Media Planning

Media planning is one of the final steps in the advertising process. The ultimate purpose of a media planning company is to get an advert in the right place. That is, they strive to ensure that a suitable target audience is identified, analysed and the largest number of members belonging to that group see the ad in question. This is achieved through detailed research into the everyday lives of the target market particularly focusing upon their media habits, a typical housewife, for example, cannot be reached by advertising on Dave or in Men’s Fitness magazine.

Media buyers, who actually purchase the advertising space for brands, strive to get the best deal with media owners, with which they build an ongoing professional relationship over time; after all, many brands require the national reach The Times can offer for example and so buyers are in constant contact with titles such as this.

Attending Bournemouth University and completing a degree in Advertising and Marketing requires students to complete a minimum of 6 weeks work experience. I completed my placement at MediaCom, a media planning agency and would just like to introduce the company before going on to describe media planning and buying in more depth in further posts!

MediaCom is a media agency owned by GroupM, the number one trading group in the market. MediaCom spends the most money annually than any other agency in the UK (£937m in 2009). It is proud of the long term client relationships it maintains, for example working for P&G for 41 years and Universal for 23. It’s offices in Dublin, Edinburgh, Manchester, London and around the world all share the same aims and objectives.

The agency strives to keep its reputation as the “Campaign Media Agency of the Decade”. As the market grows in a way that makes it harder to cut through, MediaCom’s company vision is “leading the industry in the age of dialogue” whereby it finds new and innovative ways to communicate to consumers. One of its vital objectives is to focus on non-traditional advertising and emerging media, such as mobile phones, iPad and iPhone applications and Social Networks. MediaCom has a full proof structure which carries a client from team to team throughout the organisation, from researching the brand, right up until post campaign analysis by the buying team.

Consumers are always maintained at the heart of the MediaCom process, and they have 5 main brand values by which they stick; accountability, passion, creativity, ahead of the game and straight talking.