L1 - Ad and Media Trends Flashcards
What is the problem with attention-grabbing ads?
Often the attention-grabbing ad fails recall tests for the product or its attributes (i.e. Dumb Ways To Die).
The ad is important but the decisions as to:
- Who sees it?
- Where/how?
- How often?
- When (eg season of year, time of week, time of day etc)?
- How much the campaign costs?
- How much you competitor is spending… etc etc?
- Does it work – ie achieve the desired response?
The Media Function - Key trends
- Demand for efficiency and effectiveness (measureable)
- Proliferation of media (and increasing)
- Convergence
- Complementarity
- Interactivity
- Engagement
- Creativity
- Unprecedented audience fragmentation
- Financial risk inherent in media buying
- A complex environment - media buyers in future will be dealing with media outlets that don’t exist today.
- Excitement and uncertainty!
The Media Function
Unbundling: establishment of agency media departments as independent units apart from their traditional role in full service agencies.
Controversial trend: should media planning and buying be separated? Degree of coordination between creative and media strategies
Key roles of the media function
- Media/communication Planning
- Media research
- Media Buying
What’s the goal of an ad?
Change a behaviour (don’t drink and drive, buy this shampoo…)
Advertising and ad Media:
- Advertising funds ‘free to air’ media and is its raison d’etre (what’s happening to FTA?).
- This co-dependent relationship is illustrated by the structure of media and advertising companies-every media company (e.g., TV, radio) has advertising staff responsible for finding advertisers for the content and every ad agency has media staff, knowledgeable about targeted media.
- There are critics of the relationship between media and advertising - regulation must occur because the public is also a stakeholder.
Media Characteristics
- Media planners must select media options that best fit the marketing and promotional goals of individual clients.
- To do this, media planning requires extensive knowledge of media characteristics, functions (both editorial and advertising) and measurement.
- Strong relationship to the target market, product and benefit.
- New, more sophisticated ways of measuring efficiency and effectiveness-not necessarily aiming to reach the target market at the lowest cost.
Media planning =
A series of decisions involving the delivery of messages to audiences
Media objectives =
Goals to be attained by the media strategy and program
Media strategy =
Decisions on how the media objectives can be attained
Media =
The various categories of delivery systems, including broadcast and print media
Media vehicle =
The specific carrier within a medium category (broadcast, print, digital and other vehicle)
Reach =
Number of different audience members exposed at least once in a given time period
Coverage =
The potential audience that might receive the message through the vehicle
Frequency =
The number of times the receiver is exposed to the media vehicle in a specific time period
Developing the media plan:
Media Plan Components:
Players/Stakeholders in the Media Business
- Media Owners – organisations that run media and entertainment businesses
- Advertisers – commercial or non-commercial organisations seeking to communicate with target audiences
- Advertising and Media Agencies – provide creative and media placement on behalf of their clients (the Advertisers) (what are new trends here?)
- Audiences – Viewers, readers, listeners who consume media
Above-the-Line (ATL) Media =
These are traditional mass media such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines
ATL media pay a commission to advertising or media agencies who place ads on behalf of their clients (advertisers)
The commission % is negotiated by the parties involved
Below-the-Line (BTL) Media =
BTL media do not pay a commission to the advertising or media agency
For example, Direct mail, trade shows, catalogues and the Internet are BTL media
Through-the-Line (TTL) =
The “line” refers to the commission line
Advertising campaigns should use media that are most effective, regardless of whether they are ATL or BTL
Through-the-Line is a term that refers to using both ATL and BTL initiatives together in the same advertising campaign to achieve an optimal IMC effect
The job of media planning is …
To deliver the advertising message:
- Cost-effectively
- To the right target audience
- At the right time and place
- In the right quantity
Media Planning includes selecting appropriate media, purchasing media time and/or space and ensuring that the advertising runs as purchased (Donnelly, 1996)
Media costs account for 80 – 90% of the advertiser’s budget
IMC =
Integrated Marketing Communications
An approach to achieving the objectives of a marketing campaign, through a well coordinated use of different promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other.
Media Planning, IMC and Marketing:
- Media Planning delivers the IMC mix to the target consumer
- Media planning contributes to advertising but also to the other IMC elements
- Since IMC is part of the marketing mix, media planners should understand the bigger marketing context in which they are working and contributing to – target audience, strategic outlook, history, branding, competitors, PLC etc.
Challenges facing Media Planners
- Perception of advertising as ‘Clutter’
- Advertising Avoidance (channel flicking etc)
- Media Proliferation and Audience Fragmentation
- Rising Media Costs
- Shifting media consumption patterns among all people
- Different terminology used across media
- Difficulty in measuring media effectiveness
- Insufficient information
