Fix right content to promotions ratio

In a cluttered broadcast spectrum, the only effective way to catch upon the exact set of target audience is to integrate the discipline of media planning with the right kind of marketing and promotional strategies, believes BBC head – media planning Alan James. Speaking at the Promax/BDA India Conference 2009 here today, James says, “Media planning is a very critical discipline that has to be included in the successful marketing of any broadcast channel or portfolio. If a channel wants to get captured by the right and defined eyeballs, it has to use the given ‘space’ in relevance to the target set. And this can be achieved only with the inclusion of correct media planning patterns within the media mix.”

Media planners believe that broadcast marketing and promotion without any media planning support many times pushes a channel to under-promote or over-promote itself. “While under-promotion leads to huge wastage of creative resources, over-promotion is a magnet that exerts a pull on acute airtime loss,” James explains. James further notes that for better and improved communication, the channel has to first understand its airtime versus advertising space ratio, which again can be accomplished only with a very strategic media planning support.

“A channel has to use its own platform to promote its own shows. There are times when a show's length is long and there is not much space left in between for further promotion. Then the channel has to integrate its content in a way that promotions happen within shows itself leading to optimum utilization of space. But this can be attained only with the understanding of the ratio,” he elaborates. For a channel to build its properties, consistent and cross channel promotion is also highly essential as it can help the channel save absolute costs, says James. “Correct media planning can help a channel audit its promotional inventory and build its properties aggressively without incurring heavy expenses through consistent and optimum utilization of the network space across channels,” he concludes.

Content Courtesy - Indiantelevision