06 Nov Media Planning or Media Buying: The Pillars of Successful Campaign
The process of strategizing, negotiating and purchasing of ad placement is known as media planning and buying. It is widely known as “inventories” as well. A good planner is the one who knows his products well and consider what is being advertised. He must also be aware of his target audience and the ultimate goal of the product. Media buyers are those people who buys media space at the initial stage and also performs required tasks in order to check with further optimization to enhance the performance of these ads for the entire lifecycle of a campaign.
Media Planning:
Media Planning is the first brick in the foundation of a successful media ad campaign. Media planning is necessary because it helps in spreading an outline of a concreate plan of actions that will help in developing an ad campaign, the targets that are supposed to be achieved via this campaign and the smart and effective use of various media that will help the message to be conveyed with maximum force. A good media planning agency starts a campaign with a detailed study of the associated media market and the current trends that are flowing in the industry. This study will help an agency to understand the behaviour and response of the audience towards a certain message of an ad campaign.
Further, a media agency is supposed to divide the resources in accordance with the plan for the different media platforms. A good advertising agency will understand the brand’s competitive position, its goals and visions and utilize agency’s prompt brain force to use the advertising budget effectively.
Media Buying:
Media buying is a critical and most important part of marketing. Here, an agency is supposed to acquire a “paid” media space or timeslot using experience and wisdom so that the placed ad gets to target the maximum number of audience. It is considered most important because this decides the overall result of a campaign. A media buying process includes buying space for client’s ad in Newspaper, Magazine, Tabloids etc. and timeslots in TV and Radio. For online promotions, banner ads on leading online portals could be ideal. The media agency is supposed to have good and cordial relations with all sort of media personals and channel owners. However, it is hardly possible to get a large space or a long timeslot, a good media agency will help its client by putting their ads in the timeslot or the space where it can grab maximum attention. It is also responsible for getting the best distribution channel and negotiate the prices in a way that maximises the profit of the client.
Media Planning and Media Buying: Two Sides of One Coin
An effective media planning and buying is a must in order to run a successful ad campaign. There are few companies who ignore the first or sometimes the later one owing to cost saving, but ignoring the importance of either will hold you from reaping the best fruits. Jumping directly on the media buying without proper media planning will only burn a hole in your pocket without bringing you any concrete result. Similarly, if you have a great media plan and you do not place the message in the right media in front of right audience, the entire efforts in the planning stage will go in vain. So, it is advised to go for a good media agency that takes the overall responsibility of media planning and media buying. This will not only get your message reach the right audience loud and clear, but also ensure a smooth operation of campaign and fetch the desired results.