ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF MEDIA BUYS

Media buying is part art and part science, with the emphasis on art. -- Media Buyer, Leo Burnett

Four basic steps:

  1. Research – Know your product, the target, your budget, and the media
  2. Strategy – Set your goals and objectives, then select the best media to attain them
  3. Selection – Reach vs. Frequency; Flighting, Pulsing, Continuity, Front loading
  4. Negotiate – Transact with media sales professionals for ratings, BBM’s audits

ADVANTAGES / DISADVANTAGES / REACH / FREQUENCY / COST
RADIO BROADCAST / Fast, Flexible, universal infiltration, reaches virtually everyone, everywhere, has no ‘off’ season, engages imagination, intrusive, allows multi tasking / Numerous stations expensive to cover all areas, tower frequency, difficult to monitor, channel surfing, non tangible, poor listening, need for repetition / Excellent; BBM’s, (Bureau of Broadcast Measurement), 95% of teens & adults reached. In and out of home / Very Necessary; book same time spots if budget is limited, target for listeners; sponsor timeslots; roadblocks, share time, ‘Drive” times / Production low, 10- 60 second spots, announcer read fixed rates, or ‘run of station’
NEWSPAPER / #1 use of small business marketing dollars, flexibility, local, timeliness, low cost, easy to test, classifieds / Waste readership – non target, reproduction limitations, lack of prominence, fragmentation, declining readership, short lifespan, repetition necessary / Buy when open, match your market,
65% of adult pop. read a newspaper daily / Important, buy as big as you can afford, but buy frequency before size, Sundays are premium / Low production & insertion costs, easily re-purposed, use classifieds
MAGAZINES / Long life, multiple readership, target marketing, ad quality, credibility, split runs, Regional/National, Inserts, wraps etc. / Costs (CARD or ABC audits), long lead times - 90 days or more, non-immediate, lack of prominence, IFC/OBC select cover placement / 9 out of 10 adults read an average of 7 magazines a month, Trade, Consumer / Weekly, monthly, quarterly, frequency is important, need for multiple exposures / Expensive, wraps and insertions increase reach and awareness
OUTDOOR / Answer to increased fragmentation, broad reach, frequency and continuity, larger than life Image, increased commute times, posters and street level, local services, amusements, / Legal restrictions, Intrusive, clutter, brief exposure, need for high creative and white space, 5 second impact, may have a long production and planning time, difficult to track, / Highest reach in shortest period, targeted, pedestrian (COMB Canadian Outdoor Measurement Bureau) / Continuity advantage, long life, economical, numerous locations or targeted community / Inexpensive Display and outdoor are the good choice for use of small business dollars
TELEVISION / First choice for News, Sports, Entertainment, Visual impact, most authoritative, in homes, immediate and timely, impactful, memorable ads / Brevity and clutter, fragmentation, long range media plan, zipping and zapping, Internet, TV on Demand - TIVO / Excellent, TV in 97% of homes, GRP’s and CPR (Gross/Cost per rating point) reach 90% of adults / High impact per view, lower frequency meets target if properly placed, program rates / selection / High production cost, (use creative thought – schools etc.)
YELLOW PAGES / Long shelf life, valued by customers, specialty directories / Difficult to test, 1 year commitment, deregulation / 365 days 7/24, outside of target / Difficult to monitor, call up competitors, research size / Expensive media, start small

"The trade of advertising is now so near to perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. But as every art ought to be exercised in due subordination to the public good, I cannot but propose it as a moral question to these masters of the public ear, whether they do not sometimes play too wantonly with our passions."

Dr. Samuel Johnson, in The Idler, 1759

Slate Communications