Media Buying
Lots of Questions
Who am I trying to reach?
How many can I afford to reach?
How often do people need to encounter my message?
In which vehicles should I pursue message space?
When should I communicate (day, week, month, year)?
What markets and regions should receive extra emphasis
and which ones can be ignored?
How can I take advantage of emerging media?
Media Selection
Procedures
Selection based on audience and costs

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What does your target consume?
How much can you afford?
Audience measures
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Gross impressions & Gross rating points (GRPs)
Reach & Frequency - How many and how often
Cost per thousand (CPM) and Cost per point (CPP)
Gross Impressions
In media, primarily concerned with
accumulation of audience
Each audience member exposed to the
message is considered an “impression”


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Summed to equal “gross impressions”
Audience size = gross impressions for single show
For multiple programs, add audience sizes
together for total gross impressions (GI)
Gross Rating Points
Same logic applies to rating points
Rating for individual programs are added
together to calculate the total rating
points accumulated across a schedule
Gross Rating Points = GRPs
Ex. Rating for Program 1 +
Rating for Program 2 +
Rating for Program 3
Gross Rating Points
GI and GRPs
Gross impressions (GI)

Total number of exposures - duplication counts

Exposures (Ad 1) + Exposures (Ad 2) + Exposures (Ad 3)….
2 ads in American Idol each generate 9.63 Million impressions +
NCIS: Los Angeles generated 7.98 Million Impressions
 Total impressions = 27.24 Million or 27,240,000 GIs

Gross rating points (GRPs)
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GRPs = GI / Total population (x 100 to convert to %)
Can be over 100, and often is


2.78 rating + 2.78 rating + 1.44 rating = 7.00 GRPs
Way of allocating media weight
Media Schedules
Rating Aud. Size # of Ads
NCIS
Am Idol
Big Bang
Olympics
Total
21.3
23.9
10.6
5.8
---
22.5mm
25.2mm
11.2mm
6.1mm
---
3
2
4
1
10
GRPs
GI
63.9 67.5mm
47.8 50.4mm
42.2 44.8mm
5.8
6.1mm
159.7 168.8mm
Huh?
Your schedule generates 168.8mm HH GI
yet there are only 105.5mm TV HH

How is this possible?
Your schedule generates 159.7 GRPs, with
each GRP equal to 1% of the audience

How can you have more than 100%
Duplication of Impressions
GRPs and GI allow for the
duplication of impressions

Someone might see more than one
ad in your schedule
Ex. NCIS and Am Idol
 Ex. multiple episodes of Am Idol
 Ex. multiple ads in a single show

Reach and Frequency
Percent of audience exposed at least once
Overall - Household reach
 Target - Reach of specific audience

Average Number of times exposed

Average frequency x Reach = GRP
Reach and Frequency
GRPs
=
Viewers
Counted
Once
GRPs
=
Reach
X
X
Average Number
of Times
They View
Frequency
Reach is net unduplicated audience
Frequency is average number of exposures
Estimating Reach and
Calculating Frequency
Back to our 10 unit schedule of ads
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GRPs = 159.7
Reach = 60.0
Frequency = 2.66 or 2.7
Numbers comes from “reach curves”
that contain reach estimates for various
media vehicles and GRP levels
Frequency is then calculated from reach
Frequency Distribution
Percent of Audience
30%
25%
20%
15%
Percent of Audience
10%
5%
0%
0 1
2 3
4 5
6
7 8
Frequency of exposures
9 10
Effective Frequency
Combines reach and frequency
Threshold: minimum effective frequency
Usually 3+
 Ideal exposure frequency

Varies by message complexity
Varies by strategic goals
Cost Efficiency
Cost in relation to target delivered
Cost per thousand (CPM)
 Cost per rating point (CPP)

CPP used to compare efficiency of
advertising media to one another
CPM
CPM = Cost per thousand impressions
CPM = Cost of ads / Total GIs in (000)
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Ex. CPM for NCIS
CPM = $400,000 / 22,500(000) = $17.78
Ex. CPM for 10 unit schedule
CPM = $2,450,000 / 168,800(000) = $14.51
CPP
CPP = Cost per rating point
CPP = Cost of ads / Total GRPs
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Ex. CPP for NCIS
CPP = $400,000 / 21.3 = $18,779.34
Ex. CPP for 10 unit schedule
CPP = $2,450,000 / 159.7 = $15,341.26
Media Vehicle Selection
Note the size of the media budget.
Determine which media vehicles to use – Choices + Primary Research
Decide how to use media in line with segmentation, relationship
marketing, database/interactive, and connections planning
Decide “impact media” – newspapers, internet, outdoor, and specials
Allocate impact media and subtract cost from available media budget
Allocate percent of the remaining media budget to a medium

ex. 5% on “evening drive time” radio or 20% on “prime time” network TV
Divide amount allocated by Cost-Per-Point (CPP).
Calculate your total Gross Rating Points (GRPs).
Distribute the GRPs across the year, distinguishing national from spot
Simple Example
Total media budget is $54,836,200.
Buy two ads on Academy Awards (2 X $39,610 X 25 = $1,980,500), six ads in
College Bowl Games (6 X $35,674 X 25 = $5,351,100), two ads on the Super
Bowl (2 X $59,376 X 50 = 5,937,600) and two months of outdoor in top 50 spot
markets (2 X 1,600,000 = $3,200,000).

Total Spending on impact media = $16,469,200.

Amount remaining = $38,367,000
Decide to spend 35% of remaining budget on local primetime TV.

.35 X 38,367,000 = 13,428,450

13,428,450/ 27,407 CPP = 490 rating points.
Place 100 in March, place 70 in May (Summer Kickoff), place 70 in October
(Fall Promotion), and 250 in December (Winter Sales Event).
Repeat process for other media (Radio, Magazines, etc).
Diagram media buys, both impact and standard media, in a flowchart.
Media Plan
Presenting Your Media Plan Visually
Creating Budget Allocation
Creating Media Flowchart
Creating Bar Graphs and Pie Charts
 Using
Excel to SHOW the allocation of
your media budget to each media
vehicle

Using pie charts to illustrate the allocation of
the media budget across major media
vehicles
EXPENDITURE BY MEDIUM
 Using
a flow chart to document the
allocation of GRPs for each media
vehicle
 Using
bar graphs to illustrate the
distribution of total GRPs for each
month
Budget Allocation Spreadsheet – Key Elements
GRP=$ALLOCAT
ION / CPP
Flow Chart Spreadsheet – Key
Elements