Media Planning

Decides where, when and how often the target audience should meet the message, at what cost per thousand people who matter, and how delivery will be checked against the plan. Written from established media-planning practice and Stockwell and Shaw (1994) Direct Marketing Checklists, NTC Business Books. The skill plans and specifies; booking and spending need explicit client authority.

Use When

• The campaign needs a media plan: which channels, what weight, which weeks and how much per medium.
• Radio or Facebook? How often should people see this? Is this station worth the money?
• Compare what was booked against what actually ran, and agree make-goods for the shortfall.
• Weight the budget by region or season, for example heavier in Kampala or around Christmas.

Do Not Use When

• advertising-strategy-and-budget when the total budget or objectives are not yet set.
• programmatic-and-brand-safety for DSP, private-deal, CTV, digital-screen (DOOH) and digital-audio buying, supply-path and fee checks, viewability, invalid traffic and brand-safety settings; classic outdoor, broadcast TV and FM radio stay here.
• traction-channel-bullseye for choosing which acquisition channels to test at all.
• playbook-paid-social-advertising or paid-search-advertising for platform campaign builds and ad sets.
• Stop before any booking, insertion order or spend without the client's written authority.