Media Planning What is it all about and is it racist? Prepared by the Media Directors

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Media PlanningWhat is it all aboutand is it
racist?Prepared by the Media Directors Circle
Nov 2001
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What is the MDC?

• The Media Directors Circle.
• A voluntary organisation of individual of media
  directors that has been in existence since the
  mid 80s.
• Its objectives are to uphold and improve the
  quality of the media planning and buying industry
  and the necessary research required.

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Introduction

• We would like to start by acknowledging there is
  need for skilled black media planners and buyers
  in our industry, and that more must be done to
  address this need. This submission is not aimed
  at defending the current situation but is a
  genuine attempt to participate in changing the
  face of the media industry.

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Introduction

• Media planners have recently been challenged by
  the following allegation
• Certain Black media owners are complaining that
  they are not getting a fair share of the
  advertising pie.
• The explanation put forward
• The same Black media believe that their share is
  compromised because the media planning industry
  comprises of predominantly white females living
  in Sandton who are not exposed to their
  particular media.
• The solution put forward
• Bring in more Black media planners who will no
  doubt support black media more.
• Possibly legislate until then.

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Is this thinking sound?

• Will Black planners only recommend advertising in
  media they personally consume?
• Are all planners limited by their own culture and
  experiences?
• Does the decision making power truly rest in the
  hands of a few lily white Sandton females.
  Media planning is merely at the end of a complex
  line of decision making involving company chiefs,
  marketing directors, brand managers, researchers,
  agency heads etc.
• Who determines what is a fair share of the
  advertising pie and is race the only dimension
  that spend should be measured against?

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Outline of this presentation

• The following presentation will give a view on
  the racism in media debate from the perspective
  of the media planning industry.
• We will attempt to-
• outline the media planning process
• put forward our perspective on racism in our
  industry
• outline the action steps that the industry is
  already actively undertaking to correct some of
  the imbalances of the past.

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Definition of Media Planning

• Reaching the right people, in the right place,
  at the right time in a cost efficient way.

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Understanding the Communication process

• At each stage of the communication process there
  is a 3 way team involvement-

Client
Creative Agency
Media planning
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The target market
Influence Scale

• Influences
• Brand positioning in the market place
• (top end/bottom end)
• Pricing
• Distribution channels
• Appeal
• Brand objectives (new users vs existing)

Client
Creative/ Media
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Inter-media decisions
Influence Scale

• Influences
• The role of advertising
• The media environment
• The physical characteristics of a
• medium
• What the competitors are doing
• The effectiveness of the medium

Creative
Media
Client
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Intra-media decisions

• Influences
• Coverage
• Focus versus wastage
• Comparative cost efficiency
• Environment
• Execution of concept/advertising
• within each media vehicle

Influence Scale
Media
Creative
Client
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Some background to the media market
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Reach potential of media types
reach
Source AMPS 2001a
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SA ADSPEND TRENDS 1990-2000
R Billions
11.6
10.4
R8.936
R8.002
17.8
R7.247
18.9
12.5
R6.148
15.2
R5.170
R4.559
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13
26
25
25
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SourceAdex
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Growth in Adspend vs Media inflation
Indexed against 1994
The Advertising pie is not getting any bigger
we operate in a stagnant market
Source Adex MIW
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Fragmentation of SA Media 1991 to 2001
Number of vehicles available
The market is becoming more and morecompetitive
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The accusations that have been levied against the
industry include

1. White planners support white media.
2. Because we are white we cannot plan on black
   media.
3. We lack knowledge and possibly interest in the
   power of black consumers and the black media to
   reach them.
4. We remain lily white with no concerted effort
   to attract black planners.

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White planners support white media

• How is white and black media defined by ownership
  or audience profile?
• It can only be based on audience profile.
• If it were based on ownership then there is
  clearly no need for these hearings as the SABC is
  the largest media owner in the country.

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• In our multi-cultural society few exclusive
  black and white media remain in existence.
• For most media vehicles there is huge cross-over
  of audiences.
• The profile of media vehicles is a democratic
  process as it reflects the wishes of the people.
• This suites most marketers as brands are targeted
  at people with the propensity to buy products who
  are of the same mindset.

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Spend profiles of Top 10 media vehicles
Newspapers
Source Adex Jan-Aug 2001 measured adspend at
rate card costs AMPS
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Spend profiles of Top 10 media vehicles
Radio
Source Adex Jan-Aug 2001 measured adspend at
rate card costs
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Spend profiles of Top 10 media vehicles
Television
Source Adex Jan-Aug 2001 measured adspend at
rate card costs
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Spend profiles of Top 10 media vehicles
Magazines
Source Adex Jan-Aug 2001 measured adspend at
rate card costs
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White planners support white media

• The evidence presented suggests not.

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2) Because we are white we cannot plan on black
media

• Does the same hold true for women not being able
  to plan against male targets, English speaking
  people not able to target Afrikaans? To date the
  entire team for SA Breweries has been female.
• With the right effort from both the planner and
  the media owner , planners worldwide can
  transcend their own immediate culture and media
  consumption patterns and reach those of other
  cultural groups.
• SA has exported many communication specialists to
  new markets of diverse culture. Because of our
  understanding of multi-cultural communities SA
  planners are highly sought after and have been
  incredibly successful in managing communication
  companies in countries as alien as China and
  UAE.

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3) We lack knowledge and possibly interest in the
power of black consumers and the black media to
reach them

• Research in this area could improve we as the
  MDC are pushing for more empirical research to
  trend and capitalise on the growth of new
  markets.
• Are media owners doing the same thing? What
  research initiatives have black media owners
  embarked on to sell their own medium.
• The communication strategy flows out of the
  target market definition it is our
  responsibility to optimise our efforts against a
  specifically defined group.

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3) We lack knowledge and possibly interest in the
power of black consumers and the black media to
reach them

• If our clients perceive us as not having skills
  and understanding of black consumers and media
  they have a choice to move the business. In our
  highly competitive market not one agency has
  made its name as the agency for the black market.
  Its considered entry level skills to compete in
  our business.
• Furthermore a medium (like any other offering)
  must be sold before it is bought. The selling
  and marketing of media opportunities by media
  owners has often been lacking. The media owner
  must take responsibility for informing planners
  of there unique offerings and to justifying their
  pricing strategies.

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4) We remain lily white with no concerted
effort to attract black planners.

• Simply put, the transformation process has been
  difficult amongst media personnel. There are a
  number of reasons which include
• A stagnant advertising spending market
• Mergers and realignments that have compounded a
  slowdown in the market
• Competitive environment which has put strain on
  training budgets
• A competitive environment that places the
  emphasis on trained staff rather than untrained
• The planning industry has been unable to retain
  black staff media owners themselves have been
  active predators.

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Whats been done about it?

• Most media companies directly or indirectly
  subscribe to the AAA Charter.
• Weve got to start bringing in black talent from
  a junior level senior personnel cannot be
  recruited from beyond the industry as much of the
  media planning experience is achieved with years
  of hands-on training. On-the-job training is
  essential. To this end the MDC is currently
  investigating a learnership programme in
  conjunction with the AAA and MAPPP.
• Most agencies have run training programmes almost
  exclusively for black personnel for the past 4
  years. Due to escalating salaries, competitive
  job offers, economic pressures and the intensity
  and pressure of our industry we have kept a small
  number of personnel within the industry for
  longer than 3 years.

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Much investment in training has already happened

• AMASA ( Advertising Media Association of SA) was
  formed over 10 years ago as training body. It
  therefore runs numerous training initiatives
  including
• One year diploma (part-time and full-time)
• Intensive 4 day media workshops
• Lecturers are sourced from the MDC and have given
  their time freely to educate students.
• Over 30 media professionals give freely over 1000
  hours per annum to lecture.
• AMASA has written, compiled and printed the only
  media planning text book for the SA market.

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Black component of formal training initiatives
Black profile
Source AMASA
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Whats been done about it (contd)

• The MDC will be re-constituted to become the
  Media Purchasers Council so as to become more
  representative and allow black media people to
  participate in this important industry forum
  without necessarily having the years of
  experience required to be a media director. This
  will come into effect February 2002.
• The MDC has commissioned an audit to assess the
  current status of black representation within our
  industry results are expected by end Nov. As
  part of the re-constituted MDC we will look at
  setting targets for our industry and monitoring
  the progress over time.

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Additional initiatives

• As part of the newly constituted MDC we are
  considering recommending to all our members that
  an agreed percentage of all media budgets be
  allocated to support developmental media. It
  will then be up to the marketers to agree to
  these recommendations or not.
• We would like to discuss the concept of an
  ombudsman (or a self-regulatory body) to
  investigate and mediate between players when
  accusations of racism are made.
• We are open to suggestions our approach is
  transparent and participative.

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In summary

1. Media Planning is profession, with SAQUA approved
   qualification.
2. The process of choosing a medium and individual
   media vehicles is a collaborative one that
   flows out of the target market definition and
   task at hand. Media planners cannot entirely
   take the rap for all media spending patterns.
3. In terms of the way the industry is currently
   spending probably only 30-40 of spend goes
   against white consumers.
4. Employment equity in the media industry has been
   problematic, not through lack of trying. We
   would like to see support and commitment from
   marketers, media owners and government to improve
   the black representation particularly at a senior
   level.