calculate the reach (how many people contacted) for a specific medium,
-presents data about the media users,
-collect data about the contact frequency
-analyze information about the consumption behavior and the leisure time behavior.

You need to Identify advertising media channels which are intensively used by a particular target group.
For that you have to make the advertising media channels comparable in terms of:
-their communicative performances and
-their costs.

Values enable the comparison between completely different advertising media.
Question: Did the person come into contact with the medium? The frequency of contact is irrelevant.
The contacts that took place can be counted and compared. Considering also the costs in this analysis, a first comparison of the
performance of media channels as advertising media can be traced.

Advertising medium:
Distribution channel for advertising messages in different forms and formats: newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, cinema, online, billboards etc.
Advertising message:
Content-related statement which needs to be distributed to the audience by media.
Advertisement:
The format of the advertising message: advertising spot, radio spot, TV spot, cinema spot, billboard etc.

Gross Reach / Gross rating points: Counts ALL the times that people HAD CONTACT with the advertising medium (multiple contacts per person also). GRP is the sum of all these contacts.
Gross reach = net reach x contact frequency (OTC- opportunity to contact)
Problem? doesn't tell you much you might have something too high and something too low

The Net Reach: The percentage of PEOPLE IN TARGET GROUP reached by the message through the advertising medium at least one time.
Each person reached is counted only once.
Problem? Doesn't tell you how effective the contact was

-marketing objectives
-the complexity of the message
-the interest of the target group: „high“- and „low-involvement“ products.
-the type of advertising media selected by the target group and the media usage of the target group
-the use of synergy effects
-contact frequency in comparison to the market comptetitors

The reach figures only indicate if a person has had contact with the advertising medium, but not if the advertising message had any effect on the consumer.
You have to find out how often it is necessary to come into contact with the advertising medium in order to reach a certain advertising effect.
Based on the target group information and the product attributes, it is possible to estimate how often it is necessary to come into contact with the advertising medium in order to reach the targeted objective.

- People reached by the advertisement but do not belong to the target-group
- OR people in the target group who will not come into contact with the advertising medium.
A high waste coverage leads to high media expenses. You have to select the advertising media with the least waste coverage.

In case of a single advertising placement, the net reach (people in the target group reached) = gross reach (times people came into contact)

Cumulative audience: The number of people reached by multiple advertising placement.
Cumulative reach: The audiences accumulate over time. Every extra person reached, you reach also other not yet reached (ex: magazine issue with few frequent readers and many occasional readers).
Cumulative contact: By each advertising placement a big share of people, who have already had contact with the medium, are reached again.

Cumulation rules:
- A high increase in reach = a low contact frequency.
- A high contact frequency determines a low increase in reach (share in the population).

Together with the volume of coverage inside the target group (reach) helps measuring the success of an advertising.
Is a combination of attributes of the target group (age, education level,...) the product (innovation, complexity), the involvement,
the campaign (new product launch, stabilization of the company image).

When all contacts (contact times) are put in relation to all persons reached by the advertising medium, the result is the average contact frequency per reached person.
Average contact frequency (OTC)= Gross reach (people that came into contact.) divided by Net reach (% of target group reached)
The average contact frequency defines the opportunities to contact (OTP): average of people reached by the advertising medium in a media plan.

Comparing the the average contact frequency and the gross reach (GRP). They help you see the communication performance of different advertising media.

The problem is as an average value, the OTC does not say anything about the actual distribution of contacts among the reached persons (OTC = 16 contacts / 2 persons = 8 contacts OTC = 32 contacts / 4 persons = 8 contacts)
It does not give any information about how high the contact frequency is inside the target group.
A high average contact frequency may mislead to think that only a small share of the target group has been reached.

What are the costs for reaching 1000 people in the target group. It doesn't matter how many contacts. This refers to the net reach (number of persons reached) and not to the number of actual contacts (how many times they came into contact with the medium).
CpTU = (placement costs / net reach) * 1000

It is the cost to achieve 1000 CONTACTS with the adversiting medium. It is the placement costs divided by number of contacts (GRP) x 100 .
CpM = (placement costs / gross rating points) * 1000

Advantages
- Most important reference value for a comparison in terms of cost-effectiveness and profitability
- enables evaluation of economic effectiveness/profitability of different media
- Helps selecting advertising media channels and when planning advertising campaigns and actions.
- Allows to rank costs
- Makes it possible to conduct a crossmedia comparison for advertising placement.
- You know in which medium you have to increase budget

Disadvantages:
- It is a purely quantitative value. - It doesn't provide information about the way the advertising message reaches the recipient.
- Refers only to an opportunity of contact and not to the real contacts that actually took place.

Costs per thousand:
Ad placement costs in Euro X 1.000 / distribution (Auflage)

The costs-per-thousand-value refers to the print run (Auflage). used almost exclusively for the planning of specialized
magazines.

STRENGTHS:
- Sunday full color supplement with advertising inserts mean continuous advertising cycle 7 days a week. Full color and Sunday content attract particular attention.
- Inserts can be printed and used for more  than  one  paper
- stable readership via subscription/brand loyalty, hence advertising has more staying power and the target group can be targeted more precisely and effectively
- Large circulation
- Local and regional coverage sets newspapers apart from other media which concentrates mostly on nationwide content
- Can be arranged in short notice
- Faster to build awareness and strong media for promotion

WEAKNESSES:
- High cost of printing, particularly color
- Highly saturated market
- Limited segmentation
- Short life
- Below average in affinity with younger target groups

OPPORTUNITIES:
- Cross platform advertising
- Innovative features (i.e consumer testing and reports)
- Partnerships with other companies (other parts of the same media group or outside)
- Internet alliances to share resources and reduce costs
- unique opportunities to marketers (i.e. coupons, prizes) and subscribers
- More emphasis on and local advertising
- Launching of products: prominence and actuality
- Use of special formats (such as editorial ads)

THREATS:
- Shrinking advertising market
- Competition from other newspapers for advertising revenues
- Loss of readership – consumers move online
- Consumers are not willing to  pay for unique content not  available elsewhere
- Online media is displacing
 print as most up to date media

STRENGHTS
- Clear target group: region, age,
- high consumer power of listeners
- high loyalty
- last media contact before the purchase
- 3h30 min a day make many contacts possible
- Less escape from ads

Weaknesses
- the attention of listeners is not very high, therefore you need frequent contact
- limited possibility for detailed information
- Low ratings in the evening and losses on weekends
- Regionally limited
- Limited number of commercials per hour

OPPORTUNITIES
- Increasing number of online streams, expanding the reach of some stations
- Apps make radio streams portable. You can increase listen time and thus increase frequency of contact
- Branded Games
- Multi-platform compatibility

THREATS
- Internet streams (no ad) and therefore the target audience profile sinks
- TV with music program
- Big offer = fragmentation

Marketing objectives: Are related to the purchase/buying behaviour of consumers.
Marketing objectives depend on monetary aspects (value, price, return etc.) or on market shares and on the observable consumer behaviour.

Communication objectives:
Are determined based on the degree to which consumer behaviour, desires or opinions can be influenced.

Advertising objectives:
Must be integrated into a system of communication objectives.

Media objectives derive from advertising objectives: They indicate the goals that will be achieved by media planning.

Purchase relevance: clearly indicate the consumer purchase behaviour.

Measurability: must be measurable in order to determine their size, the purchase power and other important values for the marketing plan.

Essence: segment must be sufficiently big or broad, in accordance to its profit potential.

Accessibility: It must be reachable and easily operated by media channels.

Separability: Segments must be conceptually distinct. They should react differently to separate marketing strategies and elements of the marketing mix.

They have to be homogeneous as possible and heterogeneous as possible among each other