Elevator Pitches is a new video blog (vlog) series that covers a range of subjects in the marketing world that can be a bit too complex to articulate on paper. These are short, straight-to-the-point videos that should bring you up to speed on some of the more complicated or nuanced tactics we offer at Bouvier Kelly.

We’re going to give it to you straight: media planning is one of the most important aspects of any marketing campaign. It’s so important, in fact, that we’re not even going to try and explain to you in writing.

Our Integrated Media Director Lesley will tell you all about it in the first entry of our new vlog series, Elevator Pitches. Lesley has been planning and running national media campaigns for more than 20 years, so we think she’s the perfect person to walk you through the basics of how a media plan comes together.

Want to follow along? Here are our Pitch notes:

Media planning is about deciding How, Where and When an ad message is delivered to Who you’re trying to reach.

This is based on 4 factors: Goal, Budget, Message, and Target Audience.

Creating a media plan is like putting together a puzzle with these four pieces. To create a strategy where all four work in harmony, we determine which available advertising platforms fit your puzzle best.

If your goal is awareness, for example, we would select platforms that reach as many of the target audience as possible. These include: broadcast television, digital banner ads, and consumer or national trade magazines.

If your goal is a specific action, we would choose an advertising platform like direct mail, a newspaper insert coupon, or a call-to-action digital banner ad.

Your budget will affect each decision. It will affect which platforms are chosen, as well as how long and how often your message will be delivered.

You can choose to have: Higher profile, high impact platforms with less frequency, or more frequency with cost efficient platforms.

You must also consider your message: how complicated is your message? Is it best conveyed with a video or written explanation? Is the message extremely visual?

Finally, it’s important to consider how your target audience prefers to receive their information. Ultimately, because of technology, consumers are in control of how, where and when they receive their information.