• by Nina Lentini , Staff Writer @Nina_Lentini, September 26, 2018

Moderator Don Huesman, vp, Empower

Panelists
James Allen, vp, strategy director, head of product, Carat
Kalyn Asher, president, Asher Media

Don: Media planning in CPG is difficult. We wanted to try to provide a simple framework. We talked about health, baby nutrition, food, electronics, beverages [here today]. Begins with thinking about products as being a chore and one being a cherished product.

How do brands know which one they are and, if so, how do they plan against that. Do consumers believe product is chore or cherished.

James: Cherish that people are emotionally invested in, extension of their personality. Chore is more the product that you have to buy, needs to be efficient. Batteries on Amazon. How we balance those two. I will represent Chore; Kalyn will represent Cherish.

You should think on a continuum from Chore to Cherish. Trouble comes in the middle. Comes through working with data you have and with agencies you work with. There will be moments when you are both. Toothpaste, for example, half see it as Cherished; the other half, Chore. Upcoming wedding, could go from Chore to Cherished.

Don: first step in creating a successful marketing strategy, media plan. Start with a brief. What does a good brief look like that would lead to a solid media plan?

Kalyn: Start with your KPI, can we narrow down to one or two. What data is available. On Cherished side, I want to know the true emotion of the consumer.

James: Collaboration on the brief is the key thing. Brief out, brief back. Taking the biz imperative driven by brand side data, translating into consumer/audience strategy on agency side; turn those into actionable outputs.

Don: Partners in a box or open-ended need to solve.

James: If agencies play distinct role, sits on own trove of data, bring into bigger picture.

Kalyn: You have to share the data. I work a lot at top of funnel but data at bottom will make me smart about what I feed in. We have to agree on the story.

Don: We’ve got a decent brief, think about plan development, how do we think about effective and efficiency in modern media plan? 

Kalyn: Effectiveness is going to be more important. You’ve got to be more creative in the way you’re using all the media. Channels will cross over. Use digital online but now going to retarget to direct mail in two days. 

James: Through lens of Chore Brand, jump straight to how efficient you can be, condensed fashion. Not funnel going from effective to efficient. Filling bucket, building the brand. Capturing any hand raisers in the market. Extract value at bottom. Needs to be a balance.

Don: How retailers influence our strategies, media planning. How, where do we allow retail partners to have a say in our media plans? 

Kalyn: You’ve gotta do the data share. Need to marry data. Open to story that we’ll come back and tell about using data and recommendation we‘Re going to provide. Open to testing. If you can prove it out with a test, you can work around more some of their older ways.

James: As agencies, our responsibility is show trust. Testing is a big thing. If we show we understand how to get consumers through purchase funnel, we can test and learn.

Don: Does social, WOM have part of media plan?

James: Chore products, who wants to talk about their toilet roll, toothpaste? There is a role for it. With the right people talking to the right audiences you can gain a huge spike in WOM. Nivea Men mentioned by a Jenner, huge increase in sales. If you start with end point and work way back, you have a better chance. Endpoint: brand becomes a meme. Had to design the meme first. 

Kalyn: For Cherish, it has a big role, brand ambassador, will spread the word. Take hold of those, embrace social influencers. Lots of opportunity, especially on Facebook. 

Don: Everything is media and media is everywhere. Channel first?

James: Building the brand, extracting value. What does the consumer need, what kind of product am I. Where can I insert myself. think consumer first.

Kalyn: Digital and traditional blended together, all media. Truly is end result, what will resonate with consumer. Plans are extremely blended. You needs lots of touch points, esp. in CPG. The way to get balance is testing, optimizing schedules. 

Don: Modernization of media planning, creative and messaging strategy may be next tipping point. How do we think about that?

James: bringing creative and media together. Toothpaste, chore or cherished. The more we can bring knowledge of how we’re going to talk to individuals upstream in that brief, we need agency and brand together to figure out when we’ll talk to individuals.

Kalyn: Our meetings with creative team always fluid. Have to have everyone in same room To feed off each other. Open to having someone challenge you in your media plan.

Video of this session will be available here tomorrow.