JOMC 172.002 - Advertising Media – Spring 2005
Course meets 9:30 am. – 10:45 a.m. Tuesday & Thursday in Carroll 143.
3 credits. Prerequisites: JOMC 170 or equivalent. The media-planning function in advertising for buyers and sellers of media; the relationships among media, messages and audiences; and computer analysis.
Instructor Joe Bob Hester, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Office: 233 Carroll Hall
Office phone: 843-8290 (includes voice-mail)
E-mail:
Office Hours: 10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday, or by appointment. These hours are made available to provide you with time outside of the classroom for discussion of matters related to course work, as well as for academic and/or career advising.
Required Readings
Text:
Sissors, J.Z. & Baron, R.B. (2002). Advertising Media Planning, 6th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. Available at Student Stores.
MediaWeek: http://mediaweek.com
Media Life: http://medialifemagazine.com/
Additional sources/readings will be made available online and/or in the Park Library.
Other Requirements
• You should bring a hand-held calculator or laptop computer to class each day. For most class periods, a hand-held calculator will be sufficient (note that the calculator function on your cell phone is generally a poor substitute for a dedicated calculator); however, be aware that you will be required to bring your laptop computer to class for certain exercises. (Under the Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI), you are required to own a laptop computer that meets University specifications.)
• Most of you were automatically subscribed to a course email list when you enrolled for the course. Check your e-mail account to see if you have been receiving messages from the list. If not, contact your instructor immediately.
Check the messages posted to the course email list on a regular basis (daily is best!). I will use it to send important messages and online readings for the class.
• Additional materials and readings are located on the course Web site:
http://www.unc.edu/courses/2005spring/jomc/172/002/
• You must have access to Microsoft’s Office software (Word, and particularly, Excel and PowerPoint).
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, you should:
• be able to not only define basic media concepts such as CPM, reach, frequency, coverage, etc., but understand and apply them to specific media planning/buying situations;
• be able to compute all major media planning/buying formulas by hand;
• understand the role of computers in media planning/buying;
• understand the relationship and importance of media planning/buying to marketing and advertising;
• be able to analyze a marketing situation, apply creative problem solving, and develop effective media strategies;
• be able to write articulate, integrated media objectives and strategies, and use these objectives/strategies to develop media tactics;
• understand the career opportunities available in media planning/buying.
Course Format
This is a course in which you should not only understand the subject matter, but you should be able to apply it in a variety of situations. From the beginning, the material builds on itself to form a comprehensive body of media planning/buying knowledge. Therefore, the course will be taught using a problem-solving approach.
NOTE: This course requires extensive time and effort outside of the classroom.
Readings: It is your responsibility to not only read but study and understand the reading assignments prior to class meetings. In class, I will assume that you have read the assigned material and are ready to discuss, question, expand on and apply the material.
Exercises: Homework exercises must be completed prior to arrival in class. Class time is used to go over and discuss the exercises, not finish them.
Course Requirements
Exams There are two major exams.
Quizzes You are expected to actively participate in class discussions by sharing problem solutions, insights and questions with the instructor and members of the class. This requires that assigned readings be completed prior to arrival in class. There will be a number of pop quizzes throughout the semester covering assigned readings. You will be allowed to drop your lowest quiz grade.
Exercises One of the goals of this course is for you to learn how to write an integrated media plan. Exercises are a means to this end. Exercises assigned as homework should be completed prior to arrival in class. You will be allowed to drop your lowest exercise grade.
Projects You will apply knowledge from readings, lectures and exercises to five major media planning projects. Each of the first three projects requires the development of a portion of an integrated media plan. Because advertising (both media and creative) is rarely the product of a single individual, the fourth project, a complete media plan, will be completed by assigned student teams. This team project includes an audio/visual presentation. The grade for the team project also includes a peer evaluation of team members. The fifth project serves as the final exam for the course.
Contribution Exam 1 10%
Exam 2 10%
Quizzes 10%
Exercises 10%
Project 1 10%
Project 2 10%
Project 3 10%
Project 4 15%
Project 5 15%
Scale 93+% = A 73 – 76% = C90 – 92% = A- 70 – 72% = C-87 – 89% = B+ 67 – 69% = D+83 – 86% = B 60 – 66% = D80 – 82% = B- 0 – 59% = F77 – 79% = C+
Accuracy & Deadlines
The importance of accuracy in the advertising field cannot be overstated. A mistake in fact in an advertisement could lead to serious legal problems for the client and agency. Spelling errors, typographical errors, and poor grammar are often indications of sloppy work. Particular to media planning/buying, there is the added importance of mathematical accuracy. There is no place in advertising for mistakes in fact, math errors or sloppy work; therefore, a severe penalty for such errors may be imposed. Always proofread and double-check your work.
Deadlines are also a fact of life in advertising. Procrastination is not an acceptable excuse for missing a deadline, and your instructor will not answer any questions about a project within 24 hours of its original due date.
Projects and assignments are due at the beginning of the class period indicated and will not be accepted after that due date for any reason.
Participation & Attendance Policies
Students are expected to actively participate in class discussions by sharing observations, insights and questions with the instructor and members of the class. Discussion will allow each student to benefit from all the other students' insights and to work toward a final interpretation or understanding that may differ from the one he or she reached individually. This requires that assigned readings and/or homework exercises be completed prior to arrival to class.
Because of the problem-solving format of the course, class attendance is critical. Students are responsible for regular and punctual class attendance and should be in their seats before the start of class. Students arriving more than 10 minutes late for class will be counted absent. The instructor assumes that you will make every effort to attend class. Students are responsible for material missed regardless of the reason for the absence.
In general, your instructor does not excuse absences for any reason. If you miss a quiz or class exercise due to an absence, that will be the quiz/exercise grade that you get to drop.
In those rare instances where a student misses an exam due to a death in the immediate family, severe illness, participation in university-sponsored activities (with prior notification), or observance of a religious holy day (with prior notification), a make-up exam will be given during the regularly scheduled final exam period.
Honor Code, Academic Integrity & Counseling
All work in this course should be completed in full observance of the UNC Honor Code (http://honor.unc.edu/). Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in this course, and disciplinary actions will be enforced in any instance of academic dishonesty including, but not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, collusion or the abuse of materials. If you have a question about academic dishonesty, it is better to ask than to risk the consequences.
It is also the responsibility of the student to make the instructor aware of any problem that may affect the student's successful completion of the course. Any student who, because of a disabling condition, may require some special arrangements in order to meet course requirements should contact the instructor as soon as possible so that the necessary accommodations may be made.
The instructor reserves the right to add to or modify class requirements, schedules, and/or materials. Any changes will be announced in class and via e-mail as well as being posted to the course Web site.
Tentative course schedule and textbook reading assignments are provided in a separate document (schedule172Spring05.xls).
JOMC 172.002 • Spring 2005 • page 4 of 4