A Media Planner is the backbone of any full service ad agency. The job of advertising and media planning is to systematically orchestrate placements of your advertising copy in any venue that reaches your audience, including:
- Television
- Radio
- Internet
- Direct mail
- Billboards
Media Planner Job Skills
The Media Planner job requires a certain element of creativity, coupled with organizational and research skills. The creative advertising and media planning skill-set comes into play as the Media Planner works to develop a media plan that encompasses the furthest bang for your advertising buck. Some of the tough questions they tackle include:
- Consumer trends
Where will my client find their particular target audience? Do they read magazines or do they troll the Internet? - Media realities
What is the circulation rate of a print ad? What geographic area will this television spot reach? How does the type of media affect our creative message? - Ad frequency
How often should a 30 second radio advertisement run and at what time of day? How many commuters will drive past our billboard on their way to work? - Budget allocation
How much of our client’s money should we spend? Where should we spend it? What is the justification for our media planning decision?
Calculating all these factors, the media planner develops a strategy to convey the client’s message to their audience. But wait – there’s more: The best media planners are organized to track advertising after it’s been placed to be sure the client is receiving value. Additionally, they are often called upon to track the dollar value of the ad placement. For example, if my client spends $X, and the circulation reaches $X, what is the client’s potential return on their investment? Calculating the ads reach multiplied by the frequency of views is an important part of the back end media planning process.
Suggested Software Proficiency
Media Planners need to be savvy researchers. They utilize a variety of advertising and media planning tools the extend beyond the basic Excel spreadsheet, including:
- Online Research Tools such as Alexa or Quantcast
- Offline Research Tools including Nielsen Media Research
- Organizational Tools such as Adobe Media Organizer or MediaMath
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