INMA_A01.QXD

(National Geographic (Little) Kids) #1
Media planning – deciding on the online/offline mix for advertising
This decision is typically taken by the media planner. As we noted in the section on
‘Planning integrated marketing communications’, the mix between online and offline
spend must reflect consumers’ media consumption and the cost/response effectiveness
of each medium. But, depending on the agency used, they may play it safe by putting
the ad spend into what they are familiar with and what may be most rewarding in terms
of commission – offline media. Many cross-media optimisation studies (XMOS)have
shown that the optimal online spend for low-involvement products is surprisingly high
at 10–15% of total spend. Although this is not a large amount, it compares to previous
spend levels below 1% for many organisations.
XMOS research is designed to help marketers and their agencies answer the (rather
involved) question ‘What is the optimal mix of advertising vehicles across different
media, in terms of frequency, reach and budget allocation, for a given campaign to
achieve its marketing goals?’
The mix between online and offline spend is varied to maximise campaign metrics
such as reach, brand awareness and purchase intent. Table 8.4 summarises the optimal
mix identified for four famous brands. For example, Dove found that increasing the
level of interactive advertising to 15% would have resulted in an increase in overall
branding metrics of 8%. The proportion of online is small, but remember that many
companies are spending less than 1% of their ad budgets online, meaning that offline
frequency is too high and they may not be reaching many consumers.

The reasons for using and increasing the significance of online in the media mix are
similar to those for using any media mix as described by Sissors and Baron (2002):
Extend reach (adding prospects not exposed by a single medium or other media)
 Flatten frequency distribution (if audience viewing TV ads are exposed too many
times, there is a law of diminishing returns and it may be better to reallocate that
budget to other media)
 To reach different kinds of audiences
 To provide unique advantages in stressing different benefits based on the different
characteristics of each medium
 To allow different creative executions to be implemented
 To add gross impressions if the other media is cost-efficient
 Reinforce message by using different creative stimuli.

All of these factors, and the first three in particular provide the explanation of why
XMOS shows it is worthwhile to put double digit percentages into online media.

CHAPTER 8· INTERACTIVE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS


Cross-media
optimisation studies
(XMOS)
Studies to determine
the optimum spend
across different media
to produce the best
results.


Table 8.4Optimum media mix suggested by XMOS studies

Brand TV Magazine Online
Colgate 75% 14% 11%
Kleenex 70% 20% 10%
Dove 72% 13% 15%
McDonalds 71% 16% (radio) 13%
Source: Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net/xmos)
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