See how Martino Flynn makes sure we’re getting the right message to the right person at the right time.

Deciding where to run your advertisement could prove to be tricky. Many advertisers think any large or well-known media outlets are worth the cost. However, this isn’t necessarily the case. For example, if you see your ad in People magazine, you may assume it would be great exposure for your business and drive sales of the Ferraris on your car lot. WRONG! People magazine is very popular, reaching a large population, but it may not reach YOUR audience. Currently, People magazine has a readership in the United States composed of 71% females and 29% males with a median household income of approximately $70K. The average reader may not be able to purchase Ferraris that cost $200K+. Forbes magazine may be a better fit as its readerships are 2x more likely to be c-level executives making $250K+ annually.

What if you are a local flower nursery with only a storefront presence? An ad in Fine Gardening magazine would be a great brand awareness play as it reaches 96K+ of the most engaged gardeners in the United States. In reality, this, too, may be a waste of money because it’s unlikely to effectively drive local gardeners to walk into the store.

This is why a well-developed and well-executed media plan is so important. Identifying, evaluating, and strategically selecting a mix of media platforms that will achieve an advertiser’s campaign goals within a defined budget (the People magazine ad may have taken up 99% of your total marketing budget) is the mission of media planning. There are so many factors to take into account, but the main ones to consider include:

1. 1. Audience Research: Who are your ideal customers and how can you best reach them? You should have a clear idea of your target market’s age, gender, income level, media habits, interests, etc.
   2. Goals: Do you want to increase your overall brand/product awareness? Do you want to drive conversion rates for a newsletter sign-up? Each media outlet will have a different outcome. This is why it’s important to set clear goals in order to measure the performance of a campaign.
   3. Media Evaluation: Which media outlet will be the most effective to reach your audience and accomplish your goals? In addition, you have to consider what type of media placements are offered – Display banners? eNewsletters? eBlasts?
      • Anticipated Metrics: What type of performance does each media placement and outlet generate? What are the CPCs (Cost per click) or the CPMs (cost per thousand) look like? What about the CTRs (click-through rate)? These anticipated metrics are based on your goals.
   4. Budget: Everything has a price. You want to make sure you don’t spread your budget too thin. The budget should be allocated behind the placements that will give you the most bang for your buck, and sometimes that means focusing on 1-2 publications instead of running in 8 publications. You want to have enough reach and frequency.

After considering the above and deciding on defined marketing goals, it’s time to mesh together a cohesive media plan. However, you don’t have to do this alone. Martino Flynn is equipped with all the tools and highly experienced staff to find the right media plan for you.  Let us help you reach your goals; contact us at 585.421.0100.

A new blog series from Martino Flynn which offers an “inside view” into the lives of the smart and talented individuals that drive Martino Flynn’s success every day. Each month, we  shine the spotlight on a new MF colleague. Enjoy!

My name is Zack Manuel, and I recently joined the team at Martino Flynn as a Marketing Insights Manager in the newly formed Data Science and Research practice. Prior to MF, I received my degree in Intelligence Studies from Mercyhurst University, and immediately began my career as a government intelligence contractor for the Department of Homeland Security in Carson City, Nevada. As my contract wound down, I opted to move back to the east coast and open a small team sales and apparel company with a college teammate, leveraging all of the relationships we had built with athletes, coaches, and companies over the years. Prior to being acquired, our primary clientele was college athletic teams and small-to-midsized organizations across the country.

With the majority of my family relocating to Rochester from Elmira, New York (where I grew up), and a desire to get back into the world of research, data and analytics, I moved to the area and reconvened my work in this vertical for several industries, including PR/Marketing, Commercial Real Estate, and Higher Education. Because the data and metrics were so different across these broad industries, I was forced to adapt, picking up and mastering new and different skill sets, measurement tools, capabilities, and technology, all of which play crucial parts in my role as Marketing Insights Manager at Martino Flynn. The constantly evolving world of data, especially with regard to how we can best measure or use this data to uncover insights and help drive our client’s business decisions and strategies, are what keep me constantly engaged and passionate about my work. Data can be visualized and ingested in so many different ways using just as many lenses, and my goal is to make sure that our clients can receive, view, and understand their most up-to-date and critical data whenever the need arises.

After my first week at Martino Flynn, it was evident that this place was different from any other organization I had worked for before. The first differentiator was the work environment. Each of my colleagues wanted to get to know and understand me on a personal level – my likes, dislikes, personality, etc. Once a personal relationship was established, then it was time to get to work! At Martino Flynn, employees are not just cogs in a corporate wheel. It is a personal atmosphere, where people aren’t just consumed with producing great work, but also actually care about your life outside of work. Martino Flynn is truly a team, which makes getting up every morning and going to work enjoyable. The teamwork demonstrated by everybody across different focus areas and departments is extraordinary.

Outside the office, I have always loved competition. I played defense on my college lacrosse team, but now opt for playing sports with a little less contact! I am an avid golfer, and also enjoy playing basketball and platform tennis. If I’m not on the course or a court, you can usually find me with my wife, Lindsey, and dog, Duke, relaxing at our home in Fairport – or running around with (chasing) our two nephews, who are 3 and 5. In the future, my wife and I would like to plan a “heritage” trip to Ireland, Germany, and Italy to investigate some of the towns and villages that our ancestors immigrated to the U.S. from. I am a diehard fan of the Boston Celtics and Kentucky Wildcats, and as a kid growing up in the Michael Jordan era of the NBA, I have a nostalgic connection to vintage Jordan basketball sneakers, which I collect (and definitely consider my guilty pleasure!). If I could go back in time and give myself one bit of professional advice, it would definitely be to just relax. Pressure is a positive thing to a certain degree, but applying too much pressure on oneself can be counterintuitive. So, I’d tell myself to just relax, work hard, and everything will take care of itself.

Whether angry over a cheap dress that didn’t wash well or regretting the late-night street meat that they ate, most people have heard or used the idiom, “You get what you pay for.” However, this doesn’t have to ring true for nonprofits looking for quality marketing strategy and creative with small or non-existent budgets.

Employees at Martino Flynn and most advertising agencies look forward to the rewarding challenges of working on pro bono projects. It’s no secret that those of us who chose a career in advertising are typically passionate by nature. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we are incredibly energetic about our community and the causes near and dear to us. Whether it’s increasing attendance at a breast cancer gala or helping with creative for a large capital campaign, we are sure to give it our all. Here are a few reasons why, for us, pro-bono projects are worth more than just giving away free work to check off a box.

Giving back: In an industry known for long hours, many of us have little time outside of work and our families to volunteer in the community. Taking on pro-bono projects in the office allows us to use our skills to benefit important causes without taking hours away from our already time-strapped lives. Sometimes, we even happily skip into the office on a Saturday or Sunday to work on pro-bono projects that we couldn’t fit into the workweek.

Challenging goals: Although pro-bono creative projects tend to grab the heart strings and win awards, they also often have big goals to achieve. From increasing cancer screenings to decreasing high school dropout rates, our nonprofit partners need more than just good-looking creative; they need great creative that’s also effective.

Challenging budgets: Nonprofit project budgets are usually incredibly small or non-existent, leading to the need for creative workarounds such as donated media, gorilla marketing tactics, and out-of-the-box PR. These brainstorming sessions challenge us to think creatively, leading to new budget-saving ideas for our for-profit clients.

For these and other more personal reasons, Martino Flynn employees give our pro-bono clients way “more than what they pay for.” And we always get way more back than we put in.