Media Planning and Buying

If you hate wasting money, keep your eyes on the media buy.

We’ll be the first to admit that media planning and buying isn’t the most exciting part of our business. Folks don’t gather around the water cooler to chat about the media flowchart they saw last night. Kids don’t dream of being media planners. John Grisham hasn’t written any media buying thrillers, either.

But maybe if media buys were that exciting, more advertisers here in Mississippi would realize that they are throwing money out the window with each media buy. Think about it: In a typical ad campaign, the largest share of the money goes to the media buy. So, naturally, the media buy should require careful forethought and scrutiny. Right?

We think so. The way we see it, the process of planning and buying media should be based on thorough research, reliable data, informed negotiation, and efficient follow-up. The last thing any advertiser should do is entrust media someone that’s going to simply call up a few media reps and ask for their recommendations or a buyer that doesn’t have the tools to accurately assess and analyze media data.

Media planning should be based on facts, not phone calls

At Maris, West & Baker, we subscribe to a number of media research data services, most importantly Nielsen, Arbitron and SRDS. These data subscriptions are very expensive for an agency like ours. But we subscribe because it’s impossible to carry out an informed media buy without up-to-date, accurate data. Here’s an analogy: Imagine buying a fleet of new cars – and the only price reference you have is what’s on the sticker. Media is like that. Without the data, you can’t accurately judge fair pricing, and it’s very hard to negotiate.

If you’re planning a large media buy, statewide or greater, your media buyers should be using a respected media buying software package designed specifically for media analysis. We use SmartPlus and PrintPlus, which are two of the best products available. This kind of software allows us to analyze media options, buy specific dayparts, determine the size of a targeted audience, and calculate the reach and frequency of the buy. We can deliver a campaign to the right audience more cost effectively.

Without sophisticated media buying software, the process is much more complex and inefficient. It involves calling up reps, going to websites, looking at media kits, and manually inputting data into spreadsheets. This approach introduces lots of guesswork, bias and the potential for errors into the process.

Media accountability, after the buy

When you’re spending big money on media, you should know that your media buy delivered, as promised. That’s where media auditing becomes so important.

In our case, auditing is built into the system. With our media buying software, we can ensure that paid media placements aired correctly, in the right place and at the right time. Broadcast media invoices are compared to the actual buy, and any discrepancies are automatically flagged so that our media department can approve or reject payment. Our post-buy analysis also holds networks accountable for their rating projections. We monitor whether the actual ratings met projections and request make-goods when ratings fall short.

Without media buying software, this kind of analysis would be extremely time consuming and impractical. Translation: No audit. If your commercial ran during the wrong time slot, you’ll never know and you won’t have any recourse.

All too often, in competitive bids, marketers award their media buys to the low-bidder thinking that they’re getting better value. Companies often assume that their agency must have all the right tools to effectively plan, negotiate and buy media. Don’t make that mistake.