Media Planning 101 for Comms Planners

As creative comms planners, we’re interested in the messaging: making sure that we have an integrated campaign with the right message in the right channel.

This differs from media planners, who focus on the where and when of a campaign making sure the message is seen by the right people at the right place in the right time.

It’s important that these two disciplines don’t work in isolation. In order to create the strongest message in each channel, it’s critical for us to have foundational knowledge of each media type as well an understanding of the media planner’s objectives — so that ultimately we can create better work.

Fundamentally, media planners can pull two levers to structure a media recommendation: Reach and Frequency

• Reach: The number of people (or households) exposed to a given medium at a given point in time.
• Frequency: The number of times viewers are exposed to the same ad during a campaign.

(Source: Think with Google)

And depending on the campaign objectives, budgets, the life stage of the product, and competitive clutter, media planners will create a channel mix that optimizes either Reach or Frequency.

But how does this tie back to comms planning?

Because knowing the channel strengths and weaknesses will help us guide creative teams in terms of tactical direction. For example:

• Digital targeting & sequencing capabilities mean we can tell a much more complex message

Commuter OOH has a very high percentage of repeat traffic day after day. So creative needs to be able to go for 30 exposures without getting worn out — and maybe it’s ok for it not to get noticed until the 4th or 5th impression

• Television’s broad reach means messaging needs to be specific to your target but accessible enough to be understood by a much larger audience

Take a look below for more details: