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What is Media Planning? Job Role of Media Planner

Salary of Media Planner, Media Planning Vs Media Buying

Media Planning and MBA

In order to understand the relation between media planning and MBA or how MBAs can become media planner, one should know the basics of media planning. In this article, I am going to explain the meaning of media planning, its importance, media buying, components of the media plan, challenges in media planning, and related MBA Jobs.

media planning


What is Media Planning?

Media Planning is a process followed by marketers to find out how, when and where will they run paid advertisements to maximize engagements and Return on Investment(ROI). The media plan reflects the breakup of the advertising budget across different platforms where the advertisement is showcased.

“Media planning involves selecting appropriate media for carrying advertising message to the target audience and deciding how much to spend on each media and scheduling (deciding the time) when the advertisement is to run.” – Fryburger

What media is used in Media Planning?
Online Offline
  • Social Media
  • Pay per Click(PPC. Google Ads is popular)
  • Digital Publications
  • Programmatic Advertising
  • Newspapers
  • Magazines
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Outdoor avenues like billboards, standees, etc.

Importance of Media Planning

  1. An effective media planning can provide good results on investment as well as enhance brand image
  2. It is an opportunity to create USP in the form of visuals or tune that increases recall value of the brand. Remember the tune of Britania or Intel Inside?
  3. A properly organized media planning can help in targeting the right set of audience within the given budget

 

Objectives of Media Planning

The objective of media planning is to understand the requirement of the client then execute media planning to provide desired results.

  1. Understand the client’s requirement
  2. Create a media plan
  3. Defining the budget
  4. Create strategies that will give maximum output after the execution of the media plan

 

Media Planning Process

The media planning process involves finding out the objectives and goal of the media plan, understanding the target audience, selecting the platforms where the campaign will be executed, defining the budget required, set the frequency of and timing of the campaign, execute the plan and strategize for maximum reach, evaluate the results.

Steps in Media Planning Process

  1. Understand the client’s requirement then define objectives and goals
  2. Define the target audience
  3. Define the budget
  4. Selecting a suitable media – Online or Offline
  5. Selecting Media-mix
  6. Determine the frequency and reach
  7. Execute the plan followed with evaluation

 

Media Planning Vs Media Buying

Yes, media planning is different from media buying but media buying is followed by media planning. Confused? Relax, will explain it. Media buying is related to paid media activities. It involves purchasing a space on different platforms. Example – You want to buy ad space in a newspaper – this is media buying. Which space to buy(front page or sports column, etc) how the ad will look, what message will it carry, how many days the ad will run, etc – this is media planning.

Media planning is more about strategies whereas Media buying involves implementing the strategy.


Media Planning Challenges

  • Lack of information
  • Drafting the communication message
  • Measuring effectiveness and optimisation
  • Keeping yourself updated with trends
  • Budget restrictions
  • Selecting platform

Job Role of Media Planner

In the broad sense, a media planner is responsible to pin down various platforms suitable for client’s campaigns. He can be a part of a media agency that is dealing with the client(outsourced). or working in an organization as a media planner who is interacting with media agencies to get the job done(in-house).

  1. Understand requirements of clients to explore objectives and goals
  2. Formulate the advertising strategies and media planning process
  3. Create and maintain media plans, flowcharts, buying guidelines, budget summaries, plan implementation and competitive reports
  4. Communicate with internal team and keep a track of active projects
  5. Ensure that the media deliverables meet the client’s objectives and goals
  6. Plan and buy the most appropriate types of media to use
  7. Evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns
  8. Maintain good contacts with online and offline media platforms – Newspaper, Radio, Digital marketing agency, etc.
Media Planner Salary

The salary of a media planner can range between Rs. 4 LPA to Rs. 8 LPA

 

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