ABSTRACT
Brand communication boils down to two fundamentals. One is content, what the brand communicates. The second is contact, how the communication connects to its intended audience. Media planning has evolved to communication planning. This chapter provides an overview of the four key ways this shift has occurred. The first is the evolution from advertising support to overall brand support, a move that gives the planner a broader role. The second is reaching versus influencing. The third component is moving from a multimedia strategy to a multichannel strategy, and the fourth and final major shift is from placing advertising units to impacting multiplatform content. Advertising media have evolved in previously unforeseen ways over the past 10 years, led principally by the digital media revolution. Brand marketers conduct rigorous analyses to determine the lift that each medium and media vehicle or activity gives to incremental brand sales. All brands view media planning as an integrated marketing communications (IMC) effort.
