...and no, it's not what you think.
I had been working for Coke, for a few months, when this happened.
My boss came to me and asked me for a favor. If I could look through the media plans and find the reason why did we spend more budget than what we had planned.
I was a Junior Brand Manager back then, and going through media plans, wasn't my job. I had no idea who managed the media till then (apparently everyone and no one at the same time). It was December. So I had to look through every invoice, media plan, and monitoring report for every brand of the company, for the full year!!!
In short words, I had to find the needle in a haystack.
After 3 days of eyesores, and headaches, I completed the mission. I found more than 170k euros invoiced, but not really implemented. This meant the company was going to pay for advertisements that were never really broadcasted.
The media plans that I checked were TV, Radio, Print, and Digital.
All that money was nearly thrown in the garbage because no one cared to check the efficiency and execution of their campaigns.
Here. I just saved the company 170k euros.
My reward? Being officially in charge of every media planning and budgeting of every brand of the company from that day on. Why? Cause apparently, I was the only one who had enough nerves, patience, and will to monitor the marketing expenditure and media channeling, to prevent any other disaster from happening.
But the neglect of the media plans wasn’t the real problem. The major issue wasn’t the 170k euros nearly spent for nothing, but a thousand hundred more already spent in the wrong direction.
Coke’s brands, had very different target customers, different approaches, different prices, and different brand voices and strategies. But all of them had the same media planning. Broadcasted and displayed equally in every medium. Like executing a default task. Pressing the same button for everything. No personalization, no analysis, no differentiation.
This was a bigger problem than the first.
When planning a budget, the marketing of the company should spend more time defining which mediums to use in accordance with the brand’s needs, to lower the amount of non-working money. Efficiency is in choosing the right mediums for your brand and staying persistent and present only on those mediums. Spend more on one specific medium, than less on like five of them.
When facing an ad, people react differently based on the channel that the message is been transmitted/ broadcasted from. Why is that? Because of the key factor that differentiates marketing mediums from one another, - TIME.
I know what you’re thinking. DUH! We already know that. Well, guess what, I think you don’t.
I’m not talking about when, but how much.
As a media planner, you should be more concerned about how much time spends a potential customer/audience exposed to a specific medium, on average, and less caring about the exact time, when this happens. Does it make sense to you? Let me explain it better.
Time consumption (how much), is the factor that builds up the specifics of every medium. Based on these characteristics of the medium, people tend to create different reactions dependable NOT on the ad or brand, but on the medium itself.
Take TV into consideration for example - TV is a medium that people choose when having a lot of time in their schedule and want to relax, by watching a movie, a show, etc. The Time consumption of this medium is slow. Based on this data, an advertisement has more time at its disposal to deliver its message to its audience. That’s why this type of medium is used especially in growing brand awareness and launching new products. The secret of a TV advert: transmitting a slow-paced and long message to the targeted audience.
Social media, on the other hand, is great for products that are adaptable for an audience who wants to consume too much information in a short period of time, is shallow in research, and isn’t looking for something serious. Efficiency is at the core of this type of medium.
Posting all the time about a fridge that is 20% off on Instagram wouldn’t do a thing to your sales, trust me. They won’t even notice it or even worst, unfollow you completely. Why? The people who are looking to buy a fridge, won’t be scrolling down on Instagram, but come directly to your store or visit your official website.
On the other side, if you post a picture of your eco-friendly pan, that can do miracles in the kitchen and protects the environment – then sir, you will get a ton of likes, followers, and possibly a lot of sales. Small and easy-usable kitchen products are very interesting for people who frequent this type of medium. They are looking for recipes, cool stuff, and trendy gadgets that would make them feel cooler and make their life easier.
The frying pan wouldn’t do much against the fridge when confronted in-store, in a TV commercial, or in a Radio spot. Why… because of the Time consumption! When the customer comes directly to your store, they’re investing a lot of time, so they’re looking to spend some good money on the way, not just for buying a pan. So just, be smart, all right?!
Maybe, need a table to get the point? Here you go.
Now that you know how to distribute your communication plan, be more careful next time in setting up your budget. Cause sir, one thing is for sure, you won’t find any people enough willing to check for your lost golden needle in the dried and rotten haystack.
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