Make a Media Plan
Media buying is the process of developing a media plan, deploying that plan to media houses like radio and TV stations, and monitoring their compliance to the media plan before making payment.
Make a Media Plan
How will we reach our intended audience?
By the end of this step, you will have developed a media plan that describes how you will deliver your campaign to your intended audience.
How to conduct this step and achieve its main objectives:
Develop a Media Brief
A media brief is a summary of your campaign objectives that represents a shared understanding between the media buying team and technical program team. It defines the campaign’s intended audience, coverage areas, broadcast channels, start and end dates, and budget.
Media Brief
Suggested time:
1-2 hours
Participants:
Media buying team and core design team
Tool: Media Brief
This tool will help you draft a media brief to guide media buying activities to broadcast your campaign.
Effort required:
Select Stations and Time Slots
Deciding which radio or TV stations and time slots to broadcast your campaign should be guided by your intended audience’s media preferences and habits, including whether they prefer radio or TV, which programs they like best, and what time(s) of day they are more likely to tune in.
- Station Selection: Media buying agencies have access to costly station rating information to guide selection of the most popular stations. If you are buying media in-house, consider conducting informal audience surveys or, at minimum, ask local staff to recommend popular stations. Sometimes, choosing a less popular station may be beneficial if it serves a specific community, broadcasts in a particular language, or resonates more with your intended audience.
- Time Belt Selection: Media buying agencies can offer insights on popular programs and optimal viewing times for the intended audience. If you are buying media in-house, gather information from local staff and interview several stations for considerations. Ask them about their top programs and check if they broadcast in different languages at different times that may align with the viewing preferences of your campaign’s audience.
Determine Timing and Frequency
Additional considerations when developing a media plan is when to launch, how many times a day to run a spot, and whether to keep the same levels continuously or vary the schedule. These timing and frequency considerations are often determined by your budget. Following best practices will help you to maximize exposure and recall of your campaign.
- Timing: Your media plan should consider how seasonal trends and key events might affect exposure. For instance, launching a campaign during high-traffic periods, such as holidays or election periods, might end up with the campaign being drowned out in the clutter of so many other advertisements. However, airing your campaign during major sporting events can significantly enhance visibility.
- Frequency: The number of times a spot is aired will determine how many people are exposed to it, and the number of times they are exposed to it. A greater frequency of exposure will result in higher recall among more people. An effective campaign with high recall will result in social and behavior change.
- Optimizing Your Budget: Your budget heavily influences your choices when designing your media plan. Maintaining a consistent presence across multiple platforms—television, radio, print, and digital—can reinforce brand messaging and improve recall, but it can be expensive. An alternative approach is called flighting, which is to have periods of high frequency followed by periods of low intensity (e.g., alternating every three months, starting at a high frequency after launch then tapering to shorter alternating periods). The key is to achieve a high level of exposure, then use periods of high intensity to maintain recall.
Develop a Media Plan
A media plan is a detailed description of the outlet (e.g., radio, TV), dates, and times the campaign will air. It should include the negotiated rates and indicate if spots are paid for or complimentary. Ultimately, the media plan is the agreement between you and the media house. It will be used to monitor whether stations fulfill their contracted duties.
Regardless of whether you use a media buying agency or conduct negotiations in-house, use the Media Brief Tool to develop a detailed media plan, including at a minimum the outlet and airing times for every spot. Also monitor media house compliance to ensure that payment is warranted.
Media Plan
Suggested time:
2-3 days
Participants:
Media buying team
Example: Media Plan
If you use a media buying agency, ask them to provide a media plan similar to this example. If you buy media in-house, you may adapt this example to your context.
Effort required:
Deploy the Campaign
Media houses typically require a minimum lead time to include campaign spots in their programming, ranging from a few days to a week, depending on the station, so be sure to account for that in your planning. When the campaign is deployed to the outlet for broadcasting, you must share the final media plan with your media monitors. This penultimate step is discussed in the next section.
