The breathe and soul of any advertising agency is the ability to understand the need of the client before proceeding with any advertisement campaign and that art is usually termed as ‘Media Planning’. Media Planning is basically the ability to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time with the right media.
So the word ‘right’ places the most vital role in the process of media planning. Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Thumbs Up and most recently
IPL 2014 are some of the top brands that have been able to reach the target audience effectively and derive more sales thanks to Media Planning that involves the process of message dissemination.
How is it that every time you hear that tune of IPL the word ‘Chalo Bulava Aaya Hai’ comes instantly to your mind. Well that is called brand recall in technical terms and it comes from hitting the right target group with the right media at a cost acceptable to the client. If we talk of top players then you may argue that they have huge budgets but there are many smaller domestic players that today stand tall among international giant brands just because of media planning implemented by their advertising agencies. Media planning is a four-step process involving objectives, strategy, implementation and evaluation.
We are talking of brands like Bajaj, Britannia, Zandu Balm, Fevicol and MDH spices that have been ideals for the advertising agencies.
How sales sky rocket with media planning?
Media planning is what can make or mar an advertising campaign. Continuous analysis, tests and optimization of marketing strategy are all very important for success of any media campaign. A hoard of internal and external technologies is adopted for analyzing the strategies and adding value to a brand. So once you have in mind the target audience for a campaign, accordingly you select the medium of advertising, the place of advertising and the monetary details.
Brands are on the lookout for innovative concepts and according to the target group, media planning is done. Taking youth icons, movie stars is catching up and these not only help in building an image for the brand but also makes people remember them long after. If Shahrukh Khan says Navrattan cool talc is ‘Chotta AC’ then the whole nation believes that and the volumes of sales of the product shoot up. That is the impact which is only possible with an appropriate media plan.
Another tactic: Brand Placement
Brand placement is also excessively being adopted by media planners. Remember Hrithik Roshan talking about drinking Coca-Cola as a token of friendship in Bollywood movie ‘Yaadein’ or Fevicol in ‘Dabangg 2’ and BMW bikes in ‘Dhoom 3’. All these come under brand placement which is an effective line of attack to reach the fragmented audience. Even on the tube, you can see a lot of brand placement in daily sops too. At times a TRP gaining show has the actors talking about an upcoming event or movie, Bollywood celebs are invited in shows and Bigg Boss, Masterchef and many other reality shows openly endorse products all the time. And that definitely is like adding fuel to fire.
Media Mix
According to the campaign, the budget and many demographic factors, media planners need to take the crucial decision of which medium to use to disseminate the message to the said target audience. So, all contacts that the consumer has with a brand are evaluated and accordingly the media is chosen. There may be a mix of social media and television and radio ads that may be used to boost a brand and all that comes under media mix. For example, if you see the Kellogg K shape ad, they used Deepika Padukone as the brand ambassador and the television campaign has been a huge success.
There are many effective ways in which the media planning concept can be put to optimum use by advertisers and it is a huge domain.
Note: You can also change the hom text with your own desired text. So in order to edit that text, you just find <data:homeMsg/>. And then replace this with your own text. And if you want to replace with an image, just place this code <img src="img link"/>. Now you just should replace img link with your own Image Link. 
