Planning for an Advertisement Campaign

The advertisement campaign planning process should include the decisions about the following:

1. The Purpose of the Campaign

• Be clear on our objective behind the advertisement campaign.
  • We may wish to generate some quick inquiries and sales with this communication campaign.
  • We may wish to inform about the new product launch or a discount sale or a special offer.
  • We may wish to increase our products’ visibility to defend against some competitor’s campaign.
  • We may just wish to increase the brand awareness.
• Whatever the purpose, we should be clear about the same.
• A lot of other planning parameters will be clearer if we are clear about the purpose of the campaign.

2. Target Audience

• Decide about the customer segment to which the advertisement campaign is targeted.
• Keep this as distinct and clear as possible.
• We should not target too many customer groups in one marketing communication. If we do, it confuses all the customer groups.

E.g. gym memberships: Even though our gym may be targeting both male and female members, they both may have different needs, requirements and preferences. One single communication may not be able to communicate effectively to both the groups. If we do so, it will confuse both the target groups and our marketing money will not be properly rewarded. In such cases, we should prepare two different sets of communications for targeting two different groups and repeat them for appropriate number of times through the right medium.

3. Budget

• Decide on how much money are we willing to spend for this campaign.
• This should fit well within our overall marketing budget.
• Don’t release unplanned marketing communication impulsively, unless there is a strong reason for the same.
• Spread the budget across the year or different parts of the year when our communication is more meaningful (e.g. festivals or sale period).

4. Medium

• With the advancement in technology and rapid lifestyle changes, a lot of innovation is happening in the marketing communication arena also. More and more communication media are coming up and the new ones are changing the equations of the existing marketing communication landscape drastically.
• Today various media are available for advertising:
  • Electronic or broadcast (TV / Radio)
  • Print (Newspapers, Magazines)
  • Outdoor (Hoardings, billboards, banners, wall painting, vehicles etc.)
  • Digital Media (Internet, web sites, search engines, banner displays, social media, Email, SMS, mobile apps and other options)
• We should select the most appropriate medium which reaches the largest chunk among our target customer group.

5. Medium Provider or Vendor

• There are multiple vendors available for every medium, whether it is TV, radio, print, outdoor, online or mobile. Each option within a particular medium reaches different types of customers.
• Depending upon our purpose, budget and the target customer profile, choose the most suitable vendor of our chosen medium i.e. TV channel, radio station, newspaper, magazine, web site, search engine or mobile service etc.
• If you observe the particular newspaper or TV channel for some time period, you will easily understand which type of advertisements generally appear on them. That should help as a general guideline to make your selection.
• The most important consideration is the suitability of the medium to reach our target customer. A big advertisement in a newspaper which our target customer does not read is a complete wastage, even though we may believe that we are doing a lot of marketing communication activity.
• Don’t choose the medium based only on the circulation or viewership numbers. Be clear about the target customer group first. If the medium does not reach our target customers, it is completely useless to us, however large or deep reaching it may be.
• Also, don’t choose the medium based on price alone. Remember, if we give advertisement in one newspaper, agents of other publications may contact us luring with attractive prices etc. Again, here also, choose the option only if it reaches the right customer group.
• A wrong publication / TV channel / radio station / web site will result into a lot of wasted marketing money. Choose wisely and objectively.

6. Language

• The advertisement should be in the language understood well by the target customer segment.
• Also, the language of the advertisement should ideally be the same as that of the publication or channel, i.e. an English language advertisement in a regional language newspaper or TV channel will have a limited impact because most of the readers / viewers will not understand our advertisement communication.

7. Dates

• Decide on which days the advertisement will appear.
• Take into consideration the clutter on the medium on that day and also the suitability to and the convenience of the target audience while deciding the dates. Some newspapers come out with very large special supplements during certain festivals or special occasions. Just imagine, a daily newspaper which generally has 20 pages, suddenly comes with 60 pages on some day (most additional pages filled only with advertisements), how many readers will see the advertisements? Visualize the newspaper in the customer’s hands and you may realize a lot of things. There is no point in wasting money for being a small part of a big crowd.
• The advertisement rates may vary as per the day / date chosen. Check on this, before deciding the dates.
• There may be some regular special supplements and rates for some specific type of advertisements. (E.g. some newspapers publish real estate or recruitment related supplements on some days and have special rates for that type of advertisements.)

8. Frequency

• Decide on how many times the advertisements will appear.
• Our message needs to be repeated enough number of times.
• If it is an outdoor campaign decide for how many days it will remain on the hoardings etc.
• One bitter truth to remember is that our customer does not see or remember our advertisements as frequently as we do. So, giving an advertisement once and then waiting for customers to come in huge numbers will lead to a disappointment.
• It is observed that any advertisement (Print / TV / Radio / Outdoor) which reaches a customer does not get registered into her head, until it hits at least six times in front of her eyes. This is because of the clutter in the market and the hundreds of brands seeking attention of the customer on a daily basis. To be remembered, we must reach her often.

9. Size / Duration

• The size of the print advertisement must match the status of the brand, the position in the medium and the frequency chosen. The same applies to the duration of our TV / Radio commercials.
• The sizes or the durations of the advertisements by the competition brands must also be considered while deciding the same for our advertisement.
• We may also have few variants of the same advertisement with different sizes or durations.
• Take the budget into account, while deciding the size or duration of our advertisement.

10. Position / Timing / Location

• For a newspaper or magazine advertisement, decide on which page will it appear? On which side?
• If it is on TV or radio, decide about when will it appear and during which programs?
• If it is on an outdoor medium, on which locations our hoardings / boards / banners / posters etc. will be displayed?
• If it is on vehicles (buses / trains / cabs etc.), in which locations these vehicles will be moving?
• Keep our target customer and our brand image in mind while choosing the above.

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