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General > Pain-free Cuts: Slice Your Media Budget Without Hurting Your Results
Pain-free Cuts: Slice Your Media Budget Without Hurting Your Results
We’ve all tightened our belts a bit. Maybe you’ve cut out a Starbucks or two, enjoy dinner at home instead of going out, think this year’s vacation might be a wonderful stay-cation. More and more we want our dollars to go farther. We want to feel good about how we spend and the return.
In marketing, advertising is considered an investment. Unfortunately that’s not a universally accepted notion outside the marketing profession. An advertising budget is often the first to be cut when cuts need to happen. I’m a realist, so understand a budget is what helps keep a business solvent. Rather than cutting just for the sake of cutting, I recommend maximizing dollars by making the medium nuances work for you.
In a nut shell, and focusing specifically on television and radio advertising, here are my top eight strategy beliefs:
Don’t buy anything just because you like the sales person, and be careful of fact versus propaganda! Make informed decisions based on your audience demographics and how a particular station penetrates that demographic.
There are two political windows in 2010. When working on your media plan try to avoid the three weeks prior to the end of each window. There are A LOT of reasons for this recommendation. The most basic is you will avoid paying higher rates and having clearance problems.
May and September are the two most impacted months for broadcast. If you plan to advertise in either of these months, ask yourself why. Your dollars could be better spent over the other ten months of the year.
A broadcast calendar ends on the last Sunday of the month—regardless of the actual date. You can achieve the best rates and placement if your schedule runs the first two weeks of the standard broadcast month.
When looking at audience delivery also consider household CUME. If there’s a large audience but small CUME you may be able to spend less and achieve the same results.
Don’t spread your frequency out too thin―condense the week to keep the frequency high. If weekdays are most important to your business, advertise Mon – Wed. If weekends are most important, advertise Fri – Sun.
Even though you may have fewer spots total don’t overload daytime or late night! Sure, it’s cheap, but there’s a reason for that. The exception would be if your target audience is the daytime or late night viewer profile.
Have quality creative! You may have to invest more, but quality delivers over cheesy every time.
I use several other strategies when I develop a media plan; however what rises to the top as most important will vary depending on the business and identified target audience. If you have questions about the strategies that are best for your business, call me, and I’ll help you create a “reality-based” plan that eliminates the “drama” of uncertainty.
Vicki – thank you for this post. I thought I knew quite a bit about media buying – you pointed out a few things I didn’t know such as considering political windows and the two heaviest months being May and September.
I appreciate your insight and look forward to more practical information to help my limited budget go farther!