While the media planning process for both traditional and new media types must continue to evolve and adapt to be effective, there are certain timing and calendar considerations that remain constant to ensure that you are maximizing your budget and securing the most efficient rates.

Key items to keep in mind for optimal execution of your campaign:

Inventory Demand/Inventory Management:
Within the traditional media space, knowing how stations manage ad inventory and forecast ad revenue can be extremely useful in negotiations and obtaining the best rates. January/February for example, can often be purchased at significantly lower rates, certain Q4 weeks can have significantly lower inventory demand, allowing for up to double the opportunity for added value opportunities – no charge weeks, additional ROS.

Political: Knowing the both the political climate of the markets or regions being purchased along with the key political windows dates allows for the maximization of ad spend, avoids major issues with preemptions, and helps gauge how much political timing and activity may affect one market more than another.

Key Events: Planning, negotiating and bookmarking for broadcast placements within major events well in advance helps to avoid later increases in spot rate, avoids sell-out scenarios and ensures placements in the most high rated events and programming – Superbowl, Award Shows, Playoffs, March Madness, Premieres, Olympics to name a few.

The overall media planning process is an intricate mix of strategy, metrics, media types and habits, and audience targeting. By keeping in mind timing considerations and regular calendar events you can make your ad spend more efficient and vendor negotiations more beneficial in your favor, resulting in a more cohesive media plan.