Media Planning: Is reach enough, or should brands focus on OTS?

In the good old days, media planning depended largely on the budget and the markets a brand wanted to reach. Brand managers always wanted maximum reach with minimum spend. The media planner had to work within the available budget and find the best possible combination of media to reach the target audience.

But there was a problem. When you try to expand reach without having enough money, your OTS (opportunity to see) can suffer. The advertisement may reach a large number of people, but how many of them will actually notice it? And will seeing an advertisement just once be enough to get the desired impact?

This has always been a challenge for media planners. Should you therefore spend more money to reach a larger audience, or should you focus on reaching a lesser audience more often?

Reach Is Not the Whole Story

In one of the of researches conducted, it was found that instead of blindly chasing reach, it often made sense to increase OTS. The idea was to give the audience more opportunities to see the advertisement and absorb the message.

Of course, this does not mean that increasing frequency is always the right answer. A new brand needs to reach as many potential customers as possible. On the other hand, a brand introducing a new product may need to repeat its message to explain what it is offering.

Take the example of two campaigns. One reaches ten lakh people once, while the other reaches six lakh people three times. The first campaign has a wider reach, but the second offers more opportunities to communicate with its audience. Which one will work better? That depends on the brand, the product and what the campaign is expected to achieve.

There is no point in reaching more people if the advertisement fails to register. At the same time, repeatedly showing an advertisement to the same people while ignoring potential customers is not a sensible use of the budget either. The planner has to get this balance right.

Consumers No Longer Depend on One Medium

Media planning has become more complicated over the years. Earlier, the choice was largely between television, newspapers, magazines, radio and outdoor advertising. The planner studied the available options, compared costs and worked out the media mix.

Social media has changed the situation. Consumers now move between different platforms, often without thinking about it. They may watch television, browse Instagram, view videos on YouTube and shop on an e-commerce platform, all within the same day.

This makes it important for planners to understand where their customers and potential customers spend their time. Instead of simply picking platforms and placing advertisements, they need to study consumer behaviour and decide how best to reach them.

A consumer may first come across a brand in a television commercial, see it again on social media and later search for more information online. These different touchpoints can work together. But this will happen only if the media plan has been thought through properly.

There is also a danger of spreading the budget thin across too many platforms. Just because a platform is popular does not mean it is necessarily right for every brand. The choice should depend on the target audience and the campaign objective.

Engagement Has Become Important

Today, the focus is increasingly on engagement. Digital media allows marketers to see how many people viewed an advertisement, clicked on it, shared it or visited a website. Such information was not readily available in the early days of media planning.

But does engagement always mean that the campaign has worked?

An advertisement may get thousands of views without creating much interest in the product. A social media post may receive plenty of likes, but that does not necessarily mean people will buy the brand. Similarly, a high number of clicks may not translate into sales.

This is where brand managers need to look beyond the numbers. If the objective is to create awareness, then recall and consumer consideration become important. If the objective is to generate sales, the number of enquiries, conversions and actual purchases matters more.

Every campaign has a different purpose. The measures used to judge its performance must reflect that purpose. Otherwise, marketers may end up celebrating numbers that look impressive but do little for the business.

Can We Measure the Impact of Media Spending?

This is a question that has troubled marketers for years. Every brand manager would like to know whether the money spent on advertising has helped increase sales or improve awareness.

The answer is not always easy to find. A consumer may see a television advertisement, come across the brand on social media and purchase the product a few days later. Which of these interactions actually influenced the purchase?

Digital platforms provide performance reports, but they do not always tell the complete story. If a consumer clicks on the last advertisement before making a purchase, that platform may receive the credit, even though other media may have helped create the interest in the brand.

Marketers therefore need to look at the overall campaign rather than depend entirely on the numbers provided by individual platforms. Studies that measure changes in brand awareness, along with sales data and marketing mix modelling, can help provide a better understanding of the contribution made by advertising.

It may not always be possible to establish an exact relationship between every rupee spent and every sale generated. But that should not stop marketers from asking questions and examining whether their media investments are delivering results.

What Should Guide the Media Plan?

The starting point should be the objective of the campaign. A brand that wants to enter a new market will have different requirements from one that wants to increase sales among existing customers.

The planner must understand the audience, its media habits and the competition. The budget should then be distributed across the platforms that offer the best opportunity to reach the intended consumers.

Reach and OTS must be considered together. Engagement and performance measures should also be built into the plan. It is equally important to review the campaign while it is running and make changes wherever necessary.

A media plan should not be treated as something that cannot be changed once the money has been allocated. If a particular platform is not delivering the expected results, the brand manager should examine whether the spending needs to be adjusted.

The cheapest option is not necessarily the best one. What matters is whether the investment is helping the brand achieve its objective.

Getting the Balance Right

Media planning today involves several combinations of platforms, budgets and audience choices. The task has become more challenging, but the basic question remains the same: how can a brand get the best results from the money it spends?

There is no single yardstick that will work for every campaign. Reach matters, OTS matters, and engagement has its place. What is important is to understand what the brand wants to achieve and choose the right combination of measures to evaluate the results.

Ultimately, a good media plan is not about chasing the highest reach or the largest number of clicks. It is about making sure that the advertisement reaches the right people, gets enough opportunities to register and contributes to the brand's objectives.