In unsure occasions, steady planning needs to be the brand new norm – Nielsen

The media planning process had to be reset even before the epidemic. Brands that have been forced to cut their budgets in the past 18+ months face uncertainty when planning media. The need to get back on track – as quickly as possible – will be a priority until 2022. It is important for marketers to realize that the usual approach to media planning will be less relevant and effective both during the ongoing pandemic and in a post-pandemic world. Here is the problem. It is important to break the planning cycle only once or twice a year and to keep breaking new ground.

SME recently identified three pillars of effective media planning that marketers should focus on in order to thrive in an uncertain future: focus on the people they want to reach, connected planning, and continuous planning. Although each of the three pillars works together consciously, continually planning a brand’s strategy can bring them the fastest money – and help brands get back on track after months of interruption.

Year-round planning requires less security.

Continuous planning is essential to managing market volatility. Here are a few steps for continuous planning success:

When the disruption set in at the start of the pandemic, agile brands were better prepared to adapt to changing consumer needs and interests. Looking ahead, the times of “adjust and forget” are over, and planning in 12-18 month cycles is unlikely to be as effective in the future. Instead, marketers should plan continuously throughout the year to reflect evolving needs of consumers – which will allow processes to run more efficiently and resources to be allocated effectively. Iterative planning – planning where processes are adjusted over the course of a project and plans changed if necessary – can help a brand monitor, track, and analyze campaign performance to identify opportunities for improvement and what works and what doesn’t . This enables marketers to quickly change their strategies based on feedback and adjustments in schedule, scope, or budget.

• Identifying the brand’s audience and their media usage: By identifying the audience, attribution measurements can help marketers understand which channels consumers are using and which ads generate engagement.

• Analyze Competitor Spending: Once you have a basic understanding of your target audience, it’s important to understand how they are spending their advertising money.

• Optimizing, planning and projecting reach and frequency: Whether continuity, flighting or pulsing – a combination of both when frequency increases at times when the additional message can have a solid effect – marketers can be more effective.

Within these steps, it is critical to define the brand’s audience and understand what they’re doing – not just making decisions based solely on what they like or what a competitor is doing. To understand the behavior of their target audience, marketers also need to conduct a survey. Marketers can accurately predict frequency and reach if they know their target audience better.

An established process is critical to the success of these steps. Its purpose is to ensure that a company’s resources are used efficiently in each market. However, the annual SMB marketing survey found that 48% of respondents had little or no confidence in their ability to measure ROI. Marketers cannot look back on how their tactics have performed in this unpredictable media environment. To prove effectiveness and skillfully allocate resources, marketers should instead optimize campaigns using results data on the fly – which also maximizes ROI.

Whether manually or using machine learning tools, marketers should run optimization scenarios and determine efficiencies in order to set up the brand for pre-buy, and then incorporate what they have learned into activation.

Brands have to adapt to the changing media environment in order to survive. Across industries, brands need to be flexible in the months and years to come. Marketers need to be flexible and adaptable in media planning. You should also be able to review ideas from previous quarters to make better decisions. With a mindset of continuous planning, advertisers can best prepare for the future in uncertain times.

Download our guide for more insights. Three pillars for effectiveness in the implementation of the guide to media planning