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Agency
Related Matters
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Strategic
Media Planning
Redundancy or Oxymoron?
Andre
Nair
The writer is CEO, WPP Media - South Asia
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“In
the next century, media will no longer be measured
in just space & time but in other dimensions: exposure,
emotions, in attitude, understanding and environment...”
- Rupert Murdoch (1998)
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It’s
curious why the phrase ‘strategic media planning’ exists
when all planning by definition is strategic. So why
the redundancy in the context of media planning?
Yesterday
The media process used to be split into three parts-media
strategy, plan development (entailing selection of media
vehicles) and buying (execution of the resulting media
plan lay-down).
Then the media environment changed.
Six years ago, there were few media choices for consumers
and advertisers. The explosion of TV channels followed
by the growth of more newspapers, magazines and radio
stations caused a radical restructuring of the media
landscape, resulting in two key phenomena:
* Consumer audiences fragmented their reading or TV
viewing across many more options.
* Inter-media and intra-media competition for eyeballs
and advertising rupees increased dramatically. Competition,
as it inevitably does, led to rate-card price pressures
and, eventually, to rate discounting.
So the concept of ‘implementation planning’ came into
practice; plans became more flexible to exploit that
competition by providing maximum opportunities at the
final buying point. ‘Strategic planning’ was therefore
used to distinguish that part of the media planning
process from the implementation phase.
| Advanced
Techniques Group |
Propriety
statistical modelling and accountability measures |
| BroadMind |
Specialists
in non-traditional media (events, sponsorship,
programming, barter, etc) |
| MindShare
Consumer Insights |
Propriety
consumer media research |
| M
Digital |
Digital
media specialists (planning & buying) |
Today
It is no small generalisation to state that the market’s
negotiability has driven our industry to become buying-led;
both agencies and advertisers are pushing media owners
for even greater rate reductions. As recently as last
August, I read a business magazine article calling us
the ‘media-buying industry’, stating that agency consolidation
for greater buying clout was the major industry development.
Price negotiation is important; especially in the current
scenario of reduced or flat media budgets, but it is
one element in the development and implementation of
effective media plans. We seem to have overlooked media’s
true purpose-reaching relevant consumer segments using
the media as channels of marketing communication designed
to influence their purchase or consumption habits.
This is particularly worrying in light of India’s wealth
of syndicated media research information (India and
China have the largest amount of media research in Asia
Pacific). It begs the question: are we buying media
research as window dressing?
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It
is no small generalisation to state that the
market’s negotiability has driven our industry
to become buying-led; both agencies and advertisers
are pushing media owners for eveN greater rate
reductions
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Goals and Measures
All strategies begin with goals that are ultimately
measures of results; of success or failure.
Currently, media accomplishments are assessed against
limited criteria, none directly related to business
objectives. Measures such as cost per thousand, gross
rating points, reach and frequency are simply indicators
of media performance; they are not goals in themselves.
Media performance must be linked inextricably with measures
like market share, advertising awareness, sales growth,
share conversion, message cut-through-these are business
goals and indicators of effectiveness and, thus, results.
Strategic media planning
This is where ‘strategic’ media planning comes into
play-media investment decisions designed to fulfill
business or marketing objectives providing measurable
ROI through:
* The selection of relevant target audience segments
based on purchase, consumption or profit imperatives;
* The geographic allocation of budgets or media weight,
reflecting sales or audience-distribution priorities;
* Determining media weights which efficiently impact
sales or advertising awareness levels;
* The correlation of media-weight scheduling patterns
to sales or advertising awareness trends;
* Enhancement of the creative message through the creative
use of media to increase message cut through and thus
registration;
*And, finally, the prioritisation of all the components
above to reflect the thrust of an advertiser’s business
and marketing plans. These six strategic elements are
rooted in three principles:
* That any medium-from TV to mailers to events to park
benches-are channels of communication;
* That a medium is a brand, just like Lux is a brand,
with which consumers have deep and complex relationships.
The degree of affinity affecting their consumption patterns;
* That KPIs are determined and applied as a measure
of both ROI and accountability.
A commercial break
At WPP Media, we define ourselves as Media Investment
Managers; helping clients improve their business results
through more accountable media investment management.
A role we fulfill by combining great strategic thinking
with leveraging our buying clout, applying insights
gained from our proprietary research and techniques,
and being passionate about brands and consumers.
We offer clients a comprehensive spectrum of media services
to suit their individual needs. We call this concept
‘The House of Media’. Clients come to us for all their
full-service 360( media needs that we can deliver through
our operating companies (MindShare, Maximize, Fulcrum)
and our four specialised support units. (See Table 1)
Input and Analysis
Great strategic thinking requires research information
and tools for analysis and interpretation. Four examples
from our Advanced Techniques Group’s comprehensive suite
of proprietary research and tools illustrate how the
value of media strategies can be quantified in relation
to media investment.
1. AdPhase™
Part of our proprietary stable of modeling and predictive
tools, AdPhase is based on the premise that the rate
at which advertising generates awareness is correlated
with the rate at which advertising generates brand sales.
We use AdPhase to practice what we term as ‘awareness
planning’. AdPhase uses historical tracking data to
model and ultimately predict the required level of media
weight (reach and frequency) to generate defined advertising
awareness levels.
By modeling hundreds of awareness-and-sales trends and
correlating them with a variety media weight and scheduling
patterns, we have found that, in general, low frequency
is most efficient and that scheduling changes can quantifiably
impact media budgets. On average, such strategies have
saved our clients 10 per cent from their budget as the
examples illustrate. (See Graph 1)
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By
modeling hundreds of awareness-and-sales trends
and correlating them with a variety media weight
and scheduling patterns, we have found that,
in general, low frequency is most efficient
and that scheduling changes can quantifiably
impact media budgets
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2. Pathways™
To better understand and quantify the relative effectiveness
that all communication channels have on consumer brand
choice, we surveyed the consumer purchase process for
over 20 product categories (durables and FMCG) in our
proprietary Pathways study.
Pathways first typologised consumers according to their
purchase behaviour (e.g. loyalists vs. rotators). Within
the purchase process, it then mapped the stage at which
shoppers made specific brand-purchase decisions. The
impact or influence of each channel was measured at
all stages during the shopping experience.
We established in the skin-care category, for example,
that:
Editorial and advertorials can have the greatest influence
on brand choice;
Beauticians at beauty parlours are the most credible
source of endorsement and brand advice versus shopkeepers.
A situation that is reversed in the soap category.
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Research
from the US and UK has shown that viewers who
are more involved with a programme exhibit A
higher recall of advertising placed within it
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3. Passion
TV planning has historically been based on quantitative
viewing data ratings. To measure the qualitative aspect
of consumers’ TV viewing, we designed the Passion( study.
Research from the US and UK has shown that viewers who
are more involved with a programme exhibit higher recall
of advertising placed within that programme, sometimes
by as much as 35 per cent. Based on that premise, Passion
used three quantitative measures to determine a viewer’s
involvement with different programme genres. Each genre
was then assigned a ‘Passion Quotient’. Some insights
from Passion:
Apart from blockbusters, most movies have very low passion
quotients;
News and historical epics have the highest quotients.
Assigning passion quotients to two media plans with
the same GRPs, we found that the plan with the higher
PQ had an added five to 10 per cent impact for the same
budget.
4. 3D™
Based on a sample of 8,000, our latest study 3D combines
three dynamics into a single source of knowledge. (See
Chart 1)
An example of data fusion, 3D provides better solutions
to reach the most lucrative potential customers effectively-critical
for successful communications planning:
Real insights into the relationships between people,
brands, media and technology.
Feeds the planning tools and statistical models developed
by our Advanced Techniques Group.
Enables the creation of media strategies that are focussed
on the brand and the lives of its most potentially lucrative
customers. (See Table 2)
The Change
The nature and focus of media planning needs to change.
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Clearly,
our industry needs to do more to educate both
our staff and our customers on its importance
versus the more easily recognisable monetary
gains that buying provides. Equally important,
we need to make our discipline more demonstrably
business results-oriented and, thus, accountable
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More pow per paisa
That every media paisa needs to work harder is not just
a reflection of the current climate; it’s always been
true. Though it is a misconception that only media buying
can save clients money through negotiated discounts.
India is not unique in this misplaced focus. Contrast
the different perceived requirements of Asian and European
clients. (See Graph 2)
Cost control is not just a matter of price but of the
equal importance of planning (what to buy) with buying
(how to buy) backed with an appropriate process and
the right tools designed to maximise ROI.
Insight and the right analytical tools that feed strategic
planning can also contribute to adding value or increasing
budgetary ‘savings’. Recently, we saved one of our customers
17 per cent of their budget by reducing the media budget
while increasing effectiveness through appropriate media
strategies.
Tommorow
Strategic media planning exists in India; it’s just
practiced by too few individuals.
Clearly, our industry needs to do more to educate both
our staff and our customers on its importance versus
the more easily recognisable monetary gains that buying
provides. Equally important, we need to make our discipline
more demonstrably business results-oriented and, thus,
accountable.
Then, hopefully, the word ‘strategic’ will become implicit
and, thus, redundant when referring to media planning.
And we can simply get on with creating effective media
plans for our customers and their brands. .
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