Having begun working in the agency world back when Digital was not even a "thing" yet, I can honestly say I've been doing this a long time and seen a ton of change to the media landscape. However, at the end of the day the planning process and how we go about it hasn't changed much.
I bring all this up to discuss the "complete" media plan, what goes into it and how traditional media and digital media work hand-in-hand when creating a media plan that will garner results for your client.
Hopefully, you have read all of the posts in our series entitled "Benefits of Traditional Media". If you have not, then check them out here:
As we went through this series, we wanted to shed some light on why these different traditional media channels still, and in some sense will always, have value when developing a media plan. We live in a media world now where all we hear is digital, digital, digital. It appears all the conferences around the country are all Digital focused. However, at the end of the day, both Traditional and Digital work together to create a synergistic media plan; each working to help the other. Advertisers need to be sure they don't cast aside the tried and true Traditional media channels for the new shiny Digital ones; that is media buying suicide.
There was a time when advertising agencies, especially agency heads, wanted to have separate planners/buyers for traditional and digital, but by doing so they were putting their staff and even their clients at a disadvantage - these channels work together. Having separate planning processes going on at the same time for the same client meant there was no synergy within the media planning process.
According to a 2016 Media Comparison Study by TVB, American consumers spend more time with Television/Cable than all other ad supported media platforms. That is traditional media, not digital.
Utilizing both traditional and digital in your media plans, for the lack of a better phrase, is a no brainer. Research shows that having digital as part of your traditional plan helps increase your overall ROI, and at the end of the day isn't an increase in your overall ROI a good thing?
At McCulloch+Company we like to say we are "media agnostic"; meaning we choose the channels and channel mixes that will provide our clients with their desired results. We are well-versed in both traditional and digital and develop plans that work together across all channels. So, if you are looking to advertise your business and looking for a synergistic media plan that will deliver results, give us a call. We are here to help.