Being 23, I am a member of Gen Z, and like many of us I am active on TikTok. If you would have told me that I would spend most of my time this past week watching cookie TikToks, I probably would have laughed at you.  But I did!

A business called Crumbl Cookies has continually appeared on my “For You” page. So naturally, I checked out this bakery that sells decadent specialty cookies, with new flavors offered each week. I have become fully invested in Crumbl and can’t wait for the cookie lineups each week. 

I am a lover of analogies, and if you haven’t been able to tell by now, have a passionate sweet tooth. That’s why I am going to apply the concept of a bakery to marketers and their strategy. Marketers operate the bakery, but duties are allocated among the bakery’s employees. Media planners are responsible for building out the menu and creating the recipes. Media buyers combine the ingredients, follow the recipes’ cooking instructions and then serve the finished product to customers.

The customers’ satisfaction will ultimately be determined by the quality of their experience with the bakery and the quality of the product. Similarly, in the digital age, people judge brands by the quality of their experience and not just the quality of the products. For example, they do not want to inconveniently receive ads at the wrong time or ads not aligned with their interests. A lot of responsibility falls on media buyers to correctly align a media mix that will serve the appropriate audience at the right place and the right time. 

What is Media Mix Planning?

Essentially, media mix planning is determining the correct use of marketing channels to reach your primary audience. In my bakery analogy, the media mix planning stage would mean allocating enough raw ingredients to create the recipes. 

Achieving a high ROI is always a vital goal when planning the media mix. In the planning stages, media buyers explore their channel options with respect to the budget the media planning team has established. To ensure planning is successful, media buyers must make several considerations related to their primary audience, the product being promoted, competitors, and the budget. Some questions to consider during the planning process include:

• Who am I trying to reach? Which channels does this audience primarily use? When would be the best time to deliver content to this audience through these channels?
• What values or traits do my primary audience have? 
• What is the value proposition related to my product or brand?
• What are my competitors doing? 
• How are goals going to be measured?
• What are the KPIs for the campaign?

Defining Your Primary Audience

Ad dollars are precious, and marketers want to ensure that none go to waste. The foundation of a cost-efficient media mix plan is determining who the primary audience is. What is the “perfect” definition of your customer? The primary audience will determine the entire media mix strategy. Going back to the bakery analogy, a bakery owner would have to understand its customers so the menu could be curated to their interests and tastes. 

A campaign geared toward new mothers would look very different compared to a campaign geared toward retirees. Both groups will likely not respond to the same delivery of advertising. It is important to understand there is no universal delivery method that is successful for any demographic, interest, or life stage. Marketers must understand how and when to reach their primary audience for the best chance of successful engagement. Understanding the primary audience’s values and core interests also help when formulating the messaging for the campaign. Some questions to ask when defining your primary audience include:

• Who would be interested in my product or brand?
• What are my primary audience’s interests or goals?
• Which channels does my primary audience consume?
• When would be the best time to reach my primary audience?
• To what groups of people are my competitors tailoring their advertisements?

Using Data to Choose the Right Media Mix Strategy

Once the primary audience has been defined, marketers can apply data to campaigns. Data can be incorporated into a media mix strategy to increase scale and reach, no matter the channel. Having access to the right data points can also be detrimental to a successful media mix strategy.  The type of data needed for the target audience members may also depend on where they fall in the sales funnel.  

Acxiom has third-party data available for traditional channels like direct mail and email and for digital channels like social and display ads, along with unique opportunities like digital out of home through programmatic. Marketers can also use their rich first-party data to create customized lookalike models with Acxiom to increase their reach on digital platforms. 

Using Media Mix Modelling to Measure Marketing Impact

Marketers can use their first-party data to conduct media mix modeling, which can be used as a high-level source to predict the performance of a media mix plan. Media mix modeling can predict how the target audience will react to the campaign and the quantifiable results of the media mix’s impact on conversions and sales. The insights provided by media mix modeling can fuel efficient budgeting. Measuring the projected effectiveness and efficiency of the media mix plan can ensure no dollar goes to waste. 

The Pay-Off!

When brands execute the fundamentals of media planning, media buying and media mix modeling — when they really know their primary audience’s interests and wants — then they will find themselves having passionate customers “eating out of the palm of their hands,” generating brand love and brand loyalty, just like Crumbl Cookies has so successfully generated with me!