Boating Industry Canada October 2016 - 30

surprise at the end of the year. You're able to manage your
spend as it is required, or when opportunities arise but
monitor the budget continuously.
2. Once it's established that you are using a media company,
the advertising reps will be contacting the media company
allowing you to do what you do best - sell your product.
(That means those pain-in-the-butt phone calls will mostly
go away.)
3. Negotiate the best rates, best position, added value
opportunities, i.e. editorial inclusion, promo ops such as
at a show or online, the odd free ad or mention etc.

When the process is complete, you receive a spreadsheet
showing the whole picture with every dollar accounted for. By
boat show time you should have the entire season in your
sights. If there's a change along the way, you'll receive an
update with notes explaining what happened.
You may want to change things at your end as you go - a
special sale, a successful boat model that deserves an extra
push or a 'remainder' sale using some media outlet. Remember
that media is a consumable with a best before date and it needs
to be sold before it expires - your buyer will know those
angles.

Do I Need a Media Plan Even
if My Budget is Small?

4. Your agency is always looking out for you, researching
new opportunities and bringing those opportunities to the
table. The online world comes up with a new thing every
week - do you have time or skill to both run your business and stay on top of complex technology and trends?
5. Evaluation. There are tools available to measure the
efficiency of your spending and last week's sales figure
isn't necessarily the best measure since that fluctuates with
the economy, the weather, politics and other factors.
A professional can help assess the value of your money's
efforts objectively.

How Does a Media Plan Work?
The client and the media company get together in late summer,
or early fall (right now would be good!!) to discuss the plan for
the following year.
With so many media opportunities, print, radio, TV,
online, social media, open houses, billboards, boat show
opportunities and more, a couple of meetings will be necessary to finalize the plan.
The client provides a budget (typically close to what they
spent last year or enhanced if products or services have been
added). The agency goes back, negotiates the rates with the
suppliers and the agency comes back with a plan to finalize
with the client. This process can take up to 4-6 weeks.

Judy points out that no matter who is spending the budget
every company should have a plan. This eliminates overspending and keeps track of exactly where your dollars have
been spent. Sure there will be opportunities made available to
you that you didn't allocate to the plan, but if the opportunity
can help build your business, you will find the extra dollars.

How Much Does it Cost to Have a Pro Do It?
A 15% commission is the standard fee. Many (smart) media
companies include that commission in their costs, so the net
cost to you can be low or even negligible, depending on the
media and their policy and on what the planner can negotiate.
If all goes well, your overall budget may end up lower than if
you did the buying yourself!
Bottom line: your budget is better managed and used more
efficiently if you have a pro do it. Would it be smart for your
customers to repair their engine themselves? Not likely. Think
of your marketing as the power that drives your company and
you'll hopefully agree that even though you know your side of
the operation, when it comes to media planning you'd like a
pro handling the wrenches.
Coming in December's Ad Nauseam: Budget management,
the merits of continuity, short rate penalties, taking advantage
of remainders and other deals.

SCREW-OUT. PRY-OUT: WATER OUT!
Watertight quality your boats deserve!

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30

Boating Industry Canada

OCTOBER 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Boating Industry Canada October 2016