Media agency is “ is a company that advises companies on how and where to advertise and how to present a positive picture of themselves to the public”.
(Cambridge, dictionary)
What is the difference between an ad agency and media agency?
An ad agency is a company that manages advertising,
marketing & public relation services on behalf of clients. When a company
wants to book tickets, they go to a travel agency. Likewise, for advertising
they go to an ad agency for the service.
An ad agency can choose to specialize and focus in some
functions like Media Buying & Media Planning instead of multiple functions.
Such an agency is called Media Agency.
When ad agencies focus on producing & creating ads, they
become a Creative Agency.
A Marketing Agency specializes in functions
related to marketing like advice on product sales, retail distribution, pricing
discounts and so on. (quora.com)
Media agency agencies were formed to aggregate buying power,
derive value from planning and buying, create efficiency by reducing costs and
expedite the overall process.
This change put the creative agency on their heels and
destroyed the full-service agency model by separating strategy, account
management, media planning and creative.
Suddenly multiple agencies were involved in the process, all
with varying visions for how to execute the client plan and causing confusion
among the sellers who called on the agency(s). It was no longer clear who
was driving strategy.
We are now in the midst of another evolution in media
planning and buying. The introduction of the agency trading desks has brought
more complication and fragmentation into the service model. This new type of media
agency is overtaking the traditional media agency and requires employees to
have new skills focused on data analysis, technology and optimization.
Interestingly, the trading desk is buying a highly
commoditized media where data is focused on audience segmentation, but does not
consider the creative execution and the environment (e.g. the placement or
context).
What role is left for the traditional media agency in the
new digital economy? Some believe the media agency will also evolve, retaining
account relations and focusing more on strategy. I disagree. The
media agency is lost in an ever-widening chasm between highly creative, focused
execution and fully automated audience buying, leaving them without direction
and purpose.
The expected massive shift of TV dollars to digital this
year will put even more pressure on the traditional media agency to find its
place in the value chain. This shift will have the client demanding more
attention be paid to digital video creative. I anticipate that clients
will demand improved quality, engagement and integration with content. We
have already seen this happen with high-impact rich media units, with the
creative agency dictating the placements while the media agency simply fulfills
an administrative service. (businessinsider.com)
"Where" is the stage of media planning in which a media agency is mostly involved.
Some considerations when choosing the media agency:
What media services do you require? Do you want a strategy /
planning specialist? A search specialist? Or a big buying house? Or is it a
general one-stop-shop? Each option comes with strengths and weaknesses
depending on your needs and circumstances, but the first step is to identify
these.
What is the buying power of the agency? The majority of
national advertisers buy through media agency buying groups, and the size of
their billings and your budget can significantly influence the level of
discount an advertiser will enjoy.
What media specialties do we need? A number of ‘specialties’
have emerged within the media function including Channel Planner, Digital
Strategist, Search Strategist, Social Strategist, Consumer Insights Specialist,
Sponsorship Specialist, Econometric Modeling Specialist, Research and
Technology Specialist, etc. Make sure the agency has these skills, but likewise
don’t pay for what you don’t really need.
What media tools and software do they provide? Optimizing
software was the first, rapidly followed by Modeling software (awareness,
sales, response), true Econometric Modeling software, Portfolio Management
software, etc. But ‘Smart’ software is only smart if they can demonstrate the
benefit to your business.
What additional skills do they provide? Specialist resources
require specialist personnel and some of the new areas need people with skill
sets from outside the industry. It is not unusual to see a dedicated Market
Researcher in the Consumer Insights role, or an Economic Statistician in the
Econometric Modeling area.
What are the skills of the people who will be working on
your business? Some media agencies have developed internal ‘cells’ that
specialize in a particular category or industry, across a range of individuals.
Ideally you should look for experience in the basics as well as the technology
and digital specialists from a cohesive team that provides both youthful
creativity and mature experience.
How engaged will the senior management be in your business?
Media agencies are successful business units with skilled and seasoned
management. Most are run by experienced media specialists/generalists and the
skills these people bring to the table are critical to their success.
What form of remuneration do they prefer? Cost plus retainer?
Project fees? Media commission? Performance Based Remuneration (PBR) aspect
that rewards or penalizes the agency on performance? The type of remuneration
should work for both you and the agency in regards to value, changes in
budgets, workloads and cash flow.
How effective is the ‘chemistry’ or ‘fit’? Most
relationships that last long-term are based on mutual respect, understanding
and consideration; more than the camaraderie of the new business pitch; its a
genuine interest in or passion for your business; an open and honest approach
that will engender trust and respect. (
Media channels
STAGES OF MEDIA PLANNING
Developing the Media Plan
Advertising
media selection is the process of
choosing the most cost-effective media for advertising to achieve the required
coverage and number of exposures in a target
audience.
Although the media plan is placed later in this process, it
is in fact developed simultaneously with the creative strategy.
This area of advertising has gone through tremendous changes; a critical media
revolution has taken place.
The standard media plan covers four stages: (a) stating
media objectives; (b) evaluating media; (c) selecting and implementing media
choices; and (d) determining the media budget.
Stating Media Objectives
Media objectives are normally stated in terms of three
dimensions:
Reach: The number of different
persons or households exposed to a particular media vehicle or media schedule
at least once during a specified time period.
Frequency: The number of times
within a given time period that a consumer is exposed
to a message.
Continuity: The timing of
media assertions (e.g., 10% in September, 20% in October, 20% in November, 40%
in December and 10% the rest of the year).
Evaluating Media
There are definite inherent strengths and weaknesses
associated with each medium. In addition, it would require extensive primary research,
either by the sponsoring firm or their advertising agency in order to assess
how a particular message and the target audience would relate to a given
medium. As a result, many advertisers rely heavily on the research findings
provided by the medium, by their own experience, and by subjective appraisal.
Selection and Implementation
The media planner must make media mix decisions and timing
directions, both of which are restricted by the available budget. The media mix
decision involves putting media together in the most effective manner. This is
a difficult task and necessitates quantitatively and qualitatively evaluating
each medium and combination
thereof.
Unfortunately, there are very few valid rules of thumb to
guide this process, and the supporting research is spotty at best. For example,
in attempting to compare audiences of various media, we find that A C Nielsen
measures audiences based on TV viewer reports of the programs watched, while
outdoor audience exposure estimates are based on counts of the number of
automobile vehicles that pass particular outdoor poster locations.
The timing of media refers to the actual placement of advertisements
during the time periods that are most appropriate, given the selected media
objectives. It includes not only the scheduling of advertisements but also the
size and position of the advertisement.
Setting the Media Budget
The media budget is a subset of the advertising budget, and
the same methods used to create advertising budget will be used to create the
media budget.
In general, remember that:
Media outlets which deliver
messages involving multiple senses (sight, sound, touch, and smell) will be
more expensive than those involving just one sense (sound). The quality
expectations of the media outlet will influence the cost. For example, the
quality of ads for national television stations tends to be higher than those
for local outlets. Creating a text ad on the Internet, however, can be free or
cost next to nothing.
(boundless marketing.com)
POE
“Can you explain paid vs. owned vs. earned media? Which is
‘the one’ for my business?” While the knowledge of paid, owned, and earned
media is critical for digital marketing success, most B2B marketers treat them
as individual animals and pursue them as independent marketing streams. So
what? They are three different critters, right? Not really. Digital
marketing is no longer a single-strategy game. As such, the importance of a
well-balanced marketing mix can’t be overstated. But, more on that
later. First, let me give you a brief overview of each of them – paid, owned,
and earned.
Paid media
Simply stated, you pay for this type of media – tools like
Google Ad Words, or different types of search and display advertising, SEO and
PPC campaigns, and so on. While this strategy calls for an extremely well
thought out plan and execution, it also needs to have compelling
call-to-actions driven largely by customer benefits.
There used to be time when digital marketing was synonymous
with paid media. Not anymore. While paid media has its place, times have
changed and people have gone beyond responding to promo pitches and clever
commercials. Now they are more interested in building relationships with brands
they trust and they are seeking involvement with those brands regularly.
Owned media
This is the media channel created by your business – the
content that you own, in entirety. Think of it as the content featured on your
website: your blog posts, the free whitepapers or eBooks that you offer, and
any content that you are giving away in the hopes of winning new leads for your
business. It also includes the content that you share on your company’s behalf
across various social media sites.
To nail this part of the game, you need to have a strong
content marketing strategy, and an equally strong social strategy to back it
up. Typically, good content is a highly misunderstood term among B2B marketers,
who are valuing the opinions of peers and industry organizations to judge their
content trustworthiness.
Earned media
Earned media places customer into your media channel. The
need for customer engagement reaches its pinnacle with earned media. It draws
the attention of your prospects and customers, turns them into brand advocates
and influencers, who will in turn push your brand before the eyes of more
customers and potential brand advocates. You can even consider this the return
of good-old “word-of-mouth marketing,” albeit with a modern twist.
Earned media, however, hardly ever works alone. You have to
make it a part of your marketing ecosystem along with paid and owned media. The
truth is: in today’s digital landscape, they either work together or they don’t
work at all. (forbes.com)
Ultimately these types of media work best together but
making the hard choices of what to include and what not to include is crucial -
especially when budgets are tight. But if you simply start by categorizing your
media and identifying the right roles based on your objectives, then you’re on
the right path. Here are some high level takeaways that you should consider
when developing your interactive media strategy:
Create
a solar system of owned media. Owned media is a channel you control. There
is fully owned media (like your website) and partially owned media (like
Facebook fan page or Twitter account). Owned media creates brand portability.
Now you can extend your brand's presence beyond your web site so that it exists
in many places across the web - specifically through social media sites and
unique communities. In a recession in which marketing budgets are being cut by
20%, the ability to communicate directly with consumers who want to
engage with your brand through long-term relationships can be
invaluable.
Recognize
that earned media is a result of brand behavior. "Earned
media" is an old PR term that essentially meant getting your brand into
free media rather than having to pay for it through advertising. However the
term has evolved into the transparent and permanent word-of-mouth that is being
created through social media. You need to learn how to listen and
respond to both the good (positive organic) and bad (spurned) as well as
consider when to try and stimulate earned media through word-of-mouth
marketing.
Your paid media is not dead, but it
is evolving into a catalyst. Many
people are predicting the end of paid media (aka advertising). However, that
prediction may be premature as no other type of media can guarantee the
immediacy and scale that paid media can. However, paid media is shifting away
from the foundation and evolving into a catalyst that is needed at key periods
to drive more engagement (e.g. Q4 holidays).
(forrester.com)
HOW TO OPTIMISE MEDIA EXPENDITURE?
Build your marketing ecosystem with paid, owned, and
earned
While earned media can be a great tool for marketing
campaigns, or even for laying out an overall marketing strategy, I recommend
that you focus on creating a holistic strategy comprised of all three.
Create engaging, customer-oriented, and problem-solving content through
owned media, with paid efforts, get that content strategically placed where it
can be spotted by your target audience, and finally, earn the audience’s trust
and support and turn them into your brand advocates.
Where should you be spending your dollars? Spend
them on creating an ecosystem of paid, owned, and earned media. (forbes.com)
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