Integrated Media Planning: What It Is and How to Adopt it In Your Marketing Strategy

Whether we recognize it aliases not, we’re surrounded by integrated media planning.

For example, a fewer months ago, I was driving to nan airdrome and saw a advertisement for Kim Kardashian’s company, SKIMS. A week later, I saw ads connected Instagram and a SKIMS conception connected “Keeping Up pinch nan Kardashians.”

I had 1 of those moments wherever I thought, “SKIMS is everywhere!” and soon, erstwhile I was shopping for shapewear for my wedding, conjecture what marque I thought of? (Spoiler alert: it was SKIMS).

Integrated media strategy made this possible. Below, we’ll dive into what integrated media readying is and really to adopt it successful your trading strategy.

Already cognize what you need? Jump location pinch this array of contents:

Table of Contents

• What is integrated media?
• Integrated Media Planning
• Integrated Media Strategy
• Integrated Media Plan Examples

Using integrated media fundamentally ensures that each of a business’ different assemblage segments tin brushwood its ads and apt brushwood them connected various channels.

Types of Integrated Media

Any shape of media tin beryllium considered integrated media.

This includes but is not constricted to:

• Your website
• Blog articles
• Billboards
• Radio/TV commercials
• Print ads
• Email
• Press coverage
• Social media content
• Paid media
• Social ads
• Search motor marketing
• Events
• Partnerships

Perhaps you could conception them by categories for illustration integer (e.g., societal media, email, SEO), broadcast (e.g., radio, television), people (e.g., magazine, billboards), and outdoor (e.g., billboards, transit).

But truthfully, immoderate operation of media channels you tin ideate tin beryllium considered “integrated” if you’re tapping into them for nan aforesaid goal.

For nan purposes of integrated media planning, immoderate find it adjuvant to disagreement channels into 3 buckets: paid, earned, aliases owned.

Paid Media: As nan sanction implies, paid media is media wherever you salary for exposure. Think sponsored societal media posts, billboards, retargeting ads, TV commercials, aliases paid hunt results.

It is typically utilized to grow your marque awareness, get much clicks, and make much traffic.

Need thief search and organizing your media readying and media buying? Our free paid media template tin help.

Earned Media: This is media aliases contented you didn’t inquire for but tin use from. It’s immoderate worldly written astir you aliases your business that you haven't paid for aliases created yourself, for illustration mag features/articles, tv aliases power interviews, aliases reviews. Some often telephone it “publicity.”

Like paid media, this tin thief build consciousness and make much liking and sales, but you don’t person immoderate power complete nan messaging. It tin beryllium affirmative aliases negative.

Owned Media: Owned media is made up of channels you’re successful afloat power of. Think of contented for your institution website, blog, and societal media accounts. You find what’s said and really it’s presented.

The determination astir which circumstantial blend of these is nan task of an integrated media planner.

Integrated Media Planner

An integrated media planner makes each media readying decisions based connected buyer personas, competitor analysis, reviews, and social listening.

From this, nan planner learns nan champion people of action that will thief their trading meet business goals.

They take nan astir effective channels and types of media (paid, owned, earned, etc.) and see erstwhile and really often contented will show up connected each platform.

For example, possibly you’ll station Instagram stories astir 5-7 p.m. erstwhile your assemblage is location from work, and you’ll scheme a power spot for nan morning, astir 6-9 a.m., to scope your commuting audience.

Either way, deciding erstwhile and really often a portion of contented will look is an important facet of an integrated media planner's job, and ‌this happens during integrated media planning.

Why is integrated media effective?

Integrated media is effective because it doesn’t put each your eggs successful 1 basket. Rather than leaning into 1 aliases 2 channels, it experiments and brings together nan champion options to execute your goals.

It besides capitalizes connected nan powerfulness of repetition.

Remember my SKIMS story? Over nan people of respective months, I was deed pinch contented for nan marque aggregate times earlier really taking action and making a purchase. And that’s really it goes for a batch of people.

A caller study recovered that consumers tin return anyplace from 1 to a whopping 50 touches to return action, depending connected their existent shape successful nan buyer’s journey.

A bully integrated media strategy establishes a wide assortment of these touchpoints to foster this benignant of acquisition and meet group wherever their attraction is.

But, arsenic you mightiness guess, this isn’t easy.

Challenges of Integrated Media Planning

Like each bully things, integrated media has its stock of challenges. Three of nan biggest are attribution, cost, and resourcing.

• Attribution: With truthful galore channels coming together, it tin beryllium difficult to cognize what to attribute “credit” for conversions and sales. This makes it difficult to cognize what mediums are really astir effective and what should beryllium cut.

  Tracking links, cookies, and attribution reports for illustration HubSpot’s tin help if you usage Marketing Hub, but ambiguity conscionable comes inherently pinch nan strategy.

• Cost: Investing successful galore different channels isn’t cheap. Hiring specialists to put together effective strategies aliases imaginative tin agelong immoderate budget. Not to mention nan built-in costs of paid mediums.
• Resourcing: Monetary costs aside, processing and moving a batch of different strategies is conscionable demanding connected squad clip and effort.

But if you tin navigate these issues, really do you get started?

Integrated Media Planning

Integrated media readying is nan process you’ll spell done erstwhile you’re considering various media platforms you want to usage successful a trading campaign.

An integrated media scheme answers questions for illustration “Who is nan target audience?” and “What mean will scope this audience?”

For example, if you’re targeting millennials, you mightiness see Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) for your media plan. However, if you’re targeting Gen X possibly a operation of tv and Facebook mightiness activity best.

Integrated trading plans besides guarantee that nan ads you create crossed your different channels are accordant and cohesive pinch what you’re offering.

As in, erstwhile you advertise thing connected 1 channel, you advertise it nan aforesaid measurement connected different transmission truthful audiences tin spot a cohesive run sloppy of really they travel crossed your ad.

Ultimately, an integrated media scheme will usage a multichannel attack pinch a operation of accepted and integer methods. Below, we’ve outlined 5 steps to creating an integrated media plan:

Integrated Media Strategy

1. Identify your run goals.

Before you tin commencement readying your integrated media approach, you person to cognize your goals.

Just for illustration immoderate trading campaign, you should person SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) written down truthful you tin create a strategy.

Why exactly? HubSpot’s Lucy Alexander explains, “The SMART acronym is simply a model that will alteration you to constitute goals that thrust greater impact. Write goals pinch these aspects successful mind, and you’ll beryllium capable to quantify really acold you’ve travel and really acold you person near to spell against your goal.”

“When you scope each milestone you articulated, you tin observe knowing that you achieved thing tangible and impactful.”

When it comes to integrated media, possibly you want to scope a definite magnitude of group successful a definite magnitude of time. Or possibly you’re conscionable looking to summation marque consciousness among a caller market.

No matter what it is, constitute down your goals and objectives truthful you tin way your performance.

2. Zero successful connected your target market.

This goes hand-in-hand pinch your goals, but who do you want to scope pinch your integrated media strategy? Zero successful connected this to place nan mediums and platforms you request to tackle to get successful beforehand of them.

Research your target market. Document demographic accusation specified arsenic income, education, and gender, arsenic good arsenic symptom points and goals. You request to cognize what’s important to your audience, what their lives are like, and what problems they person to cognize what your messaging should look like.

To make this process easier, deliberation astir your customer journey.

If your institution has a buyer persona, aliases possibly moreover a few, past this measurement should beryllium beautiful easy for you, but if you don’t, now’s nan clip to get immoderate clarity and shape nan details. Our free purchaser persona templates tin help.

3. Choose your media outlets.

This is nan breadstuff and food of integrated media planning: deciding wherever to behaviour your trading campaign.

It tin beryllium stressful. In fact, according to HubSpot Research, nan number 1 situation trading professionals look is determining which level (or platforms) they should put in.

But truly, you conscionable request to spell backmost to nan facts.

Based connected your target audience, what do you need to include? Where do you need to be? Ask yourself, “Where does my assemblage want to devour content?” and “What type of contented do they want to consume?” and spot what nan information says.

If you’re trying to scope Gen Z, possibly that’s TikTok and Instagram. Boomers? Television ads and Facebook whitethorn beryllium your champion bet. Look astatine your persona investigation and information you person from erstwhile campaigns and take astatine slightest 3 channels to get started with.

HubSpot Research has really recovered that 81% leverage much than 3 channels.

Source

HubSpot’s Flori Needle breaks down really to audit your existing paid, earned, and owned media outlets in this article.

4. Produce nan creative.

Now, here’s nan nosy part.

Write nan copy, creation nan graphics, and return nan pictures. Your imaginative elements should travel your marque guidelines and show a communicative astir who you are arsenic a company.

To support your workload easy, you mightiness see creating adaptable trading assets that tin beryllium utilized for several channels aliases tapping into AI devices for illustration ChatGPT aliases HubSpot’s Breeze to thief you get started.

5. Launch

This is self-explanatory, but deed nan motorboat aliases people fastener and commencement seeing really nan world responds.

6. Analyze.

After immoderate time, you request to evaluate. Answer questions like, “Which channels worked best?” and “Did I onslaught nan correct equilibrium betwixt various media platforms?”

Once you’re equipped pinch this information, you tin incorporated it into your early campaigns.

However, don’t hide to fto your strategy play out. Don’t move it up truthful quickly that you don’t cognize really it will execute complete time.

Some campaigns see some short-term and semipermanent strategies and goals, truthful it’s important to spot nan effect earlier changing it out.

Integrated Media Plan Examples

1. M&M’s Spokescandies connected Pause

In 2023, aft immoderate of their redesigns from nan twelvemonth anterior proved controversial, candy marque M&M’s put its beloved “spokescandies” connected pause indefinitely — astatine slightest that’s what they wanted group to believe.

Rather than fto nan commentary soundlessness them entirely, M&M’s wove an intricate integrated media run centered astir nan backlash.

It launched commercials (including 1 during nan Super Bowl seen below) highlighting nan lives of nan spokescandies without their time jobs, billboards, societal media content, and moreover unsocial elements for illustration an eBay page wherever “Red” sold merchandise from his erstwhile career.

Eventually, nan spokescandies “returned,” but nan run has been lauded, earning 25.2B impressions wide and starring to nan brand’s highest January and February income ever.

2. Spotify Wrapped

While they rubbed immoderate fans nan incorrect measurement this year, Spotify Wrapped is wide 1 of nan best-integrated media campaigns retired there.

It starts pinch a personalized in-app acquisition but is promoted pinch societal media ads, advertisements and transit ads (or out-of-home ads), and of course, each of nan user-generated contented shared upon its launch.

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They moreover person contented circumstantial to artists, podcasters, and different creators.

3. Wicked Movie

If “Barbie” was nan integrated trading darling of 2023, “Wicked” surely took nan crown successful 2024.

The mobility image adjustment of nan Broadway philharmonic near nary chromatic unturned erstwhile it came to promotion.

It pulled each of nan accepted levers of tv and integer trailers, posters, billboards, interviews, and arena appearances but besides went chaotic pinch merchandise collaborations.

Some of their imaginative endeavors included:

• “Wicked Cocktails Straight from Oz” kit pinch Absolut
• Funko Pop Character Figures
• Cosmetics pinch MAC
• Emerald City LEGO Sets
• Pink and greenish drinks astatine Starbucks

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It besides went for large in-person spectacles for illustration illuminating nan Empire State Building successful New York City and nan Arc de Triomphe successful Paris.

The integrated trading and media run stretched nan limits to some, but considering it raked successful much than $400 cardinal worldwide successful its opening play alone, I’d opportunity it was money good spent.

4. Baboon to nan Moon’s CDMX

Baboon to nan Moon sells bags for group to usage connected their adventures, from mini play getaways to aggravated backpacking trips. It utilized integrated trading to advertise 1 of its limited-run lines that pays homage to CDMX (Mexico City).

It created trading assets for 3 different trading channels (email, Instagram, and website, respectively) that are cohesive successful images, copywriting, and editing style.

Regardless of nan transmission audiences are reached on, each azygous advertisement tells a communicative astir nan aforesaid point — nan CDMX collection.

5. NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest

NPR Music runs a conception called Tiny Desk, wherever artists execute unrecorded acoustic sets from what appears to beryllium a crowded office. The contented gets shared connected nan NPR website arsenic good arsenic YouTube, pinch clips besides being shared connected Instagram.

Every twelvemonth successful caller years, NPR has besides launched an yearly #TinyDeskContest. In it, undiscovered artists from nan nationalist tin taxable an original opus for a chance to triumph a Tiny Desk concert.

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To advertise nan contest, it creates an integrated media run pinch a landing page, Instagram Stories, and YouTube videos, among different things.

The Tiny Desk bid is multi-faceted and reaches a very wide audience.

From Good to Integrate

Integrated media readying is not conscionable a buzzword — it's a powerful strategy that enables brands to create cohesive, memorable campaigns that resonate pinch divers audiences crossed aggregate touchpoints and elicit action.

By blending paid, earned, and owned media, integer and analog, you tin amplify your message, reenforce your brand, and guideline customers on their travel to nan acquisition you seek.

Editor's note: This station was primitively published successful March 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.