Planning and executing a successful media campaign or project requires knowledge and expert execution of specific techniques and skills, including understanding of the requirements for proper media research and competitive intelligence, effective planning of media schedules, negotiation of best rates with media companies, monitoring the campaign, accurately tracking and evaluating results, and making smart adjustments based on tracking data to maximize the profitability and success of the enterprise. Some of the most important knowledge and techniques are not generally known by most advertisers, particularly small businesses like health care practices. This article reveals these tips that are the most effective and includes information on the use of experts and other professional resources that help increase the likelihood of a successful outcome for a well-planned and executed media campaign.
Understanding how to negotiate the best rates and schedules for placement of your external media projects can save you a great deal of money. It can also have a huge impact on how much revenue your media campaign generates. The larger your media budget the more you have at stake in properly applying the skill and talent of expert negotiating and scheduling to your media projects.
Negotiating and buying media (eg, television [TV], radio, print, billboards) is a classic blend of science and art. In this article, you learn a great deal about the science of media buying. No one can really teach you the art of media buying. That is why professional media planning and buying agents and agencies earn their commissions.
What is a media campaign?
For the purposes of this discussion, we define a media campaign as a finite period in which one or more media are used by an advertiser in an organized, preplanned schedule to generate interest from a specific target audience in a product, service, program, or event.
How media planning and buying expertise affects your bottom line
Media planning and buying efficiency affects your bottom line in 2 ways: on the cost side and on the revenue side.
Media Costs
Obviously, the less you pay for media, the more media you can afford to purchase for your established budget or you can simply pay less for the same amount of media than you would have spent if you were a less skilled planner and negotiator. Either way, you gain more buying power for your dollar.
Revenue Impact
What you may not realize is that expert media planning and buying can also affect the amount of revenue that you generate from your campaign. Here is how.
First, the negotiation of a strategic media schedule can result in your commercials or advertisements appearing at more advantageous times (such as in TV or radio advertising) or in more advantageous placement locations (as in newspapers, magazines, billboards, and other media). The advantage of this negotiated better placement or schedule is that more of your desired target audience may be likely to see or hear your advertising message than might be the case at different times or placement locations. This increases your chances for a greater response from the same advertising messages than you might get on a less-attractive schedule or placement.
Second, if you are able to negotiate more impressions of your message for the same advertising dollar, your increased frequency can also result in a greater response, because more of your target audience sees or hears your message more often. This means that the target audience has more opportunities to decide that your message is worth responding to and is more likely to remember your message because they have been exposed to it more often.
The difference between a well-planned and negotiated media schedule and a poorly planned campaign can mean many thousands of dollars to your bottom line. So, it clearly pays to know what you are doing in this endeavor or work with someone who does.
How media planning and buying expertise affects your bottom line
Media planning and buying efficiency affects your bottom line in 2 ways: on the cost side and on the revenue side.
Media Costs
Obviously, the less you pay for media, the more media you can afford to purchase for your established budget or you can simply pay less for the same amount of media than you would have spent if you were a less skilled planner and negotiator. Either way, you gain more buying power for your dollar.
Revenue Impact
What you may not realize is that expert media planning and buying can also affect the amount of revenue that you generate from your campaign. Here is how.
First, the negotiation of a strategic media schedule can result in your commercials or advertisements appearing at more advantageous times (such as in TV or radio advertising) or in more advantageous placement locations (as in newspapers, magazines, billboards, and other media). The advantage of this negotiated better placement or schedule is that more of your desired target audience may be likely to see or hear your advertising message than might be the case at different times or placement locations. This increases your chances for a greater response from the same advertising messages than you might get on a less-attractive schedule or placement.
Second, if you are able to negotiate more impressions of your message for the same advertising dollar, your increased frequency can also result in a greater response, because more of your target audience sees or hears your message more often. This means that the target audience has more opportunities to decide that your message is worth responding to and is more likely to remember your message because they have been exposed to it more often.
The difference between a well-planned and negotiated media schedule and a poorly planned campaign can mean many thousands of dollars to your bottom line. So, it clearly pays to know what you are doing in this endeavor or work with someone who does.
Secret 1: whenever inventory goes up, rates come down
Even if you have not been paying much attention, you may have heard or read about this creative little technology innovation known as the Internet. Because we have become conditioned to get more of our news, information, and entertainment online (mostly for free), traditional media has suffered a declining share of audience. Advertisers are not inclined to pay as much or advertise as much through media that deliver a smaller audience.
As a result, many of the larger companies that have traditionally advertised heavily in newspapers and magazines, on TV and radio, on billboards, and in other media have reduced both the amount they are willing to pay per advertisement and the amount of overall advertising they are willing to commit to these traditional media. This trend has created a major crisis for these media outlets because they rely on advertising dollars for most (and in some cases, all) of their revenue.
The Internet + the Recession = the Perfect Storm for Traditional Media
With this major tectonic shift in advertiser buying patterns resulting from the influence of the Internet, the last thing that traditional media needed was a record-setting recession in our economy. Combining these 2 influences simultaneously has created an unprecedented disaster scenario for major media outlets. Tremendous pressure is being brought to bear on media sales representatives to find new advertising revenue sources to ensure their survival.
A Crisis in One Place Often Triggers an Opportunity Somewhere Else
The bad news for these traditional media is good news for small businesses, because these media have to replace their lost revenue from big advertisers with new revenue from smaller advertisers. Businesses like yours that traditional media representatives would not have given the time of day in the past are now the new Holy Grail of traditional media companies who are desperate for advertising revenue wherever they can find it.
One of the ways that this crisis has affected these media outlets is that they have become far more willing to be flexible and creative in negotiating their rates with more favorable contracts. If you are a savvy media negotiator, you can get better rates than ever before, even for smaller media contracts, and you can often get extras added to your contract, if you know how to play this game to win.
Key Takeaway for Secret 1
You can use the crisis in traditional media advertising to your advantage to negotiate more favorable rates and schedules than ever before if you know how to work the system and the pain that these media outlets are suffering.
Secret 2: buy remnant space and time (and preemptible schedules)
Remnant advertisement time or space is excess unsold inventory that advertisers make available at deep discounts. Think of companies such as Priceline.com, Hotwire.com, Hotels.com, and other online conduits for purchasing lower rates on hotel rooms or airline flights. Although the business models of these companies may vary somewhat, they are all based on the remnant space concept. These companies buy or broker extra unsold inventory of hotel rooms or airline seats at very low rates and resell them to you at a profit that still represents a price saving to you. Everyone wins in this model (in theory) because the hotel or airline gets at least something (more than nothing) for an airline seat or hotel room that would otherwise go vacant, you get a better price as the end user, and the middle man makes a profit from buying in bulk at low prices from companies who do not want to deal with negotiating price for each individual customer.
In the case of remnant air time or advertisement space, the media companies would also rather deal with a bulk buyer agency, but that market has also dropped off quite a bit in this “perfect storm” media crisis, so these media companies are now more willing to work with small businesses that are flexible about their ability to commit to the purchase of unsold space or time on very short notice.
TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, and billboard companies all deal with remnant time or space, so these deep discounts are available across many media, but you do have to be flexible and well prepared to respond quickly when the opportunity arises.
Using newspaper advertising as an example, the best way to take advantage of remnant advertising space is to create advertisements in many different sizes (up to the maximum size your budget allows). You then contact your local newspapers and let them know that you are interested in being considered for the purchase of remnant space on short notice and ask about their rates for remnant purchase at various sizes.
Use the rate they quote to you as a starting point to negotiate lower rates for yourself, but be careful not to negotiate yourself out of the game by offering so little that the media offers the remnant space to other remnant advertisers who are willing to pay more than you are offering. The same concept would apply to TV advertising, with your ability to have 30-, 60-, and 15-second–long TV spots ready to place on a moment’s notice. You would use the same concept for radio, magazines, billboards, or other applicable media that offer remnant deals.
Keep in mind that the media representatives tend to favor repeat customers who regularly purchase advertising from them at more traditional rates but who are also ready to play the remnant game. If you try to buy remnant space and time exclusively, you can expect to have a much harder time getting those opportunities unless none of their regular advertisers want that remnant buy first.
Also, you need to be available and responsive on very short notice. You may need to respond within an hour or less in many cases, and if you are not available, the media representative would just go to the next available remnant advertiser, who gets the deal. If you are consistently not available to respond on short notice, you are likely to be dropped from the list entirely.
Preemptible Schedules
Buying a preemptible schedule is most common in TV and radio advertising. This negotiation involves your willingness to be “bumped” from your agreed airing schedule by an advertiser who is willing to pay a higher rate in exchange for negotiating a lower rate for your own schedule. You will not be charged, of course, if your spot is bumped and does not air, but you would not get as much airplay as your original schedule was designed to provide you.
The attractive aspect of negotiating a preemptible schedule these days is that fewer advertisers are willing to pay generous rates for air time, so your chances of being bumped are less than they might be in more robust times. Even if your spots get preempted 10% of the time, the money you can save through a preemptible schedule may well be worth the trade-off, and it is unlikely that you will be preempted for 20% or more of your original schedule in most cases.
Key Takeaway for Secret 2
Being prepared with a wide range of available advertisements on very short advance notice can put you in a position to take advantage of some great bargains in remnant advertisement prices. And negotiating preemptible schedules for radio or TV is usually the way to go for small advertisers to get most of your advertisements aired at a better overall rate.
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