Media planning involves determining the optimal platforms and messages to reach the target audience. It requires understanding consumer behavior and media consumption habits to select the appropriate media channels and schedule for advertising campaigns. The goals are to maximize reach and frequency among the target market while minimizing costs. Media planners consider objectives like reach, frequency, continuity and budget. They analyze past performance and research to create a media strategy and plan that is implemented through media buying. Evaluation of results helps assess the plan's effectiveness and identify lessons for future campaigns.

1. IMC - Prof. Rajesh Satpathy

2. What is Media Planning?
Media planning is the art and science of ensuring that the
advertisement that clients want to place appear in the right place
and at the right time to ensure they reach the correct target
group.
Media planning is the process of using this information to identify
the most appropriate platforms and most appropriate types ofthe most appropriate platforms and most appropriate types of
messages that media planner can use to communicate the clients
message. In today's complex media environment, media planning
means considering options such as sponsorship, social search or
even encouraging brands to create their own content.

3. What is Media Planning?
Successful media planning requires a range of tools and skills;
world-class research techniques, deep experience and extensive
analysis of consumer habits.
This enables media planners to determine with clients who their
most likely, or most desired, customers are.
Brilliant media planning ensures that media planner deliver
compelling communications that consumers want to engage with.

4. How does Media Planning work?
Media planning will include looking at previous campaigns and
assessing how each element performed, which should be dropped
and which should be retained.
This is particularly important for direct response campaigns where
direct return on investment is the primary aim. This combination
of previous activity, new insight and media research enablesof previous activity, new insight and media research enables
media planners to determine which media potential customers
see, read, hear or engage with the most.

5. How does Media Planning work?
The core aim of media planning is to create advertising campaigns
that reach the intended audiences with a compelling message and
the minimum amount of wastage.
Once planned the media, media planner work with the clients'
creative agencies who create the ads. The media agency is then to
get these advertisements into the media: they buy the advertisingget these advertisements into the media: they buy the advertising
space and place the ad. This is the media buying activity.

6. What are the benefits of media planning?
Firstly media planning ensures that the clients' messages are
compelling. By understanding more about the target audience's
behaviour, planners are able to ensure that the type of message
the firm deliver is right for them. Media planning in this area
means using insights into behaviour to identify the right way to
communicate the message.
Secondly, media planning makes sure that the messages appear in
the media that the target audience actually read, watch or hear. If
messages appear in the wrong place then the clients' money will
be wasted, so media planning is vital to ensure the firm spend
their money in the most efficient and effective way possible.

7. What are the benefits of media planning?
Media planning also ensures that the messages appear at the
right time. By understanding the mindset of the target audience
throughout the day or week, media planners are able to ensure
that the message reaches them at a moment when they are
willing or able to consider specific products and services.

8. What are the challenges of media planning?
Media planners have access to many sources of information; be it
media consumption data, TV ratings, information on target
consumer groups and understanding of how consumers have
previously responded to messages from their clients.
The ability to identify a single theme from the focus groups,
spreadsheets and brain-storming that the teams have access to isspreadsheets and brain-storming that the teams have access to is
the mark of excellent media planning. As the range of media
channels has expanded in recent years, so media planning has
become not only more important but also more challenging.

9. What are the challenges of media planning?
A really smart planner will usually be looking for a new way to
connect with consumers, which could be driven by changes in
media consumption, a great new insight into what triggers a
change in behaviour or a previously missed opportunity to reach
out to the target audience.

10. What expertise is involved in media planning?
Because excellent media planning requires such a wide range of
skills, media planners will work closely with their colleagues in
consumer insight and those with expertise in specific areas of
communications such as events, digital or sponsorship.
Media planning requires an understanding of the way consumers
read, watch, listen or search through media environments.read, watch, listen or search through media environments.
Increasingly in the age of dialogue it also requires a clear
understanding of what will motivate consumers to create content
related to brand messages or follow a brand campaign.

11. What expertise is involved in media planning?
With the massive expansion of media platforms, both professional
and consumer generated, media planning has become more and
more complex in recent years. Families no longer sit down
together to watch the same shows every night but instead often
have very separate viewing/media consumption habits.
This fragmentation can be fantastic for niche brands that targetThis fragmentation can be fantastic for niche brands that target
specific age or interest groups but makes media planning
particularly challenging when it comes to mass-market consumer
goods brands.

12. Media Planning Process…
Media Planning, in advertising, is a series of decisions involving
the delivery of message to the targeted audience. Media Plan, is
the plan that details the usage of media in an advertising
campaign including costs, running dates, markets, reach,
frequency, rationales, and strategies.
Steps in Development of Media PlanSteps in Development of Media Plan
1. 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.

13. At this stage media planners try to identify answers of the
following questions:
>> Who is the target audience?
>> What internal and external factors may influence the media
plan?
Media Planning Process…
>> 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.

14. 2. Establishing Media Objective
Media objectives describes what you want the media plan to
accomplish. There are five key media objectives that an advertiser
or media planner has to consider – reach, frequency, continuity,
cost, and weight.
>> Reach - Reach refers to the number of people that will be
Media Planning Process…
>> 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.
>> 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.

15. >> Continuity - It refers to the pattern of advertisements in a
media schedule. Continuity alternatives are as follows:
Continuous: Strategy of running campaign evenly over a
period of time.
Pulsing: Strategy of running campaign steadily over a period of
time with intermittent increase in advertising at certain
intervals, as during festivals or special occasions.
Media Planning Process…
intervals, as during festivals or special occasions.
Discontinuous: Strategy of advertising heavily only at certain
intervals, and no advertising in the interim period, as in case
of seasonal products.
>> Cost - It refers to the cost of different media
>> Weight - Weight refers to total advertising required during a
particular period.

16. Determining Media Strategies
Media strategy is determined considering the following:
>> Media Mix - From the wide variety of media vehicles, the
advertiser can employ one vehicle or a mix suitable vehicles.
>> Target Market
>> Reach and frequency
>> Creative Aspects - Creativity in ad campaigns decides the
Media Planning Process…
>> Creative Aspects - Creativity in ad campaigns decides the
success of the product, but to implement this creativity firm must
employ a media that supports such a strategy.
>> Flexibility - An effective media strategy requires a degree of
flexibility.
>> Budget Considerations - In determining media strategy cost
must be estimated and budget must be considered.
>> Media Selection - It covers two broad decisions - selection of
media class, and selection of media vehicle within media class.

17. Determining Media Strategies
>> Scheduling - It shows the number of advertisements, size of
advertisements, and time on which advertisements to appear.
• Seasonal Pulse: Seasonal products like cold creams follows
this scheduling.
• Steady Pulse: According to this scheduling one ad is shown
over a period of time, say one ad per week or one ad per
month.
Media Planning Process…
month.
• Periodic Pulse: A regular pattern is followed in such
scheduling, as in case of consumer durable, and non durable.
• Erratic Pulse: No regular pattern is followed in such
scheduling.
• Start-up Pulse: Such scheduling is followed during a new
campaign or a launch of a new product.
• Promotional Pulse: It is for short time, only for a promotional
period.

18. Implementation of Media Plan
The implementation of media plan requires media buying. Media
Buying refers to buying time and space in the selected media.
Following are the steps in media buying:
>> Collection of information: Media buying requires sufficient
information regarding nature of target audience, nature of target
market, etc.
Media Planning Process…
market, etc.
>> Selection of Media/Media Mix: Considering the collected
information and ad-budget, media or media mix is selected which
suits the requirements of both - target audience and advertiser.
>> Negotiation: Price of media is negotiated to procure media at
the lowest possible price.

19. Implementation of Media Plan
>> Issuing Ad - copy to media: Ad-copy is issued to the media for
broadcast or telecast
>> Monitoring performance of Media - Advertiser has to monitor
whether the telecast or broadcast of ad is done properly as
decided.
Media Planning Process…
decided.
>> Payment - Finally, it is the responsibility of advertiser to make
payment of media bills on time.

20. Evaluation and Follow-up
Evaluation is essential to assess the performance of any activity.
Two factors are important in evaluation of media plan:
>> How successful were the strategies in achieving media
Media Planning Process…
objectives?
>> Was the media plan successful in accomplishing advertising
objective?
Successful strategies help build confidence and serve as reference
for developing media strategies in future, and failure is thoroughly
analyzed to avoid mistakes in future.

21. Thank You!