What You Need to Know About Media

First a definition. Media is not synonymous with branding, marketing, or advertising. It is a completely independent component of an overall advertising campaign. Media is comprised of 3 distinct components which include planning, procurement, and management.

There are two blatant, obvious reasons why most small businesses fail, and those who don't swear advertising doesn't work. The first is the seduction of free creative offered by every media company out there. The second is the inability to develop a comprehensive media mix plan across all platforms.

The problem with free creative is that if you accept free creative from multiple vendors, you get uncoordinated or conflicting messaging that does not contribute to your brand, in fact, it destroys it. The second problem is rooted in the fact that an independent representative can only give you a proposal for their platform, which proves to never be the most cost-effective way to maximize your media budget. At best they can give you a biased, costly perspective of how superior their platform is.

Before you purchase media, you need to have a coordinated message that will be placed on appropriate mediums that reach your target audience, not just any audience. When you work with Muse Advertising, we will provide you with impactful creative based on your business and brand strategy, and place it on media most likely to reach your target audience at the right place and time, with the appropriate messaging to get your brand noticed and prompt trial.

Avoid Free Offers at All Costs

Just because you didn't pay for creative, doesn't mean you don't pay for bad creative, effectively you spend your money to lose sales. Free, inconsistent creative does far more damage than paying for effective creative. If you don't insult your audience, you risk the chance of at the very least confusing them. Both result in you losing sales. Your customers won't buy from you if they are insulted or confused about what you are selling.

Another thing to be wary of are "free media spots." It is almost impossible to spend money with any media company without them throwing in freebies that look good on the surface. So let's examine free spots. It is important to note that you will never get the most productive spots thrown in for free. What you are getting is unsold inventory that nobody wanted to pay for because it has little to no delivery of the audience you're targeting. Now would be a good time to remember the old adage "You get what you pay for."

Global brands spend billions of dollars on advertising across multiple platforms because it works-and all of them use an advertising agency. When you use an advertising agency, you are insuring consistent, persistent branding, marketing, and advertising creative, that speaks intimately to the desired audience, at an appropriate reach and frequency, to gain awareness and prompt trial.

Now Let's Talk Money

When you buy media directly from a media company, it is impossible to get anything but a bias opinion on where your money should be spent. They do not have the ability or desire to find your preferred audience anywhere but on their platform exclusively. That's problematic.

Part of the responsibility of an advertising agency is producing the right creative message and developing a media plan that delivers your preferred audience as many times as possible, over the longest length of time as possible, in as many places as possible, for the least amount of money possible. The goal of media platforms is to put the most amount of money over the shortest amount of time possible. A clear contradiction.

Businesses that advertise all the time are available to their customers all the time, everywhere. Businesses that advertise sporadically open their customers up to the competition. If you're not putting your brand in front of your customers every day, your competitor is. In the modern world where everybody is fighting for your customers' attention. Only the ones who notice and compliment them the most frequently win.

What is Effective Media Management

Muse Advertising treats all media planning, procurement, and management services the way they should be treated - like an integral component of your overall brand strategy. for over 30 years we have provided comprehensive media management services for global, regional, and local brands across all major traditional and digital media platforms.

When you hire Muse Advertising as your agency, not only will we develop a strategic brand strategy, marketing communications program, and effective creative campaigns, but we can also manage a comprehensive media plan which includes media planning, procurement, and management.

Media Planning

A media plan starts with a creative brief where we clearly define who your audience is and where they can be reached. We then identify the appropriate target market (geographic region) and select which platforms we are going to place the advertising on. Then we determine how frequently the ad should be aired over a specific period of time to reach the objective of the campaign. The combination of the target audience, the target market, the media platforms, and the frequency, as well as other components like the time of day the ad runs, are what comprise a media mix.

Media planning involves getting proposals from media companies and comparing their rates, looking to identify opportunities to place your message in front of the right people for the lowest price point possible. After the media plan is developed, we review our findings with the client for approval before moving on to procurement.

Media Procurement

Before we place any media orders, we would obtain any last-minute discount offers or changes in rates, as well as value add ons. The next step is to buy the media spots, where we will ensure every component gets put in the right place. This also includes coordinating apparel being ordered and ready, trucks and equipment for events being in place, schedules, timelines, and productions for videos, any editing or post-production to the final product, and all other ancillary details.

Media Management

We collect reports on the media buy and obtain proof that every detail is in place. We hold the media companies accountable to deliver on what you paid for. Coordinating across multiple mediums is time-consuming, but we stay on top of it for our clients so you can focus on what you do best. We collect, audit, and review the performance reports so that you have proof that your advertisements ran when they were supposed to. We verify that everything involved with the project was done and that you were not overcharged for anything.

Before you spend $100 dollars on a commercial or $100,000 dollars with a single station, Muse Advertising welcomes the opportunity to ensure that all your campaigns are successful.

Click here to contact Muse Advertising.