Using the media budget effectively: Criteria, myths and pitfalls
How can you use your media budget effectively, and why is a well-thought-out strategy essential? Why are these strategies often just «wishy-washy»? In a series of white papers, Oliver Schönfeld of TWmedia examines the key factors for choosing the right media, debunks myths, and demonstrates why certain truths from advertising effectiveness research—once thought to be obsolete or ignored—remain relevant even in the digital age.
What you always wanted to know about media but were hesitant to ask: Is my money well invested in media? What should I pay attention to? What should I avoid? How do I create a powerful, well thought-out media strategy?
Perhaps you've been looking for a checklist that explains the complexities of media strategy in easy-to-understand terms? After all, between 60 and 80 percent of the marketing budget is usually spent on "media". And it can quickly happen that the wrong media decisions cause your hard-won media budget to "fizzle out".
Unfortunately, in reality, too many media plans are still created on the basis of false assumptions, incomplete briefings, unrealistic goals, contradictory information or your own - often deceptive - gut feeling.
What criteria lead to the choice of the right media, and why the "fit" (impact) of a medium is more important than the discount offered - this is what I want to discuss below. Because the strategy should determine the media purchase, and not the other way around.
Strategy should not be "wishy-washy"
A poor strategy does not set a clear focus, confuses implementation with strategy and sets unrealistic goals. Certain marketing laws are still valid in the age of digitalization.
Marketing gurus Byron Sharp and Mark Ritson in particular clear up some of the nonsense and misconceptions that have unfortunately proliferated in recent years - partly due to various "hypes".
- Attention for advertising is mainly driven by interest (mental availability).
- Reach is more important than contacts.
- New buyers and light buyers Brands grow through new buyers and light buyers (and less through heavy buyers), which shows the limits of performance marketing.
- Media mix is more effective than concentrating on just one medium.
- The AIDA formula (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) has lost none of its validity - even though it has been repeatedly declared dead. It has merely been expanded to include what is now known as the "marketing funnel".
We are convinced that a consistently well thought-out and comprehensible process automatically leads to an intelligent and effective media strategy. The creation, the message, plays an immensely important role here and can contribute 50 to 60 percent of the advertising impact.
This and much more "meat on the bone" includes the first TWmedia white paper "Strategic Process"which forms the start of a multi-part "how-to" series. Because without a well thought-out process and a clear justification for the choice of channel, media planning is pretty headless.
After holding various positions at media and creative agencies and as head of marketing at an outdoor advertising company, he took over Oliver Schönfeld took up the position of Managing Director at TWmedia in Basel in 2018. He has acquired his knowledge through a great deal of curiosity, many years of experience and by studying marketing and psychology on the windy Baltic coast and in vibrant Manchester.
