Media Planning Assignment #1: Client Email Assigned: Class Five Email Due: Class Ten ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW The purpose of this assignment is to get you comfortable with making a recommendation to a client/ You will do this in the form of an email to your client. Email business writing is an important skill as it is the primary way you will communicate in your job. This assignment will help you learn to: ● Analyze a target audience, and interpret the makeup of that audience. ● Research and analyze a media vehicle ● Write a cohesive piece of persuasive communication to convince your client to accept your recommendation on places to reach that audience In advertising, a recommendation is not a soliloquy on what you believe to be true. It is an in-depth analysis of topic which results in an informed position by an expert(in this casem you). Therefore, writing a recommendation requires a lot of research, the collection of data points that proceeds hared evidence, and a thoughtful critique which will convince the client that your position is one to which they should agree. In shor, this is a piece of persuasive communication built on facts.The most persuasive communication is concise and to the point, one of your challenges will be to determine which facts are the most persuasive and state your case succinctly. ASSIGNMENT: 1. Your client for this assignment is Greenies pet food treats. https://www.greenies.com/ . Greenies is a line of treats that caters to people who are concerned about health and nutrition. Since they consider their pet part of their family, they are concerned about feeding their pet nutritious products. They have asked you to concentrate on their line of dog treats and drive online sales of the treats. 2. The target audience for this assignment has been defined as dog owners who try to maintain a healthy diet (for themselves) and treat their dogs like family. Below you are provided with some basic demographic and media usage information on this audience. * Remember the definition of a media vehicle: a specific television program, magazine, website or social network. 3. Based on that information, select a media vehicle that you think will be an engaging place for your message. Research that vehicle to understand/ prove it will: a. Reach a substantial portion of your target audience (look at impressions or GRPs) b. Reach an audience that is of similar makeup to your target audience (demographically or psychographically) c. Provide a contextually relevant editorial environment whereby people will likely be receptive to your message 4. Compose an email (between 500 and 750 words) that takes your case to your client. In the email, introduce this person to your client. Imagine that you are introducing an actual person. How old are they? Where do they live? Do they have a family? What motivates this person? Based on this, explain why you are recommending the vehicle you have chosen and explain how it is the best place to reach your target audience. The challenge here is to be persuasive. Simply telling them that it will reach their target audience doesn’t make it the right option, just an option/ finding a creative way to use the vehicle can be helpful. For example/ you could say you are going to advertise on Downton Abbey and create vignettes between Robert Crawley and his dog, Isis (note no only is Downton Abbey no longer on air, PBS doesn’t accept general commercials so this example is purposely not viable). a. You may want to use visuals to help tell your story Be creative! Be colorful and descriptive when trying to sell the media vehicle. For most of you this is probably the first time you’ve written an email in a business context, below are some links to use as a guide: a. https://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/EmailCommunication.htm b. http://business.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-master-proper-businessemail-format -and-avoid-professional-disaster--cms-26442 TIPS ON RESEARCHING MEDIA VEHICLES: Be aware that researching a television vehicle (i.e. a TV show) will be the most challenging as they tend to have the least amount of information available online. You may be able to find some information on network’s websites (for example, ESPN provides limited information here: http://espncms.com/tv/ ) You can also find more detailed ratings information at http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/ . Finally, h ttp://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ amd http://variety.com/ do a great job covering the television industry and often provide detailed audience and rating information. Magazines and websites tend to have the most complete open-sourced “media kits.” Media kit is an industry term for the marketing materials publishers put together to sell their publication to advertisers. To make the comparison to the available television information, take a look at the online media kits for ESPN, the Magazine and espn.com: https://espncms.com/pdf/magazine-qlu.html and http://espnmediazone.com/us/mediakits/espn-digital-and-print-media/ . The best way to access these media kits is to simply Google “media vehicle’ media kit.” Finally, if you want to recommend a social media network, Facebook provides you with the best information via their Facebook Audience Insights (https://www.facebook.com/ads/audience-insights/people?act=32005115&age=18-&country=US ) This allows you to understand the size of your audience on Facebook given various criteria.
