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Media planning seems kind of boring to most outsiders. When I tell people I’m in advertising EVERYONE assumes I’m a graphic designer…they always get all the glory.

Its the ad you remember not necessarily in what spot break or on what channel. But, if we had not created the perfect mix of reach and frequency, if  media planners didn’t know your media habits and you preferred media consumption times; if I had not plugged the creative in front of your eyes just so, then you would never see that spot that made you laugh or run out and buy the product. According to this ad in Redscout’s ‘Spur’ series we are the smart ones.

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Heels.com is doing some smart digital buying. As a poor shoe addict I feel like their my dealer who pops up randomly throughout my life to remind me how good of a high they can provide me. At times when I’m not even thinking about shoes, Heels.com reminds me of that fabulous pair of shoes that I was checking out the week before. Just to tempt me a little more…that amazing pair of Gold Carrie’s has now been discounted and I still don’t own a pair of purple heels that I definitely need.

Must resist urge to order…stop looking up discount codes…put credit card away….soooo hard…damn you Heels.com.

I love them and hate Heels.com all in one. Don’t they know I’m trying to be good? A little window shopping to quench my shoe lust and they have me tagged with cookies with a re-targeting display buy for the exact shoes I’ve been lusting over.

A study by AdWeek and Harris Interactive provides some interesting stats on which medium ads are most ignored.

At first glance its easy to assume that this means that internet banner ads are most ignored and television ads are the most effective. But the study fails to take into account several important factors.

1) Most people fail to recognize what is actually advertising online. When I teach clients and co-workers about search engine marketing, most people are surprised to learn that the sponsored links section at the top and right hand sidebar on search ads are paid ads. There are countless studies about visitors not realizing when they’re on a blog vs. a website. I’m sure a lot of people in this survey couldn’t accurately pick out all the ads on a website, but I’m sure they all recognize commercials on TV and radio.

2) ROI is king right now. Most people might say TV is an effective way to reach them, but who really watches a TV spot and immediately goes out to buy that item. On the advertiser side TV is an excellent reach medium but you can’t really measure and you can’t really target.

3) Mass reach and online ads serve different functions. TV and radio are to get the message out to everyone, if sales occur because of it, fantastic. But these days most people go online to find out more information and shop competitors. TV, radio and newspaper are step 1; online advertising is closer to the end of the funnel (even for offline channels).

I hate reports that just spew out numbers and stats without context.  You can read more here.

What ever happened to category exclusivity in TV spot breaks?

An explanation for any non-media readers out there – typically when you place a buy at both the local and national level, you will be granted category exclusivity for the spot breaks you purchase and any good media buyer will demand it. Meaning that within the a two minute and thirty second commercial break those other four :30 spots you’re running with will not be one of your competitors.

Your competitors could be in the next spot break, they could be in every one after yours, but they should not run in your break and certainly not after your spot in the same break. Sometimes it happens, rotators get stuffed in any avails and when inventory is tight mix ups are bound to happen. But these days it seems as though category exclusivity is totally done with.

MTV seems to do this the most – a two minute break just aired three direct skin care competitors, one after the other.

Local news ran a competitor car spot in the same break they announced a program feature was sponsored by another local dealership of the same make. (Car dealerships are a bit more flexible in that two makes can run in the same break as long as they don’t directly compete – BMW and Chevy can share a spot break because people shopping for a Chevy would not then turn around and buy a BMW).

I’m surprised with the amount of inventory that this is even happening, but media companies and reps are too focused on making money to stay afloat. Unfortunately, its hard for a media buyer to track what other spots are running in the spot break as invoices only contain the date, time and rate of your own spots. Unless you (or god forbid) the client happens to catch it, you’ll never know.

Do you think exclusivity is a thing of the past or will it come back when stations don’t have to whore themselves out to stay afloat?

So raise your hand if in the last few weeks you’ve noticed these ads EVERYWHERE online. 

While these ads annoy me to no end, I would kill to work on this account. This is one of the few accounts that has increased their spend recently and they are just blanketing the web. 

Not sure if their on a behavioral buy (although I don’t look up diet information), could be demographic (because all 25 year old women are obsessed with their weight) or maybe they’re just buying remanent ad space by zip or DMA.

The website (yes I clicked, I was curious) is positioned as a San Diego woman’s blog. Anyone else click through on these and have a website targeting their DMA?

Common misconception about media planners/buyers is that were are the dull uncreative type who love crunching numbers more than anything else. While it is true that most of us love numbers, statistics and research, creativity in media planning is an absolute must to successful and effective media buys. We do more than just pick and choose items off a rate card and collect swag from our media reps. 

As a media buyer I get inspired for new ideas from a variety of sources.  Here are some of my most recent inspirations. 

Super cool, simple and unique music video. Reminds me that simple is really all it takes to be effective. 

A website full of a ton of unique visuals, ads, art and whatnot. Innovative takes on common ideas and objects on Inspire Me Now.

And this blog by John the architect, Everything you ever needed to know (shoutout to @allisonyochim). His post on how building materials are meant for certain tasks through his in depth look at a brick is beautiful. 

“…Because we know brick has feelings and needs, we should feel bad for brick, not too bad however, because in time, the faux wall will fail and brick will show it was meant for something else.”

You had to know it was coming…the Superbowl ad recap. BTW You can check them all out on Hulu.  

Overall, Hyundai was the clear winner of the super bowl. They presented a clear and cohesive message through memorable (if a little boring) ads. Hyundai is going after market share in the recession through a very well thought out and beautifully executed campaign. While their ads might not be the ones everyone discussed today, they’re keeping the brand alive and in a positive light through messages that will outlast the Superbowl spotlight. 

Other stand outs include: 

1) Doritos Crystal Ball – The only spot that made me really laugh out loud. While it was a little strange and incredibly funny, the spot didn’t deviate from the brand image or try to hard. Yes, people are hating on Doritos for doing a user submitted contest for their creative (which is soooo 2007), but I say excellent work!

2) CareerBuilder.com – I hated this and almost muted it until they kola was punched. Then I was giggling fool. Punching a kola that’s wearing glasses and drinking coffee = WIN. I liked the Monster.com spot, but this spot was waaay better. It was repetitive and annoying but so are some jobs, right? So they were pretty much spot on in what they were try to sell. Side Note: In the spot break that ran the Monster.com spot, a voice over did a name mention for CareerBuilder.com while going back into the game. I don’t know how CareerBuilder did it and as a media planner I would be asking for a partial refund if I was Monster.com. If a station is not going to bother with category exclusivity within a spot break for a $3M spot, then they are clearly just whoring out ad time.

3) Hulu.com was the unexpected awesomeness. Hulu is a great service and a cool brand, but I’m pretty sure its relatively unknown amongst the non tech people. The ad was memorable, funny and pretty honest. Side Note: My favorite tweets regarding the hulu spot were ones like this from Allen. I’m sorry guy but I think you missed the point of your favorite ad, Hulu is a place you can go to see videos online. Its like youtube but with a higher quality…so maybe you could try going to hulu to view the ads? 

4) Audi (yes I know I just said Hyundai was the overall winner) but Audi had a fantastic spot that was visually stunning  and a brilliant depiction of their brand. Classy, powerful and sexy. I want an Audi A4. 

Despite the hype, the Cash4Gold spot wasn’t all that great. Ed McMahon looked so old and feeble. Plus its sad because we all know he’s really in need of money. McHammer was funny, but funny is not going to get me to do business with the scam that is Cash4Gold. Meh.

While I’m part of the new business team, I can’t always go after (or get) the clients that would give us the freedom to do innovative cool stuff; sometimes they don’t have the balls and sometimes its just not their target audience. I would love the budget and freedom to execute on some of these ideas…if you steal them just give me some credit (and some commission). 

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As the end of the year approaches every blogger out there is throwing down their 2009 predictions; I’m jumping off the cliff to throw down my own thoughts on the new year.

But don’t worry is isn’t some haughty predictions list, but merely a top 10 list of my hopes for marketing and technology in 2009. 

1. MySpace will die. Enough of the glitter backgrounds, 10 mintue page downloads and endless random friend requests from half naked teenagers. Most of the cool kids have left anyways. 

2. Everyone will stop hating on Twitter. You know you want to, like that one time in college. Get drunk and blame your experimental tweets on the booze. In four years if you’re not into it anymore you can just say you were going through a phase. Then you can follow me here. 

3. Spammers will learn correct grammar and proper English. Maybe more people would respond if they could read your spam emails or they contained plausable stories. Really I won the lottery in Nigeria, I didn’t even buy a lottery ticket?!

4. Mobile marketing will finally take off. The last few years have been predicted as The Year for mobile, please finally get big so the masses will figure out what the next big thing will be.

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I just discovered Going Social Now which is a blog out of the newly renamed Razorfish (they dropped the Avenenue A). 

Funny video on the disconnect between the modern consumer and traditional advertising. Is this stuff funny if you don’t work in the industry?  

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