Decide Your Best Media Buying Strategy

Not quite. Where it gets tricky for a decision maker creating a media buying strategy is that different channels use different metrics, and different datasets – none of which are intrinsically designed to seamlessly mesh together to create a more holistic view of consumer behavior in the media eco-system. The drive to creating the best media buying strategy is further complicated by the increasing number of niche media vehicles, the interactivity between channels and changing consumer media consumption behavior – whether multi-tasking or the differences in consumption behavior when it comes to hand-held and mobile devices. Think iPad or smart phone when it comes to media buying services.

The final aspect making things complicated for media buying strategists is that big chunks of data are typically not accessible including: audience data from media owners and customer data from advertisers. These are usually held behind guarded walls and not available to input into the decision-making process for media buying and planning. So that means media buying strategists don’t have direct visibility into the specifics of the advertisers customers, nor the specifics of the actual audience of a given media vehicle.

Now, there’s a new way to create media buying strategies: LogicLab. LogicLab gives media buying strategists a powerful tool based on both advertiser and media data to calculate campaign planning efficiency as well as efficacy of campaign results. Check out www.logiclabinc.com for more details.

Both Media Planner and Buyer Working Towards Goals

Now with the growth of integrated campaigns, and the dawning realization that media consumption habits are changing along with the media landscape – a media planner and buyer has to look across channels for a holistic view of where the target consumer is. This typically involves juggling several datasets with different metrics for each channel, and translating the advertiser’s target set into each of those distinct demographic buckets by media type. Most of the niche vehicles, moreover, are difficult for the media planner and buyer to consider – since they typically have too small an audience to be included in any of the dominant currencies.

On top of all that, media planners and buyers have to contend with increasingly detailed target set definitions – which lose some of their distinctiveness when translated into the categories offered by the media owners. What if there was a way for media planners and buyers and each media planning agency to access a single platform, that not only contained automated matching of target sets against the general US adult population but was able to then match that to audience information from the media owners, in order to decide which combination of media vehicles across channels would best reach the desired target set?

Now that solution exists: LogicLab. LogicLab gives media planners and buyers ability to access powerful analytics backed up by advertiser and media data to calculate both efficiency of campaign plans as well as efficacy of campaign results. Check out www.logiclabinc.com for more details.

There Are Many Media Buying Strategies You Can Use To Succeed

It used to be enough to simply identify some broad demographic parameters of the target market as the starting point to creating a media buying strategy. Now, as consumers multi-task with hand-held devices and smart phones, advertisers and agencies are meeting that consumer demand with integrated campaigns. The general macro-economic slowdown has also meant more scrutiny on expenditures while advertisers and their agencies are seeking to bring more precision to their targeting and segmentation systems so as to generate differentiated media plans. Meeting these needs by bringing more quantitative data-driven discipline to how exactly are those specific target consumers engaging with media, to determine how to create the best media buying strategies using media planning services has become increasingly challenging.

Deciding what a given campaign should accomplish is another component of creating a media buying strategy. Whether awareness building or lead generation or actual sales, then as now, it has been a bit of a holy grail to determine which media vehicles most contributed to any given campaign’s success after the campaign has run. This makes it harder to use the learning from previous campaigns to plan the next one.

Now a smarter way to bring quantitative input into media buying strategies has launched: LogicLab. LogicLab gives agencies who buy and plan media the ability to access powerful analytics backed up by advertiser and media data to calculate both efficiency of campaign plans as well as efficacy of campaign results. Check out www.logiclabinc.com for more details.

Broadcast markets are defined by Arbitron as Areas of Dominant Influence (ADI) and by Nielsen as Designated Market Areas (DMA). These geographic regions consist of counties that receive broadcast signals primarily from stations within this defined market. Broadcast planning and budgeting are arranged around this geographic structure. Local media buying typically refers to then only buying specific geographies, regardless of channel. An advertiser that only has partial distribution will choose to only advertise in the areas where they can deliver their products and services.

The concept of advertising weighting is a method of deciding which percentage of a local media buy is spent in each separate geographic market. Weighting encourages the campaign to prioritize the importance of the different cities and regions of the state, and then spend advertising funds in relation to these decisions.

Each individual broadcast market should be analyzed to determine cost per point levels for the campaigns advertising. Then the CPP for the markets are compared to evaluate the cost-efficiency of the media for various geographic regions. This analysis should be included with target opportunities, distribution channel and organizational headquarters, to establish the advertising weighting for the local media buy.

To bring more visibility into local media buying, now there’s a new tool that brings a holistic view of the media eco-system, at local level. LogicLab gives local media buyers a powerful tool based on both advertiser and media data to calculate campaign planning efficiency as well as efficacy of campaign results. Check out www.logiclabinc.com for more details.

One trend in marketing communications planning is making increased use of product placements which become part of the content and hence considered less intrusive than advertising insertions (traditional advertising formats). Product placement (also called brand placement or branded entertainment) blends product information with the content itself. Whether content is a television program, movie, video game or other form of entertainment, product placement puts the brand message into the entertainment content. Like with anything else, product placements by media planners have to be considered carefully so as to achieve the desired effect.

Utilizing Marketing Communications Planning To The Max

Another trend in marketing communications planning is to move beyond planned messages to take advantage of unplanned messages as well. Whereas planned messages are what advertisers initiate — like an ad, press release or sales promotion — unplanned messages are often initiated by people and organizations other than advertisers themselves. Word of mouth, both online and offline, is one form of unplanned message. Although advertisers have little direct control over the flow of unplanned messages, they can facilitate such a flow or participate after a community has arisen around a topic or idea and contribute value to that community.

In either case, there continues to be a lack of easy to use integrated platforms with which to plan and measure marketing communications campaigns. To help bring an evaluation and post-campaign measurement component to marketing communications planning, LogicLab provides on-demand, single platform access to powerful analytics backed up by advertiser and media. Check out the 90-second video at www.logiclabinc.com for more details.

What Does a Media Planning Service Do?

Typically a media planning service will create a customized media plan for their clients, with three key components.

• 1. Define the marketing objective. Identify the primary and secondary sources of business as well as where growth potential is. Prioritize markets in terms of opportunity. Determine what the specific attributes of the primary target consumer is.
• 2. Translate the marketing requirements into attainable media objectives. Extending brand reach often comes at the expense of targeting. The spectrum can range from very specific geographic markets in a single media channel to national integrated campaigns using media planning buying.
• 3. Define a media solution by formulating media strategies. Certain schedules work best with different media. For example, the rule of thumb is that a print ad must run three times before it gets noticed. Radio advertising is most effective when run at certain times of the day or around certain programs, depending on what market you’re trying to reach.

Now there is a new tool to make media planning services smarter: LogicLab. LogicLab delivers on-demand access to powerful analytics backed up by advertiser and media data to calculate both campaign planning efficiency as well as efficacy of campaign results. Check out a 90-second video at www.logiclabinc.com.

Discover The Top Media Buying Agencies In The Country

Last year, ten of the 14 top media buying agencies swapped out new chiefs at the global or North America leadership levels as a result of the downturn in 2009. Advertisers have been driving for more visibility and accountability while seeking to trim advertising spend and lower costs. Top media buying agencies have responded by dropping fees but more have sought to add value and innovation to distinguish themselves from a media planning agency.

Overall the media buying agencies industry declined since 2007, also driven by the shift to online and digital media as well as the increased use of below-the-line marketing tactics to reduce dependency on traditional media purchases. In light of these changing operational and macro-economic factors, media agencies have been adopting new techniques and technology to supply a demand that was nonexistent less than a decade earlier. Some of these solutions are home-grown while many others have come from outside, and not just outside the organization but sometimes bringing in disciplines and processes from parallel industries.

LogicLab is one good example of a powerful new tool designed to help top media buying agencies bring more quantitative data into their decision making process. With parent company Merkle Inc, LogicLab brings many of the data-driven processes from the direct response world to bring visibility and accountability into the mass media planning and buying world. Check out www.logiclabinc.com for more details.

Using Direct Response Media Buying You Can Launch A Successful Marketing Campaign

For direct response media buying in television, there are two choices: short form and long form. Short form is any DRTV commercial that is two minutes or less in length. Long form direct response is any television commercial longer than two minutes. This was the accepted term for an infomercial from 1984 until “infomercial” came into vogue in 1988. A standard use in direct response media buying is cost per rating point (CPP) The cost, per 1 percent of a specified audience, of buying advertising space in a given media vehicle utilizing a media buying agency.

Regardless of the channel of direct response media buying, buyers and advertisers alike need to evaluate the relative benefits and costs of different combinations of channels – as well as have an integrated view of how to evaluate the response from each channel and from the campaign overall.

Now there is a new solution to enhance direct response media buying: LogicLab. LogicLab provides an on-demand solution in the form of single platform access to powerful analytics backed up by advertiser and media to provide visibility into both pre-campaign planning and post-campaign performance measurement to direct response media buyers. Check out the 90-second video at www.logiclabinc.com for more details.

Once the target set has been identified by a media planning and buying agency, the next step is to determine what mix of media channels and media properties will best deliver that target audience within the client’s pre-set budget. Although there are many deep datasets to help define and fill in detail around media consumption behavior, purchase behavior, category usage behavior, brand awareness from the consumer’s point of view – it is much harder to come by an integrated platform where media planning and buying agencies can play around with different scenarios using a media buying agency and see what the impact is to different media mixes or different media properties being considered.

Media Planning and Buying Agencies Help Expand Your Business

This in turn has made the job of media planning and buying agencies much harder. Different datasets need to be combined from different channels; algorithms need to be created to match across integrated campaign planning. And then post-campaign, being able to compare the advertiser client’s response file to media audience files has always been a challenge.

Now there is a new solution for the hard working media planning and buying agency: LogicLab. LogicLab provides an on-demand solution in the form of single platform access to powerful analytics backed up by advertiser and media to provide visibility into both pre-campaign planning and post-campaign performance measurement. Find out more at www.logiclabinc.com.

Media buying firms are typically responsible for purchasing time and advertising space for the purpose of advertising in those spaces. When planning what to buy, media buyers must evaluate factors based on but not limited to station formats, pricing rates, demographics, geographic, and psychographics relating to the advertisers particular product or service objectives.

Let Us Show You How We Rise Above Other Media Buying Firms

The media buying firm also needs to optimize what is bought and that is dependent on budget, type of medium (radio, internet, TV, print), quality of the medium (target audience, time of day for broadcast, etc.), and how much time and space is wanted. Media buying firms can purchase spot, regionally, or nationally. National media buyers might have to factor in determinates based on a state by state basis. Rates, demand of leads, space, and time, and state licenses will vary from state to state. National media buyers will need national media planning to generate national media marketing strategies and national media advertising that can be adaptable from area to area but also work on a national level. In the face of this rapidly expanding industry, however, a media buying firm and media buying agencies is beset with challenges – many of which involve not having the right data in the right place to be able to inform media planning and buying decisions.

Now there’s a new tool available for media buying firms: LogicLab. LogicLab gives advertisers and media planners the ability to access powerful analytics backed up by advertiser and media data to calculate both efficiency of campaign plans as well as efficacy of campaign results. Check out www.logiclabinc.com for more details.