Boating Industry Canada October 2016 - 28

AD NAUSEAM

Media Planning
Does it Make Sense in the Marine Industry?
BY JOHN MORRIS

GOOD MORNING and thanks for tuning in! Today on How it
Works we take a look at the role of the media planner and ask
whether it is useful for companies, big and small, to use professional media planners. Or, can you do it yourself - i.e. not
plan much, just buy the odd ad when the salesman finally
breaks down your resistance with incessant phone calls and
visits.
In this country, there are only a handful of marine accounts
that use large, conventional advertising agencies. That would
include the engine manufacturers and a couple of the larger
insurance companies. Canada's large boat builders have now
mostly vanished, but back some time ago (please don't ask) I
worked at an agency where we did creative, media planning
and PR for C&C, Doral and others of that scale. Our media
planner/buyer, Lance Moreton, became a total expert on vertical marine media (at that time mostly magazines and the occasional TV show) and on the relevant consumer media like daily
newspaper or run-of-schedule TV.
Today the media landscape has changed significantly due to
the huge array of online possibilities. Even though your budget
is no match for those big guys, the complexity of the available
options makes it perhaps even more useful to have a pro doing
your advertising budget investing. (I know some of you see any
advertising spend as an 'expense', maybe even a grudging one,
but done properly it really is a useful investment.)
Full disclosure: when I am not pounding the keys here at
Boating Industry Canada, I work with several clients, marine
and non-marine, as their PR and marketing advisor. When
there's paid media involved, I turn to my long-time pal Judy
Richardson for planning and negotiation. Judy's outfit, JR
Media, is likely this country's top independent media planner
and knows the marine industry from the bilge up. Her career
began as a media buyer, then as a media rep, then as a planner
- nearly all of it in the boating field.
The first question I asked Judy is the one you may be asking
- how big do I need to be, to benefit from a media planning
process. "At $20k, you really should be using someone to effectively use your budget," she says. That's a pretty basic number,
I feel. Likely if you're reading this publication, you're working
with at least that amount and if not, why not?
There's quite a list of benefits, according to Judy:
1. Keeping track of your allocated advertising dollars - no

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OCTOBER 2016

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