Understanding Media Math - American Marketing Association

PLEASE NOTE: This is a preview.
For access to all Articles or Best Practices, complete FREE site registration

Understanding Media Math

By Enza V. Chiodi and Jill Newman
Enza V. Chiodi is Senior Vice President, Planning Director and Jill Newman is Associate Media Director, both at Creative Media PHD, a New York-based media strategy and communications firm.

	1. Introduction

Advertising is a complex business. Among other tasks, advertisers and marketers must concern themselves with devising a focused, effective message, that builds and reinforces such intangible concepts as brand identity, and then planning a method for communicating that message to consumers.

Planning a method to communicate the message is a particularly complex task. First they have to choose from among all the media outlets available, from television and radio to a myriad of potential print publications. Next, they have to decode each medium's unique method of measuring its reach and influence among consumers.

Media measurements generally fall into two categories: Broadcast and Print.

Each category is divided into myriad sub-categories to measure audience information ranging from simple concepts relating to the number of people likely to see an ad down to details as specific as the demographic makeup of the audience.

Additionally, each category has several different ways to assess advertising costs.

Media planners and media buyers use all this information to purchase and monitor advertising campaigns.

The goal of this tutorial is to enable an understanding of the mathematical relationships behind media concepts and measures.

Role of the Media Planner and Buyer

Most marketers will hire professional help before launching an advertising campaign. A large part of that help comes from media planners and media buyers.

Some media planners and buyers work in specialized firms. Often, however, they are a part of a larger advertising agency. Such full-service agencies can work with marketers from start-to-finish to devise marketing messages, create advertising to communicate that message, and select outlets to air the message.

Media experts specialize in monitoring the performance of advertising on various media outlets. Their first job is helping marketers select outlets that enable access to specific groups of people – which can be divided by age, income, race, occupation, sex and a myriad of other criteria.

This is primarily the role of the media planner. In addition to picking outlets, the media planner is responsible for coming up with a schedule that balances a marketer's need to get a message to consumers, and a marketer's need to stay within his budget. A separate tutorial, called Principles of Media Planning, deals with the media planning process in more detail.

Once the media planner and marketer agree to a plan, the media buyer takes over. The media buyer’s job is to actually negotiate rates to run advertising. Additionally, the media buyer tracks the effectiveness of those advertising runs.

Traditionally, media planners were paid a 15 percent commission on the value of the advertising they place. In fact, the advertising industry got its start as a media buying service, not a creative world. The first advertising agencies acted as brokers between marketers and media outlets – predominantly print and radio outlets at the time.

Some media planners still work on a commission plan, but increasingly, advertising agencies are using different formula to earn their money. Media planners and buyers are changing with them.

Many advertising and media professionals work on a flat fee system. The fee structure varies between firms. Generally, however, rates are devised by looking at a firm's billings for the fiscal year and level of staffing. That way, firms with experience running larger, more complex campaigns can justify a higher rate.

Typically, the costs for paying the media advisors and advertising staff would already be incorporated into the media plan.

Page 1 of 5	Next Page >> Last Page
2001 MarketingPower.com, Inc. Contents used by permission of the author.

Table of Contents

1.	Introduction
2.	Television: Basic Measurements
3.	Television: Other Key Measures
4.	Analysis Measures
5.	Print: Key Measurements