Milton Papadakis on media consulting

Media spending makes up more than 80% of marketing appropriations. Thus, savy advertisers employ a media consultant to help get the most out of the cooperation with the media specialists, to secure the correct briefing and setting up of media objectives, to follow up planning and buying throughout the year and put up the specific KPIs that will accurately and fairly assess results within the market category competitive environment.EACA, the European Association of Communication Agencies, explicitly encourages advertisers to employ the services of an independent media consultant / auditor.The guide on choosing and using a media auditor at the EACA site: http://www.eaca.be/_upload/documents/guidelines/Auditors_Charter_June.pdf

An example of hidden factors that without the help of a media consultant would probably go unnoticed is the following: Advertiser “A” is primarily aiming at the 15-34

Table 1

One could say that advertiser “A” opted for higher ratings in its TV spots buying (1,88 GRP’s per spot on average, versus 1,52 for the category) and paying a small premium for this (CPR 22,6 versus 19,41 for the category). I.e. a 18,1% higher CPR for a 30,9% higher average rating.

In Greece, efficient TV buying always starts with a well studied channel mix.Thus, checking this mix, we see nothing strange. Advertiser “A” splits its budget more or less, as the rest of the category does:

Table 2

A closer look though, says a different story.

Fact No 1: There was evidently a lack of coordinated buying effort between the two buying agencies of advertiser “A”. Different shares of investment per channel, usually is a recipe for self punishment, when share of spending per channel is by far the most important criterium in TV buying. A criterium that channels are able to monitor on weekly basis, since the governing Media Law obliges TV cost to be publicly announced the day after buying.

Fact No2: Agency “X” placed on ANTENNA TV a share of the budget that was out of range, compared with TOTAL market or with the specific category. The 18,1% investment, by definition would not secure any benefits for the advertiser, as was actually the case.

Table 3

Fact No 3: Agency “X” by investing so small a share of the spending on ANTENNA, was left out of the commercial deals on the channel and ended up paying a CPR of 37,2 Euros, vs. the 21 or 22 Euros that was the norm.

Fact No 4: Agency “X” was not allowed to buy on the best performing shows, so ended up with an average rating of 1,8 GRP’s, versus the 2,6 that agency “Y” got on average.It is the job of the media consultant in every market to set up the KPI’s that tell the hole story. In this case, the agregated data of TV buying would never bring to light this weak point, unless the consultant had demanded a specifically set per channel detailed reporting.