INTRODUCTION

• Media planning: is an important component of the promotional strategy formulation. Selection

of appropriate media is important not only to reach the desired target audience but also to ensure

best utilization of promotional expenditure.

• Series of decisions involved in delivering the promotional message to the prospective buyer and

user of a product.

• The Media Plan—the goal of the media plan is to find a combination of media that will enable

the marketer to communicate the message in the most effective manner possible at minimum

cost.

• Media planning entails finding the most appropriate media platform to advertise the company or

client’s brand/product. Media planners determine when, where and how often a message should

be placed. Their goal is to reach the right audience at the right time with the right

message to generate the desired response and then stay within the designated budget. .
DEFINITION
• The process of deciding how to most effectively get your marketing
communications seen by your target audience.
• The design of a strategy that shows how investments in advertising time
and space will contribute to achievement of marketing objectives.
• Media planning is about determining the best Media Mix (i.e., the best
combination of one-way and two-way media) to reach a particular target
for a particular brand situation.
• Series of decisions involved in delivering the promotional message to the
prospective buyer and user of a product.
• Media Planner- The person at the advertising agency who
develops and executes your media plan.
• Media planning that requires knowledge of both marketing
and mass communication skills is the process of determining
deals with the biggest portion of the advertiser’s budget in
terms of cost for buying placement of advertisement.
• Media planners have two main roles of analyzing the market
and evaluating media channel effectiveness in order to place
the advertising message before a target audience.
 ROLE OF MEDIA PLANNING IN
ADVERTISING
 Proper media planning enables the selection of the right media: selection of the right media is crucial in

the entire planning process. How best can I reach my target audience? Is the question kept in mind?

 It helps to allocate the advertising funds to the right products in the right media: for example, ads for

chocolates will be placed in a slot where there is maximum children viewer ship. And channels like

Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network or between 5-7 pm when most children watch cartoons.

 It indicates the period or the season in which the advertiser need to concentrate on advertising

efforts: for example all the paint advertisements concentrate on the festive seasons. A few months before

the festival like Diwali the ads are released.

 It helps achieve the advertising objectives.

 It minimizes wastages of advertising funds: when money is used in the right direction there are minimum

wastages. A media plan helps the ad agency to obtain approval form the client. Proper media planning will

help the advertiser to reach the right target audience. It helps to finalize the frequency of advertisements:

how many repetitions of the advertisement should be done and are required also specified in a media plan.
MEDIA PLANNERS PERFORM FOUR
BASIC FUNCTIONS:
• Conduct media research
• Determine media objectives and strategies
• Determine the media mix
• Do the actual media buy
BASIC TERMINOLOGY
• Media Plan: Specifies the media in which advertising
messages will be placed to reach the desired target audience
• Media Class: A broad category of media such as television,
radio or newspapers
• Media Vehicle: A particular option for the placement of media
class
Reach and frequency

• Reach is number of people that will be exposed to a

vehicle or schedule at least once during a given
period of time
• Frequency is average number of times an ind within
ta is exposed to a media vehicle in a given
periodGross Rating Point = Reach X frequency
 ELEMENTS OF MEDIA PLANNING
• Media planning is the selection of media and scheduling of advertising. It is a complex task that is often

outsourced to a media agency or semi-automated. The following are common elements of media planning.

• Objectives

Defining goals, strategy and marketing objectives. In other words, what are you trying to achieve and how will it

be measured?

• Cost

Planning budget and cost targets such as cost per thousand or cost per point.

• Target Audience

Defining your target audience including geographical targeting such aslocal marketing.

• Media Mix

Selecting appropriate communication and media channels based on factors such as your brand, product and

creatives.

• Vehicles

Selecting specific media properties in each media channel.

• Mood

Considering the impact of a message relative to the surrounding media.

• Creative Execution

Planning the ads that will be used for each communication, media channel and vehicle. Involves

consultation with the creative team that produced the ads.

• Reach

The percentage of your target audience that you would like to reach in a period of time.

• Frequency

How many times the same individual is exposed to the same ad or campaign.

• Scheduling

Timing ads for impact and to manage cost.

• Flexibility

Media planning often leaves room for flexibility to respond to market conditions as they unfold. For

example, timing and selection of vehicles may be automated for digital channels to optimize based on

results.