Marketing Communications

268 CHAPTER 8 MEDIA PLANNING

Care must be taken that media planning is more than just selecting the vehicles with

the most promising results. The different media and vehicles must be considered in con-

junction with each other. Is it wise, for instance, to plan the TV campaign after the radio

campaign, or vice versa? Is it better first to explain the message in more detail in magazines

before the out-of-home campaign starts? How important is it to have several TV commercials

during prime time in the first week of the launch of a new product? Research on β-coefficient

issues is very important to get some insight into the consequences of planning one medium

before the other, or to decrease the GRP of radio to the advantage of TV. Furthermore, for

a media planner, media consumption should be far more important than GRP cost. The

most important questions are: Which radio channel does a target consumer listen to in

the morning? Which billboards does he or she come across on the way to work? Which

magazines or newspapers are read in the evening? Which TV programmes are watched in the

evening? What events that can be sponsored does the target consumer go to etc? In Table 8.6

an example is given of a preparatory analysis for a media plan. The different advertising

media are listed. The use, advantages and disadvantages of these media will now be discussed

in more detail.

Outdoor

Outdoor advertising consists of media such as billboards, but also transit media in the form of

messages on buses, trams, in stations, etc. (Photos 8.1 and 8.2). Outdoor advertising has the

advantage of reaching a lot of people. As a consequence, effective reach can be very high. Not

only reach, but also frequency can be quite high. The lifetime of a message is very long, and

the same message can be seen over and over again. For instance, on the way to school or office

you might encounter the Nokia message of ‘connecting people’ every day. Or you might see

a bus or tram with the announcement of the film The Matrix Reloaded over and over again.

The time period to reach the audience is very short and the costs are moderate. For certain

types of billboards there is the obligation to work nationally, but for others a regional

approach is obtainable.

Photo 8.1 L’Oréal: a tower in Berlin is a spectacular advertising medium

Source: James Davies.

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