Creative Media Planning

Ok i was asked to do a talk at the Online recruitment 2007 conference yesterday, there were some very interesting presentations esecially from simplyhired.com. But for those of you would could not attend; here is the transcript.

‘In this new world neither geography nor history, religion nor politics exerts the influence it once did. And as external fashions have changed in the last half-century, so too have the internal certainties.’

Jeremy Paxman

… It is the final line saying how internal certainties have change that grabbed me.  Because the internal certainties in recruitment have changed.

I listen to a lot of people at work saying that they are not creative and it does tend to grate on me.  Desmond Morris (in the Human Zoo) has a great description of creativity; he believed we educated creativity out of ourselves.

1. Children ask new questions; adults answer old ones; THE CHILD LIKE ADULT FINDS ANSWERS TO NEW QUESTIONS
2. The child is inventive; the adult is productive; THE CHILD LIKE ADULT IS INVENTIVELY PRODUCTIVE
3. The child explores; the adult organises; THE CHILD LIKE ADULT ORGANISES EXPLORATIONS AND BY BRINGING ORDER – STRENGTHENS THEM

Good planning is a combination of quantitative information from the likes of ABCe, NORAS, Comscore etc … With a good level of qualitative judgement looking at user experience, product knowledge and a good level of common sense. BUT that is good media planning; CREATIVE MEDIA PLANNING IS THE ART OF MAKING ONE PLUS ONE EQUAL ELEVEN

‘Creativity only comes when you have a deep understanding of the relationship a person has with the media.’

John Hegarty

You will be happy to know that I am not going to show the latest TMP creative, I have no schedules for you and no more equations. But I am going to show you ways you can understand the consumer decision making process and how you can effect it.

Getting a job is one of the most important things of your life. This is why PEOPLE are always the most important factor when planning a campaign.

People tend to run through the following process when getting a job;

I want a job?

Information search

Application

Interview

Do I want the job?

We use different information sources depending upon the stage in the job hunting process we are at. So people use jobsites to scope out what is out there but rely of information directly from companies and friends/family when it comes to making their final decision.

This information gathering process is not a funnel, it is an iterative process. People are gathering information from a variety of sources right up until the final decision.

I have no idea why people are shocked to find out that the internet is the most utilised way of sourcing information through the process.

I THINK PEOPLE STILL DO NOT ACCEPT THAT THOSE INTERNAL CERTAINTIES IN RECRUITMENT HAVE GONE.

In fact a recent focus group we ran for a client came back saying that people would only use the evening standard and google when researching a particular employer – EVEN JOBSITES DID NOT GET A LOOK IN.

What we find is that people use search, jobsites and advertising to guide the process. PEOPLE and DIRECT EMPLOYER information is the most valued information source.

What we are seeing is a merger of influence.  Friends and family working with the media and marketing to create a social media network. This is all designed by people to make their decisions – not a forced process.

There is an ability to amplify your message through the internet and to support people through the process with the right information. THE PROBLEM IS MOST ORGANISATIONS ARE NOT DOING THIS- LET ALONE GAINING ADVANTAGE FROM IT.

So far we have seen;

1. We need to be creative
2. There is an art to media planning
3. People use different media at different times in the process

SO HOW DOES THIS COME TOGETHER?

HR are essential to the process but make sure we work together in the right way

-         We need to get a full brief

-         People rush to get things done rather than doing the right thing, people don’t get sacked for late work but they do get sacked for work that does not work.

-         - Communicate feelings, write things down but also don’t forget to be visual and aural to make sure everyone understands each other.

-         - BE OPEN as this is where most relationships fall down

Now we could spend time guessing what people want but it is pointless we need to answer the following questions.

•         Who are your audience?

•         Where are your audience?

•         When do you want/need to reach them?

•         How are you going to communicate with them?

•         How much do you need to communicate with them?

•         What else?

You develop the strategies to meet the objectives

•         Target audience strategies

•         Geographic strategies

•         Scheduling

•         Engagement strategy

•         Tracking

•         Testing

This is how we are being creative by exploring the objectives and from this providing a solution. A CREATIVE SOLUTION IS ALWAYS NEEDED AS EVERY BRIEF IS DIFFERENT.

How much to spend on advertising?

Now this is always a difficult question to answer but only one methodology that works – APPLIED MATHS. Under-spending always results in not enough candidates and over-spending results in an expensive CPH. It would take far too long to explain every model you can use but you need to look at

Audience Reached

Response Rates

The value of the buy

And you level of risk

Now no more on this as it is about creativity.

So how do you pull together your media strategy? Lets go back to the process people run through when looking for a job; your media selection should reflect the stages people go through.

I want a job?

Information search

Application

Interview

Do I want the job?

The creative used at each stage should engage people. THIS IS CREATIVE MEDIA PLANNING, EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST DOING NEW THNGS.

So what have we seen;

1. CREATIVITY IS NATURAL
2. PLANNING IS AN ART, NOT A NUMBER
3. UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP PEOPLE HAVE WITH THE MEDIA IS KEY TO BEING CREATIVE.
4. LETS STOP THINKING THAT DOING NEW THINGS IS BEING CREATIVE
5. CREATIVE MEDIA PLANNING IS ALL ABOUT ENGAGING YOUR AUDIENCE.

Please discuss is you feel like it.

Comments

[John Salt]

I did find this post very interesting, never having worked for an agency myself. I do have a question on what was interesting about SimplyHired?

Also, why no comment on NORAS on the blog?

John

[Matt]

John W - Great post, couldn't agree more and think you have encapsulated a lot of the things we were discussing on here about the use of things like Youtube etc. We must get asked on a daily basis to do "new and exciting things". It's nearly always by clients who haven't got their basic strategies sorted and don't know who they want to talk to and what they want them to do. Very much "new" for the sake of "new"

John S - I'm writing a bit on research that I'm hoping to get up tomorrow that talks a bit about NORAS. For the most part I think it has passed us by because none of us actually ever really use or refer to it. Always good to see some new top line stats about online jobseeking but further than that nothing more than a passing interest really

[John Whitetehurst]

The NORAS information is great but we need to accept - will it be a NRS or NOT - a big question that i will not answer. I will email the presentation to you John and i think you will enjoy it - the reason why it was interesting is because someone was being intellgient in UK recruiting.

John

[Matt]

Even if it was the equivalent of NRS (which it couldn't be further away from being at the moment) I still think that that is irrelevant in the online space....will explain more in tomorrow's blog article