The Secret to Great Media Plans

What are Lockard & Wechsler Direct’s cardinal rules for media planning? 

The opportunity of a lifetime is only there during the lifetime of the opportunity. When it comes to maximizing the reach and efficiency of a media plan, those opportunities fly by at light speed. By the time the window of opportunity opens, it’s too late.

Look at how disruptive election coverage has been to television viewership this year and how much it was back in 2020. Locally and nationally, viewers migrated to their preferred news outlets in astounding numbers. This isn’t surprising. Politics, natural disasters and world events drive significant spikes in viewership. 

The same is true of The Super Bowl. The difference is that advertisers plan in advance for tentpole events like Super Bowls and the Olympics. They are less likely to anticipate or react in a timely way to politics, the weather and natural disasters – leaving untapped opportunity on the table. 

Media planners are charged with delivering maximum reach against specific targets at minimum cost. As a performance marketing agency, LWD shares that objective while also balancing the importance of sales, revenue, and ROI. Our teams track the performance of all these KPIs 24/7. This means that we jump all over any upticks to improve campaign performance and react swiftly to diminish the impact of any downturn.

2. Understand how a campaign is performing WHILE it’s running.

Daily stewardship and scrutiny comprise the second secret to great media planning. Don’t wait for a campaign to end to track and measure its effectiveness. If you don’t know how a campaign is performing NOW, you can’t possibly make in-flight optimizations in flight. Very real business goals are tied to marketing campaigns. For example, retailers have models that inform how much they can invest in media and how many targeted impressions they need to drive sales and deliver ROI. 

So then why are audience deficiency units (ADUs) so often given after a campaign ends, rather than in-flight, when the units can deliver impressions and contribute to business goals? Both agencies and the media share the blame, but tracking all KPIs on a daily basis can change all that. Doing so reveals which media are under-delivering and which ones are on the rise. With daily tracking, informed adjustments can be made throughout a flight, improving the likelihood that all media and business goals are met and exceeded. With national and local overnight ratings available, this level of stewardship should be a priority when it comes to media planning best practices.

3. Do your research.

Robust research and analytics are the third pillar to great media planning. Continuously tracking shifts in media performance down to the quarter hour and program level can inform new opportunities to help achieve and exceed goals. Doing so not only results in the best-informed plans from the start, but it also allows for midcourse correction to maximize delivery.

This ongoing analysis also tips the planner off to the opportunities that arise from politics, weather, natural disasters and world events. However, as aforementioned, the planner can’t hesitate to take advantage of the audience spikes these events deliver. 

By following these 3 essentials to media planning, even “best laid plans” can turn into spectacular successes. 

Does your media planning need an upgrade? Reach out to our team to bring your marketing performance to the next level.