Batter Up: Traditional, Digital and Sports Media Buying

Beautiful creative designs deserve to be seen. Before you engage with a media vendor, it’s a good idea to know the advertising landscape. With the metric-friendly emergence of digital advertising as a true strongman in the media world, the media buying rules have steadily been changing.

Before you consider any type of media buy, we help all our clients determine a few things first

Identify the campaign’s audience — Is your audience your ideal customer? Your existing customer? Your underserved demographic?

Understand audience behaviors — How do they spend their time? What are their buying habits? What do they want out of life?

Decide how to quantify success — When the campaign ends, will you judge the success on the number of new clients? The number of products sold? Visits to your website? The overall awareness of your brand?

Align creative and media — Creative design must be adapted for various platforms. What works for a billboard, might not work for a digital campaign.

Mediums

There are thousands of vendors selling ad space, and each seller will tell you that they have the newest, greatest opportunity. So what’s the real scoop?

Print still lives, but the print media that are thriving are the ones that offer a full package of engagement that extends beyond paper. Twitter and Facebook have proven to be leading the pack for breaking news, and the best papers are developing rich, unique online content.
Niche print publications are having their day in the sun. With focused audiences, they give laser-sharp access to ideal markets.
Consumers engage in multiple outlets at once; plan a multimedia campaign to appeal to your ideal customer in various ways.
Radio and TV are still kings, but diversified consumer options means defining an audience is crucial to avoid wasteful spending.
Outdoor marketing remains a strong brand awareness buy, but good creative and specific calls-to-action can create impressive results.
Sports and event marketing is the original partnership buy and its popularity is growing, especially in Orlando. These types of sponsorships offer exposure, sales tools, team building and community integration in a way that no other type of advertising can.
Programmatic media buying is the way of the future and by using this algorithm-based method, you can purchase ad spots at lightning speed.

Be Prepared

It’s pertinent that your strategic plan is in place before you speak with media groups for a number of reasons. Sales people sell media, and depending on the vendor, their objectives may include inventory that you don’t need and that don’t help reach your goals.

Media sellers present themselves as solution providers. They want to be your one-stop for all things media, and many offer consultation, production and multiple advertising platforms. Being your own expert and having a third-party assist you in your campaign will help you avoid spending money for collateral and materials that you don’t need.

Agency Advantages

Working with a media buying agency has advantages not offered elsewhere. Research into the best mediums for your marketing goals is done in-house and by combining the creative and media buying, a strategic media plan is created for your business. Not only can agencies create your media plan, they can also act as the “bad guy” when working with media groups by fielding calls and emails, handling issues and working in your best interest. For more advantages to working with media buying agencies, read our article on leaving media buying to the experts.

Create a well-rounded campaign with media buying. Appleton Creative is an award-winning, full-service Orlando marketing agency that specializes in media buying for local, national and international clients. Appleton leverages relationships with the media to craft a media strategy and plan that is constantly monitored, optimized and analyzed. Appleton delivers multimedia and multi-market campaigns for companies through meticulously placed billboards, advertisements, print publications, radio, TV and online pay-per-click services. Your media planning and buying goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com.