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How To Get More Bang For Your Media-Buying Budget This Year | January 29, 2014 (0 comments)
New York, NY—If there are three important lessons for luxury jewelers to learn when planning and buying media for 2014, it’s these: 1) digital media isn’t cheap (no matter what you heard); 2) just because a publication, broadcast, or digital outlet targets the audience you want doesn’t mean it reaches them at the best moment; and 3) even if it isn’t broken, sometimes it can benefit from a fix.
In an exclusive one-on-one interview with Joanne DeRicco, president and owner of Mediability Plus, a New York-based media buying agency with many luxury jewelry brands as clients, The Centurion asked for some key tips to help luxury jewelers better plan and execute their media strategy and maximize their dollars.
The Centurion: What’s the difference between media planning and buying?
Joanne DeRicco: Basically, it’s step one and step two. You’d like to say a smart person doesn’t buy without planning—but often you have to look at budget parameters first and put the cart before the horse because you can’t plan until you see what the media costs.
The Centurion: What’s the most important aspect of media buying for a luxury business?
DeRicco: With a luxury business you have to examine not only the demographics but also the environment. It’s not just buying a magazine with a high household income [readership]. You might be able to reach really wealthy people in a luxury auto magazine—and that might benefit certain advertisers—but is the audience in the right mindset when they’re reading it? It might be a great place to advertise jewelry, but I bet it’s probably better if you’re advertising speakers, even if the audience can afford the jewelry. What are they reading that magazine for? What are they looking for when they read it?
Joanne DeRicco
The Centurion: When should jewelers and brands plan to buy media?
DeRicco: Ideally, you want a minimum of three to four months prior to when you hope to begin your campaign. That’s the rule of thumb for securing the space and position you want. Magazines aren’t going to rip apart an editorial layout [late in the process] to give you a better space unless you’re spending a lot of money.
Centurion is the first show of the year, so it’s great if brands can go to retailers and say, “this is how we’re supporting the brand,” but it’s not always possible. Some companies have to wait and see how sales are before they can make a budget.
The Centurion: What about retailers? Same rule?
DeRicco: On the retail side, I think there’s a lot more flexibility, and in certain media, especially local media, there’s also more flexibility. With radio, you could possibly produce a spot even in a few days! But for things like billboards and other out-of-home media, you still have to plan early. Also, lots of retailers have been running the same schedule for years, so it’s more a matter of planning the content than the buy.
The Centurion: If a retailer’s been running the same schedule for years, shouldn’t they reassess it every so often?
DeRicco: There are different schools of thought. Some say, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” and a lot of people are hesitant to change something that’s working. But to me, media isn’t stagnant. I think you should always reassess, always refine. The world is changing, media is changing, and if you don’t reassess your business—including how you market your business—you’re going to be left behind. Maybe you always run this cable ad in this time period—but what if the programming changes? Is the new audience still relevant for your message?
The Centurion: But isn’t consistency a key part of effective advertising?
DeRicco: Absolutely. Reassess and refine, but don’t go too far the other way and keep changing your message and your strategy. Both extremes are wrong; you need to find the balance.
The Centurion: What key differences should jewelers know about buying digital media vs. traditional media?
DeRicco: Digital media should support and augment traditional media, not replace it. Traditional media offers more space to communicate your message, your values, etc. Digital media should work in tandem with that.
The Centurion: What are some digital media “don’ts?”
DeRicco: People seem to think that because social media is young, that they can get their nephew just out of college, or anyone to do it. You can’t. You have to be as selective and strategic about it as you are with traditional media. You also have to be careful not to put useless information out there because the audience will tune you out and miss when you have something of value to say.
The Centurion: But haven’t we been telling retailers to post on social media at least once a day?
DeRicco: Yes. Retailers do have daily stories to tell. Whether it’s a customer experience, an event, or whatever, they have a lot more to say that’s of value to customers every day. A designer, on the other hand, may not have much new to say from day to day, so make sure what you’re putting out there has value.
The Centurion: What’s the single most important thing to know about digital media?
DeRicco: There’s a huge misconception that all digital is inexpensive and all digital is valuable. It’s not. You get what you pay for. As soon as you start to get selective, every time you refine the buy—whether it’s a specific audience, a geo-locator, above the fold, whatever—the price goes up.
People will say ‘I got this really cheap.’ Well, what did you get really cheap? Is it an aggregate site with few unique visitors? Is it even a real site? Are the clicks you’re getting from interested potential customers or bots (programs that click on ads to generate revenue). Did your ad end up on a gambling site that is full of people who want to play and aren’t even thinking about jewelry? Even if you bought a certain age or demographic, not everything you get is going to be relevant to you.
I believe digital is an important piece of the marketing pie—you just have to make sure to do it with as much thought and analysis as any other marketing you do. Lots of people can waste lots of money. It’s one thing if the Gap or Tommy Hilfiger mis-spends $200,000—it’s not going to be the end of the world, but they’ll still want to fix the mistake. But a jeweler with $20,000 to spend on digital loses $2,000 on a bad buy? That’s a big chunk of their budget.
The Centurion: What’s better; pay-per-click or buying a banner or some other ad?
DeRicco: Buying a number of impressions is more secure, but you still run the risk of bots. Pay-per-click, you run the risk of people running a site just to generate clicks. And even a legitimate click doesn’t guarantee engagement. But nothing really does, including traditional ads. People can change the radio station, do chores during TV commercials, or flip right past the ads in a magazine or newspaper.
The Centurion: What about buying ad words, so at least you’re targeting people that have demonstrated interest?
DeRicco: That can get tricky. Buy the words most pertinent to you. I would suggest you go very deep, not wide. You reduce the risk of being intrusive because there’s less chance you’ll get unwanted audience.
The Centurion: So you believe in narrow and deep as a general strategy?
DeRicco: Yes. Lots of media people say the opposite: get as many as you can. They’ll say do one in InStyle, one in Town & Country, one in Elle, one in Vanity Fair, etc. so it looks like you’re all over. That’s great if your goal is to look like you’re all over. But if your goal is to sell more jewelry, I think you have a better chance at getting people really engaged if you go narrow and deep.
The Centurion: How should retailers allocate money for co-op advertising vs. doing their own advertising?
DeRicco: I think it should be a good balance. You don’t want either to take over the other. You are a conduit to the customer to get the brands they want, but your own original ads tell what sets you apart from other retailers selling the same thing.
The Centurion: Any last words of wisdom?
DeRicco: It’s a process. David Yurman didn’t start where he is now. It’s an evolution, but the key thing is to get started.
Top image: Activerain.com