Of all the services we provide at Trilix, media planning and buying is one of the toughest for clients to understand. The terminology alone can be confusing, so we thought we’d try to shed some light on what can sometimes seem like a mysterious process.
Strategic media planning starts with a defined budget, understanding of target demographics, timeframe and a campaign objective. Once those are determined, our media team uses special software to determine cost per point goals. Cost per point is the cost to deliver a single rating point. Rating points are assigned by Nielsen or Arbitron, two organizations that study viewership and listener trends. The rating is the percentage of a population viewing a TV show or listening to a radio program during an average minute.
Cost per point helps us set goals for what our clients should be paying for a program. During political seasons, cost per point is higher, because space is at a premium. That’s why it’s more expensive to advertise during political seasons. You’ll often hear us urging clients to plan ahead to get the best positioning and cost during political seasons.
Once we decide on cost per point goals, we work with stations to determine what space is available and the cost to buy certain time periods or programs. This is where we negotiate with stations and utilize our relationships with our media representatives for the best price possible, as well as value adds. As we begin putting the actual schedule together, two additional terms come into play: reach and frequency, which we’ll discuss in next week’s Against the Grain post.