By Indrani Sen
I read an interesting article last week in The Guardian by Ana Andjelic, SVP, Global strategy Director at Havas Lux Hub, “Why media design is the new media planning†which I would like to share with readers of this column. (http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/may/24/media-design-media-planning-brands?CMP=ema-1698&CMP). Andjelic quoted the analytics used by Netflix for developing personalised genre for describing television and film content and argued that in the digital world “If we apply this same micro- and human-centred approach to media planning, we get media designâ€.
In other words, where the success of Netflix has come from focussing on personalised genres for marketing its universe of audio visual entertainment, brands will succeed by putting their customers’ personal preference and expectations at the centre of digital media planning. According to Andjelic, consumers today take for granted superior brand service and experience; therefore what is more relevant is an understanding of the steps taken by the customer in her journey. Media design becomes the crucial aspect of media planning, allocating investments across steps or key touchpoints “that are most desirable from the customer’s point of view and critical in their decision-making processâ€.
Currently, like traditional media planning, digital media planning is also centred on campaigns driven by brand messages with the goal of driving the customers towards a purchase or transaction. Unlike traditional media planning where success of the campaign is still measured through reach/ frequency and awareness, success of digital media planning is generally measured through ROI and sales. Media design has very little role to play in the process of digital media planning.
While appreciating the observations made by Andjelic, IÂ felt that to embrace the process of media design in media planning, we need more media research into the context (place, day part, exact time) of how customers experience the various touchpoints while undertaking their journey in the digital media world. If we compare with the analytics done by Netflix, we can safely conclude that the marketing organisations and their media agencies have adequate understanding about their customers or their target audiences, but there is a definite knowledge gap related to the ideal target context, when the audience is most favourably disposed to receiving the brand message. Needless to mention that similar gap also exists in our traditional media planning driven by GRP. Many digital media planners are aware of this gap and use their instincts and intuitions for identifying target media context. This critical gap in our digital media research needs to be addressed by the industry.
Indrani Sen is a veteran media agency and marketing services professional. She is currently an Independent Consultant and Adjunct Faculty, Media Management at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. This column MediaSENse will appear fortnightly. The views expressed here are her own.