Media Planning and Strategy

Students need to take guideline from these notes and elaborate their answers

Q) EXPLAIN THE MEDIA PLANNING PROCESS? 12 MARKS

1. Marketing Objectives
A Target a goal set by client / marketer for promoting its products and services to potential target audience.
It can be a product launch, a sustenance campaign, price off or promotional campaign, or discounts offering.

2. Identification of Markets
Markets best suitable for your client’s product
Core markets for your product, competition core markets, low category and product markets. non-potential
markets etc.

3. Identification of TG
Best suitable TG for the product. Primary audience, secondary audience this helps in media buying decision
making.

4. Analysis
Market Analysis
Every media plan begins with the market analysis or environmental analysis. Complete review of internal
and external factors is required to be done. At this stage media planner try to identify answers of the
following questions:
 Who is the target audience where they reside?
 What internal and external factors may influence the media plan?
 Where and when to focus the advertising efforts?
The target audience can be classified in terms of age, sex, income, occupation, and other variables. The
classification of target audience helps media planner to understand the media consumption habit, and
accordingly choose the most appropriate media or media mix.

5. Communication Strategy
Establishing Media Objective
Media objectives describes what you want the media plan to accomplish. There are five key media
objectives that a advertiser or media planner has to consider - reach, frequency, continuity, cost, and weight.
1. Reach - Reach refers to the number of people that will be exposed to a media vehicle at least once
during a given period of time.
2. Frequency - Frequency refers to the average number of times an individual within target audience is
exposed to a media vehicle during a given period of time.
3. Cost - It refers to the cost of different media
4. Weight - Weight refers to total advertising required during a period. Like GRP and Reach for TV, reach
and frequency for print, CPC or CPM for internet, number of sites for outdoor etc.
5. Teaser vs reveler
6. Impact properties sponsorship or spot buys on high cost non fiction or sports properties, like IPL, India
Cricket, Bigg Boss, Nach Baliye
7. Quick ambush
8. Discount / offer campaigns

6. Selection of Media Vehicles

Media Mix - From the wide variety of media vehicles, the advertiser can employ one vehicle or a mix
suitable vehicles.

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Different role to each medium – like TV is AV medium can be for reach. Within TV for example role by
channels depend on type of product. News/ Music / Movies channels can be frequency, reminder builder,
GEC is reach builder. Sports India cricket can be impact. Regionals to reach in specific territory.
Print – Product specific and TG specific, for eg. very apt for financial products, depend on markets too
Radio / Cinema can be used as frequency builder. As its relatively less cost
Outdoor also TG and Market and product specific.
Selection is based on reach and cost efficiency too

7. Budgeting & Making plan

Media Plan - An exhaustive excel sheet of all the selected mediums and assigning budgets to each medium.
Assigning spends for each medium, every small details are listed out right from timelines, to number of buys
to cost of each medium
TV - channels, timeslots, shows,
Print - publications, sizes,
Outdoor - outdoor sites, markets,
Radio – AM/ FM radio channels.
Social Media – Internet – sites

Selection of media is done based on most cost efficient and reach base as per required markets and TG

Negotiation: Price of media is negotiated to procure media at the lowest possible price

8. Communication material management

All required material need to be in place before putting the media plan on air.
Communication material
TV - TV advertisement on Beta Tape or online upload for channels
Print – Print creative on email or PDF file
Radio – Radio jingle, radio advertisement
Outdoor – Outdoor creative
Internet creative
All other form of creatives physical copy has to reach to respective suppliers before deadline

9. Plan on air
TV - TV advertisement telecast on TV
Print – Print creative printed on respective publication
Radio – Radio jingle, radio advertisement telecast on air
Outdoor – Outdoor creative put on respective sites
Internet creative – up and running on respective web sites

10. Tracking

Tracking if the spots are running at correct time and on correct channel as per specified in the media plan

TV - TV advertisement telecast on TV, on the channels, shows, time slot specified in the media plan
Print – Print creative printed on respective publication planned as per media plan
Radio – Radio jingle, radio advertisement telecast on air planned as per media plan
Outdoor – Outdoor creative put on respective sites, planned as per media plan
Internet creative – up and running on respective web sites, planned as per media plan

11. Plan vs Post

Post completion of the activity period checking all the elements executed as per media plan or not

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1. Did media plan executed got us planned reach and GRP and frequency
2. Did TV advertisement telecast on TV, on the channels, shows, time slot specified in the media plan
3. Did print creative printed on respective publication planned as per media plan
4. Did Radio jingle, radio advertisement telecast on air planned as per media plan
5. Did outdoor creative put on respective sites, planned as per media plan

12. Next burst

Preparation for next media campaign

Q) EXPLAIN IN 1 OR 2 LINES - NET REACH, MEDIA PLAN, TVR, REACH, READERSHIP, GROSS REACH,
GRP, EFFECTIVE FREQUENCY, EFFECTIVE REACH

Net Reach-

Expressed in Numbers or %. Is equal to the total number of individuals reach. Eliminates duplication

Media Plan-

An activity schedule by medium, by vehicle that is designed to meet a certain pre-set objective. It shows the
number of insertions, cost and schedule of spots / insertions

TVR-

% viewers watched the entire show

It’s a function of number of people watching the TV and the time spent by each viewer.

Reach-

Number of individuals from the universe who are exposed to the medium or vehicle. Reach is normally
expressed in % terms

Readership-

Reach of a particular Press Vehicle. % of Target Audience who read any particular Press Vehicle. Can also be
represented as number of Target Audience who read any particular Press Vehicle

Gross Reach-

Is expressed in numbers. Is mathematically equal to the number of spots / insertions per vehicle multiplied
by the reach in numbers of that particular vehicle. Hence this may count each individual more than once

GRP-

Sum of TVRs for a particular plan. It is a measure of the media plan’s thrust

Effective Frequency-

Number of times an individual needs to be exposed to a communication in a fixed time frame for him to
react in a desired way. Example :Effective frequency of 5+ means reaching an individual at least 5 times

Effective Reach-
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% of Target Audience who have been reached at least Effective Frequency number of times. Example :If 50%
have been reached at least 5 times, then 50% is the Effective Reach at 5+

Q. WHAT IS IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA PLANNING?

Two types –

Importance of Media Planning : Basic

 How many target audience I need to reach OR I can afford

 Which Media? How many times?
 Which Month? Where should ads appear?
 How much money to spend?

Importance of Media Planning : Advance

Some times the brand problem is complex
 To extend PLC
 To deliver massage in media dark areas
 Specific period start and end date fixed : Sale & offers
 Reach led or frequency led campaign
 Very high level burst or long edits

 How many target audience I need to reach OR I can afford, How many of the audience can be reached
through the various media?

Reach is the percentage of different audience exposed at least once to a given media vehicle or advertising
message in a given time period. Media planners identify the communication objectives of a media plan using
the three interrelated concepts of reach, gross rating points, and frequency.

 On which media (and ad vehicles) should the ads be placed?

By considering a cost benefit analysis associated with various advertisement media i.e. print media which
includes newspaper, magazines, pamphlet, brochures handouts, broadcast media which includes television,
radio etc. and modern media which includes Internet and mobile etc.

 How frequent should the ads be placed?

Media planners also consider frequency distribution in order to fully understand exactly how many
exposures different people experience; that is, how many people will see the ad once, twice, three times, etc.
This lets the planner estimate the effective reach of the plan at the effective frequency needed by the
campaign ?the number of people who see the ads a sufficient number of times for the media plan to be
effective.

 How much money should be spent in each medium?

Cost per thousand - How much will it cost to reach a thousand prospective customers (a method used in
comparing print media)? To determine a publication's cost per thousand, also known as CPM, divide the
cost of the advertising by the publication's circulation in thousands.

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Cost per point - how much will it cost to buy one rating point of your target audience, a method used in
comparing broadcast media. One rating point equals 1 percent of the target audience. Divide the cost of the
schedule being considered by the number of rating points it delivers.

Importance of Media Planning : Advance

 To extend PLC

Brands which are at declining stage of their life cycle can use right kind of media mix/ innovations to extend
its life span.

 To deliver massage in media dark areas

In India we still have electricity deprived villages or villages with 1 or 2 hours of electricity, at such places
reaching to your target audience is difficult. A proper media planning enables you to reach in media dark
areas

 Specific period start and end date fixed: Sale & offers

Media planning enables to reach maximum target audience in required frequency within a short span of
time. Short span of period, say for instance sales offers / discounts etc.

 Reach led or frequency led campaign

Campaigns with specific requirements high reach like for launch, high frequency for discounts offers,
premium products etc. High frequency for premium products.

 Very high level burst or long edits

Sometimes complex messaging needs longer creative, an appropriate media planning will allow brand
manager to reach to its target audience in desired frequency.

Q. WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPLES OF FOR SELECTING MEDIA VEHICLES FOR A MEDIA CAMPAIGN?

Ans. Selection of a suitable medium for campaign is really a complex problem to the advertiser. There is no
single medium that is best suited for all advertisers. In reality, a medium which is best suited for one may be
almost useless for another. The medium once employed for advertising a particular product itself may be
found unsuited subsequently. Therefore, the right choice of a medium calls for a careful analysis. If the
medium is unsuited the whole amount of money spent on the advertising campaign shall turn to be a waste.
The advertiser, therefore, while selecting the media, should consider the following factors:

1. Best Reach- Reach is the percentage of different audience exposed at least once to a given media vehicle
or advertising message in a given time period. Media planners identify the communication objectives of a
media plan using the three interrelated concepts of reach, gross rating points, and frequency. Reach is one of
the most essential terms in media planning and it has three characteristics. First, reach is a percentage, even
though the percentage sign is rarely used. When reach is stated, media planners are aware of the size of the
target audience exposed to the media plan. For example, if a target of media plan is roughly about 5 million
of women who are 18-25 years old, then a reach of 50 means that 50% or 2.5 million of the target audience
will exposed to some of the media vehicles in the media plan. Second, reach measures the accumulation of

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audience over time. Because reach is always defined for a certain period of time, the number of audience
members exposed to the media vehicles in a media plan increases over time. For example, reach may grow
from 20 (20%) in the first week to 60 (60%) in the fourth week. The pattern of audience accumulation
varies depending on the media vehicles in the media plan. Third, reach doesn't double-count people exposed
multiple times if the media plan involves repeated ads in one media category or ads in multiple media
categories. Media planners use reach because it represents that total number of people exposed to the
marketing communication.

2. Optimum Frequency- Frequency basically means average number of time the receivers or individual is
exposed to the media vehicle in specified period of time. Objectives of a media plan often call for some
arrangement of reach and frequency. Media planners want the highest reach possible because that means
advertisement has been exposed to most of the people, which should lead to more customer loyalty, brand
awareness, sales, and so on. The frequency of advertisement exposure to the target market depends upon
the amount of reminders required to have sustaining benefaction from the target customers. Media planners
want to achieve high frequency of buying of products that will only take place after multiple exposures to
the advertisement. For example, launching a new brand or telling the consumers about the features of a new
product may take several impressions.

Effective frequency refers to the minimum number of media exposures for a communication goal to
be achieved, while Effective reach represents the percentage of a vehicle’s audience reached at each effective
frequency growth. This concept is basically based on the assumption that a single exposure to the
advertisement may not be enough to convey the desired message and no one knows the exact number of
exposures required for an ad to make an impact. Fewer than 3 exposures considered as insufficient reach
while more than 10 exposures is considered as overexposure and ineffective reach. For effective
communication, different messages may require more or less exposures. Media planners should select an
effective frequency based on the communication goals. Communication goals may vary from building
awareness, preference, attitude change to trial, purchase, and repurchase. To change attitude towards the
brand it requires more exposures (higher effective frequency) than does creating brand awareness. If the
effective frequency is set for a given communication goal, the reach at that effective frequency level will be
the effective reach.

 Lowest cost / Lowest cost per thousandtarget audience

As a rule resources are always scarce/ limited, same way media budget is also limited. So need to reach out
maximum possible target audience in limited budget. In this case cost for medium is very important. Low
cost can enable us to reach maximum target audience in low budget. Media planning people are specialized
knowledge people who has a best knowledge of media and cost of media. They negotiate the media for the
lowest cost

Lowest CPRP - Cost per Rating Point,

 Avg. Advt Rating on IPL is 3 TVR

 IPL per 10 Sec Rate 5 L
 Oppo has 20 Sec Advt
 Cost per Advt is 10L
 CPRP = 10L/3 = 3.33 CPRP

 Minimum waste –

Media waste means reaching wrong target audience

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As a rule resources are always scarce/ limited, same way media budget is also limited. Media planning
enables us to reach exact target audience.

CONTENT GENERATION MODEL ON LINE VS OFFLINE

Media Model - What are the various revenue models by different media/ genres
I.e. What are the different ways revenues would be generated by various medias / mediums

Content generation is the contribution of information to any media for an end-user/audience in specific
contexts.
Online content generation is based on UGC concept (User Generated Content). Online content is generated
for different contexts by different group of individuals.
For example, educational content is generated by professional experts, where users need to subscribe to
procure the content
social networking sites content is generated by users as well as advertisers.
Online you must produce continuity and consistency, as well as quality in your content. Online content
generation is relatively affordable but details of authentication for usage are not always clear. A positive of
online content generation is that it has more visibility and longevity.

Types of sites – Online Revenue Generation

Social Network Advertising revenue, targeting
Educational Content Subscription
Branded Content Pay per view
Entertainment Content Pay per view, advertising revenue
Ecommerce Sales

Offline content is generated by offline channels, but here it is relatively expensive to produce. For example,
news shows produced by news channels, movies produced by cinema production houses, General
entertainment shows made by producers and broadcasted by channels/ broadcasters
etc. The reach is comparatively higher, with stringent and more transparent rules for authentication rights
for usage of content.

CONTENT SYNDICATION

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Content Syndication is the process of pushing ones’ content out into third-party channels. The idea is to
drive more engagement with the content, by garnering more viewership and thereby generating revenue.
Here, the third party procures the content from its producer and presents it in a manner desirable to their
audience.

The party which procures the content must keep in mind the rights of the producer when syndicating the
content – if the content has to be presented as it is, or it can be edited only, or if it can be edited to create
new content, or if it must contain the watermark of the producer, etc.

Content procurement
Procuring content - from other countries dubbed and telecast to make revenue
Dubbed or remake - Taking rights of content and remaking
Content selling
Selling content to other channels – It says that good stories / good content / good shows have no
boundaries. Broadcasters make shows for its audience post telecast it goes into their library, to
make additional revenue channels/ broadcasters sell this content to other channel or to channels
from other countries.
Dubbed or remake – Selling rights of content and remaking

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT INFLUENCERS OF MEDIA MIX? – 12 MARKS

• Product and product category: Different product categories are to be promoted via different media
vehicles. E.g.; a B2B product is usually marketed using direct marketing and personal selling techniques,
while B2C are mostly via advertising of different forms.

• Target audience: Target audience could be of urban or rural, economy class or elite, youth or working
professionals. Different target group require different media channel for reach. Eg: brand would need to
go heavy on social media to reach well amongst the youth.

• Geography: Geography would cover up areas, locations etc. metro cities, villages. For different
geographic locations, different media mix which are available there must be used. E.g.: if a village does
not have internet reach, a brand cannot aim at reaching that area via social media or emails or internet.

• Sales: Sales is the bottom line of any promotion. Every brand or company markets or spends only to gain
sales at the end. In case of media mix, when a brand needs to increase sales for a particular segment at a
particular period of time, they make a heavy spent on that media vehicle. E.g.: Bisleri spents heaviest in
the month of Jan and Feb to promote packaged drinking water just before summers so it gains sales from
the next month onwards.

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• Media availability: Availability of the media channels is also an important consideration to be made. E.g.:
BKC stretch has 8 billboards one after other and 6 are already utilized, in that case a brand would not
have more than 2 billboards to market through. Here, the availability of the media channel is low. This
low availability would persuade the brand to use different options in media mix.

• Innovations: Media is ruled by innovations. That is the most important factor to gain popularity. In case
of media channels, a brand introducing a new media channel which gains more reach amongst consumer.
Eg: Air India introduced the Spectaculars (Digital Out of Home) on the Mumbai International Airport Road
promoting their brand.

Media mix – product and product category - (kindly elaborate)

Media mix – Target audience (kindly elaborate)

• Age
– KIDS
– Adolescent
– Adults
– Peak
• SEC = Socio economic classifications (kindly elaborate)
– SEC A1+
– SEC AB
– SEC CDE

Media mix – geography - (kindly elaborate)

Different media mix for Metros, Mini Metros, Small Towns, Less than 1 Lac towns, Rural

Media mix – sales -(kindly elaborate)6

Different Media Mix for B2B and B2C products

REACH HOW ITS DIFFERENT BY MEDIUMS? 6 MARKS

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Reach is basically the percentage of target audience that is reached by any particular medium or vehicle. Target
audience is Particular group of people, identified as the intended recipient of an advertisement or message. Also
called target population. Following are the different mediums or vehicles that help you reach the target audience:
1. Television
2. Radio
3. Internet
4. Cinema
5. Outdoor
6. Malls
7. Newspaper

These following vehicles can further be sub divided into various forms
In television as a medium
 one reaches the target audience through focusing on channel reach(eg MTV has a different reach of
target audience i.e youth than Sony TV which has a different reach of target audience).
 Show reach as a sub vehicle means that through a particular show what kind and level of target audience
do you intend and actually reach. Eg. Diya aur Bati hum reaches more women than men.
 Advertisement reach for instance an ad of Veet will reach more number of women than men.on the
other hand an Axe deodorant for men will attract more men than women.
 Campaign reach for instance “White is not always wise” reaches people who are dark and explains that
color doesn’t reflect your character.
In Radio Reach,
 Station reach for instance, 104.8 FM reaches more number of people who are in love as it is potrayed as
India ka sabse romantic station. Thus the reach is amongst people in love or couples.
 Radio reach is the types of radios i.e FM , Akashvani ,etc. For eg, FM is metro cities centic whereas
akashvani is more rural and tier two cities.
 FM reach is again if one chooses FM as a radio medium then which station has the highest reach

Cinema Reach,
 In cinema reach, number pf people have seen movie in last 1 week/ 15 days / 30 days
 Total movie reach is based on the language of movies, crux of the movie.
 Also total cinema halls is also a type of cinema reach. Price, number of theatres will then matter.
Outdoor,
 Footfalls: The number of people who actually see the particular hoarding
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 Morning traffic, for instance has a target audience of office going people. So that is the reach. Same goes
with evening traffic.
Malls,
 Ways to count reach in a mall are number of footfalls per day
 Also, type of customer walking in, for instance high street phoenix has a rich population walking in than
infiniti mall .this can be due to location of the mall and also the types of shops in the mall.
 Footfall conversion to sales

Internet Reach,
 Total Internet users
 Site reach i.e count of users reached by site visits
 Site traffic i.e. at a time how many people visit a particular site
 Average time spent on a particular site by each visitor

Newspaper reach
 Publication reach for instance, Times of india is more reach than navbharat times
 Circulation - Total number of newspapers and magazines circulated for sell are also other ways of
counting reach.

WHAT ARE THE CORE PROPERTIES OF MEDIA BRIEF? 6 MARKS

(Kindly eloborate)

 Media brief should be innovative

 Media brief should be simple to understand.
 Tricky so that the planner understands and pours in more ideas.
 It needs to be media led
 It needs to be targeted to a particular market
 It needs to be focused to a particular audience
 It should be seasonal
 Frequency should be decided accordingly.
 Activation
 Reach based
 Media brief should be aggressive.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT PATTERN OF SCHEDULING? 6 MARKS

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Answers are pretty clear from slides points given in slides kindly elaborate-

How media research is helpful for media decisions?

what are the content scheduling tactics for GEC?

Media Consultancy - Short note

Qualitative Inputs for planning

Planning factor
Control parameters
• TG
• Markets
• Channels
• Reach
• Frequency
• Innovation

Environmental
Open Parameters
• Competition
• Brand
• Media Sales
• Impact
• Change in Media
• Situational

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