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Media Neutral Planning: About this Canon
Advertising expenditure in the UK has risen by circa 75% between 1990 and 2000 and this trend is set to continue. Millions of advertising pounds are translated each day into media schedules that claim to represent the most effective route to the consumer.
Yet with the growth of new media options and channels, comes a refreshed need to understand the impact of media fragmentation on the consumer. What is the nature of their relationship with the new media options and how does this impact their interaction with traditional media?
One assumes that media agencies would automatically assess the relationship that the consumer has with all potential mediums prior to making recommendations. Resulting in an unbiased, media "neutral" approach to planning. However, there are many factors that point to this not being the case, and indeed often media plans are influenced by:
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Budget demands
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Familiarity/habit/even apathy
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Agency structures - despite agency claims, media planning currently tends to be split between above and below-the-line specialist divisions
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Ease of planning/buying/evaluating - there is no common planning tool/model used within these specialities (above/below) to compare and contrast media options, let alone crossing the divide between them
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Agency remuneration demands
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Hence, the consumer is merely the recipient - for instance, how many media proposals are pre-tested in the way that creative proposals regularly are? and
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The medium is merely the channel, not part of the message
With so many potential barriers to true media neutral solutions, the impetus for change may not come from the media industry itself and is unlikely to come from any individual advertiser. To redress this David and Goliath situation, there must be combined support from both advertisers and industry bodies alike.
Royal Mail, being both major advertiser and media owner, have sponsored a CIM fronted forum of major UK advertisers, brought together to share opinion and experiences of Media Neutral Planning. The forum will provide an opportunity for like-minded individuals to form a body of opinion that could publicly drive improvements within the communications industry.
The views shared at the forum will help formulate the direction of an initiative instigated to encourage positive change for all UK advertisers. The results of the initiative will be shared with others through the Media Neutral Planning project within the Canon of Knowledge.
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Main Aims
The core objective of the Media Neutral Planning Canon of Knowledge is to accelerate the availability and quality of media neutral planning offered by media agencies to advertisers.
The vision of the initiative is to create a world within which properly integrated planning, resulting in genuine media neutral solutions is the norm. The initiative aims to encourage the development of the planning and research tools, processes and procedures that will enable this world.
Integrated planning calls for true integration between above and below the line specialists leading to an integrated assessment of all media options:
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Broadcast and direct
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Above and below-the-line
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Traditional and new media
Whether ultimately using just one media or a mix of media, a media neutral solution will always:
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Put the consumer at the centre of the planning process
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Making the relationships with the brand, and with individual media, the starting point
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Overlaying the brand/business objectives in order to develop the strategy
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With application of budget/regional/creative considerations generating the final schedule
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How to use these resources
The resources in this Canon have been grouped into categories and sub-categories. See table below for a breakdown. To view them use the 'Select a category' and the 'Select a sub-category' drop down menus at the top of this page.
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Category
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Sub-category
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MNP Factfiles
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Media Neutral Planning
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White Paper
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Climate for Change
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Media Solutions
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Hard-edged Consumer Issues & Hard-nosed Media Solutions, A Conference Paper
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Hard-edged Consumer Issues & Hard-nosed Media Solutions, A Slide Presentation
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Contributors:
John Billett, The Billett Consultancy
Brian Aspin, Royal Mail
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Help Shape Best Practice:
This Canon of Knowledge welcomes all valid contributions to the advancement of integrated planning and media neutral solutions.
Appropriate tools, processes and procedures - covering not just specific tools/models, but also ways of working to help integrate people and processes. In particular, anything that aids the understanding of :
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consumer/brand/media relationships - as well as enabling evaluation of media neutral solutions, possibly pre as well as post campaign.
Application of these to real cases - demonstrating the application of tools, etc, ideally to more than just one client. Results and client endorsement is key.
And thinking or a vision of how to move forward - proposals for moving ever closer to the ideal.
We are looking for evidence of creativity, innovation, results and future vision. Whilst fully integrated, multi-media, through-the-line solutions would be of keen interest - the solution may simply be a single media channel. The determinant is the rigour and innovation applied to reach that decision.
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