One media owner or many?

We are currently addressing a challenge for a new client, with an old problem:- How do they launch into the UK market with a limited budget and maximize both consumer impact and hard (sales) returns? 30 years ago the solution would have been buy media from one media owner, probably ITV. A single spot would have reached 50% of almost any target audience. Over the last 30 years, however, we have lived through the greatest proliferation and fragmentation of media opportunities in history. And media planning solutions have reflected this with schedules becoming more and more complex, adding more channels and media owners. The IPA effectiveness datamine casts an interesting insight here - the latest results show that the most effective campaigns are using 8 or more media channels. So I was fascinated to be part of the team that has created a different solution this week - focusing budget on a single media owner, rather than spreading expenditure across multiple opportunities. The client was initially sceptical, as was I! But this solution reached more of our audience, was more cost effective, and provided a more apposite environment for the messaging than a typical multichannel schedule. Now to be honest, this solution is only possible because of the changing nature of media owners. 30 years ago a media owner was defined by a single channel. ITV were TV broadcasters. The Sun was a daily newspaper. For the larger media owners today that is no longer the case. With one deal we can now encompass print, video, data, and multiple platforms from paper to PC. These single media owner deals have much to recommend them:- •they address what is actually a single community, united around content, that happens to be distributed across several platforms •they move what is otherwise a commodity media buy to an aligned media partnership, with both sides working together rather than in combat for share and rate •they reduce the clutter in the communication planners’ and clients’ minds, allowing focus of the most valuable resource of all - intellectual effort - and improving significantly the return on that investment. How the wheel turns! Mike Colling Managing Director