The media plan should contain detailed information about the placement of advertising in print, broadcast, outdoor and online. This section is where you’ll detail how you’ll spend that $50 million budget.

Just a cautionary note: The way we’ll estimate audience size and costs of media buys is not the way that it is done by actual media planners. For this assignment, we use a simplified method that allows you to make real planning decisions.  There are four types of media buys, two non-digital and two digital. Here are the forms of media buys:

• Impact media buying – These are significant media buys that are intended to reach a wide audience
• Traditional media buying – These are traditional media outlets such as broadcast TV and magazines
• Digital flat-rate media buying – These are big digital media ad spaces, such as for website takeovers or expensive social media advertisements or influencer agreements
• Digital CPM-based media buying – These are more tailored digital media advertisement purchases, where how much you pay is contingent on how many people you want to see your ad.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE INCLUDED: Much like the the creative plan, the media plan needs to include both big-level thinking, as well as very detailed plans for how you’ll spend your media budget.

The media plan needs to address a detailed description of the scope and timing of the paid media plan — when will it occur over the next calendar year? Do research insights or client demands dictate a certain period for the campaign? When during the year do you plan to spend your budget? This means that you may choose not to spend your money evenly across the year. For instance, you may decide to concentrate your money in “pulses” or “flights.” Your media plan should also include general goals for reach (what percent of the market you want to see your campaign?) and frequency (on average, how often do audience members need to see your campaign?). Reach and frequency combine to provide a key means for distinguishing high-intensity periods (high reach and/or high frequency) from low-intensity periods (little or no reach/minimal frequency).

You should also include details about the media outlets in which you would like your ads placed, including your rationale for why you would spend in certain media vs. others, and what the role of each medium will play in your overall mix (such as awareness, trial, call to action or repeat purchase).  In making decisions about how to spend the budget, the media director must consider the audience, the relationship of media to the branding strategy, the timing in terms of season and daypart, the geographic emphasis in certain localities and regions, and the relative emphasis on certain campaign elements over others. The rationale should contain information about the strengths and weaknesses of various media and the key demographics (as they relate to your target markets) of each media vehicle.

Here are elements the media plan should address:

1. Media objectives
2. Media aperture moment: what is THE ideal moment when you are most likely to reach your target audience — when? where? why? how? Is there an ideal time to launch the campaign?  Is there an optimal time to connect?
3. How is the media plan tied to what you know about your target audience?  What media do your consumers use, and how does the media plan intersect with their use of different media in the course of their day
4. General reach and frequency goals for traditional media — what will be emphasized during particular periods, providing rough estimates or projections to provide a sense of high and low intensity periods.
5. The duration of the campaign over the year — when will the campaign start? When will the campaign end?
6. During this period, when will advertising be stressed? Discussing monthly reach and frequency goals can help convey the duration and intensity of the campaign.
7. The timing of the campaign during the day — what dayparts or media apertures will be used? What dayparts or media apertures will be avoided?
8. A regional emphasis — what market areas will be emphasized? Will regional emphasis shift by season?
9. Media scheduling strategies — will you use a pulsing, flighting or continuity strategy, some other combination?
10. Media selection criteria — why are your selections compatible with what you know about your audience
11. Information and rationale for selected media vehicles (with characteristics of the medium) — and include specific Simmons index numbers to illustrate your rationale. You should explain:
    o Relative emphasis on particular media channels
    o Reasons for emphasizing various media channels
    • Information and rationale for selected media vehicles (w/content-brand compatibility)
    o Relative emphasis on specific media vehicles
    o Reasons for using these media vehicles

In addition, the media plan should include two spreadsheets — the budget allocation sheet and the flow chart — as well as graphs using data from the spreadsheets to illustrate the allocations.

HOW TO DO IT: Use the Excel templates provided in class to help you allocate your budget and show through a flow chart how you’ll spend it across the year of your campaign. As you’re developing your allocation strategy, be thoughtful about the advantages and disadvantages of different media vehicles in terms of the target audience and their cost efficiency.

The flow chart is very important — you’ll list the media categories along the left-hand side of the graph and time across the top or bottom for the duration of the campaign. It allows you to show month-by-month how many GRPs will be allocated to the various campaign media during the campaign and when those media will be operating.

WHO’S IN CHARGE: The media director. If your group has separate media and interactive directors, you may want to split the responsibilities, with one taking on traditional media and the other planning interactive media.

The media director might ask the research director for help gathering data from Simmons, though they should also be adept at doing custom runs using Simmons to deepen their understanding of target audiences.

BE CAREFUL: The media director must make it clear how the plan grows out of the situation analysis and campaign strategy. Don’t forget the direction your strategy has provided — let it guide your decision-making.