Looking for Much Needed Client Attention

Quest of an Honest Media Planner

This article is for those who want to believe in power of enhanced skills. After all, we do find many healthier professionals, always managing happiness at work without having succumbed to negatives of office environs. That’s due to their constant efforts of addressing feedbacks/observations through changing client behaviors! There are silent winners!

Let’s draw examples from the life of a Media Planner, the one who has the onus of influencing outcomes of money spent! Real skills have the power to turn brand spends into strong consumer channels!

These past couple of years, we’ve heard that clients do not listen much to their media planning agencies. We also sense that quality work is slipping out of agencies hands. Clients are also setting up their own in-house teams for stronger controls! brand/media managers barely put efforts in building sustainable relationships with media planners in person! On top of all these, factors like “work stress”, “overtime”, “low productivity”, “existential realities” etc. start forming its psychological rounds! Effects of such environs do not harm much to the professionals we are talking about, the ones who’re responsibly engaged in enhancing their job values and skills.

How does one try to get “good old days back” like when clients listened more?

Charity begins at home. Let’s work on what one can start with! One’s own skills. The goal is to make it more powerful! Powerful enough to pull client attention back.

Let’s play volley of questions.

Why do all media plans look the same? Mine aren’t alone. Why do all media plans (from this agency or that agency, from this media planner or that media planner, for this brand or that brand) look pretty much the same?

A media planner is a media planner at typical agency. He / she ends up using same processes, same softwares, same planning philosophies and is subjected to similar patterns of constraints (irrespective of level of organization he/she works for). It’s almost like media planners are highly conditioned to stick to processes that fill 100% of work time. No scope of thinking. No scope of creative breathing. No scope of exploring full work potential.

Why do most planners follow same planning procedures? No one can jump on a magic bus without working on insights, developmental thoughts, common sense, balanced outcomes, trials/tests, and new learnings. Where are they? How to find it without putting time to it.

Are there any seniors known for skills more than their designations? It’s true that there are no gurus left on real grounds. They all may have departed for the facebooks of virtual world; attending seminars, giving lectures, perfecting skills on public speaking etc. Barely does anyone have the resilience to build true leadership or stand for what’s necessary to be done!

There’s no end to what doesn’t happen!

So the goal is to focus on what can happen, to make own skills powerful enough to pull client confidence back.

Here are a few hardcore answers to awaken your inner genius.

Remember:

You are choosing from about 1000-2000 media vehicles. Chosen can transform the brand to scale new heights. Believe plans made by you could transform brands!

You have around 400-500 TV channels, 1000+ Print Publications, 200-300 Radio Stations, countless Digital channels, thousands of options in Ambient outdoor media, Cinema screens, Film promotions, Events, On-ground Experiences, innovations / ideas, and many other ATL, BTL options.

Don’t get tired scanning TRPs and affinities of channels. Instead, list down the quick outcome and move on to next magic! Something ‘next’ has to be done for the plan to differentiate.

You are working on clutters. There are techniques to scan clutter or large data scientifically.

..and of course more commonsensically.

Use Correspondence and Cluster analysis extensively to back up arguments on plans churned through syndicated softwares. Psychological dimensions SHOULD influence far higher than generic demographics in arriving at a plan. It’s likely to sketch near perfect consumer behavior in a market w.r.to your brand, competition brands, and segments triggering purchase.

Make choices of channel genres & programme genres according to psychological findings. Establish consumer psychologies to be tapped for the next 1-2 years. These are untapped areas seeking client’s utmost attention.

Do you know?

Correspondence analysis has a potential to segment market and identify relationships between brands and consumer preferences? It can also share insights on what/who shapes market dynamics. It can establish solid grounds of brand, consumer, and market by identifying levels of interdependence and scopes of innovations.

Cluster Analysis has a potential to find untapped market niches and opportunities that otherwise can’t be observed in normal data?

We can arrange classes/sessions for friends in media fraternity who are resolved to make client’s media investments rewarding. Write to us at chief@myclevelexecutive.com