The 60-Minute Media Audit
So, turkey and Christmas pud are a distant memory, 2019 is well underway and you are in full-on execution mode with your 2019 marketing plan.
Ensuring that you and your wider team know exactly what to stop / start /continue this year and beyond is important - but all too often it’s a job that gets put to one side as your to-do list gets longer.
Carrying out a review quickly and effectively is critical. One key component is an audit of your full year media spend - after all, this is usually the biggest part of your annual marketing investment. Review of this investment would seem not only wise, but imperative.
Our approach to media audit is that it should always be streamlined and focus on the big wins.
If you had 60 minutes to review your media investment processes, here are 4 key areas we’d recommend you consider:
PERFORMANCE
Effectiveness - Do you have a consistent approach to measuring effectiveness?
Waterfall of objectives™ - Do you differentiate between overall business objectives, campaign critical success factors and media metrics?
Communicate - Does everyone who touches the business share this effectiveness framework?
GOVERNANCE & CONTROL
Spend match - Do you have a single real-time view of budget and regularly match planned v invoice v delivered? How well was this controlled?
Delivery check - Do you have a systematic approach to checking delivery? Did you get what you paid for?
Campaign control - Do you have structures for changing and optimising mid–campaign? How agile are you?
VALUE
Set targets - Have you detailed required outcomes and are they amended regularly?
Think about the metrics - Are you measuring value or price?
Save the date - Plan & diary reviews.
TRANSPARENCY WITH YOUR PARTNERS
Understand your contract - Read it, ask direct questions, expect full disclosure.
Key watch outs - Are you talking the same language around costs, trading and fees?
If, after 60 minutes, you’re happy that :
you have answers to the relevant questions
you and your agency partner have processes in place to extract maximum value from your media investment
..….then give yourself a gold star and move to the top of the class!
More often than not, you will find areas for improvement. The specific areas will be different from organisation to organisation, but the common theme will be increased focus on this significant investment.
Here’s a resolution for your 2019 list - add a little more scrutiny. This alone will not make you more effective but, as we said, it is one piece of the jigsaw – find some efficiencies here, and you’ll free up budget to invest elsewhere, in activity that has already proven to have a strong ROI.