Is media strategy the Cinderella of more effective advertising?

Attention to creation is out of balance.

Do you recognize that? How the commercial will look is discussed in great detail, from the highest level of an organization to the smallest detail. When the advertising agency comes to present the final presentation of a concept, top executives like to attend. Until the moment the media strategist starts explaining the media strategy. Nervously, watches are checked, and some excuse themselves that they unfortunately have to attend another appointment. As they leave the meeting room, they quickly call out that something must be done with TikTok.

Is media strategy the Cinderella of more effective advertising?

When you think about it, it's actually quite strange that relatively little attention is given to media. Especially when you consider that for most campaigns, about 70% of the budget is spent on media. It is also one of the biggest expenses within the total marketing budget of an organization, along with personnel costs. For this reason alone, media deserves more attention!

But why is it that media receives less attention?

Firstly, because creation is much more tangible, it appeals to more people, and everyone within an organization has an opinion about it. Which is not always conducive, but that aside. Secondly, media is more abstract, not as easy to envision, and harder to grasp. Let's face it, most media strategy presentations are incomprehensible and boring. A kind of "death by PowerPoint." And the interests and competencies required to evaluate media well often clash with the more creative competencies.

But isn't it logical that creation has a much greater impact on the effectiveness of campaigns?

Yes, I thought that for a long time too, but when there was recently an update of "Paul Dyson's Top 10 Drivers of Advertising Profitability 2023," I started looking at it differently.

This is a study of the key elements that determine the profitability of advertising. When I took another look at the elements on the list, I noticed that 7 out of the 10 drivers are media-related.

While creation still ranks second, when I read an explanation stating that you have to multiply the different elements to calculate the total effect, I came to the conclusion that the media drivers, when combined, result in a much higher factor than that of creation.

Dyson: "The figures are multipliers, so you have to multiply them together to look at the effect of combinations of elements. This way, the effect of media channels would be much greater than the creative leverage."

What should advertisers do?

Invest in increasing media (strategy) knowledge. Preferably, do it internally within your organization or through a closer collaboration with your media agency.

You should do this on three levels:

1. Strategic Planning: This involves the competencies to create budgets and justifications that underlie the achievement of business objectives. It also involves how to best allocate the budget between branding and performance.
2. Media Strategy: Knowledge of how to allocate the budget across channels and ensure perfect synergy. Also, understanding how to make paid media work effectively with owned and earned channels.
3. Channel Strategy: Understanding how to translate the media strategy into a channel strategy and how to choose the right ad formats for your campaign objectives.

It is my strong belief that if you increase knowledge on these three levels, you will not only get more effectiveness from your media budget, but the quality of creation will also improve. Media and creation actually strengthen each other. And finally, think twice the next time the media strategist opens his laptop to explain the media strategy.

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