4

ADVANCED MEDIA STRATEGY & TACTICS

COMM 452

W 4:00-6:45 pm, Fall 2003

Instructor: Dr. Kuen-Hee Ju-Pak

Office Hours: T 11:15 am–1:15 pm and W 1:30-3:30 pm, or by appointment

Office/Phone: CP 460-14 , 278-3517 (dept.) 278-7006 (office)

E-mail:

Website:http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/kjupak/

Required Texts:

Sissors & Bumba (SB), Advertising Media Planning, 6th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2002

Goodrich & Sissors (GS), Media Planning Workbook, 5th ed., NTC Business Books, 1996 (This book is unavailable by the current publisher, and I will find a way to make the necessary sections available)

Martin & Coons, Media Flight Plan III (MFP), most current edition, Deer Creek Publishing (to be ordered by each group)

Required Packet: A note packet will be available at the course site

Course Description:

This course, Advanced Media Strategy and Tactics is designed to offer students further education in advertising media. This course integrates theories from related disciplines, such as communications, marketing, and psychology, with practices to illustrate new and better ways to use media as a competitive tool in business. Students are exposed to various media planning and buying strategies and tactics as well as computerized media planning/evaluation models. Prerequisites: completion of Comm 352 with "C" or better or consent of instructor.

Course Objectives:

The major goal of this course is to help students develop enough knowledge and skills to work efficiently in their advertising media careers. The specific objectives of the course are:

(1) to help students build a thorough understanding of the quantitative and qualitative criteria in developing and evaluating media strategies;

(2) to provide students with enough hands-on experience on some of the most widely used information sources available for media decision- making;

(3) to develop their skills and confidence in a) using computerized media exposure estimation models to evaluate media schedules; b) determining and fine-tuning the mechanics of a media plan using computerized models and computer software;

(4) to give students an opportunity to be involved in the entire process of media decision-making (from collection and analysis of the relevant data to running an acid-test to evaluate how likely the plan developed will achieve the set goals, and finally to pitch for an account);

(5) to help students understand the critical issues inherent in the planning, buying and selling established media;

(6) to provide an understanding of the process involved and explore creative ways in using new and alternative media.

Course Evaluation and Grading:

Grading weights and due dates are as follows. Students are expected to meet all deadlines, and no late work will be accepted.

Team Project 600 Points

Marketing Overview & Media Objectives, October 8 200 Points

Complete Media Plan, December 10 300 Points

Presentation, December 10 100 Points

Individual Topic Exploration/Presentation (November 12 & 19) 200 Points

Participation in Group Work 200 Points

In-class media workshops & discussion 100 points

Participation in meetings for Team Project 100 points

Students are assigned a media "project" in which they will develop a media plan for an actual brand or client. Students should work as a three- or four-person team. The project consists of three parts: Marketing Overview and Media Objectives (8-10 pages), Complete Media Plan (includes marketing overview & media objectives and the rest, on average 20-25 pages, including tables and charts; computer outputs are separate) and The Presentation (in 15 minutes). The complete plan will be prepared and presented by each team. Details about this project will be provided later in the semester. Note: You need to form this project team of up to four persons as soon as possible.

Students are also required to select and critically review a topic concerning the use of the new and alternative media (to be assigned later, in 5-6 pages, on average) and to present the material in as organized a manner as possible. Some student examples are available for your perusal. You may work individually or as a two-person team for this topical review. More information will be provided later. Note: You need to form this topic exploration group and start working on the topic as soon as possible.

Note: Graduate students are required to do additional work. (See me for this)

In most of class meetings, there will be some discussion of select topics from the lecture or of your project related issues. The list of discussion topics or issues will be provided later. In addition, there will be several workshops to be given in class. The workshop materials will come from the workbook by Goodrich & Sissors (GS in course outline). These media workshops will allow students to become directly involved with some of the problems in media decision-making. You are to participate in the class discussion and the workshops as a discussion group and to submit any in-class work done regarding the workshop or discussion in class, when required. Your study group on that day will be formed on the spot with the students available. Your participation in the in-class activities will be part of your course grade.

Also, your participation in various meetings for the media plan project, in class or out-of-class, will be graded by your peers and incorporated into the course grade.

In this course, class attendance and participation in class discussion and activities are important. In your professional life, missing work could mean losing your job. As such, in this class, attendance is critical. If you miss classes when we do a media workshop or when your project group meets in class or right after class, such absence will work against you. Also, should you miss eight sessions (there are two sessions in each class), your overall grade will be dropped by one letter. Please come to class on time. If you are late for more than 20 minutes or leave more than 20 minutes early, it will be counted as absence for the corresponding session, unless you informed me of a legitimate reason.

In this course, you are also expected to show initiative equal to university-level work. You should thus be prepared to ask and answer questions. Please be on time, and come prepared each day. Any class activities, if missed, can only be made up for documented illness or documented family emergency.

Course Outline: Topics, Readings, Activities and Due Dates:

The following is a tentative schedule for the course and is subject to change. Readings for a particular topic should be completed in advance of the date indicated. Bring the note packet to each class and project related material (such LNA, MRI, any other data specified in the discussion list), when requested.

Topic / Readings / Activity &
Assignment Due
8/27 / Introduction to Course
9/3 / Overview of Media Planning Basics / SB 1 / Group info: names (for the topic presentation)
Sources of Media and Marketing Information / SB 6 (143-158)
9/10 / Introduction to Media Plan Project
·  Sample Plans / SB 2
GS (TBD) / Group info- names, leader & meeting schedules (project)
Marketing Situation and Media Strategy
Competitive Assessment / SB 6
LNA (TBD)
9/17 / Consumer Analysis / SB 7 (159-172) / Discussion #1: Bring your LNA & MRI data
·  Using MRI to Evaluate Product Usage / MRI (TBD)
·  Using MRI Quintiles to Evaluate Media Usage / MRI (TBD)
9/24 / Market Analysis / SB 8 (193-206); 7(172-189) / Discussion #2
·  Building Spreadsheets to Rank Markets / MFP (37-42)
GS (TBD)
9/24 / Media Objectives and Related Issues / SB 6 (106-116), 8 (206-222) SB 1 (p. 13): media goals / Discussion #3
·  Setting reach, frequency, effective freq goals
·  Scheduling / GS (TBD)
SB 7 (189-192)
10/1 / Media Strategy & Rationale / SB 10, GS (TBD) / Discussion #4
·  Considering Qualitative Media Values / SB 11
10/8 / Planning/Buying: Newspapers & Magazines / SB 9 & 12 (20 minutes Student Presentation),
GS (TBD) / Mktg Overview & Media Objectives (hard copy & file disk) Due: Discussion #5
10/15 / Planning/Buying: Television & Radio / SB 9 & 12 (20-min student presentation) / Discussion #5
GS (TBD)
10/22 / Planning/Buying: Direct Mail, Outdoor, Transit / SB 9 & 12 (20-min student presentation) / Discussion #6
10/29 / Work Session (Analyzing & Quantifying)
Proving your plan delivers the set objectives I
·  Introduction to MFP & Acid Test using MFP / MFP (51-62) /

Bring in MFP to class

11/5 / Planning/Buying: Internet / SB 9, 11 (310-15), 12
(20-min student presentation) / Discussion #7
11/12 / Planning/Buying: Alternative Media
Group Work Session (Bring in MPF, Laptop) / Topic Presentations (by 2-person teams), SB 9 (248-52); / Report (hard copy & file disk) due & Bring enough hard copies to class
11/19 / Planning/Buying: Alternative Media / Topic Presentations (by 2-person teams) / Presentation material (power-point file disk) due
12/3 / Work Sessions - Pitch, Fine tuning, Presentation Rehearsal
12/10 / The Media Event: Presentation of Plans / Presentation Materials (in power-point)/Your Resume / & Complete Plan Report (hard copy file disk)