| dc.description.abstract | Media planners in advertising agencies are faced with greater challenges as Kenya's media
becomes increasingly fragmented. In order for them to make sound planning and
scheduling decisions they must take several important environmental and demographic
considerations into account. Advertisers seek to maximize the return on advertising
investment by selecting those media that will deliver the messages most efficiently and
effectively. A useful model for building a media plan centers on four questions: Who do
we want to reach? Where are they located? What is the Message? When do we run the
advertisements?
Previous research projects have cited the lack of sufficient audience research data to answer
these questions as one of the limitations of good media planning practices in Kenya. In
addition to this, there are instances of the available data conflicting with information from
separate sources. This research set out to survey the extent of media plan implementation
in the face of ambiguous market research in an environment with numerous media vehicle
alternatives to select from. The study used the survey method and was based on the
following research objectives:
i) To analyse media planning cycles and inputs into the planning process.
ii) To determine the extent to which media planners implement their plans.
The population of the research was those brands that advertise in the Kenyan electronic,
print and outdoor media. The sampling frame was those brands that are listed as heavy
advertisers by the research and media monitoring company Steadman & Associates Ltd.
The survey sample comprised 36 brands that had advertised the most between March and
May 2003. Primary data was obtained using a structured questionnaire administered
through personal interview. The questionnaire was divided into sections according to the
research objectives. There were 28 respondents, which translated to a 77.8% response rate.
The data was analysed using narrative, frequencies, graphs and charts. The main findings
were as follows:
The length of the planning cycle used by media planners was one of the factors that affected
the extent to which plans were implemented. In addition to this, competitor-driven
advertising led media planners to adjust their schedules to compete for Share of Voice in
the media vehicles used by their competitors.
Other factors that led to variances between media plans and implementation were
unexpected campaign response, characteristics of the media vehicle and media
shortcomings. It was also found that while most advertising agencies use mathematical
optimization models to plan their media schedules, they also modified the outputs using
rule-of-thumb methods. | en |
