Planning Advertising Campaign

What is an Ad Campaign?

After having immense research and understanding about market and media, the advertising team develops a set of promotional content to be shown to the public. This can be an ad to be telecasted on television channels or an audio recording to be broadcasted on radio channel or an illustrative ad to be printed on a newspaper and these days, a web banner on social media platforms. All this content is dropped amid audience through appropriate media during a desired period of time. That's an Ad Campaign.

Ad Campaigns are carried out with certain objectives. It's not always to penetrate market and have maximum sales. Spreading awareness, developing positive attitude, creation of brand image and maintaining brand loyalty, gain competitive advantage, educating consumers, creation of demand, etc. can be an objective of an ad campaign.

For a successful ad campaign, the advertiser must get several questions answered. These questions are related to product, target audience, location, time, approach, theme, distribution, strategy, etc. Let's understand these factors one by one:

• Product: Every advertiser should very well know what they have and what are they selling. It's not just a product getting sold, but more of quenching one's need. It's all about knowing what the consumers want and placing the product (as per their want) in front of them. Eg. most of the youth prefer buying mobile phones based on front and back camera quality. This becomes a USP for the advertiser as he is going to hammer on this point so as to serve consumer needs.

• Target Audience: Every advertiser should know who are the ones to be served. Yes, the audience to be targeted. It's very important to know and understand the audience, their taste and preference, style and attitude, location and other socio - economic background. This enables the advertiser to hit the right audience with the right message for the right product.

• Location: An ad is to delivered at various location. Hence, the advertiser has to customize the advertisement so that it matches various properties such as language, lifestyle, cultures, philosophy and people's background. Advertiser should understand the location very well before stepping in for promotion.

• Time Period: Knowing the most appropriate time period for placing ads on the media is a very important task. An advertise should very well know the duration during which an ad campaign need to be run. The same should also go hand in hand with supply chain and distribution. It should be made sure that sufficient quantity of advertised products are available in areas where advertising is carried out.

• Approach: A successful ad campaign has to be backed by the kind of approach adopted by the advertiser. The advertiser should very well know what the consumers want and how can they be made to feel when they think about the product watching the advertisement. It can be a USP based approach, humorous approach or even an emotional approach. Eg. ads of pears soap throws an emotional connection between a mother and her daughter. This can make the audience to get a strong connect with the ad theme.

• Distribution: An ad campaign should run hand in hand with product distribution. Products should be made available in those areas where the ad campaign is being carried out.

The answer to all the above question is "appeal". How effective an ad can appeal to it's audience to create an impression.

The advertiser should understand what people want to gain and achieve. It can be health, popularity, self confidence, finance, wealth, looks, pleasure, prestige, attention, technology, satisfaction, , etc. The advertiser should also try to know what what the audience want to avoid, like efforts, money loss, tension, health, bad relations, etc. So, the advertiser has to visualize the most appropriate message so as to develop the above mentioned thoughts in the minds of the audience. Eg. the ad of 'Moov' makes the viewer understand the impact of discomfort. This content can develop a favorable thought in the minds of the audience that such discomfort can be treated by applying 'Moov'. Similarly, the ad campaign of 'Dairy Milk' promotes the message of eat sweet before starting some work. This message can be very effective for Indian minds and consumption of sweet before heading for a work is treated as a sign of positivity. Hence, it becomes easy for the brand to enter in to many minds.

The above ad of Birla Sunlife Insurance tries to grab focus of audience by creating question mark in life as to how life in uncertain. This can make viewers think about insurance thereby helping them to lower their stress and tension levels.

Steps in Planning an Advertising Campaign

An ad campaign required meticulous planning. Ideas of the advertiser along with the ad agency has to be considered together while running an ad campaign. Lets understand the procedure.

1. Research Results: Every ad campaign should be backed by a strong research output so as to use the precise media and target the right audience. In simple words, ad campaign is a derivative of market and media research which has to be conducted so as to get an idea about business plan.

2. Setting Objectives: Objectives can be set based on research. The advertiser may have his own desired objective like gaining competitive advantage or creating awareness or developing brand image and loyalty. Once objectives are set, it becomes easy for the advertiser to move further with other decisions. An advertiser should set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result oriented and Time bound). Some of the goals can be:

• Finding new customers: Weekly targets can be set where focus should be made to acquire 100 customers per week. This will help the advertiser to project the cost of the advertisement through which, budgeting can be done.

• Product Launch: A SMART goal for a product launch can be to create good awareness along with promotional benefits so as to get good sales. A target of 500 per month can be set according to which, ad campaign can be programmed.

• Enhance Brand Image: An advertiser wanting to develop brad image can go for continuous advertising strategy by slightly pushing his ad budget up. A lot of focus can be made on social media platform so as to attract audience and create favorable impression.

3. Budget Allocation: Budget can be allocated only when objectives are decided upon. It's the advertiser's willingness to spend for promoting his product. Based on the objectives, the advertiser can think upon the most appropriate mix of media to be used for advertising. Various factors such as approval from the marketing team, availability of funds, kind of the product, geographical area to be covered, media mix, professional fees, etc. has to be projected and agreed upon at the time of budgeting.

4. Apply SWOT Analysis: So as to differentiate from the existing competitors, it is recommended for an advertise to conduct a SWOT analysis. It's very important to know strengths and sustaining them along with weakness so as to work on it and convert into strength. Similarly, opportunities should be grabbed whereas, threats should be well mitigated.

5. Target Audience: Determining the target audience is very essential for a successful ad campaign. An advertiser needs to be very specific with the kind of audience he wants to target. Targeting can be done demographically, socio-economically and even geographically.

6. Target Media: Another important task is to decide upon the media to be used for delivering the ad message. An advertiser may have a mix of media including television, newspaper, digital and outdoor. The advertiser can plan and locate the advertisement in the most strategic area for a reasonable period of time.

7. Creative content: An ad is effective only if it is creative. Content should be developed in such a way that it can engage the audience. The content can be in words (for print advertising), web banner / flyer (for digital advertising), banner or placards (for outdoor advertising), video (for television / social media advertising) and so on. The advertiser has to remember that content has to be created keeping budget in mind.

8. Pre run: An advertiser can start with a pre-test / pilot test so as to understand a sample response. This pilot study can give an understanding about the overall target market. Necessary changes can be incorporated in case of unfavorable results.

9. Running the Ad Campaign: All the developments from the above points are placed on board. Once the ad campaign is put in to force, several alterations can be made so as to correct the deviations, if any. Ad Campaigns have to be well monitored with respect to timely display and effective response.

10. Result Analysis: A good ad campaign should be measurable. This point should be linked with objectives so as to conclude whether the ad campaign proved to be effective or not. If targets are reached, the advertiser can continue with the same scheduling and strategy. But if targets are not reached, then the advertiser will have to re-construct an effective ad campaign.

DAGMAR MODEL

D - Defining

A - Advertising

G - Goals for

M - Measured

A - Advertising

R - Results

DAGMAR stands for 'Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results', a model introduced by Russell Colley in 1961 to determine clear advertising objectives to be incorporated in an advertising campaign so as to measure the effective results. The model was reported to the Association of National Advertisers by Colley.

Colley expressed the action of an advertisement to create a reaction among the audience. He stressed that advertisement should effectively communicate information to the right audience at the right time so as to induce them for a positive action, which is a derivative of the advertisement content.

The model involves 4 steps as follows:

Awareness: It is assumed that the audience is not aware about the product. Only then, the point of 'awareness' makes sense. Every marketing task starts with an awareness campaign so as to reach to people. This creates brand / product awareness. This message at the time of advertising determines whether audience can be converted in to customers or not.

Comprehension: To comprehend mean to understand. The next stage in an objective - result based advertising is to make the audience understand about the brand and the product. It always makes sense to have brand awareness and product understanding before any kind of engagement with the product. Every material details should be communicated to the audience.

Conviction: When the right advertisement is shown to the right audience at the right time in the right way, the audience may get convinced. This can induce a psychological preparedness due to the relevant point that has been conveyed through the advertisement. For this to happen, the advertising appeal should be creative and strong.

Action: Action represents the stage where the viewers of the ad approach the brand / product and purchase it. An action can be incomplete as well, where a potential buyer might stop from buying because of alternatives available in the market or any other specific reason.

In simple terms, DAGMAR Model states that advertising objectives must be clearly defined, achievable and measurable. In reality, when it comes to advertising on television, it becomes extremely difficult to measure ad results. Certain parameters such as Reach, Frequency, GRP and TRP can be calculated, but getting exact and genuine results is humanly not possible.

But advertisements on digital platform provides the benefit of active approach and measurability. Ads can be targeted to specific audience and their actions, impressions can be tracked through analytics. One an come know the number of users who have seen the ad, number of user who have clicked on the ad, number of viewers who watched the full ad, number of viewers who skipped the ad and even number of viewers who immediately made an action after watching the ad.

Let's understand some DAGMAR marketing examples:

Ad Budgeting

Ad budgeting is one of the most crucial steps while heading with an ad campaign. Its the availability of finance which decides how the ad is going to be dropped in the market. Organizations with high budget towards their marketing and advertising strategy go ahead with a variety of mix and also make sure that they sustain their ads in the market for a long while. These sustained ads (due to effective budgeting) creates continuity in delivering ads to the audience thereby creating higher brand engagement. Let's understand some factors affecting Ad Budgeting.

Factors determining ad budget

1. Advertising Objective of the Organization: Every ad campaign is backed by an objective which is in the interest of the organization. It's the objective that drives an entire ad campaign. When objectives are high, the organization may have to set high budget for advertising.

2. Corporate Philosophy: Each organization has it's own perspective of investing money in advertising. There can be certain organizations who may already have a huge client base and hence, may not prefer putting much money into advertising. But organizations wanting to build a fresh client base may pump in more funds into advertising.

3. Life Cycle of the Product: It's the life cycle of the product that also play a major role in determining ad budget. Products at early stage of life requires more focus and attention among the audience. Hence, more fund is required to drop creative ads among huge masses. But products that have reached peak of sales (on the verge of exit) need not too much fund for advertising. At such time, these products are usually dumped off at low prices overseas.

4. Competitor's Strategy: Advertising strategy adopted by the competitors can also be one of the factors influencing ad budget. It becomes necessary for an organization to adopt an expensive ad budget when rivals advertise heavily to acquire markets. Eg. Quaker which is owned by Pepsi Co. started advertising heavily in Indian markets in contrast to Kellogg's.

5. Type of the product: Type of the product to be advertised also play a crucial role in determining advertising budget. Expensive and highly involvement products require more detailed and elaborated advertisements compared to basic and inexpensive products.

6. Type of the market: Geographical area of coverage also influences ad budget to a great extent. Advertisers who aim for wide area coverage like national or international set up a very high advertising budget. Also, advertisers who wish to make their products reach into the inner most area of a country may also have to spend a lot on advertising.

7. Type of the media: The type of media to be used for sending ad message also influences the ad budget to a massive extent. When it comes to having a media mix where media such as radio, television, digital, outdoor, etc. are used, it tends to shoot up the advertising cost. Hence, there arises a need for heavy ad budget.

8. Type of the audience: It is seen that ads are always made focusing on the targeted audience. Ads are backed by research targeting consumers, market and product. When products are certain type of consumer oriented, the advertiser may have to create that kind of engagement with the audience. Only then, the audience would like it. Hence, for a better quality and creative advertisement campaign, an advertiser will have to set a high budget for his ad campaign.

9. Situation: A brand may undergo crisis at any point of time due to failing to fulfill it's commitments. During such situation, the advertiser may have adopt a hardcore advocacy strategy so as to recreate positive attitude in the minds of the audience. Such an activity may cost heavy and thus, the organization may require a high ad budget.

10. Ad Frequency: What matters most is the question of sustaining ads. This depends on duration and frequency of ad delivery on various media from time to time. Ad campaigns which are designed to run for a long period of time require a high budget and vice versa.

11. Corporate Affordability: At last, an organization would spend all it can. Many organizations would not even have appropriate budgeting for advertising.

List of global Companies and their AD Budget for 2019

• Samsung $2.41 Bn

• Alphabet Inc $2.41 Bn

• General Motors $3.24 Bn

• Amazon $3.38 Bn

• P&G $4.39 Bn

• HUL (India) $482.39 Mn

Methods of Setting Advertising Budget

An ad budget can be set in the following ways:

1. Percentage of Sales Method: This method involves analysis of overall sales on which a particular percentage is applied to arrive at the amount to be spent on advertising. This percentage depends on previous year's sales figures. If the company wishes to push up sales, then the company may think of applying the same percentage so that the ad budget can be raised.

2. Cost per Operation Method: An advertising company may depend on several ad campaigns to be delivered through various means in various markets. Here arise a number of operations that has to be executed by the advertising company. For example, a company wanting to have a special campaign on social media hay have a unique budget set for it.

3. Follow the Leader Method: Under this method, one advertiser follows the leading competitor's strategy with respect to ad spending habits. This can be adopted by the advertisers of the same industry which can give them a good idea to follow the leader and get an understanding about ad cost and business.

4. All you can Afford Method: Under this method, the advertiser doesn't apply any calculation and simply allocates all he can afford for his advertising work. This is basically carried out by organizations having shortage of funds to be applied into advertising and even by organizations which doesn't have a clear advertising plan.

5. Ad Agency Opinion: An advertising company may adopt a a budget plan prescribed by its' ad agency and may follow it. Ad agencies provide complete budgeting solution to their clients considering all factors and ways of executing ad campaign.

6. Random Allocation: A company may even allocate funds randomly for it's advertising activities. Such a thing doesn't require any analysis or rocket science. Many advertisers adopt this strategy for name sake advertising. Especially the ones who already have fixed clients.

7. Incremental Method: An advertiser can also adopt incremental method where every year the advertiser would increase the advertising budget with some percentage.

8. Unit Cost Method: This method is adopted while selling high involvement products which are super expensive. Advertisers of such products do not advertise on mass scale. They rather focus on making catalogues or investing on personal advertisements so that a potential buyer can be targeted.

Media Scheduling Strategies

When it comes to running an ad campaign, an advertiser has to think wisely looking at the availability of budgeted funds in coordination with the measurable objectives. An advertiser cannot run an ad campaign throughout the year vesting huge funds. Here, an advertiser need to effectively plan about how to schedule the advertisement on various media platforms so that it reaches maximum audience within the budget. Media scheduling is like creating a flexible time table for displaying ads on the most appropriate media. With proper media planning, an advertiser can heavily advertise for two weeks and then stay quiet and review for the next two weeks. Followed by re-advertising for the next two weeks and again reviewing in the further two weeks. This helps the advertiser to plan and drop advertising on an interval basis. Let's understand various media scheduling strategies adopted by advertisers:

1. Continuous Strategy: This is a media scheduling strategy which aims at creating public appearance 24*7. Under this strategy, the advertiser budgets an even proportion for advertising throughout the year, which means ad run evenly throughout the year.

2. Flighting Strategy: Under this strategy, advertising is carried out heavily for a particular period of time, especially during product launch. After such a heavy advertising campaign, the advertiser sits quiet without advertising for a certain period of time. After several reviews, the advertiser may again heavily advertise or advertise in a small scale. For example, most consumer products are advertised heavily for first two weeks and then stopped for a period of time say two weeks. After review, the advertiser again advertises either in large scale or in low scale. Heavy advertising is done so as to penetrate the product and the brand name in the market and create a long lasting and impressive awareness.

3. Bursting Strategy: In bursting strategy, the advertiser advertises heavily during the launch of ad campaign for a period of one month and later advertises on a very low scale throughout the rest of the year. Top brands adopt this strategy to have continuous approach where a strong impression is created in the beginning through heavy advertising. The advertiser advertises lightly during rest of the year so as to retain audience attention and create to of mind awareness.

4. Pulsing Strategy: In pulsing strategy, the advertiser advertises heavily during the first phase followed by low scale advertising in the second phase and repeats the procedure. The percentage allocation can be 40% in the first phase followed by 10% in the second followed by 40% again in the third phase and 10% in the last phase during a year. This allows an advertiser to advertise continuously without dropping advertising and engagement.

5. Seasonal Strategy: Many advertisers involved in marketing seasonal products adopt this strategy where advertising is done during peak season of demand. Companies selling festive clothing advertise right before the beginning of wedding season so as to target the right audience. Another example can be advertisements of umbrellas and raincoats right before the start of rainy season so as to prepare the audience to remember the brand and buy it.

6. Teaser Step Up: The word step up here denotes gradual increase in the level and intense of advertising as the season or the event approaches nearer. Amazon's great Indian sale is a good example where advertising is carried out in low scale initially, but as the sale season approaches nearer, there is a continuous and back to back advertising campaign carried out by them.

7. Teaser Step Down: This is right opposite to that teaser step down. Here, ads are heavily shown in the beginning and as the event approaches near, less ads are shown. A good example can be advertisements of IPL which heavily advertises teasers in the beginning and as IPL approaches near, their advertising decreases. Such teasers, engage audience and creates a curiosity and expectation in people's mind. This enables people to book tickets in the beginning itself.

Note: For all the above strategies, the advertiser should properly allocate funds.