Media planning involves
finding the most appropriate media platform to advertise a company or client’s
brand/product. Media planners determine when, where and how often a message
should be placed. Their goal is to reach the right audience at the right
time with the right message to generate the desired response while staying
within the designated budget. Media planners also take into consideration the
product being advertised, target audience, and campaign goals for accurate
results.
Media buying is
the process of buying media placements for advertising (on TV, in publications,
on the radio, digital signage, or on websites). The primary goal of media
buying is to achieve the highest reach for the lowest possible price.
Successful media buyers are skilled in negotiating the price of media on behalf
of their client.
The process
of media buying and planning both
involves the use of research into the target demographic to derive a deep
insight into the media consumption habits and purchasing behaviours of consumers.
Media planning
is more conceptual, more creative; more research oriented. Whereas, media
buying requires honed negotiation skills, an understanding of the
communications process and knowledge of how different media variables affect
performance and advertising effectiveness. Another notable fact is that separating
planning and buying functions can seriously erode the important connection
between communications planning and channel execution, ultimately affecting the
quality of output for clients.
Ironically, most
people (especially clients) have the belief that buying is more important than
planning because that is where the money is spent. Whereas in reality, jumping
to media buying straight ahead without effective planning would lead to a major
investment without much result. But it is also not wise to do media planning
without appropriate media buying as that would not lead to optimum business
promotion.