Media Planning vs. Audience Planning

Better defined as the act of selecting the right mix of media channels, air-times, and content to best suit an advertising reach, media planning has long been the marketer's tried and true method for launching an advertising campaign. As radio and television became two of the best mediums to quickly gather attention throughout the latter half of the 20th century, marketers have placed a heavy emphasis on advertising on the two platforms to reach mass amounts of people efficiently. To find the best way of doing so, marketers focused on media planning as their answer to when and where they should spend money to place their ads. By looking at things such as television ratings and the demographics certain time slots drew to aid their ad spending, media planning allowed companies to reach mass amounts of people, placing their products and services in front of the most amount of people.

But what if we wanted a more targeted approach? What if instead of looking at the top of the funnel for a mass reach, we want to "funnel down," and reach a very specific, niche group of people? As the evolution of media planning, audience planning serves to do just that. Much unlike media planning's focus on media publishers and their audiences, audience planning focuses on the consumer as an individual, creating a much more personal relationship between brand and consumer in turn. Thanks to new technologies such as audience targeting, which is most commonly found on Hulu, Spotify, and other platforms that cater advertisements based on what content you consume on their sites, companies can tap into more detailed info that allows them to reach audiences based on their interests and values. For example, if you're looking to advertise your company's newest line of toys for children, you can use data gathered by Hulu to see which programs on their site your targeted demographic views the most and then use media spending accordingly.

Although media planning has proved to be successful for many years, it's best to know that a wide reach is not always the best option to pursue. Likewise, while audience planning allows you to reach a more targeted audience that will most likely already be interested in your product or service, it lowers your chances of attracting further prospective interest, customers, and sales. So which form of marketing planning is better? With both planning types providing unique benefits, it's best to pursue a mixed approach of both media planning and audience planning to really cover all sorts of audiences.

Interested in a campaign that utilizes both types of planning? With several decades of experience and serving as Canada's top media buying company, Kingstar Media provides top expertise in both media and audience planning. Contact us here and let's get started!