Implementing and Optimizing the Media Schedule

Abstract

The final step of media planning is to implement and optimize the media schedule. The implementation question is: How should insertions be scheduled such that these insertions in various vehicles will, in combination, produce the largest effective reach per advertising cycle (reach at MEF or higher, that is, Rk+/c) of exposures to the target audience, while keeping within the budget? This is a much more difficult question than it appears—and it is not always well solved in practice. For example, if 20 magazines are available as potential vehicles for your product but you have only enough money to advertise in any six of them, then there are $\left( {\begin{array}{*{20}c}{20} \\6 \\\end{array} } \right) = 38,760$ possible combinations of these vehicles. Each combination must be examined to see which one will give the maximum effective reach. Obviously, no-one will study 38,760 possible schedules by hand, so computers must be used to help with some of the tedious work of media scheduling.