Media Plan & Out-Of-Home Advertising
Preparing the exact media plan can become a difficult task. The first difficulty arises in making proper estimation of budget to be allocated for different media. Moreover, variations of media within one media category can add complication to the media planning process. For example, electronic media includes different medium such as radio, TV and web advertisement. Similar is the case under print and outdoor advertising. Though the Nepali advertisers are now convinced regarding the importance of advertising, they still lack comprehensive knowledge of media planning.
Without a media plan, an advertisement fails to yield desired outcomes. The investment may get wasted and promotional objectives will not be realised. With proper media planning, an advertisement can produce exciting results even with small budget.
One recent research shows that around 35-40 percent of Nepali advertisers want to invest on outdoor advertisement, whereas in other countries it is about 5 to 7 percent. Why this difference? According to the Nepali advertisers, the reason lies in the fact that outdoor advertisement requires only one time investment. Thapathali, Kingsway and Kalanki are regarded as the best places for placing hoarding boards in Kathmandu and if they get a place to have a hoarding board there they are ready to invest any amount. However, this shows that our advertisers are not investing wisely. This is a clear example of lack of proper media planning.
Media planning is the process of determining how to use time and space to achieve the advertising objectives. One of those objectives is to place the advertising message before the target audience. For this, the advertiser has to choose the proper medium. A hoarding board is a medium like television or on-line media. Combining different media (using TV, radio, and magazine) is a media mix. Before execution, a good media plan should be evaluated in terms of:
1) Cost of space/time, i.e. the price for a one-page ad in the print media or a 30 second TV spot.
2) Reach - The size of the audience reached (e.g. the circulation figure of the print media or viewership figure of the TV).
3) Audience composition - Description of the audience in terms of various demographic characteristics such as age, income or education.
4) Impact - Is one media type more forceful at commanding attention than another?
5) Exposure value – What is the cost per thousand (CPM) exposures across different media?
Media planning requires marketing intelligence to decide the time, placement, cost and specific choice of advertising measures. Planners rely on market, consumers and media information to develop the media plan. Media planning runs parallel to the creative message design process. The media plan should coordinate all the elements of the marketing communication mix. The media planner’s goal is to identify and exploit the aperture, the time and place at which the customers’ purchase interest is the highest.
Out-of-home advertising (also referred to as OOH) is one of the media alternatives to be considered in media planning. It essentially includes all type of advertising that reaches the consumer while he or she is outside the home. This is different from broadcast, print or internet advertising, which may be delivered to viewers out-of-home (e.g. via tradeshow, newsstand, hotel lobby, bus shelters, telephone kiosks, movie billboards, stadium billboards, transportation etc.). Outdoor advertisement products are divided among three primary categories: billboards, street furniture and transit. The most common product in OOH is the billboard. OOH encompasses outdoor advertising but extends to the indoors as well (such as ads in malls).
In present days when consumers are time-stressed, outdoor advertising is viewed as a major competitive advertising medium. Advertisers also consider outdoor to be a very cost-effective advertising medium due to its high exposure at a relatively low cost. It is also a medium that has been redefined in the last decade, as it has leveraged newly-available technologies and formats; and newly feasible spaces and real estate.
Outdoor, however, is also at the mercy of advertising clutter. Out-of-home communication must be highly visible and dynamic to capture target audiences and by-passers’ attention. Large formats and digital technology has been a springboard to increased creativeness and ingenuity.
The examples are 3D and other reticular effects which give a promising way to break the current boundaries of
creativity and thus replenish the stopping and staying power of outdoor advertisements. Human Eyes Technology, a company with offices in Israel and US, fills the “drama” gap by enhancing the power of colours, size and image. It is also said that wide format 3D lenticular advertisement increases staying power by four times in relation to 2D images, whereas the stopping power of advertisements is boosted by five.
However in Nepal, a good media plan is still a pipe dream. Advertisers are relying on intuitions and self-belief instead of preparing good media plan. Their unwise spending on advertisement is making their current investment worthless. Nepali advertisers, instead of over-concentrating in OOH, should focus on a media plan which is balanced for all the consideration for effective outcomes.
EVENT
Shamim Khan captures Surya Nepal Masters 2008 crown
Shamim Khan from India lifted the title of Surya Nepal Mas-ters Open 2008. In the final day's play on Le Meridien Kathmandu Forest Golf Resort and Spa on June 7, he made a tournament tally of 23-under par 265 gaining a 11-shot victory to carry home the winner's cheque of Nepali Rs 3,24,000. “I cannot express my happiness in mere words. It is terrific to win,” was all the champion could say in his victory speech.
As many as 105 players from the SAARC region competed in the event, pitted as the main event under the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2008 set up by Surya Nepal (P) Ltd. with Nepal Professional Golfing Association.
This year’s Tour had started on May 13 with Surya Nepal Central Open. The title in the professional category went to Shiv Ram Shrestha who received a prize of NRs. 70,000. In the amateur category Tashi Ghale won the title with Rupak Acharya coming second.
Shiva Ram also won the Golfer Pilots’ NPGA Classic, the second event under the Tour, receiving NRs 100,000 as the prize. He was closely followed by veteran pro Deepak Thapa Magar in the second place who received NRs 50,000. In the amateur category Rupak Acharya won with 231 score edging out Prakash Neupane.
In the finals of the third event under the Tour, Surya Nepal Masters, Sri Lankan Anura Rohana finished second at 276, ahead of a fighting Vijay Kumar who had to be content with a third place at 278. Sujjan Singh was fourth at 280 while Harinder Gupta with a final round of level par 72 finished fifth. Gurbaaz Mann registered a 4-over 76 to finish sixth at 283. Deepak Neupane with 4-under 68 emerged as the best Nepali professional tying for the seventh place along with Vinod Kumar and Sanjay Kumar at 284. Amardip Malik and Nepali sensation Shiva Ram Shreshta were tied for the 10th place at 286.
In the International Amateur Event, under the Tour, Bangladesh emerged victorious steamrolling past the opposition by a huge margin of 26 strokes. The duo of Shekawat Hussain and Shahid aggregated 579 to lead Bangladesh to victory. The duo of Rupak Acharya and Tashi Ghale helped Nepal A finish second while India finished third.
In the Standard Chartered Pro-Am of the Surya Nepal Masters 2008 played in the same venue on June 3, Sri Lankan pro Anura Rohana led his team to victory. The tournalment was held in a unique format where the top 10 professionals and top 30 amateurs were later drawn to form 10 teams. Anura was paired with Raghav Kheria, JM Lee and Kanchan Basnet as their team's total swelled to 155. Former Indian Open winner Vijay Kumar drawn along with Lobsang Tashi, Lt. Gen KNS Thapa and Gopal Gurung aggregated 151 points to finish second.
Shiva Ram Shrestha's team of Tashi Sherpa, Prasanna Upreti and Robin Rana finished third with 150 points while the team of professional Ranjit Singh and amateurs Raj Pradhan, Maj. MB Limbu and Purna B Rai finished fourth at 148 points. The professionals earned INR 3,000, INR 2,000 and INR 1,000 each respectively for being in the team.
Dil Gurung won the “Best Individual Score Nett” with 42 points while Tashi Ghale emerged as the "Best Individual Score Gross” with 37 points. In the overall spot prize categories, HK Gorsia won the Straightest Drive on Hole No.18 while Wangchen Dhondu emerged victories in the Closest to the Pin on Hole No.10. The Closest to Pin on Hole No. 16 was won by Bal Krishna Gurung. All the winners were given gift vouchers from John Player.
In the most interesting dual amongst the professional and the amateurs, Gurbaaz Mann won the Longest Drive while Shiva Ram won the Bunker Play award in the professional category while Gopal Chitrakar and Suman Sachdev were the winners in the amateur category respectively.
Next in the list of events under the Tour is Samsung Match Play, the date for which has not been fixed as yet. The event offers total prize money of NPR 3 lakhs. Surya Nepal Western Open and Surya Nepal Eastern Open are the other two most important tournaments to look out for. The first one will be held at the natural and scenic Himalayan Golf Course in Pokhara while the Eastern Open will be organized in Nirvana Country Club in Dharan.
This year Surya Nepal Golf Tour will culminate with the NPGA Surya Nepal Tour Championship with a prize purse of NPR 300,000.
