Function of Media Management in Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication whose purpose is to inform potential customers about products and services. It means bringing a product (or service) to the attention of potential customers. It is a paid communication through medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled. It is focused on one particular product or service. Advertising is typically done with signs, brochures, commercials, direct mailings or e-mail messages, personal contact, etc
1. The major purpose is to inform potential customers about the products and services and how to obtain and use them.

2. Many advertisements are also designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services by creating and reinforcing brand image. For these purposes advertisements often contain both factual information and persuasive messages.

Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including: television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet and billboards. An advertising agency or ad agency is an organization dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotions for its clients.

Types of advertising
Commercial Media advertising
Advertising that involves commercial interests of profit-making and money-making is called commercial advertising. Commercial advertising media can include wall paintings, billboards, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and television ads, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web popups, magazines, newspapers and posters.

Covert advertising
Covert advertising is a unique kind of advertising in which a product or a particular brand is incorporated in some entertainment and media channels like movies, television shows or even sports. Covert advertising is when a product or brand is embedded in entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main character can use an item or other of a definite brand.

Broadcast commercials
Broadcast advertising is a very popular advertising medium that constitutes of several branches like television, radio or the Internet. Television advertisements have been very popular ever since they have been introduced. The cost of television advertising often depends on the duration of the advertisement, the time of broadcast
Newer media and advertising approaches
Increasingly, other media are overtaking television because of a shift towards consumer's usage of the internet. Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. With the dawn of the Internet came many new advertising opportunities. Popup, Flash, banner, averaging, and email advertisements are now commonplace.

Media Planner
Media planner in media planning and buying agency is responsible for selecting media for advertisement on behalf of their clients. The main aim of a Media Planner is to assist their client in achieving business objectives through their advertising budgets by recommending the best possible use of various media platforms.
The role of Media planner may include:
1. analyzing target audiences
2. keeping an eye on media developments
3. reading market trends
4. understanding motivations of consumers

The planner devises a plan for advertising and the buyer can negotiate with the Media manager on things such as rates, deadlines, selling etc.

5 M of Advertising in management:
1. Mission: It includes the objectives of advertising. e-g to inform, remind or to persuade.
2. Money: It involves the budget as how much money can be spent.
3. Message: It means what message should be sent i-e what to say and how to say?
4. Media: Which media is utilized? Electronic, print or online as par the choice and reach of audience is concerned.
5. Measurement: How should the results be evaluated?

The functions Management in Advertising
From the creation of advertisements we now move to another increasingly vital and creative area of the advertising profession. All your creativity would be useless, unless what you produce is seen or heard and acted upon. The goal can be achieved through effective media planning.

Media Research:
Advertising agencies employ market researchers who assess a client’s market situation, including understanding customers and competitors, and also are used to test creative ideas. Media research includes researching about the following elements:
The consumer: The media planner would have to work out a consumer profile. He should find the details of the consumer involving:
a. Consumer’s demography
b. Purchase range
c. Frequency of purchase
d. Quantity bought at a time
e. Consumer’s choice of brand
f. Consumer’s media habits and choice of media

Consumer motivation: It means how the consumer is motivated to buy the product that is advertised. It includes the techniques of advertising, use of visuals and sound in order to catch the audiences.

Pre-testing and post-testing the product: It includes the testing of the product’s working before and after the product is advertised.

The advertisement itself is checked, not only to check the credibility and persuasiveness of the message but also compatibility with the medium to reach the specific target audience.

It also includes research about the competitive environment both in terms of the advertisements and the media used.
There is also the research that follows the release of the advertising campaign: It means how the advertisement is broadcast and published.
Monthly variations in brand awareness and brand preferences of consumers in relation to the particular media are also monitored.
Research is also conducted to find how media should be utilized to advertise the product regionally, nationally and internationally.
Where to use the single media or a combination of mediums is analyzed.

Media planning:
Media planning is generally the task of a media agency. It finds the most appropriate media platforms for a client's brand or product. The job of media planning involves several areas of expertise that the media planner uses to determine what the best combination of media is to achieve the given marketing campaign objectives.

In the process of planning the media planner needs to answer questions such as:
1. How many of the audience can I reach through different media?
2. On which media should I place ads?
3. Which frequency should I select?
4. How much money should be spent in each medium?

Three components of media plan:
The three components of a media plan are as follows:
1. Defining the marketing problem:
a. One should know how to run the business.
b. One should know the target audience i-e to reach everybody or only a select group of consumers.
c. It should be known that how often is the product used in the targeted area.
2. Translating the marketing requirements into attainable media objectives. If the advertiser wants to reach lots of people in a wide area then mass media, like newspaper and radio, might work. If the target market is a group in a defined geographic area, then direct mail van be used.
3. Defining media strategies: Media strategy is concerned with how messages will be delivered to consumers. It means to decide certain schedules on which ads should be broadcast or published that may work best with different media. For example Radio advertising is most effective when run at certain times of the day or around certain programs, depending on what market you're trying to reach.
Managing media in reaching target audience?
The aim is to select the most effective media to reach the core target. The advertiser can select a single medium or multiple mediums to reach target audience. First the amount of mediums is selected. Then the advertiser would come to each medium-print, TV, radio, video, outdoor, direct mail, point of purchase material, shop window display and so on.

Regarding print medium, one should decide whether he/she would confine only to daily newspapers or use magazines as well. Then more questions arise:
a. Which newspapers? The general daily or the financial dailies and which of those?
b. How much space to use and how frequently the position of the advertisement on the page of the daily, even the particular page on which the advertisement would appear.
c. There are special regular weekly features or supplements.
d. One has to choose between English and Urdu dailies, both nationally and regionally.
Regarding electronic media there are certain elements to be decided:
a. Which channel?
b. How much time is allocated for a particular ad?
c. Which broadcast time will be suitable?
d. How many times the ad is broadcast i-e the frequency.

In the environment of increasing competition the combination of different media has assumed greater importance than ever before. In general what combination of media or media-mix is appropriate? E-g in TV what the combination of channels and mix is utilized?

Managing creativity and advertising content:

Managing creativity for devising advertising content includes:
1. Generating ideas
2. Designing concepts
3. Creating the final advertisement which is the responsibility of the agency’s creative team.

An agency’s creative team consists of specialists in graphic design, film and audio production, copy writing, computer programming, and much more.

Media monitoring:
Media monitoring is the activity of monitoring the output of the print, online and broadcast media. It can be conducted for a variety of reasons, including political, commercial, scientific, and so on. Media monitoring for advertising includes following functions:
1. Continuous monitoring of changes in consumer reactions to different media
2. Analysis of usefulness of certain media
3. Monitoring the most effective use of media among masses
4. Analysis of availability and ease of media usage