Chapter 7 Media Planning Methods

Media Department Structure Media Director Media Analyst Media Planner Media Buyer Account Planner Figure 7.1 The Media Director is responsible for the planning of both traditional and digital media. This involves meeting with the account executive at the agency and the advertising manager at the company that is paying for the media. Media objectives and budgets are discussed. And, input from the account planner about the media habits of customers and potential purchasers are discussed. Then, the media process begins with one manager handling the analysis, another the planning, and final action of actually buying the recommended media for the advertiser.

Media Terminology Reach Frequency Duplication Impressions Cost Per Thousand Rating Points Gross Rating Points Target Rating Points Figure 7.2 These are the six basic media planning concepts for advertising. They apply for both tradltionaland digital media, but the CPM is the most important for digital media planning. Reach is always the number of “different” people exposed to an advertisement and frequency is the “average” number of times that an individual has been exposed to an advertisement.

Calculating Impressions Number of Ads Audience Size Per Ad Total Impressions Figure 7.3 One impression is considered to be an opportunity for exposure to a target audience. The total amount of impressions is calculated by multiplying the number of advertisements that appear in a specific media by the audience size for that media. Impressions are additive and indicate the intensity of advertising that is being delivered for the budget allocated.

Calculating Cost-Per-Thousand Price of Media Divided by People Multiplied by 1,000 CPM Figure 7.4 The Cost Per Thousand, or CPM, is the price of a specific media , divided by the number of people exposed to the media during a single advertisement, then multiplied by 1,000 to get the final number. The CPM indicates the relative media buying ”efficiency” among similar publications, television programs, or other forms of media.

Calculating Gross Rating Points Reach Frequency Gross Rating Points Figure 7.5 Reach is multiplied by Frequency to get Gross Rating Points. Although reach is expressed as a percentage and frequency is not, the final result becomes a number. Gross Rating Points, or GRP’s is a media planning tool for television, but it can be applied to any media for estimating the amount of advertising needed to achieve specific media objective for a brand.