What Does an Integrated Media Planner Do? Do You Need One?
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Pathlabs Marketing |
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June 29th, 2023 |
At Pathlabs, we find excitement in exploring the various avenues available for deploying marketing strategies, including social media, display ads, audio, video, and search. While each of these methods can be effective on its own, marketers are now exploring the power of combining them to create multiple touchpoints that effectively reach and engage their target audiences. This approach, known as integrated media planning, is gaining popularity as marketers recognize its benefits.
In this blog, we cover what integrated media planning is, why marketers use it, and how the role of an integrated media planner is becoming increasingly crucial to the functions of a marketing agency.
What Is Media Planning?
Media planning refers to the outlining and preparing of marketing campaigns before launch. Media planning activities can include setting objectives, researching, budget forecasting, audience identification, segmentation, and media mix selection.
A marketing team may have the formal position of ‘media planner’ or a media coordinator, campaign analyst, or other position will handle these activities.
Media planning is not media buying or activation. It specifically encompasses the upfront, pre-launch activities mentioned above. Not all media planners will push the campaign past the finish line. Instead, they create the general strategy and instructions for the media campaign – the plan – then pass it on to whoever on the team handles the specific execution.
What Is Integrated Media Planning?
Integrated media planning is the same as everyday media planning, except in this case, the marketer chooses to leverage two or more mediums, channels, platforms, or ad formats to deploy their marketing content and messaging.
A singular media plan may detail an ad campaign for just Instagram. However, an integrated media plan will leverage Instagram in addition to search, display, native, DOOH, audio, video, or other marketing methods.
An integrated media strategy aims to cast a wide net and create multiple touchpoints to engage users. Looking at the example from above, if the marketer chooses to just run content on Instagram, this is only one touchpoint to reach target users.
Consequently, for those who don’t have Instagram, there is no chance they will engage or convert.
Therefore, if the marketer leverages Instagram, email newsletters, and content blog marketing, there are multiple additional locations where this user can engage. If they don’t engage with one, there is at least a chance they will with the others.
This makes the media integrated.
“The need for integrated media planning comes from the fact that we as users have so many distractions in everyday life. Therefore, marketers need to reach us throughout our day and across different screens and mediums to get a message across.”
What Is an Integrated Media Planner?
An integrated media planner is a marketing professional responsible for developing integrated media plans for campaigns. Their particular role is important because they set the initial campaign architecture and media mix selection that media activators and buyers will then take and execute further.
Like the term ‘media planner,’ a marketing team may not have a given person they refer to as the ‘integrated media planner’. But rather, they may have one or more person(s) who handle(s) these activities.
What Does an Integrated Media Planner Do?
An integrated media planner has the same duties as a standard media planner; they communicate with teams to lay out campaign goals and objectives, review and narrow down the target market, select the best media types, and lean on multiple forecasting tools before the campaign’s launch.
Of course, since the media planner is taking an integrated approach, their job is much more complex. They must complete these duties for two, three, or more marketing methods. So, not only do they have to understand how each works individually, but also the big picture for how they will come together to form a funnel that engages and pulls in users.
The Role of an Integrated Media Planner in Your Marketing Agency
An integrated media planner's duties depend on their agency or team. However, typical responsibilities include:
Analyzing historical campaign data and metrics
Researching target audiences and developing audience personas
Exploring different media channels
Making recommendations and deciding the best array of media types to use
Developing day-to-day media strategy for campaigns (e.g., selecting the best times to field ads, frequency of media content placements) This may also be the responsibility of a media buyer/activator.
Identifying opportunities to integrate programmatic technology to manage campaigns more effectively
Communicating with media buyers on how to execute a future campaign
Chart out integrated media funnel
Integrated Media Plan Examples
Below are three examples of brands and organizations leveraging integrated media approaches.
Missoula Marathon
The Missoula Marathon uses an integrated media plan every year. They publish owned content on their social media platforms and take advantage of physical OOH advertising spaces.
They are also a great example because they use earned media – media they did not originally produce. On a local website detailing the best marathons in Montana, Missoula Marathon is ranked first by voters. This is excellent media because it provides social proof and an organic touchpoint for the organization.
Taylor Swift's Eras Tour
We definitely have some Taylor Swift stans at Pathlabs, so this one hits close to home. The marketing teams for her latest tour have leveraged Twitter, email, her personal website, and DOOH advertising to get the word out. This has made it so that users will interact with media promoting the tour in both digital and physical places.
HelloFresh
HelloFresh’s approach is full-funnel: they publish meal content on Pinterest to attract users at the top of the funnel, run targeted Snapchat ads for mid-to-low-funnel users; and lastly, paid search ads for those needing a final push to convert.
How Integrated Media Planning Boosts ROI
“Integrated media planning boosts ROI because, at the end of the day, advertising is all about frequency: the more a consumer sees the exact same ad on the same platform, the more they’ll tune it out.
So, by reaching an audience via multiple channels and mediums, consumers will see the same ad content but in different media forms and platforms, giving them a higher propensity to act and effectively lean in. ”
On top of that, an integrated media planning methodology is helpful because it can spread out risk. Let's consider a scenario where a marketing team has a budget of $3,000 and decides to invest the entire amount in native ads. This approach carries a high risk because if the results from the native ads are unsatisfactory, the team is wasting the $3,000 investment.
However, by adopting an integrated approach and allocating $1,000 each to display, search, and CTV ads, the team expands its reach to a larger audience. It mitigates the risk associated with a single channel. If one of these methods fails to deliver the desired outcomes, the team is only out $1,000, while the other two methods compensate for any shortcomings.
This does not mean media planners should immediately invest in additional channels. However, they should be aware of the benefits of using more than one and spreading out the budget and content.
Does Your Agency Need an Integrated Media Planner?
If a team’s marketing efforts involve multiple channels and platforms, managing them individually can be challenging – especially if working with multiple clients. Finding a service offering integrated media planning support can streamline this process.
Moreover, it is clear that when taking an integrated approach, the amount of work and attention given to each method, medium, or channel will exponentially increase. Media planning support can help take on this additional work, allowing the in-house team to focus on building the business.
One problem a marketing team may have with an integrated media planning service is that it will only handle the media planning. Therefore, if asked to handle buying or analysis, they may say, “We don’t do that.”
In this case, it may be worth considering other options like a Media Execution Partner that not only handles the media planning but the activation, buying, reporting, optimization, etc.
In Conclusion…
To recap, media planning encompasses outlining and preparing a media campaign before its launch. Media planners are the individuals in the background doing the research, creating the structure for the campaign, and putting for the best strategy that the media buyers and activators can then take to turn these campaigns live.
Because we live in a digital age with so many mediums and advertising methods, marketers should invest in integrated media planning methods of using two or more mediums, channels, or platforms to deploy within these campaigns.
By relying on an integrated media planner and taking on this strategy, marketing teams can create an impressive portfolio of multiple touchpoints that engage users.
