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Survey of Broadcasting: Assignment 2: Question 2. Strategize about what you would do if you were the weakest station in a market. How would you plan your media buys? What would you do to make your station more attractive to advertisers?
Question 2. Strategize about what you would do if you were the weakest station in a market.
How would you plan your media buys?
What would you do to make your station more attractive to advertisers?
If I were the weakest radio station in a market I would first do an analysis of the current format of the station.
Success in radio programming requires finding a unique niche in a market that would attract a large radio audience and in turn attract advertisers and revenues.
I would look for the format hole in a market or listening area by considering internal and external factors.
An internal analysis would consider such factors as the station’s dial location, power, technical facilities, management philosophy and station ownership.
An external analysis would begin with a competitive market study and consider such factors as existing competitor station’s current formats, ratings, financial performance, and technical properties.
Both the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor station should be examined.
By searching for a format hole I should be able to find a new or different format that is not currently available in a market.
If no format hole is found, then I should be able to find at least one or more competitors with a format that I could compete with head-to-head.
I would plan by media buys by first ascertaining my station’s target audience or the primary group of people the station seeks to reach with it programming.
The target audience should be clearly defined in terms of its demographics including age, gender, marital status, income, racial/ethnic background and other descriptors.
In addition to demographics I would try to define the target audience listeners in terms of their psychographics including listener attitudes, beliefs, hobbies, interests, lifestyles and motivations for listening to the station.
I would make the station more attractive to advertisers by first having very low if not the lowest rates for advertising commercials.
This should attract advertisers looking for bargains especially local small businesses.
I would provide advertisers with both the demographics and psychographics of the station’s target listening audience.
This should attract advertisers of products and services whose customers have the same or similar demographics and psychographics of the station’s target listening audience.
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Media Buying
“…Media Buying is a sub function of Advertising management. Media Buying is the procurement of the best possible placement and price of a piece of media real-estate within any given media. The main task of Media Buying lies within the negotiation of price and placement to ensure the best possible value can be secured.
Buyers
Media Buyers are individuals responsible for purchasing time and advertising space for the purpose of advertising.[1] When planning what to buy, they must evaluate factors based on but not limited to station formats, pricing rates, demographics, geographic, and psychographics relating to the advertisers particular product or service objectives. The Media Buyer needs to optimize what is bought and that is dependent on budget, type of medium (radio, internet, TV, print), quality of the medium (target audience, time of day for broadcast, etc.), and how much time and space is wanted. Media Buyers can purchase spot, regionally, or nationally. National Media Buyers might have to factor in determinates based on a state by state basis. Rates, demand of leads, space, and time, and state licenses will vary from state to state. National Media Buyers will need National Media Planning to generate National Media Marketing strategies and National Media Advertising that can be adaptable from area to area but also work on a national level.
There is an apparent distinction between General Marketing Media Buyers and Direct Response Media Buyers. General Market Media Buyers enact or actualize media plans drawn up by media planners. They negotiate rates and create media schedules based on a media plan constructed by a Media Planner. Through the Media Planner, General Market Media Buyers rely on published cost per point guides which in actuality, are often based on hypothetical benchmarks, and rather outdated models[citation needed]. An experienced Direct Response Media Buyer knows what stations generate a specific quantity of response and knows within reason, the break even point of the expenditure versus the return. With that information, the Direct Response Media Buyer is efficient in negotiating a functional rate and in purchasing media from the appropriate stations[citation needed]. The Direct Response Buyer attaches unique phone numbers to each station they purchase media from and track the sales, and make adjustments to the media plan and schedule as necessary to optimize results. With these differing methodologies, Direct Response Marketing can be considered a specialized arena. Few advertising and marketing agencies are qualified to support clients in their Direct Response efforts[citation needed].
Media Research Planning can be done by Media Buyers as well as Media Specialists. Depending on product and service, Media Buyers and Media Specialists must do a fair amount of research to determine how best to spend the allotted budget[citation needed]. This includes research on the target audience and what type of medium will work best to reach the largest amount of consumers with the most effective method. Media Planners and Media Specialists have a vast array of media outlets at their disposal, both traditional media and new media. Traditional media would include radio, TV, magazines, newspapers, and out of home. New media might include Satellite TV, cable TV, Satellite radio, and internet. The internet offers a number of Online Media that has surfaced with the improvement of technology and the accessibility of the internet. Online Media can include emails, search engines and referral links, web portals, banners, interactive games, and video clips. Media Planners and Specialists can pick and choose what and/or which combination of media is most appropriate and effective to achieve their goal, whether it is to make a sale, and/or to deliver a message or idea. They can also strategize and make use of product placements and Positioning. Inserting advertisements as print ads in newspapers and magazines, buying impressions for advertisements on the internet, and airing commercials on the radio or TV, can be utilized by Direct Response Advertisers as well as Remnant Advertisers.
All the major marketing services holding companies own specialist media-buying operations.
Prior to the late 1990s, media buying was generally carried out by the media department of an advertising agency. The split between creative agencies and media agencies is often referred to as “unbundling”. In 1999, WPP Group created MindShare from the media departments of its two advertising networks, Ogilvy & Mather and J Walter Thompson, now JWT.
In 2003, after purchasing Young & Rubicam and Tempus, WPP further consolidated all of its media operations including media buying and media planning through the formation of GroupM, which is now the number one media investment management company in terms of billings.[2] The other major media holdings include Omnicom’s OMD, Publicis’s Vivaki and ZenithOptimedia, Interpublic’s Mediabrands, Aegis’s Aegis Media and Havas’s Havas Media. …”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_buying
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