The Usual Suspects – The Optimum TV Strategy and Planning Journey
With the television scene in South Africa changing rapidly and the industry experiencing difficulty in unpacking the implications, a SAARF industry TV Information Forum was held last week in Johannesburg to ensure that everyone is “on the same page” and understands the past, current and future methodology changes and the implications.
Telmar SPC was invited to talk on the importance of the media and planning process, and to review how we should go about media strategy and planning from the perspective of marketers, media owners, advertising agencies and media agencies. The presentation was well received by the industry and is summarised below.
Many of you will remember the 1995 movie, “The Usual Suspects”. It’s about five men who are hauled into the New York police station because a crime was committed and they are “the usual suspects”. No doubt you are asking yourself “What on earth has this got to do with media strategy and planning?”
The movie was hailed for its brilliance in leaving crucial questions unanswered, inspiring viewers to revisit it and try to connect the dots. The big question is “who’s the one controlling everything?” Overall, one is left with a strong sense of “all is not as it seems”.
In the same way, our ever evolving TV environment is so much more than it seems on the surface. The question is “What are we going to do about it? How should we approach our strategic thinking and media planning?”
Very basically, in this constantly changing and sensitive economic environment, we still need to follow our usual cyclic strategic process, as follows:
• Marketing and Advertising requirements
• Media Brief
• Media Strategy based on research and media insights
• Media Plan including sponsorship
• Local Implementation/buying, negotiations, monitoring of media plan
• Financial Management
• Media Review
• Evaluation of Results – reapply learnings
However, before coming up with solutions, we need to take into account the “usual technical suspects” which include:
• Working with Targets (Planning vs Marketing target markets)
• Universe, samples and weighting
• Timing /Seasonality (source periods, forecasting, down weighting)
• Objectives (Reach, Frequency, Ratings, ‘000, CPP, CPT)
• Implementing TV plans
• Delivery
The implications and how to manage these and ‘other technical suspects’ was discussed, illustrated with practical examples.
In conclusion, we are experiencing ongoing changes in our TV environment. There have been changes to methodologies which are making life very challenging for us and we need to accept that all is not as it seems. Our optimum TV strategy journey should be to follow our tried and tested strategic process, at the same time taking into account the usual technical suspects.
There are great lessons we can learn from “The Usual Suspects”. Watch the movie and you’ll see what we mean!
If you’d like us to share this important presentation with you, please contact Sharon or Lisa at Telmar on 011 804 4489, or sharon@telmar.co.za or lisa@telmar.co.za.
Written by Sharon Penhallrick, Managing Director, Telmar SPC South Africa.
