What a media plan should specify
A media plan is the document both sides refer back to when something is unclear. Most disagreements about an in-store campaign — delivery, targeting, reporting, make-goods — trace to an element the plan did not cover.
The list is short and specifying it takes one conversation.
What should the plan say about inventory?
Which stores, how many screens, loop length, slots purchased, and the daypart schedule. Those five define what is being bought, and their absence means the delivery cannot be checked against anything.
A store list should be an attachment rather than a description. A plan describing store types is describing a category of inventory rather than the inventory.
What about delivery?
Expected plays, how delivery will be measured, and what happens if it falls short. The measurement method is the part that matters, because delivered plays and scheduled plays are different figures.
Under-delivery is normal and manageable; undefined under-delivery is a dispute.
What about creative?
Specifications, deadlines, approval process and rotation plan. Including the rotation plan in the media plan is what ensures it happens, because otherwise nobody owns the refresh.
Creative specifications should be the network's published ones rather than a summary, so there is a single source.
What about measurement?
The objective, the primary measure, the comparison design, the window and the reporting cadence. Five elements, agreed before the flight, because agreeing them afterwards allows the result to select the method.
If a holdout is planned, the plan is where it is agreed, and it needs agreeing with the commercial team as well as the media one.
What about reporting?
What will be reported, at what granularity, on what cadence, and in what form. A plan that leaves reporting undefined tends to produce a summary that cannot be reconciled with the invoice.
Ask for store-level delivery. It is the granularity that supports both verification and measurement.
What about the commercial terms?
Price, what it includes, make-good mechanism, cancellation terms and what happens if the store list changes. The last is specific to this channel, where stores enter and leave a network during a flight.
Who should sign it off?
Whoever will be accountable for the result, on both sides. A plan agreed only between an account manager and a media executive is a plan neither organisation is bound by when a question arises.
Frequently asked questions
How detailed should a plan be?
Detailed enough that delivery can be checked against it. That usually means a store list, delivery expectations and a reporting specification, which is more than many plans in this channel contain.
What if the network cannot provide a store list?
That is informative. A channel sold at store level should be able to say which stores, and an inability to do so limits both targeting and verification.
Should the measurement design be in the media plan?
Yes, because it constrains the buy. A holdout design decided after the buy is committed may not be executable with the stores purchased.
What about mid-flight changes?
The plan should say how they are handled and documented. Changes made informally leave the final reporting reconciling to nothing.
Does an insertion order replace the plan?
They serve different purposes: the plan describes the campaign and the order commits the transaction. Both should exist and agree.
How long should it be?
Short. The elements above fit on a couple of pages with the store list attached, and length is not a proxy for rigour.
Who owns the plan after it is agreed?
One named person on each side, because a document owned by nobody is not referred to when it matters.
What is most often missing?
The store list and the measurement design, in that order. Both are the elements that determine whether the campaign can be verified.
What is the single most useful addition?
A definition of delivered plays and how they will be reported. It is the number everything else depends on.
### What should happen to the plan after the flight?
It becomes the document the results are reconciled against. Delivered plays against planned, stores against the list, creative against the rotation schedule.
That reconciliation is the reason the plan needs to be specific. A plan written in general terms cannot be reconciled to anything, which is why the final report ends up unchallengeable.
Who should hold the definitive version?
One named person on each side, with a version number and a date. Plans amended informally by email produce two versions and a disagreement about which one governs.
### What is the shortest workable plan?
Store list, delivery expectation, creative specification and deadline, measurement design, commercial terms. Five sections, one page plus an attachment.
Anything shorter cannot be reconciled after the flight; anything much longer stops being read. The test is whether somebody uninvolved could check the campaign against it.
Should the plan include assumptions?
Yes, particularly the audience and dwell assumptions behind any delivery estimate. An assumption stated can be revisited; one embedded in a number cannot.
Who should sign it?
The people accountable for the outcome on both sides, not only the people executing it. A plan agreed at execution level is not a commitment either organisation recognises later.
What should the plan say about data?
Which delivery and outcome data will be provided, at what granularity, in what format and by when. A plan silent on data produces a report in whatever shape the network finds convenient.
Does an agency plan differ?
In form rather than in content. The same five sections apply and the agency should be able to produce them from the network's own commitments. Industry standards work is discussed by bodies such as the IAB.
Considering NRS Digital Media? Start at nrsdigitalmedia.com, read the media deck, or contact the team.