Mixes Inside of Mixes

This is only a mild lecture on broadening one’s mind when it comes to understanding the importance of media mix and sharing that with others in order to get the most out of your media relationships.

Informal definition of a media mix – the composition of your advertising campaign as it relates to what kinds of media you are using.  Example of what a mix looks like: 40% TV, 30% online, 20% radio, 10% Out of Home.

Now, I have heard a few times in the past couple of months the answer to my question of “what kind of advertising do you currently do” and hear back – “I do newspaper”, or “I do TV,” etc.  And then we’re supposed to figure out how our medium (OOH, if you’re in the dark about what I now do) can help support the current tactics they’re using and back that up to figure out what their overall marketing goals and strategies are.

Here’s my beef.  Depending on your goals and strategies, the tactical way you purchase different media will greatly change.  Just knowing a client bought TV for example, doesn’t shed light on if they were doing it for branding, sales, high reach, high frequency, same-day or short sale opportunities, etc.  Discovering their mix inside that medium would help explain it better.  Did their buy look like it was all over the place, meaning no dayparting? This would indicate if their goals were high reach or high frequency.  Was it :30s, :15s, :10s?  Knowing this would help understand the necessary content of your advertising and how we can extend the message. Was it on one station, multiple stations or only cable?  We can help identify extra or similar people who were watching the programming you were advertising on.  Knowing this kind of information will help us recommend the best combination of mix inside our own medium to complement and supplement everything else.

So the next time you get asked what your mix inside each medium is, don’t be afraid to share a little of the tactics that you’ve implemented.  I have fun ways and means of finding out on my own, but if you are looking for a  partnership with your vendors and are looking for ways to create a synergy among your mix elements of your advertising campaign, enlighten us a little on what you are currently doing.  It will only help you out in the end.