Unit 3 Brands and Channels

IPA Excellence Diploma

Candidate # 3003

IPA Excellence Diploma

Module 3

The media plan is dead, long live the media plan! I believe the future of brands and channels requires a new means of visualising the media plan

Candidate # 3003 October 2011

Unit 3 Brands and Channels

IPA Excellence Diploma

Candidate # 3003

The media plan is dead, long live the media plan! I believe the future of brands and channels requires a new means of visualising the media plan.
In 2006, I began working as a Planner in a Media agency. Fast-forward five years to 2011, and the world in which we operate is a totally different place the Internet has matured, and digital is increasingly becoming the mode of carriage for all other media (Shirky, How Social Media Can Make History, 2009). Facebook has gone from being a small, cottage industry for American Ivy Leaguers to a global media empire. Apples iPhone has, since launch in 2007, revolutionised the way we interact with, and access, content.

The last 10 years have seen the greatest shift in the way people interact with media in modern history (Fig.1). Despite the huge changes to the media landscape we operate within, the document we use to represent our campaigns has remained largely unchanged. I believe a new format of media plan must be created, one which properly represents the connected, data driven, digital media world we now operate in.

The media plan we use currently is a relic, designed in a different age. Agencies must modernize this document in line with the new consumers we advertise to, and must be based on the new communications tools we use. This change is vital to the future of media agencies. Media agencies must help clients understand an increasingly complex consumer landscape, if we fail, media agencies will cease to be relevant.

The media plan

Despite there being a huge number of media agencies operating globally, the media plan looks broadly the same wherever you are. It details two key pieces of
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information timing or phasing, and by specifics by channel such as coverage and investment (Fig.2)

Fig.1. Media Fragmentation since 1700 media channels plotted on the y-axis, with time along the x-axis. As we reach the present day, fragmentation and proliferation has accelerated driven by growth of digital technology and broadband Internet access (Millward Brown, 2007)

Media

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Spend (000s)

Brand X
TV Press Magazines Radio Digital Display 200m impressions 400 TVRs 80% @ 4 OTS 25% @ 3 OTS 45% @ 12 OTH 400 TVRs 86% @ 7 OTS 400 TVRs 3,000 1,500 250 300 2,000

Fig2. Brand Xs H1 media plan demonstrating investment by media and audience coverage (Source: Author)

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This document has remained largely unchanged from the days of media being presented in the last ten minutes of a creative presentation when media planning was a function of a more holistic agency system (Bullmore, 2002).

In its current form it has many benefits - it is easy to understand and conveys important information, such as investment and channel mix, quickly. It allows those who use it to quickly see how media activity is phased across a period, and how audience coverage builds. From a more practical point of view, it allows those producing advertising to understand when material needs to be supplied to media owners. It requires little specialist knowledge to understand and interpret it.

New media landscape, new media behavior As digital technology has matured, the media landscape has changed we no longer live in a world where interruptive, one way advertising that simply tells consumers what to do, what to buy or what to think (PHD Worldwide, 2010, p. 11) is viable. This is not to say that traditional spot advertising in peak time television is dead, but instead that the dynamics of the media landscape have altered largely driven by the proliferation of ubiquitous internet access and new electronic devices (Fig.3)

Fig.3. The number of internet enabled devices consumers own is growing. Post 2010 growth is driven by mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. (The Economist, 2011)

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The fast emergence of digital technology has changed the way that
Communications services work for consumers (Ofcom, 2011). Media is no longer consumed at a set time it is consumed when, where, and in whatever way consumers choose. Media is now increasingly being combined, meaning that a greater and greater percentage of peoples overall media time is spent multi-tasking. (Fig.4.)

Fig.4. Especially amongst younger audiences, people are increasingly meshing media time together, further changing dynamics of media landscape (Ofcom, 2011)

In addition to new devices on which to consume media, the rise of social now means that advertising within media doesnt behave in the same way it used to it now has a life beyond the original paid for spot or placement. People can share content that they like, or criticise content they dont. Social media has gone from being a type of platform to a function of all digital media, built in to the very DNA of the devices and services we use. People are increasingly becoming the point where media intersects Clay Shirky suggests, media is the connective tissue of society (Shirky, 2011), but
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in a culture of technological convergence it could be suggested society is also the connective tissue of the media.

The new media landscape we operate in, and the new behavior which it has created means that a media agency today, needs to be doing so much more than just media in its traditional sense, it needs to be a true communications agency. Consumer behavior and digital technology has blurred the lines between media and message agencies can no longer be solely interested in trading the media canvas as a commodity we must take a more holistic view of all communication and understand the relationship between each element of a clients communications mix.

Characteristics of the Old Media world Consolidated audiences by channel Static media Metrics reconciled retrospectively Top down push model Digital as emerging channel Single media consumption

Characteristics of New Media world Fragmented audiences by channel Fluid, portable and social media Metrics reconciled in real time digitally On demand, non linear pull model Post Digital Full integration into all media Stacked multimedia consumption

Why the time for change is now Whilst reflecting basic information such as coverage and timing, the media plan actually is so much more than this. It is the bridge between client and agency. It represents the culmination of hours of strategic and implementational thinking. As the media landscape has become more complicated, this document has not changed in step. We insist on fitting new media into a structure built for old media. The agency model is only valid as long as agencies continue to add value to their clients

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business (Hook, 2011). In the brave new digital world of media, we, as a community of agencies, must find ways to help our clients understand and buy ideas, ideas that are now so much more complicated than they ever were before. In the modern age we need a plan that demonstrates how campaigns will work across all elements of a fragmented, digital landscape and makes it easy for clients to understand. If we dont, agencies will cease to add value, and therefore be surplus to requirements.

Building the next generation of media plan

Fig.5 A media landscape requires a new type of plan (Source: Author)

Fig.5 demonstrates what I believe the new plan should look like. It covers each of the three elements of a clients advertising or communications mix, with bought media in blue, earned media in green, and owned media in red.

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The nodes of these sections relate to specific media activity, and are sized relative to the coverage they generate against an audience, in any given time. The size of the hubs acts as a sum of the activity within it and quickly represents the scale of any area of the marketing mix.

This document is generated by a number of xml feeds from both the existing media plan shown earlier, and other client data feeds.

Because the plan is generated via numerous different data feeds, the relationship between individual media becomes explicit. In real time it demonstrates the relationship between differing media activities, providing a more rounded picture of the campaign. It would appear that after so long, the promise of real time data has actually become manifest, and it makes sense for a new plan to be powered by the torrents of information made available to us via digital technology (McKinsey Global Institute, 2011). It will provide a more honest, accurate, and up to date version of what is actually happening across the communications mix. By animating the data points in flash, you are can see how the plan of activity grows over time. In the screen grab above, one phase of the plan is displayed, in this instance, a week. The user is able, via this system, to look at individual phases, which they specify a week, month, or year for example. The user is also able to see how delivery of media progresses across phases.

In the appendix you will find a mocked up, working version of this plan demonstrating how it could look in real conditions.

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Advantages of the new plan vs. the traditional format The benefit of this style of media plan is that it presents all available consumer interactions at one time, and weights them according to a metric such as coverage. In the old style of plan, arbitrary blocks represent media activity, but scale is left out of the equation.

Secondly, in an on demand world where there is no predictability of media exposure (Elms, 2011) this version of the plan makes explicit the way consumers interact with media at any one time and the transference of media exposure by channel. Making the connection between TV ratings, for example, and online video views, clear and easy to understand. Whilst the old plan does allow you to understand phasing of a campaign, in an era when integration is highly desired by clients, it does not make explicit the way media works together in generating coverage (Fig.6.)

I also believe this format of plan will help those working in media and communications agencies create better campaigns for their clients. Currently, when media agency planners create post campaign reports for clients to help evaluate successes and failures, original planned media metrics are compared to the final version of the plan displaying differences in deliveries. Because of the way this new format of plan is generated, via data and in real time, we can see what effect different areas of the plan had on other sections. Providing greater texture to the learning we derive from post campaign meetings and helping us to prioritise budget on future campaigns.

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Fig.6 In this example we see the direct correlation between paid for media in week 1 and the effect it has on earned media in the social space in week 2. (Source: Author)

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By using the information stored within this plan, it would be possible to create scenario plans using information such from econometric and brand studies. This would allow media planners to optimise the balance between paid media activity and earned, as you begin to gather data about the casual relationship between the two. The plan becomes a plan in the purest sense, but also a prediction tool for future campaigns. Finally, and most importantly I believe this type of plan will help us, as media agencies, sell our ideas. Instead of the same old 400 TVR campaign that so often gets bought instead of better rounded, integrated, modern solutions, this plan will help simply, and effectively, visualise the way in which new media campaigns will work powered by real data to prove what were saying. In these times of change, our clients rely on us yet so often we are unable to explain our ideas properly, and this, I believe, is a means to make it easy for our clients to buy our work. In doing so, our clients will become more progressive as advertisers, beginning to enjoy the advantages of our new media world, rather than simply worrying about its dangers.

This new format is ultimately not about media, it is about creating a visual representation of all the communications the target audience can interact with at any one time, making explicit the dynamic relationship with each touchpoint and allowing agencies and clients to understand this relationship better.

Long live the new media plan As the media landscape we operate in has become more complex we have failed to keep pace. The most important document that media agencies have has been stuck in a time warp, and as a result it is no longer fit to properly communicate the information agencies require it to. To properly help ourselves, and our clients understand the ever-changing world we live in, we need a new media plan. The new
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plan must be easy to understand, accurately represent how media works together and be as accurate as possible. By using digital technology to our advantage we can achieve this. By creating a new model we can help our clients make more progressive choices, and in doing so secure the position of media agencies and communications experts rather than simple commodity brokers.

The media plan is dead. Long live the new media plan.

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Appendix

On the accompanying CD, you will find a demonstration of how this plan could work for a real client. If youre reading the pdf version, the file should accompany this document. The data that has been inputted is arbitrary, but based on coverage or reach levels by channel in any given period. It is designed to show how a real clients communications plan would be displayed over a 16 week period. The flexibility of this system would allow other data sets to be incorporated or removed as needed, and this is by no means meant to be a definite article. As with all good digital projects, this is still in beta, and I will be testing this on real clients in my day to day role shortly, aiming to refine and improve as I go.

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Bibliography
Bullmore, J. (2002). Last word on the future. In J. Myerson, & G. Vickers, Rewind: Forty Years of Design and Advertising. London: Phaidon. Elms, S. (2011, Aprill). Intergrated Planning:Cloud Thinking. Admap. Hook, U. (2011, October 18). Is The Agency Model About To Expire? Retrieved October 24, 2011, from MediaBiz Bloggers: http://www.mediabizbloggers.com/uwe-hook/The-Agency-ModelAbout-to-Expire---Uwe-Hook.html McKinsey Global Institute. (2011, May). The challengeand opportunityof big data. Retrieved October 22, 2011, from McKinsey Quarterly: https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/The_challenge_and_opportunity_of _big_data_2806 Millward Brown. (2007). Media Evolution: The Long View. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from Slideshare: www.slideshare.net/adliterate/mediafragmentation Ofcom. (2011). Ofcom: Communications Market Report UK. London: Ofcom. PHD Worldwide. (2010). Fluid: PHD on Harnessing The Rising Speed of Influence. London: PHD. Shirky, C. (2009, June 1). How Social Media Can Make History. Retrieved October 13, 2011, from TED: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitte r_facebook_can_make_history.html Shirky, C. (2011). Cognitive Surplus . London: Penguin. The Economist. (2011, October 8). Beyond The PC. Retrieved October 18, 2011, from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/node/21531109?frsc=dg|a

Word Count (Excl. captions, titles, tables, bibliography) 1,986

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