Media planning

Problem: Media plan 

Learning objectives (LO):

1. Different channels that can be used in your media plan 

2. How should you conduct research (what to research?)

• Media habits in Belgium

3. Paid-owned-earned

4. Roles of different agencies

LO1: Different channels that can be used in your media plan 

Different channels with (dis)advantages 

This is very interesting to know the different advantages and disadvantages of all the possible mediachannels. There is also a rough cost estimate part of the tabel but this information is from 2011 so probably the costs of some channels are higher now why others are lower. 


Different media have different strengths, weaknesses, drawbacks, advantages and costs. An effective communication strategy usually uses a mix of at least 2 or 3 different types. Choice of media and format depends on:

1. your audience(s) 
   
2. your budget 
   
3. the communication channels best for your specific audience(s) and 
   
4. how long the communication intervention will continue
   
5. and how critical it is to encourage genuine participation for social change communication.  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Source: http://www.cimh.edu.bb/cami/files/PUBCOMM/PresK11/PDF/Media%20Matrix.2.pdf

Marketing mix is changing

Interesting article about how the media mix is changing due to the technological development. Online is getting more and more important while print is losing influence. 

Digital channels are beginning to rank among the top-budgeted areas of marketers’ program spend, finds the CMO Council in its latest State of Marketing report[download page]. Indeed, websites, microsites and communities now rival trade shows and conferences in share of planned program spend, outweighing TV advertising as well as lead generation and thought leadership (including content syndication). As expected, the biggest changes in the works are reserved for digital channels.

The 500+ respondents to the survey – who hailed from all global regions and a variety of industries and company sizes – were asked by how much they expect to shift their marketing mix elements this year, using their 2013 media spend (non-headcount/non-operational spend) as a baseline. Not surprisingly, the top 5 channels by planned budget growth are each digital, while the top 5 media channels by planned budget cutbacks are each traditional.

According to the report, roughly two-thirds or more marketers are planning to increase their budgets for:

• Social advertising (71%);
• Online video (71%);
• Social media (non-ad campaigns; 69%);
• Retargeting (67%); and
• Search engine marketing (66%).

These results are supported by earlier research showing, for example, the relative effectiveness of social ads in reaching new audiences, growth in the use of retargeting for lead generation, and continued increases in paid search spending.

Meanwhile, the media slated for the biggest cutbacks are:

• Print newspapers (39% decreasing spend to some extent);
• Print magazines (36%);
• TV (24%);
• Radio (23%); and
• Outdoor/billboard (21%).

These changes may be more the result of the attractive user demographics boasted by various digital channels than by their current effectiveness, though, as evidenced by findings contained in recent data-driven MarketingCharts reports that have delved into media spending and advertising effectiveness.

For example, in a recent MarketingCharts Debrief on ad channel effectiveness, traditional media such as TV and print outweighed digital channels in stated purchase influence among consumers – with this in many cases extending to youth, also. (For more, see the Debrief, “Advertising Channels With the Largest Purchase Influence on Consumers”.)

Meanwhile, it’s interesting to see online video among the top areas for growth, with TV among those with the broadest planned decreases. That likely owes not only to the appealing demographics of online video viewers in comparison to TV viewers, but also to the targeting and engagement benefits typically ascribed to online video and to the perceived future of video being increasingly digital. (These and other trends covered in the latest Debrief, “TV in Context: Viewing Trends, Ad Spending, and Purchase Influence.”)

Meanwhile, returning to the CMO Council report, it’s interesting to note that marketers are almost as likely to be keeping their mobile banner ad spend flat (45%) as they are to be increasing it (48%). There appears to be more enthusiasm for mobile search (the largest mobile ad format), which 52% of respondents plan to increase spending on to some extent.

There’s certainly room for growth: mobile apps, display ads, SMS ads, and search rank at the bottom of expected program spending over the next 12 months, per the study. Of course, to what degree they should grow is dependent on their perceived influence: only 1 in 10 marketers chose mobile ads and mobile search as one of their top-5 most effective ways to brand and generate demand in their market, far below the most popular responses:

• Search-optimized website marketing (48%);
• Events and trade shows (47%);
• Social media interaction and engagement (42%);
• Better targeting and segmentation through marketing analytics (34%); and
• TV advertising (32%).

About the Data: The CMO Council describes its methodology in part as follows:

“A large sample of 525 CMO Council members from all regions of the world participated, representing a cross-section of industries and companies of all sizes. Most participants (56 percent) report directly to a CEO, president or chief operating officer. A further 18 percent of respondents said they report in to business division chiefs or heads of regional operations. A large number (more than 70 percent) had a vice president title or higher. The remaining senior marketers who contributed to the study were director-level decision makers with budget and operational responsibility. In terms of department size, 42 percent of respondents manage global teams of more than 50 professionals, with 12 percent managing more than 300.

With regard to company size, 45 percent of respondents represent companies of more than $1 billion in annual sales, 27 percent are with companies with revenues between $101 million and $1 billion, and 28 percent work for companies with revenues of less than $100 million. Relative to addressable markets, 41 percent are focused on B2B markets, 23 percent on B2C, and 35 percent crossed both sectors. The locations of companies were also quite diverse, with 50 percent based in North America, 19 percent in Europe, 18 percent in APAC, and 5 percent in both Africa and the Middle East. Three (3) percent of those surveyed represent companies headquartered in Latin America.”

Source: http://www.marketingcharts.com/traditional/how-is-the-marketing-media-mix-changing-45058/

Why choose a certain channel? from Media selling by Charles Warner

This text gives also a few advantages and disadvantages of different channels but here it's more elaborated upon different advantages and disadvantages.

Newspapers

Advantages 

Credibility: One of the oldest, most highly regarded media. Loyal readers, high degree of credibility, familiarity, and acceptance.

Visuals: The combination of text, graphics, and pictures can show products and crate a visual appeal that reinforces a message.

Mass Audience: Newspapers reach a large audience in a market with one exposure.

Ad Variety: Newspapers offer a variety of ad sizes that allows advertisers to match budgets to ad sizes.

Upscale Audience: Newspapers generally reach an older, upscale audience, including homeowners.

Long Copy: Newspaper ads have the ability to communicate lengthy, complex or detailed information and descriptions.

Couponing: By use of coupons, advertisers can track responses.

Random Access: Readers can access an ad when they want to, at their convenience, and pour over it. Readers control the amount of ad exposure.

Portability: Newspapers can be read anywhere, on a train, on the beach, in any room in a house.

Shelf Life: Newspapers can hang around for days or weeks and be accessed again and again.

Lead Time: Advertisers can place orders with a relatively short lead time – not as long a lead time a magazines, outdoor, or television.

Disadvantages

Decreasing Circulation: In most cities circulation reaches less than 50 percent of all households. Newspaper circulation nationally has been declining steadily for decades.

Increased CPMs: As circulation has declined, newspaper rates continue to increase, thus increasing CPMs, which are among the highest in the media.

Passive: Newspapers provide information once a consumer is in the market for a product, but they do not build awareness, aid in branding, or create product demand. Used mainly for price comparisons.

Clutter: A typical daily newspaper is over 60 percent ads, not counting free-standing inserts. Ads often appear next to or on top of competitive ads, encouraging price comparisons. Little or no product separation.

Page Browsers: Most people do not read all sections of a paper every day, only those they are interested in. Even the most read sections are seen by only one-half of the people who buy a newspaper.

Low Ad Readership: Even if people read a newspaper section, on the average only 42 percent of readers will recall noting a full-page ad.

Older Readers: People in younger demographics rarely read newspapers, especially 18-24.

Increased Competition: Interactive is attacking one of newspapers’ stronger ad categories, classifieds, especially recruitment advertising. eBay is now the country’s largest used-car dealership.

Low Targetability: Difficult to reach many high-potential target segments efficiently.

Poor Production: Even with the addition of new and improved newspaper color printing technology, it is difficult to make some products, such as food and new cars, appealing in newspaper advertising.

Declining Couponing: Despite increased coupon face values, coupon redemption has been declining for years— too many coupons, too little interest. 

Broadcast television

Advantages 

Sight, Sound, Motion, Emotion: The most powerful medium. Combines visual appeal with the ability to touch viewers’ emotions. Well-executed television commercials can grab and hold attention like no other medium. Excellent for creating awareness, branding, and reminding.

Reach: Television is ubiquitous; 98 percent of American homes have a television set. Television, especially prime time TV and big events such as the Super Bowl and Academy Awards, can reach over half the homes in America with a single program. No medium has the reach of television.

Mass Audience: Television is the most mass of all the mass media. It reaches virtually everyone.

Time Spent: People spend a great deal of time with television. The average home watches over eight hours a day, on the average.

Young Audience: Baby-boomers (45-65 year olds) and 18-34 year olds grew up with television, watch it, and love it. The medium continues to attract your viewers, who are desirable targets for most advertisers.

Competitive Separation: Television provides more competitive separation than newspapers, the Yellow Pages, and the Internet.

Intrusive: The most intrusive of all media. Viewers have to make an active effort to avoid commercials.


Disadvantages

Declining Audience Shares: In television’s most watched time period, prime time, ratings and share of viewing have been steadily declining, thus decreasing the medium’s reach.

Increased CPMs: As ratings have declined, rates have not been lowered correspondingly. Television requires large budgets to make an impact – not for the small businesses or the feint of heart.

Linear Access: Unlike in print, viewers cannot go back or forward to view a commercial again, when it is gone, it is gone. Commercials have no shelf-life, unless recorded on a digital video recorder (DVR), such as a TiVo.

Clutter: Commercial clutter had increased substantially in recent years. Some television commercial and promotional pods contain as many as 17 individual units, thus chasing people to record programs so they can skip commercials.

High Production Costs: The average national television commercial costs over $350,000 to produce. Small advertisers cannot compete.

Channel Surfing: People watch TV with a remote in their hands and surf when commercials come on. DVRs, such as TiVo, also make it easy to skip commercials.

Viewing Decreases as Income Increases: The lightest television viewing households are in the top third of incomes in the U.S. Heavy viewing is in lower-income households and by older people (65 +) 


Radio

Advantages

Personal, the Theater of the Mind: Even though radio is only a sound medium, it is a very personal medium. Radio can involve and excite people’s imaginations with scenes and stories that would be impossible to put in a television commercial. Radio is second only to television in its ability to emotionally involve people.

Frequency and Reach: Radio is an inexpensive medium and frequency can be purchased efficiently. Also, radio is even more ubiquitous than television. Because of radio’s extensive penetration, it can extend the reach of any other medium.

Low Production Costs, Fast Closing: Lowest production costs of all media. Some of the most effective commercials cost nothing and are ready by on-air personalities. Commercial copy can be added or changed on a same-day basis if need be.

Efficient: In terms of CPMs, radio’s are the lowest of any medium except for outdoor. Radio offers both reach and frequency efficiently.

Imagery Transfer: Studies show that by airing the audio portion of a well-crafted television commercial, radio can stimulate the mind to recreate the visual image originally placed there by television, which costs a lot less than on a television screen.

Competitive Separation: Radio provides more separation than newspapers, the Yellow Pages, and the Internet.

Intrusive: Not as intrusive as television, but more intrusive than print or outdoor.

Targetability: Similar to magazines in ability to target a wide variety of age, interest, life-style, and gender groups. Especially effective at reaching hard-to-reach teens, minorities, and ethic groups.

Portable: Radio is everywhere. There is more radio listening in cars than there is at home. You cannot read a newspaper or magazine, or watch cable or broadcast television, or surf the Internet while driving car, but you can listen to radio and look at billboards – an excellent combination of media.

Disadvantages

Sound Only: You cannot show or demonstrate a product or its package and label on radio. Although the human voice is personal and warm, many advertisers believe they need a picture of their store, product, or themselves to sell their products.

Increased Clutter: Though not as cluttered as television, radio has become increasingly more cluttered with not only more commercials in an hour but also with more a commercials appearing in a single commercial break, which limits a commercial’s impact.

Linear Access: Unlike in print, listeners cannot go back or forward to hear a commercial again, when it is gone, it is gone. Commercials have no shelf life.

Fragmentation: In some markets there are more than 60 radio signals competing for listeners’ attention and advertisers’ money. Even though radio as a medium can deliver reach, in many markets to match the reach of a newspaper or a television station, ten or 20 radio stations have to be purchased, making it difficult to buy.

Declining Listening: For the last several years, total radio listening has declined, especially among younger people as listening to iPods, non- commercial radio, satellite radio, and Internet radio has increased dramatically. 


Cable television

Advantages

Sight, Sound, Motion, Emotion: The same qualities as broadcast television, the most powerful medium. Combines visual appeal with the ability to touch viewers’ emotions. Well-executed television commercials can grab and hold attention like no other medium. Excellent for creating awareness, branding, and reminding.

Continued Growth: Cable now reaches 87 percent of U.S. television households and continues to take audience from broadcast television.

Inexpensive: Compared to broadcast television, cable CPMs are low.

Targetability: Cable can subdivide its audience into more easily targeted segments than broadcast television. Most homes have a choice of over 200 channels, and that number is growing. Cable is the choice medium: Sports, music, news, food, travel, and more.

Upscale, suburban: Because cable in a subscription medium, it tends to reach up-scale households in major markets and their suburbs. Cable household generally are better educated and have higher incomes.

Competitive Separation: Like broadcast television, cable provides more competitive separation than newspapers, the Yellow Pages,

Intrusive: Television is the most intrusive of all media. Viewers have to make an active effort to avoid commercials.

Disadvantages

Small Audiences: Because cable gives viewers so many choices of channels, cable audiences are fragmented and smaller than those on broadcast television networks.

Inaccurate Local Numbers: As many as 15 percent of homes get television programming from satellite TV or other delivery systems and so local cable ratings are not as stable as cable network ratings.

Clutter: Commercial clutter had increased substantially in recent years. Some cable television commercial and promotional pods contain as many as 15 individual units, thus chasing people to record programs so they can skip commercials.

Linear Access: Unlike in print, viewers cannot go back or forward to view a commercial again, when it is gone, it is gone. Commercials have no shelf- life, unless recorded on DVR, such as TiVo. 


Magazines

Advantages

Wide Readership: According to the 2008 MRI study, 84 percent of adults say they read one or more magazines.

Targetability: There is a magazine for every conceivable interest. Advertisers can target by product affinity, lifestyle, interest, hobby, or demographically.

Portability: Magazines are even more portable than newspapers because they are smaller. Magazines can be read anywhere except, hopefully, the car.

Content Relevance: Advertising can be placed near relevant editorial material to heighten the interest and readership.

Regionalizing: Magazines can be purchased on a regional, city, or even ZIP code basis.

Advertorial: An in-depth advertising message can be created to appear like editorial copy than an ad and can present complex information.

Production: Most magazines are printed on glossy stock that can reproduce for color advertising beautifully. There are many exciting and arresting creative opportunities in magazines.

Disadvantages

Competition: There are nearly 18,000 magazines, which creates too many choices for consumers. Many magazines do not survive their first year of publication. Established magazines are expensive for this reason.

Time: The average person spends only 3 percent of media time weekly with magazines.

Expensive: Magazines are the most expensive on a CPM basis of the major media. And even though magazines can be purchased on a regional or spot (market-by-market) basis, to do so is extremely expensive.

Inflexible: Because of lead times of six weeks or more are common, ads must be prepared long before publication dates, which limits flexibility to adapt to market conditions. 


Internet

Advantages

Direct Response: On the Internet advertisers can reach highly educated, affluent, and younger consumers who can purchase with a mouse click.

Interactivity: Interactive allows customers to communicate directly with advertisers and tell them what they like and do not like, and what they will buy.

Information: Advertisers can provide information to consumers before they buy a product. Over 70 percent of the people who buy a new or used car, research it on in the Internet.

Immediate: Consumers do not have to wait for a brochure to be sent to get information. Advertisers can change offers and prices in real time in response to competitive pressure.

Tracking: Interactive technology allows advertisers to measure exactly how many people saw which ad and how they responded or whether the made a purchase. Consumers online behavior can be tracked and ads served accordingly.

Optimization: Internet advertising ad serving technology can serve demographically, geographically, and life-style targeted ads to specific consumers.

Branding: New research indicates that the Internet is not only an excellent direct-response medium but is also good for branding. New interactive, rich- media and video ad technologies make branding more effective than ever before.

Efficient: Online CPMs are generally lower than other media, except out of home. And cost-per- click search advertising is extremely efficient.

Add Reach: Advertising dollars invested online can add reach to any other media investment. Along with radio, the ideal media-mix component.

Search Advertising: Small advertisers can purchase keywords on Google on a cost-per-click basis by using Google’s AdWords automated auction system. Google search advertising is a low- cost, performance-based ad model affordable for even the smallest advertiser, and search advertising is highly relevant to most users.

Disadvantages

Low Awareness: Internet users pay less and less attention to banners every year as they become wallpaper to frequent users.

Inexperience: Many advertisers and agencies have yet to learn the intricacies of the Internet – how to use it, how to buy it, and how to design effective creative.

Spam and Pop-Ups: Spam has severely hurt the effectiveness of email advertising. Software can block annoying pop-ups, which makes them ineffective with users who have the software – mostly younger, Internet-savvy ones.

Hard to Buy: Difficult for many advertisers to understand. Hard for agencies to make a profit buying Internet advertising. Some online companies, are difficult to do business with. 

Outdoor 

Advantages

Brevity: Outdoor is effective for conveying brief messages and simple concepts.

Low Cost: Out of home’s CPMs are significantly lower than any other medium by a factor of 10 or more.

Directional: Billboards can be used to point directions to businesses.

Geographically Targeted: Billboards can be placed in high-traffic areas and transit ads in places where people commute. Also, an inexpensive way to reach minorities or ethnic groups that might be grouped in certain locations.

Bonus Showings: Billboard operators do not pull down a board when a contract is up or until the board is sold to another advertiser, so sometimes free showing can last for months.

Disadvantages

Brevity: Message capacity is limited to five or seven words at most – cannot deliver more than a simple message and cannot show benefits or advantages.

Low Recall: Commuters are behind the wheel and other potential customers are exposed very briefly, and such conditions as rain and fog can limit readability and recall.

Lack of Effective Measuring Tools: Unlike other media, out of home has no reliable method to measure its audience or effectiveness. CPMs are based on street or highway traffic, not on exposure.

Inflexible: Ads must be ordered 28 days before they go up, and once up cannot be changed, in most cases.

Ugly Image: Because of growing environmental concerns, many communities have limited the volume of out of home advertising. 

Source: Warner C. Media Selling URL:http://www.charleswarner.us/articles/MS-4_Chapter23-MediaComparisons.pdf

LO2: How should you conduct research (what to research?)

The media handbook - Helen Katz

- Analyzing the relationship between consumers, media and the brands that advertise to them in those media

- Media research involves heavy duty analytics (statistical evaluation of vast quantities of data) as well as managing both primary and secondary research on media audiences

- The researches tries to offer insights into how to make media have the greatest impact on consumer's brand decisions

Source: the media handbook - Helen Katz URL: https://books.google.fi/books?hl=nl&lr=&id=EQ2LAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=media+planning+research&ots=SOc5YGFejy&sig=DK7Iwp-md2JnVo5EZcpaj9-vw0M&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=media%20planning%20research&f=false

2.1 Media habits

Media habits in Europe

Interesting document about the evolution of media habits over the past years. These media trends are very interesting to look at for a company because you can find insights in the media consumption of your target audience. 

Source: http://vision2020.ebu.ch/files/live/sites/vision2020/files/app/annexe_2_EN.pdf

European content consumption

Interesting about the different media habits in different countries in Europe. We can see significant differences in the different categories. We need to consider these when we make a multinational media plan. 

What European Content Consumption Trends Tell Can You

Tea and Content, Anyone?

This week we unearthed key differences in content consumption peak times across European countries.

We discovered, for example, that the Germans start the earliest, getting their fill of content at noon. Following shortly after are the Italians at 2pm and a few hours later the French at 6pm. The British and Spanish prefer to savor their content later in the evening at 9pm over tea and 11pm over sangria respectively.

Through the lens of the mobile media consumption habits we examined globally earlier this year, you’ll find that the British and the Germans approach their content in similar yet different fashion. What do we mean?

Their consumption patterns peak at the same times, but on different platforms. When the Germans get their fix of desktop content over lunch at noon, the British are on their mobile phones. Around 9pm, the British sit with their laptops perusing web pages while the Germans opt for the hand-held screen. Are the Brits simply busier than their German counterparts during the day? Or do the Germans have trouble parting with the phone at night?

And here again were our findings on mobile content consumption from earlier this year:

 Source: http://www.outbrain.com/blog/2014/08/peak-content-consumption-times-in-europe.html

Media consumption in Belgium

Mediaconsumptie in Vlaanderen / Gratis kranten

6 augustus 2015 PvdM

CIM

Voor adverteerders is het heel belangrijk te weten welke media hun doelgroepen raadplegen. Hiervoor werd in 1971 het CIM opgericht.
Het Centrum voor Informatie over de Media of ‘CIM’, is een Belgische instelling die gegevens verzamelt over geschreven pers, televisie, radio, internet en bioscopen.
Alle media-uitgevers publiceren per trimester de oplages en verspreiding van de door hun aangeboden mediaproducten over het afgelopen trimester in een Verklaring op Erewoord.

Televisie

De televisiestatistieken van 2014 met hun marktaandeel.

1 Een (29%)
2 Vtm (20%)
3 Canvas (9%)
4 Vt4 (8%)
5 2Be (5%)
6 Vitaya (5%)
7 Vijf (4%)

Opmerkelijk :

– De drie meest bekeken tv programma’s in 2014 zijn WK voetbalwedstrijden waarin onze nationale ploeg meespeelde.
– Het 7 uur journaal op VRT heeft nog steeds meer kijkers dan het VTM journaal.

Internet

Voor de internetstatistieken doet het CIM beroep op een Pools instituut dat gespecialiseerd is in internet metingen nl.Gemius.
Dit instituut monitort een internetpanel dat bestaat uit 24.000 Belgische surfers uit verschillende sociaaleconomische achtergronden.

Dit waren de tien meest bezochte websites in 2015 in België :

1 HLN.be
2 Nieuwsblad
3 2dehands.be
4 De Standaard
5 Sporza
6 Kapaza
7 Deredactie.be
8 Gazet van Antwerpen
9 DH.be
10 Het Belang van Limburg

Radio

De radio statistieken van 2014 met hun marktaandeel :

1 Radio 2 (30%)
2 Stubru (14%)
3 Q music (13%)
4 MNM (9%)
5 Radio 1 (8%)

Magazines

Volgens de beschikbare cijfers krimpt de Vlaamse magazinemarkt steeds meer, de totale verkoop op jaarbasis daalde opnieuw met 1,15 procent t.o.v. 2014. De digitale verspreiding ervan steeg daarentegen met 95 % maar dit kan het verlies van de papieren versies niet compenseren.
De grootste dalers zijn het weekblad Joepie (-31%) dat onlangs een maandblad werd, Story (-20%), Flair (-14%). Dag Allemaal en TV Familie + Blik daalden beide ook met 8 %.
De enige weekbladen die er merkbaar op vooruit gaan zijn TV-Blad (+40%) en Tv Gids Primo (+6%).
De verkoop van de maandbladen daalde globaal met twee percent, de laatste cijfers van Q1/2015 zie je hier.

Kranten (op papier én digitaal)

De laatste cijfers van Q1/2015 :

1  Het Laatste Nieuws + De Nieuwe Gazet (280.735 ex.)
2  Het Nieuwsblad + De Gentenaar (252.915 ex.)
3  De Standaard (101.144 ex.)
4  Belang van Limburg (95.113 ex.)
5  Gazet van Antwerpen (92.555 ex.)
6  De Morgen (53.702 ex.)

Source: http://www.cim.be/nl

Belgian Digital habits

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/CedricCauderlier/17-102013-mountainview-dmf

LO3: Paid - owned - earned

Think of earned, owned and paid media like a tripod. Each element is an important part of the whole and all contribute to a complete digital marketing strategy. The illustration above outlines each element's role and how they work together to form a cohesive marketing mix.

Earned, Owned and Paid Media Defined 

Earned media –  If owned media sites are the destination then earned media is the vehicle that helps people get there. What good is a website or social media site if no one is seeing or interacting with it? That's where earned media comes in. Earned media is essentially online word of mouth, usually seen in the form of 'viral' tendencies, mentions, shares, reposts, reviews, recommendations, or content picked up by 3rd party sites. One of the most effective driving forces of earned media is usually a combined result of strong organic rankings on the Search Engines, and content distributed by the brand. First page rankings and good content are typically the biggest drivers. Rankings on the first page of the search engines place your owned media sites and content links in a position to receive higher engagement and shares, which is why a good SEO strategy is crucial. When it comes to brand content, interesting, informative content can come in all shapes and sizes. Whether it be a blog, infographic, video, press release, webinar or e-book, the bottom line is that the content has to be worthwhile in order to receive the valuable earned media; which is why a great content strategy is also important.

Owned media - Owned media is any web property that you can control and is unique to your brand. One of the most common examples is a website, although blog sites and social media channels are other examples of owned media properties too. Channels like social media and blogs are extensions of your website, and all three are extensions of your brand as a whole. The more owned media you have, the more chances you have to extend your brand presence in the digital sphere.

Paid media - Paid media is a good way to promote content in order to drive earned media, as well as direct traffic to owned media properties. Paying to promote content can help get the ball rolling and create more exposure. Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn offer advertising that could potentially help boost your content as well as your website. Another way to gain more exposure for your content is to pay influencers to tweet or share your links, impacting the reach and recognition your pieces receive. Using retargeting, Pay Per Click and display ads is an effective and more direct way to drive searchers to your owned media sites like your website, to help increase traffic and/or conversions.

Key Takeaways

• All three elements, owned, earned and paid are important to a digital strategy. It's up to you to evaluate these three themes and decide where to allocate your resources to make the most sense for your brand. 


• Owned media sites are an extension of your brand and create additional avenues for people to interact with your brand. When it comes to owned media, as long as you can keep up with the maintenance, the more the merrier. 


• Earned media is the equivalent of online word of mouth and is the vehicle that drives traffic, engagement and sentiment around a brand. While there are different ways a brand can garner earned media, good SEO and content strategies are the most controlled and effective. 


• Paid media is a great way to promote content in order to generate more earned media and can also be used to drive traffic directly to your owned media properties.

Source: https://www.titan-seo.com/newsarticles/trifecta.html 

The Role Of Paid, Owned And Earned Media In Your Marketing Strategy

When it comes to the trio – paid, owned, and earned media, the most frequent question I am asked is: “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 AdWords, 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, a recent study from the CMO Council and NetLine  reveals. According to Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, “Buyers are not happy with vendors. Their content [tends to be] over technical, product-centric, and self-serving.” That’s too bad, considering marketing content is directed at buyers and prospects. Ignoring them altogether is inviting failure.

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.

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.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2014/12/03/the-role-of-paid-owned-and-earned-media-in-your-marketing-strategy/2/

Interactions, engagement and ecosystems

   

A "media" model composed of paid, owned and earned efforts is nothing new—however it’s useful to think about this landscape in tandem with the different ways we interact and engage which are enabled through technology. There are essentially three forms of digital engagement which can often overlap (engagement in a single initiative can include all three types) but each form can tend to dominate the experience. It’s important to remember that the type of engagement is contextual to what a participant wants to accomplish. 

Types of engagement: 

Interactive 
This type of engagement is, as its name suggests highly interactive by nature, though what’s worth noting is that there is no social component to it. The primary interaction exists between a person and technology or human to computer. Examples of interactive engagement could be an ATM, or an e-commerce experience or microsites. It can also be a game, video, or any other experience where users engage a system or interact with content. The key distinction is that interactive excludes social interactions between participants. 

Social 
Social engagement requires the interactions between live human beings (not machines) and/or groups with each other. Most common forms of social engagement can occur on off domain networks such as Facebook and Twitter but can also occur on domain such as corporate blogs or by using the integration of off domain services. The key differentiator for social engagement is that it goes beyond human to computer interaction as described in interactive engagement and usually involves social behavior such as “friending” or human to human direct engagement.

Mobile 
Mobile engagement happens exclusively on mobile device as opposed non-mobile device such as a desktop computer. It also takes into context the user behavior of individual(s) who are in mobile situations such as traveling or moving from point A to B. Context in mobile behavior is critical as user activity is influenced by the actual state of being mobile. It’s also worth noting that “mobile” itself may gradually be re-defined over time with devices such at the iPad which blend stationary and mobile behaviors as well as geolocation platforms such as Foursquare which makes mobile activity hyper-local. 

Where engagement happens: 

Engagement can happen either on domain or off domain and initiatives which include any form of media or content can fall into the following categories:

Paid 
Paid efforts always require some type of monetary exchange in order to have initiatives placed on properties whether they be traditional outlets such as display advertising or non traditional outlets such as blogs or advertising within off domain such as Facebook. Paid placement in search initiatives also falls into the category of paid as long as results are tied to non organic or paid searches. 

Owned 
Owned media typically does not require monetary compensation and can occur on both on and off domain properties that the organization has control over (Facebook pages are off domain, where Websites are on domain but both are owned). Owned properties offer organizations the most control as they can decide what media to promote although off domain properties must be monitored closely as they often support social engagement which cannot be controlled but moderated. 

Earned 
Earned media nearly always takes place on off domain properties such as forums, blogs, social networks and also mainstream publications. Media is typically earned through word of mouth or unpaid but highly visible results in both search engines and social media referrals. Earned media can also be amplified through outreach initiatives. The core distinction for media which is earned is the absence of overt payment to the property owner for the results. 

What This All Means 
As stated in the beginning of this piece—much of this should not be new, however it does present new opportunities and challenges for organizations looking to stay in lock step with their customers, consumers and employees. The media ecosystem must be purposefully orchestrated and appear seamless to the individual and groups you are hoping to reach. From a technological perspective, this means potentially adding systems equipped with workflows such as Social Talk or Awareness which allow you to better manage your entire social ecosystem. From a people process, this could mean training and staffing differently. But from the perspective of the people who you want to activate—it simply means that you are relevant to their digital lifestyle. This translates to the the following: we must better understand how people want to engage (IE their motivations and behaviors). For example, the context behind when they want to act "socially" or be left alone and when they are “on the move” vs. stationary. Also, each form of media is its own micro ecosystem within a broader macro media ecosystem—Facebook’s latest addition of community pagescould potentially create micro-ecosystems within the broader Facebook environment. 

Having intimate knowledge of how these ecosystems thrive (or not) will help us figure out how they can work best together. In other words, get ready to go both wide and deep as you plan digital initiatives. The future of communications will require organizations to be effective both in engaging participants via micro formats while taking a step back and managing media and interactions across the macro (all social, interactive and mobile touch points)—and that’s just on the digital front. The bigger picture? Integration between the digital and real world because this is where it all comes together.

LO4: Roles of different agencies 

Marketingzone basic information about mediabuying

Interesting information about where you should look at when you want to buy media yourself. There are a few important steps we need to consider when buying media. 

Buying ad media space is like buying real estate: The prices change frequently based on supply/demand, and media rates are always negotiable. Real estate in the best neighborhood/location demands the best price and, similarly, high-impact media properties with the best placement cost the most. Media buyers are like real estate agents, they know how to work the system and help you negotiate a good deal.  With so many options to choose from, the best media planners are also very creative in recommending what media vehicles and combination of media types (TV, radio, print, online, search, outdoor) will work best for your advertising message, offer and target audience.

Know this about ad media buying:  Everything is negotiable.  Rate sheets, rate cards and the information from third party sources on advertising media costs are what companies hope to charge.  Most advertisers negotiate lower rates.  Major advertisers, through their media buying agencies, often negotiate rates 40 – 50% lower than published rates.  But it’s all a very secretive and supply-demand driven process.  And prices can increase 100% in one week. 

Media costs vary based on a number of variables:

1. Where the ads are running (nationally, regionally, locally)
2. Target audience (who you want to reach) and at what frequency
3. What type of advertising you choose (TV, radio, online, search, print, etc.)
4. How long your advertising will run
5. Reach and frequency levels and GRPs (gross rating points) for TV, radio and print advertising.  Online, search and billboard advertising use different criteria. 
6. Supply and demand from other advertisers
7. How well you or your media buyer negotiate a deal

You can negotiate:

1. Price
2. Positioning
3. Guarantees that the media seller will guarantee a certain number of people hear/see/view your ad (based on a third party auditing source measuring this) and the media seller will give you, the media buyer, make-goods (free ads) if they don’t meet their guarantees.
4. Value-add - This is the ad agencies equivalent of “freebies.”  It can be a 1/3 page ad with the purchase of six full page ads; free merchandise; concert tickets; special promotions.  This is where you and the ad sales people can be very creative to come up with ideas. 

Source: http://www.marketingzone.com/290-advertising-media-planning-and-buying

Powerpoint presentation about the media plan  

Presentation about the different steps in making an advertising plan and the role of the different agencies. This gives a very short overview of the different tasks of media agencies.  

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/SaimaSam/replica-the-main-function-of-an-advertising-media-plan-pp-slides-16007433

Overview with 11 types of marketing agencies 

A company or brand in search of a marketing agency partner or partners, must first understand the many different types of agencies. Following are 11 types of marketing agencies, listed by estimated total dollar volume including advertising agencies, media agencies, promotion agencies, PR agencies, marketing services agencies, internet or digital agencies, direct agencies, branding agencies, design agencies, social media agencies, and specialty agencies.

Certainly the size of the program or project, category, geography and budget will dictate the type or types of marketing agency partners that can most effectively and efficiently serve the marketing requirements. Typically, larger, or multinational companies will use multiple agencies, while smaller clients tend to work with fewer, or even a single agency for all marketing needs.

1. Advertising Agency

The oldest and most common type of agency is an advertising or ad agency; from Mad Men to the largest holding companies and agency networks, ad agencies were the only game in town until 1996 when the first web browser was launched. The largest ad agencies and their advertising holding companies diversified to offer all types of marketing; the most frequent division was and still is media planning and buying services, but now include every other functional discipline, from branding, to internet marketing. No question, the core service from ad agencies remains advertising. Large ad agencies dominate TV advertising—both creative and media, along with all types of print (magazines, newspapers), radio, outdoor, and Internet. Medium-size ad agencies may provide similar services, but without the multinational offices, or multiple, functional divisions. Small ad agencies typically focus on print, but could do radio and internet. Ad agencies tend to focus on retail and package goods clients (business-to-consumer), but will also work with business-to-business clients that require advertising, and/or have significant marketing budgets.

2. Media Planning/Buying Agency/Service 

Often part of an advertising agency, media agencies specialize in all aspects of strategy, research, planning, buying, and placement of all types of media including TV, newspaper, magazines, radio, outdoor, and online. Like other agency types, media agencies often engage in other types of marketing, most notably, advertising development and market research. Large media agencies are critically important to large advertisers, due to negotiation leverage and multi-national networks.

3. Promotion Agency 

The next largest portion of agencies are promotional in focus, typically working with retail and package-goods clients for promotional campaigns that include advertising, coupons, sweepstakes, contests, loyalty programs, merchandising displays, packaging and related; today many promotion agencies are hybrids that will do all other types of marketing.

4. Public Relations (PR) Agency 

A variety of services encompass publicity or public relations including media relations, investor relations, and crisis communications. Traditional PR activities include news announcements, article writing and placement, and press conferences or events. PR firms often engage in event marketing, new product launches, website development, social media, and educational initiatives. Also, advertising or marketing agencies often provide PR services.

5. Marketing/Marketing Services Agency

As advertising has declined in importance for all but the largest brands, many advertising agencies have evolved into marketing or marketing services agencies, typically providing a variety of services that could be offered by other specialist agencies listed here. Often marketing/marketing services agencies refer to themselves as full-service agencies and provide advertising, PR, strategy and planning, direct, Internet, branding, photography and video, and other types of marketing. Many small and mid-size agencies refer to themselves as marketing agencies, and not ad agencies. 

6. Internet/Interactive/Digital Agency

With the growing importance of Internet marketing, social media, e-commerce, content marketing and related, one of the fastest-growing agency types describe themselves as one or more variations of Internet/Interactive or Digital agencies. Such agencies will design websites, social media networks, manage blogs, and more. In addition, further specialization is common with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) agencies or consultants, Paid Search or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, or applications (Apps).

7. Direct Marketing Agency 

Direct marketing agencies started as experts in direct mail, a tactic in decline, but have reinvented themselves as experts in email, Internet marketing, customer databases, analytics and more. Like other agency types, direct marketing hybrid agencies are common.

8. Branding/Identity Agency 

Branding or brand identity agencies are often boutique agencies, or divisions of ad agency networks. Branding agencies provide a range of services from logos, to brand name development, to packaging, graphic identities, signage, and environmental design (typically retail store design). Often branding agencies will provide marketing research in support of brand strategy, and may engage in website design, advertising, annual reports and more.

9. Design Agency 

Often smaller agencies will position themselves as design agencies or studios. Design agencies often perform a variety of services including brand identity, website design, advertising, packaging, brochures and all types of print collateral, and more. Some studios will specialize in certain types of design, for example, annual reports.

10. Social Media Agency

One of the fastest growing agency specialties is social media, or social media marketing.  Social media agencies specialize in creating and managing a brands social media networks. Today, the top social media networks command most of the effort including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, along with newer networks like Pinterest and Instagram. Beyond profile design and implementation, social media agencies often manage blogs, content research and development, video, and increasingly web design, and search engine optimization.

11. Specialty Agencies 

We group all other types of marketing agencies as specialty agencies, that either focus on a functional marketing discipline or niche market segment. Examples of functional specialists include search optimization or paid search, packaging and merchandising, video, or brand name development. Market or category specialists include different ethnic marketing agencies (Hispanic, Asian, etc.), cause marketing, healthcare marketing, and software marketing. The sponsor of this guide, Amalgamated Marketing, is a network of specialty agencies.

Difference between Full service agencies and specialized agencies

I learned in Belgium about the difference between Full service and specialized agencies and I think this information can be useful to make a decision for your own company. Each agency has positive points and negative points that are explained in the two articles following. The last article is about whether you should choose for a big agency or for a smaller one. It explains the difference between bigger and smaller agencies.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Full Service Advertising Agencies

Full-service advertising agencies have distinct advantages and disadvantages relative to specialized advertising agencies. Full-service agencies are those that engage in virtually all facets of the advertising process, typically including account management, marketing research, creative design, administrative tasks, planning, production and media buying.One-Stop ShopThe premise of a full-service ad agency is that it is a one-stop approach to hiring professional advertisers. This means the client only has to worry about managing a relationship with one main agency versus trying to coordinate relationships with multiple agencies. One account executive usually manages the relationship, and a team of advertisers collaborates with each client's campaigns from beginning to end.

Integration

"Integrated marketing company" has become a common description used to describe a full-service marketing or ad agency in the early 21st century. This phrase relates to the integration of advertising across all platforms, most commonly print and digital. Full-service ad agencies offer a more seamless integration of advertising media and a better likelihood of consistency in brand messages over all platforms. Specialists within one agency typically work as a team and provide these benefits.

Less Specialization

Contrary to the one-stop shop, the most often cited drawback of a full-service agency is limited access to top specialized talent. While many full-service agencies are filled with talented specialists, agencies that fulfill certain niches, such as creativity, digital, media buying and marketing research, have a primary focus on these areas. In essence, full-service agencies are general contractors with multiple solutions, while niche agencies or specialists have top strengths in focus areas.

Narrow View

Though full-service agencies do offer collaboration throughout the entire ad process, they may not offer a wide array of unique vantage points and ideas that you may get with specialized agencies. For instance, a small business that uses a creative boutique, interactive agency and event marketing agency could get distinct message ideas from each that are weighed to find what ultimately amounts to the best idea. In a full-service agency, team members may latch on to one idea and not explore others.

What Are the Different Types of Advertising Agencies?

Advertising agencies offer either a general advertising service, creating advertisements for both consumer and business products, or a specialist service concentrating on particular sectors, such as financial services, or activities such as corporate advertising. Full-service agencies offer a complete range of creative and media services and work across the full range of advertising media, including press, radio, television, outdoor and digital media. Other agencies may outsource functions such as media buying or creative services.

Business-to-Business

Business-to-Business (B2B) advertising agencies specialize in advertising products to a business, as opposed to consumer, audience. B2B agencies understand the complex decision-making processes in business marketing and utilize media that enable advertisers to build relationships with prospects and customers over a period of time. B2B agencies may offer further specialization in sectors such as technology or industrial products.

Retail

Retail advertising agencies work for groups or companies that market their products through retailers or distributors. They employ creative and production teams that are capable of dealing with the development of detailed price-based advertising and can cope with frequent last minute changes to content. Retail agencies also develop and manage cooperative advertising programs that local branches of retail or distributor groups run in their own territories.

Financial

Financial advertising agencies provide a specialist service for financial services companies and for company investor relations departments. Agencies that advertise financial services products operate in a tightly regulated market, so their ads must comply with the current legislation. They also provide a service to investor relations departments, advertising share offers or communicating financial results.

Corporate

Corporate advertising agencies share some areas of activity with financial agencies. They also communicate financial results and information for investors. The main function of corporate advertising agencies is to raise awareness of a company’s capability and strengthen the corporate reputation, according to author Grahame R. Dowling in “Creating Corporate Reputations." Corporate agencies place advertisements in media that reach senior decision makers. Advertisement content focuses on company information, rather than information about products and services.

Digital Media

Digital media agencies offer a specialist service creating advertisements for the Internet or other electronic channels. They may work with mainstream advertising agencies that do not have digital media skills, or directly with clients concentrating their budgets on new media.

Recruitment

Recruitment advertising agencies advertise job vacancies at different levels. Some specialize in senior management positions or temporary staff, others may focus on sectors such as jobs in accountancy or information technology.

Big Advertising Agencies Vs. Small Advertising Agencies

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 68 percent of the approximately 50,000 advertising and public-relations services establishments in the U.S. employ no more than five workers. Should you trust your ad campaign with a small boutique agency, or should you go with a larger firm? It really depends on the type of services you need and the amount of money you're willing to spend.Scale of Resources

Large agencies tend to have more employees, money, resources and contacts than boutique agencies. Large agencies can quickly put a large number of workers on an account and or quickly execute a large-scale campaign. However, advances in technology are closing this gap, and the geographic reach of the larger agencies is not as important as it used to be. Many smaller agencies form alliances and are able to quickly add employees as needed.

Experience

While many boutiques are staffed by competent and creative employees, other small start-ups are not. Sharon Dotson, who is herself a one-person agency, reports that "most young PR graduates ... cannot write well." Large agencies, on the other hand, are staffed by competent and proven employees. But selecting a large agency is no guarantee that your account will be handled by seasoned ad executives. Small agency head Jim Mitchem reports that once a large agency secures an account, it may be assigned to junior staff.

Range of Services

Larger advertising agencies usually offer a full range of services to their clients, and often execute full advertising campaigns in their entirety. Large agencies create the idea behind the campaign, work on branding strategies, purchase advertising space in traditional media and utilize social media. Full-service agencies may also offer services related to market research and public relations.
Many smaller agencies do not offer a full range of services, but focus on one aspect of the advertising process. Some boutique agencies will develop the idea for a campaign, but will leave it up to your company to purchase advertising space. Other boutiques specialize in branding strategy or social-media campaigns.

Price Point

As a rule, large agencies are more expensive than boutique agencies. Large agencies have higher bills, usually offer a full range of services -- and have a level of prestige and experience that some clients are willing to pay for. Agency head Leonard Saffir reports that large agencies often charge clients monthly bills of between $20,000 and $40,000. In contrast, many small agencies charge monthly fees more in the range of $2,000 or $3,000. 

Source: 

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-full-service-advertising-agencies-17486.html

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/different-types-advertising-agencies-22929.html

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/big-advertising-agencies-vs-small-advertising-agencies-39169.html