Media Buying

Lots of Questions

Who am I trying to reach?

How many can I afford to reach?

How often do people need to encounter my message?

In which vehicles should I pursue message space?

When should I communicate (day, week, month, year)?

What markets and regions should receive extra emphasis and which ones can be ignored?

How can I take advantage of emerging media?

Media Selection Procedures

Selection based on audience and costs What does your target consume? How much can you afford?

Audience measures Gross impressions & Gross rating points (GRPs) Reach & Frequency - How many and how often Cost per thousand (CPM) and Cost per point (CPP)

Gross Impressions

In media, primarily concerned with accumulation of audienceEach audience member exposed to the message is considered an “impression” Summed to equal “gross impressions” Audience size = gross impressions for single show For multiple programs, add audience sizes together for

total gross impressions (GI)

Gross Rating Points

Same logic applies to rating pointsRating for individual programs are added together to calculate the total rating points accumulated across a scheduleGross Rating Points = GRPs

Ex. Rating for Program 1 + Rating for Program 2 +

Rating for Program 3 Gross Rating Points

GI and GRPs

Gross impressions (GI) Total number of exposures - duplication counts Exposures (Ad 1) + Exposures (Ad 2) + Exposures (Ad 3)…. 2 ads in American Idol each generate 9.63 Million impressions + NCIS: Los

Angeles generated 7.98 Million Impressions Total impressions = 27.24 Million or 27,240,000 GIs

Gross rating points (GRPs) GRPs = GI / Total population (x 100 to convert to %) Can be over 100, and often is

2.78 rating + 2.78 rating + 1.44 rating = 7.00 GRPs

Way of allocating media weight

Media Schedules

Rating Aud. Size # of Ads GRPs GI

NCIS 21.3 22.5mm 3 63.9 67.5mm

Am Idol 23.9 25.2mm 2 47.8 50.4mm

Big Bang 10.6 11.2mm 4 42.2 44.8mm

Olympics 5.8 6.1mm 1 5.8 6.1mm

Total --- --- 10 159.7 168.8mm

Huh?

Your schedule generates 168.8mm HH GI yet there are only 105.5mm TV HH How is this possible?

Your schedule generates 159.7 GRPs, with each GRP equal to 1% of the audience How can you have more than 100%

Duplication of Impressions

GRPs and GI allow for the duplication of impressionsSomeone might see more than one ad

in your scheduleEx. NCIS and Am IdolEx. multiple episodes of Am IdolEx. multiple ads in a single show

Reach and Frequency

Percent of audience exposed at least onceOverall - Household reachTarget - Reach of specific audience

Average Number of times exposedAverage frequency x Reach = GRP

Reach and Frequency

Viewers Average NumberGRPs = Counted X of Times

Once They View

GRPs = Reach X Frequency

Reach is net unduplicated audience

Frequency is average number of exposures

Estimating Reach and Calculating Frequency

Back to our 10 unit schedule of ads GRPs = 159.7 Reach = 60.0 Frequency = 2.66 or 2.7

Numbers comes from “reach curves” that contain reach estimates for various media vehicles and GRP levels

Frequency is then calculated from reach

Frequency Distribution

Effective Frequency

Combines reach and frequency

Threshold: minimum effective frequencyUsually 3+ Ideal exposure frequency

Varies by message complexity

Varies by strategic goals

Cost EfficiencyCost in relation to target deliveredCost per thousand (CPM)Cost per rating point (CPP)

CPP used to compare efficiency of advertising media to one another

CPM

CPM = Cost per thousand impressionsCPM = Cost of ads / Total GIs in (000)

Ex. CPM for NCIS CPM = $400,000 / 22,500(000) = $17.78

Ex. CPM for 10 unit schedule CPM = $2,450,000 / 168,800(000) = $14.51

CPP

CPP = Cost per rating pointCPP = Cost of ads / Total GRPs

Ex. CPP for NCIS CPP = $400,000 / 21.3 = $18,779.34

Ex. CPP for 10 unit schedule CPP = $2,450,000 / 159.7 = $15,341.26

Media Vehicle SelectionNote the size of the media budget.

Determine which media vehicles to use – Choices + Primary Research

Decide how to use media in line with segmentation, relationship

marketing, database/interactive, and connections planning

Decide “impact media” – newspapers, internet, outdoor, and specials

Allocate impact media and subtract cost from available media budget

Allocate percent of the remaining media budget to a medium

ex. 5% on “evening drive time” radio or 20% on “prime time” network TV

Divide amount allocated by Cost-Per-Point (CPP).

Calculate your total Gross Rating Points (GRPs).

Distribute the GRPs across the year, distinguishing national from spot

Simple ExampleTotal media budget is $54,836,200.

Buy two ads on Academy Awards (2 X $39,610 X 25 = $1,980,500), six ads in College

Bowl Games (6 X $35,674 X 25 = $5,351,100), two ads on the Super Bowl (2 X $59,376 X

50 = 5,937,600) and two months of outdoor in top 50 spot markets (2 X 1,600,000 =

$3,200,000).

Total Spending on impact media = $16,469,200.

Amount remaining = $38,367,000

Decide to spend 35% of remaining budget on local primetime TV.

.35 X 38,367,000 = 13,428,450

13,428,450/ 27,407 CPP = 490 rating points.

Place 100 in March, place 70 in May (Summer Kickoff), place 70 in October (Fall

Promotion), and 250 in December (Winter Sales Event).

Repeat process for other media (Radio, Magazines, etc).

Diagram media buys, both impact and standard media, in a flowchart.

Presenting Your Media Plan Visually

Creating Budget Allocation

Creating Media Flowchart

Creating Bar Graphs and Pie Charts

Media Plan

Using Excel to SHOW the allocation of your media budget to each media vehicle

Using pie charts to illustrate the allocation of the media budget across major media vehicles

EXPENDITURE BY MEDIUM

Using a flow chart to document the allocation of GRPs for each media vehicle

Using bar graphs to illustrate the distribution of total GRPs for each month

Budget Allocation Spreadsheet – Key Elements

GRP=$ALLOCATION / CPP

Flow Chart Spreadsheet – Key Elements