All you need to know about a media planner and Media Planning has been explained in this article to give you a perfect understanding.
Media planners, also known as brand planners or brand strategists, work in advertising agencies and create ad campaigns for various clients. The media planner works with clients to help them make decisions about how a particular media campaign will run.
The main focus of the media planner is to orchestrate the placement of their client’s advertising copy on various media that will maximize the reach of the advertising towards the client’s target audience. These places include television, the Internet, radio, billboards, print, and direct mail.
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Some media planners also track advertising performance on the back end, allowing the customer to know the return on investment of their campaign and whether they are getting good value for their advertising money.
Duties and responsibilities of the media planner
Media planners handle a variety of responsibilities, including analyzing and interpreting advertising data to help clients improve their advertising campaigns. Duties include the following:
- Analyze data, think creatively, and devise innovative strategies to ensure that customer marketing campaigns reach your target audience in the most effective way possible.
- Evaluate the impact and suitability of the different types of media used to target certain markets based on the needs and wishes of your customers.
- Develop various options for media plans based on the client’s goals.
- Analyze the customer’s post-campaign results and recommend improvements
- Interact with internal and external partners to evaluate, implement and maintain a media plan
- Collect and analyze information on different media channels, such as newspapers, radio, magazines, television, movies, the Internet, and outdoor billboards and digital billboards.
- Create or recommend certain media strategies to attract and retain customers, increase customer brand recognition, and maintain and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Work closely with clients to understand their needs, wants, and goals, and then determine which media channels are best suited to specific campaigns.
What is media planning?
Media planning is typically outsourced to involve sourcing and selecting the optimal media platforms for a customer’s brand or product. The job of media planning is to determine the best combination of media to achieve your goals.
In the planning process, the media planner must answer questions such as:
- How much audience can be reached through the different media?
- In which media (and advertising vehicles) should the ads be placed?
- How often should the ads be placed?
- How much money should be spent on each medium?
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Choosing which media or type of advertising to use can be challenging for small businesses with limited budgets and knowledge. Television and newspapers in large markets are often too expensive for a business serving only a small area (although local newspapers can be used). Magazines, unless local, tend to cover too much territory to be profitable for a small business, although some national publications offer regional or urban editions. Since the advent of social media, small businesses with limited budgets can benefit from using social media advertising as it is cost-effective, easy to manage, accurate, and offers a great return on investment.
Media planner salary
The salary of a media planner varies based on area of expertise, level of experience, education, certifications, and other factors.
Median annual wage: $ 48,885 ($ 23.5 / hour)
Top 10% Annual Salary: More than $ 62,000 ($ 29.81 / hour)
Bottom 10% Annual Salary: Less than $ 36,000 ($ 17.31 / hour)
Education, training, and certification
You do not need special training or a graduate degree to become a media planner, although many agencies do require a bachelor’s degree or a specialization in a particular area.
Education:
Most employers prefer candidates to have a college degree in areas such as communication and media studies, business or management, marketing, advertising, English, journalism, operations research, statistics, or other related areas.
Experience:
You may be able to land an entry-level position in media planning without prior training or experience. However, considering that advertising and marketing are very competitive, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to make much progress in this career without a degree or a considerable amount of industry experience. Employers are looking for people with prior experience in marketing, media asset management, or a related field.
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Media planner skills and competencies
The main thing a media planner needs is the willingness and enthusiasm to learn about the world of advertising, but some other skills and knowledge sets can give candidates a head start, such as:
Social skills:
Work can be very social because it involves working with and entertaining clients, so interest and the ability to socialize with colleagues and clients is paramount.
Marketing knowledge:
It is also important to understand how marketing and advertising work. The first question to ask yourself is this: How can a customer, be it a large consumer products company like Starbucks or a national nonprofit service organization like Planned Parenthood, be the best brand on its own?
Knowledge of entertainment media:
From there, media planners must have an in-depth understanding of the world of entertainment (from network TV shows like “Good Morning America” on ABC-TV to specialty TV shows like “Chopped Junior” on Food Network). Unless media planners know what kind of audience is drawn to what kind of show, they can’t place ads properly.
Knowledge of online media:
And, because the media landscape in the 21st century is very different from that of the 20th century, media planners need to know not only which national television shows and big magazines and newspapers to target, they must also be familiar with all of the websites. , blogs, and social media offers available to consumers.
Computer Skills – Media planner job involves research using various online databases.
Labor outlook
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects strong job growth for market research analysts from 2016 to 2026. The project that jobs for this profession will increase by 23%, which is much faster. than average compared to all occupations. The growth is driven primarily by the increased use of market data and research in many industries.
Although the field of market research (which includes the media planning profession) is expected to grow, competition for jobs is expected to be very high.
Work environment
Media planners often work in an office environment, although they may have to travel a bit to client offices.
Working hours
The working hours of a media planner are similar to those of other professions within the advertising and marketing industry (that is, between 35 and 40 hours per week), except when deadlines are approaching, or required Make presentations or attend meetings outside of your normal business hours, which are adjusted to your client’s schedule.
