Choosing the Right Media Mix

To Grow Your Business
 

Media Type	Industry	Budget	Product	Audience	Creative
Digital Media
Social Networking
Tweeting
Interstitials
Ad Words
Search Engine
Web Sites
Webinars
Traditional Media
Billboards
Radio
Television
Magazines
Newspapers
Trade Shows
Trade Journals
Direct Mail
Live Events
Sponsorship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many new media channels, ranging from social networking, tweeting and web sites to interstitials, ad words, search engine marketing have made advertising increasingly complex in recent years for businesses as a new dimension has evolved, known as digital advertising.  Add these to traditional mediums such as radio, TV, newspaper, magazines, trade journals billboards, trade shows, and direct mail; and clearly it becomes a difficult proposition to decide on reach, frequency and weight let alone the proportion of each and how together they can best create a synergy for your product or service. 

The choice of the type of media, and mix of media in advertising is predicated on the audience; their habitats, likes and dislikes. For example if your product has a young audience who use tablets and PDA’s primarily for getting their information then it makes sense to utilize a largely digital advertising strategy, but one always has to be aware of cutting through the clutter in a completive advertising space so using billboards at party clubs and ads in trendy age appropriate print vehicles can create a synergy with your digital campaign. Combining elements of both traditional and digital marketing channels will result in a more effective advertising outcome. While there can be many strategies there can only by one most effective advertising plan, like Lord of The Rings where “One ring to Rule Them  all”, in advertising one strategy rules  the mix of advertising channels. 

Like a finely tuned recipe for media, their frequency, reach and weight have to be proportionally adjusted depending on the objective for an advertising campaign, the industry you are in, the size & make-up of your audience and the type of product or service you are selling and the nature of your creative message. 

To make this more meaningful let’s focus the advice in this article a little more, by removing both ends of the company profile spectrum including small companies, (they do not have the resources & budget) and large companies (they are already the resources and budget and process) and focus only on medium sized companies, (which I would define as 10 employees to 200 employees). The chart below is a simple way of considering the process and helping you select the right media and the mixture required to achieve your goals. The chart is not a magic formula that allows you to blindly design a program by plugging in numbers etc. The chart should be cross referenced with the questionnaire which will be included in my next blog  - by seeking to defining how reach category relates to your product  ranging from the kind of industry you are in , your products audience and your budget it will help provide you with clues on selecting the right media.

 

A footnote to this is that word of mouth, sales and person to person advertising is not included. These, we are assuming, are in place to some extent for most organizations since they are more effective and less expensive although they reach a much smaller audience.
 

 Stay tuned for my next article which includes the questions that help you effectively define the advertising for your product or service.