Media Intelligence

Fortunately for our marketing discipline data analytics has proliferated significantly over the last years. It’s not just that some of the most popular economists (e.g. Stephen Levitt) have used statistical means to understand phenomena but that almost every marketing discipline has been penetrated and heavily influenced by the scientific approach of analytics. But one of the most important disciplines for any marketer today has shown mixed willingness to be “enlightened”: Media Planning and Buying.

Looking at Wikipedia’s definition of Media Planning…: ”Media expertise and media buying consists of studies and techniques aimed at optimizing the efficiency of advertisements by determining the media best suited for reaching the largest number of readers, listeners, viewers or clickers who are part of the target market. Media expertise has become increasingly important with the decline of traditional television advertising, the complexity of TV viewer data, dramatically changing consumer media habits, and the depth/breadth of alternative communication platforms.”, …it becomes clear how instrumental and complex Media is in making any smart marketing decision in today’s world.

Therefore, Media Planning and Buying need to embrace a significantly deeper utilization of data centric intelligence and rely less on the genius of individual planners. Consider these three enormous challenges:

• Media owns the understanding of the “Moment” dimension of any communication. When is the right moment of intersecting/interacting with a consumer? This question becomes more and more difficult due to the increasing behavioral fragmentation of consumers (Groups with same behavior patterns are getting smaller and smaller, therefore the number of groups with same behavior patterns are growing) and the multi-media interaction patterns of most consumers (Consumers rarely interact with only one medium in one moment).
• Media owns the smartest distribution of marketing investment dollars, not just across channels but also across geographies, consumer segments, times, and product categories. The intrinsic complexity of this challenge requires an approach that combines analytical data intelligence and technology based planning solutions. One brilliant mind alone won’t be able to solve it anymore, despite all attempts to capture it in a multitude of excel sheets
• Media owns the creative opportunity of designing unique “events” that attract the consumer’s attention in todays crowded and over stimulated world. But the creative genius of inventing these events needs to be inspired and driven by data intelligence. If not they become just self serving advertising events.

Hopefully we will see more Marketing Geeks entering the Media Planning and Buying field as one of the most central marketing disciplines, always with the mission of fundamentally changing the process of creating media solutions. We might not know everything yet of what and how it has to change but it will and needs to change.