Introduction
In the United Kingdom, ten years ago the television was the major medium of entertainment. Now, in the era of technology laptops, PCs, mobiles, and tablets have become the dominant players of entertainment. The access of youngsters to the different devices has increased dramatically in the UK (Ellis and GreenBank, 2015) (See Appendix). These changing patterns created huge challenges for media and creative agencies. In the flow of the media, the boundaries between numerous media channel became blurred. It became more important for media agencies to determine that how these Medias individually operate with the aim of producing the best mix that can create the most favorable or best possible communication flow for the clients’ brands. The criticality of communication enhanced the importance of media agencies. Therefore, it has become essential to discuss some important theories and model that play a role in media agencies, the evolution of media agencies and how new systems and technology leveraged them in flourishing their brands.
For the attainment of the objective of this paper, the paper has been divided into major five sections. The first section discusses the evolution of media agencies and factors contributed to the change. The second section describes the process used in preparing the traditional media plans and researches used in preparing the plans. The third section elaborates on key models and theories of communication, which underpin the JICS. The fourth section describes the role of programmatic media planning and big data on other research methods. However, the last section implements the learning on a recent event for its critical evaluation.
Evolution of media agencies and the key factors that drove the development these agencies
The transformation in the face of digital advertising is the result of pragmatic trading. Either, it is looked at sell side, buy side, or even at the side of intermediaries, even there is not a single player left that had not adapted its offerings in one or other way. Media agencies do not have an exception from these changes as time is changing for them as well (Flood, 2014).
If the UK media industry is considered them, it has faced the two immense waves of evolution, and the third is in the process. For example, initially, the print media was considered as a dominant medium for advertising and then the second era started with the supremacy of television. However, currently, media agencies are in the mid of third wave of evolution as in this era the digital media is holding the control. In the era of the newspaper, the full-service agencies were common. Agencies were liable for both buying the space and for the creation of content.
However, in the wave of evolution when television advertisements took hype, the task of planning and buying the media, and creating content and producing advertisements had not been the task if a sing media agency. In that age, different media agencies were liable for creation and media planning. However, the period of the digital age again put the media agencies to the level back from where these agencies started. The strong integration between the content development, channel selection and the possible for instant changes in advertisements has led to full-time digital agencies (Pringle & Marshall, 2012).
Some factors played an immense role in driving these changes. Due to globalization, the need to appeal the mass increased that contributed in making the television advertisements prevalent. The United Kingdom agencies realize the growing competition and the need for strong but separate media department as holding top class creative teams. The hunger of getting the best media exposure was another factor that drove the changes. For creating and meeting the competition, the departments of full-service agencies were broken down into many. These resulted in marker research companies, TV production organizations, design consultancies, and PR enterprises, creative shops, direct marketing agencies, and product development specialist (Pringle & Marshall, 2012).
The launching of commercial television proved as a game changer and resulted in the further evolution of media agencies as it changed the association between the advertisers and public. The cost saving has been an important consideration for companies, and media process offer considerable opportunities to companies in this regard. The changing demands and choices of audience enhanced the complexity of research system and contributed immensely to the cost of television advertisements that led the marketers to the digital advertisement, as these are lower in term of cost. Currently, the planners through the assessment of data gathered from research can easily recognize the waste. Companies without investing heavy amount as compared to television can reach to the wider audience. The need for integration for the effective communication of the brand to niches, having strong control over customers, and cost effectiveness were the factors that contributed to the era of digital evolution (Pringle & Marshall, 2012; Brown, 2015).
Key processes and research used to devise the traditional media plan
In marketing communication, the two basic jobs of agencies include the creation of the message and its effective dissemination. The aim of media planning is to distribute the message. Media plan helps the marketers in the selection of the media such as on television programs, in-store displays, newspapers, flyers at different places, or banner ads. In preparing the traditional media plan, the media agencies first set the budget on which the successful marketing communication and advertising campaign is based. For the preparation of the budget, media agencies were used to find out the last year spending of the companies on advertisements, the average advertising to the ratio of sale and then matching them.
In contrast, some agencies for the preparation of the budget, emphasize on the searching of accurate information about the competitive set of brands, their status within it, and the media expenditures and advertising’ history in their category. Such as, they determine if any competitive brand used any innovative, creative and media strategy for poaching above their weight. Moreover, they determine that either in prior crisis they cut their budget of eliminated or completely. These findings help them in making the decision of improving, maintain, or enhancing the advertising budget (Pringle & Marshall, 2012).
In media planning process, a good briefing is an important aspect that includes the issues, desired outcomes, and the target audience. The research of the company, it collected information and consultation with internal stakeholders help agencies in deciding the target audience (NSW Government, n.d). Media agencies can also gather information through analyzing the competitors’ target market, through gathering the demographic and psychographic information and so on. The research methods are numerous; it depends on the priority that what approach an agency wants to adapt. A good brief discusses the issues that are required to be resolved such as decreased sales, the decline in customers, lack of product awareness, etc. a good brief defines the required outcome as well. For example, a company wants to increase the sales, its customer base, and brand awareness, etc.
After deciding on these factors, it is essential to develop a successful media strategy. At this stage, media agencies decide on the media channels that either they want to go for mix media strategy of for a single media. In selecting the media strategy, these agencies research on the cost effectiveness of diverse mediums, their frequency, reach, and effectiveness (Hulk, 2001). Effectiveness is determined through market research as the most used medium for the target audience. According to Pringle and Marshall (2012), agencies should use the media that reflect the preferences and behaviors of company’s customers. They emphasize on précising the definition of the target audience and mediums through which the audience can be reached effectively.
Model and theories of communication that strengthen the joint industry committee surveys
Different authors present different theories of communication that underpin the Joint Industry Committee Surveys (JICS). From many the one is “the mathematical theory of communication” presented by Shannon and Weaver in 1948. The aim of the model was the development of effective communication between the receiver and sender. The model also recognizes the factors that influence the process of the communication also known as “Noise”. Initially, the application of the model was limited to the improvement of technical communication, but later the application of the model took place at the wider level. The model has been presented below:
(Idam, 2014)
This model is the simplest model of communication, and It strengthens the JICS in a way that it deals with the transmitters, message, information source, encoding, decoding, receiver, information destination, and channels. Because of the survey scales, JICS survey cannot be changed. The model is applied to the offline JIC surveys (Idam, 2014).
The Osgood-Schramm model of communication is also recognized as the circular model of communication.
(Communication Theories, n.d)
The model helps JIC surveys in determining that how a situation can modify, it shows the importance of redundancy. The Shannon and Weaver model miss the feature of feedback; but this model offers the customer feedback when applied to JIC surveys (Communication Theories, n.d).
The third is the OTS model of communication. This model does not consider the factor of noise as Shannon and weaver’s model. It helps JICs in determining the communication of media that ultimately enable research agencies in unifying the buying and planning process. This model allows seller and buyer to decide on currency when they decide on the effectiveness of the chosen medium in delivering the value of communication via this model. The model bound the buying and media planning together.
These three models show that with the time the advertising process became complex, but it does not mean that the noise factor of Shannon and weaver’s model disappeared. The noise factor emerged as a relationship between advertising and customers at the macro product and micro cultural level. When in the late 1960s, in the United Kingdom the economic boom began to flat and social changes occurred, the change in consumers occurred and in their relationship with media and advertising as well. The OTS model, through defining the relations between media and consumers play an immense role in JICs. In the 1970s, the economic slowdown resulted in the planning of accounts in media agencies, and for the assessment of advertising process, the research grew (Davies, 2008). In that era, the models of communication contributed immensely to being cost efficient. The OTS model is used in media surveys as it allows agencies to examine the value of intrinsic communication of all outlets of commercial communication rather than just determining the number of clicks they delivered and the potential opportunities they offer (Davis, 2008).
Impact of programmatic media planning and buying and big data on different research’s methods and types
Programmatic buying is the process of implementing media buys through a digital platform in an automated fashion. The programmatic buying replaced the traditional insertion orders and negotiation for the procurement of digital media. In other words, programmatic buying is an approach that allows media seller and buyers to align the processes of their organization with the automated technology in support of continuing customer engagement that is channel-agnostic (Winterberry Group, 2013). Programmatic buying allows media agencies to participate in real time auctions by which the sale and buying of online media occur. If considered from the perspective of publisher then the major concern of taking an interest in programmatic approaches is improving the operational efficiency, efficiently valuing and transacting the digital media. However, from the advertisers’ perspective, the major concerns include the efficiently targeting the customers, improving operational efficiency, and efficiently transact digital media. The automated process helps agencies in scaling and adjusting quickly changing needs and budgets. It leverage agencies in good brief and selection of appropriate media channels (Winterberry Group, 2013).
Programmatic is replacing the traditional advertising buys and campaigns; it is worth mentioning that the programmatic buying is a technology rather a strategy. The programmatic media planning allow both survey agencies and media companies for gaining the opportunity of optimizing the quality of their content. This is because through the utilization of programmatic approach they can precisely manage the audience and content. Programmatic advertisement allows media and research agencies to book, execute analyze, and optimize advertising campaigns based on the profiles of users in real time with the assistance of technology (Schrader, 2015).
Big data has proved itself as a game changer as it has completely changed the way the media is planned, researched, and bought. It served the agencies with more speed and granularity as compared to traditional media and market research methods. It allows media agencies to build a complete picture of customers. Such as through the collection of unknown browsing data, the media agencies can analyze that someone for his or her holiday is searching for Italy or France, so the agencies can place the online ads accordingly (Brown, 2014).
Big data allows the accurate measurement of the effectiveness of each pool of advertisement through gathering the information content regarding the concerns of people on television advertisements rather counting their sentiments through people meter system. Bid data enhances the predictability and agencies can better decide that from which channel the better information can be gathered. Even it also helps in selecting the most efficient and effective media in term of targeting and reaching an audience. This result in better return on investment on media channels, through the utilization of big data, agencies attract potential customers as they present the good picture of their customers. Big data offers promising opportunities for the creation of new approaches to selling and buying of media in more connected and creative ways (Brown, 2014).
Programmatic media planning and big data both help media and research agencies in performing their tasks more accurately than they could do with traditional methods. Through Facebook’s likes, twitter’s tweets, comments on blogs, and a number of subscribers on YouTube, it has become easy for media agencies to determine the effectiveness of each medium and analyze the efficiency of their planning.
Critical evaluation of a recent campaign by MediaCom
The ultimate aim of the media planning is to increase the sales of the company through building the positive image of the company, enhancing awareness, or encouraging people to buy its products. In past times, media agencies were used to impose their productions on people, but over time, the trend changed. Now, media companies make the content according to the preferences of people. For a successful advertisement campaign, it is essential that people can relate themselves to the brand through advertisements. Marketing is the only medium that helps the customer in building their opinion about the product that in result encourage or discourage them from buying the product. MediaCom is a well-recognized advertising agency that produces content and buys media for its clients. The company gained awards for its campaigns. Amongst many, the one campaign is “Power of Sport” that was designed by the company for “Shell” with the aim of improving the corporate communication and image. The media agency recognized the concerns of people towards energy saving and present the idea in the advertisement. The big data helped the company in gaining the information regarding the effectiveness of the advertisement, and the company utilized this advertisement in more countries that improved the image of shell immensely. For example, through this advertisement, MediaCom promotes the efforts of “Shell” in lighting up the dark through mentioning the world cup time. Therefore, the children can have fun with football even their hit to football results in kinetic energy that lighten the night. The campaign after its launching, in just a few weeks, gained media coverage in more than 20 countries. The campaign resulted in 16 million impressions from the social conversation; through the “Conde Naste custom content”, it generated addition 30 million impressions in the US. Moreover, up to 35 million people approached through the owned channels of Shell. This campaign improved immensely in the positive image of Shell and enhanced its awareness up to 13 percent. The advertisements changed the perspective of customers towards the company and encouraged them to think about it differently (PR Newswire, 2015). Not only in the United Kingdom but the United States as well; women are over stripping men, and the flaw of this advertisement is that it did not recognize women. Children are not the target market of Shell; therefore, the focus should be the adults who use Shell product rapidly. The advertisement includes men and children, but the presence of women is avoided; it communicates the sense of gender discrimination. Therefore, it is recommended that the advertisement could be improved through showing the presence of women in the advertisement, as they are the major consumer of Shell product in the United Kingdom.
Conclusion
The paper discusses the three evaluation era of media agencies. The first era was a print media’s dominance era. The second was the television, and the third is an era of digital communication, which is in the process. Need to approach the mass audience, increased globalization, competition, the requirement of best media exposure, changes in consumers’ demands, and need of integration between the brand and customers were some factors that drove these changes. For planning traditional media plan, agencies were used to follow simple processes. They prepare budgets, then determine the media objectives, create content, select best media and then play the content on selected mediums. For gathering information with the purpose of taking a decision, they used both qualitative and quantitative research methods. These agencies used different models in their surveys such as OTS model of communication, Osgood-Schramm model of communication, and Shannon and Weaver’s model of communication. The programmatic buying and big data changed the way these firms collected information. It is expected that the changes will continue to take place, and media agencies will have to face more evolutions.
List of References
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Appendix
Source: (Ellis and GreenBank, 2015)
