• by Tom Hespos , April 5, 2005

A few trials and tribulations this past week reminded me of how important it is to establish a marketing and media strategy with a client before getting into the intricacies of planning and placement.

A well-done marketing and media strategy document will establish a number of "givens" that are critical to the planning process before heading into planning. In addition to the nitty-gritty parameters of the budget, timing, vehicles considered, and target audience, your media strategy establishes the framework of your media plan. Basics like advertising objectives, strategies, and tactics are established up front, such that client and agency are on the same page with regard to what the advertising is expected to accomplish and why the client is advertising in the first place.

Such things must be agreed upon in advance of undertaking planning tasks, otherwise an agency can easily pursue a direction that a client may be uncomfortable with. Planning without a strategy can result in all sorts of problems that could put an agency back at square one after putting significant time and effort into a media planning effort. Worse yet, planning without a strategy can result in a media plan that might get sign-off from the client, but could waste money and effort by failing to address client expectations.

For all of these reasons and more, I insist on establishing a strategy before undertaking planning duties for a client or potential client. Given the proliferation of expectations of shortened timeframes and greatly accelerated schedules among clients, this isn't always easy, especially in the online area of media planning and buying. For the past several years there has existed an expectation of media plan turnaround times measured in days and hours rather than weeks and months. I refer to this expectation as "Lenscrafters Planning" after the eye care chain that advertises "glasses in about an hour." As much as clients might want it otherwise, "media plans in about an hour" doesn't work, especially if the agency doesn't first create a viable strategy.

A client of ours recently asked for a media plan for a campaign launch. He asked us to blend the strategy and planning phases, in order to establish the media strategy while simultaneously planning and negotiating with vendors. While we were as accommodating of his needs as we could possibly be, I stuck to my guns with regard to having an approved strategy in place before moving into the planning phase. It turns out that was the right decision.

After submitting our strategy document, the client found there was a fundamental disagreement with our proposed mix of vehicles. We adjusted our approach. But had we not had the opportunity to do so, hundreds of man hours would have been expended in planning and negotiation that would have been completely wasted on ad vehicles that didn't stand a chance of being approved by the client.

Speaking of planning and negotiation, it helps your partner media vendors put together the best possible packages for your client if you can share approved objectives and strategies with them during the request for proposal process. Without an approved strategy, this could be somewhat of a challenge and vendors may come back with suggestions for programs that don't make sense.

Be sure your agency agrees with your client concerning the basic strategies and plan parameters before you go into formal media planning. Even if it ends up slowing the delivery schedule down a bit, that's preferable to investing significant blocks of time on a plan that may never see the light of day.