Last week, the IAB released a report showing that online ad revenues increased 22% in 2011 reaching $31 billion, a record-breaking figure. Mobile saw the fastest growth with a 149% increase to $1.6 billion, while digital video increased 29% year-over-year and search was up 27%.

So if you haven’t dabbled in digital media planning yet, what’s holding you back? We’re planning to release a white paper on the 10 best practices of digital media planning soon, but until that’s ready, let us dispel a few of the most common fallacies we hear about online advertising.

1. It’s expensive. Like all forms of advertising, there are cut-rate and costly ways to achieve your goals, reach the right audience and get your message across. The benefit of digital is that you can reach thousands of highly-targeted people at the same time, meaning it might actually cost a lot less to run an online ad campaign versus other mediums. Plus, targeting can make your campaigns more effective without a gigantic uptick in price. 

2. It’s obnoxious and scam-like. It doesn’t have to be if you use behavioral targeting and think about your target audience. Are you using the right message, is the creative clean and crisp? Your online ads shouldn’t look junk mail. A poll commissioned by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) found that 75 percent of consumers surveyed prefer the current Internet model where majority of content is free, but includes ads. Further, more than 75 percent said they should be able to choose the types of ads they see and how they are generated. Consumers want some control over their ads. Marketers and agencies need to ensure they can deliver relevant, valuable and engaging advertising.

3. It’s complicated. You don’t have to be an expert to plan and execute a digital campaign. As with other forms of advertising, objective dictates strategy. Good planning is the key to a successful ad campaign, along with audience development and research. Do your homework and start small. Make realistic and specific goals that can be measured. Google Adwords and social media advertising are often among the first online ad mediums marketers begin with.

4. Banners are dying. While it’s hard to argue that banners are exceptionally effective, marketers should still consider using them in the right context. Banners can be successful as part of an overall digital campaign, but creativity and media placement are critical. Remember that conversions are tough to achieve with any display ad, but banners do offer an easy and cheap way to introduce your brand to prospects. Plus, do you think billboards are going away any time soon? Probably not.

5. It’s unnecessary if I’m a local business. False! Digital offers a unique proposition for local advertisers and marketers, especially because smartphones and location-based apps offer enhanced ways to target the right consumers. BIA/Kelsey’s March 2013 forecast of U.S. local media ad spending reports that digital’s place in local advertising will continue to expand. They expect traditional spending to drop from $109.4 billion to $107 billion in 2013 and digital spending to increase from $23 billion to $25.7 billion.

In the SRDS.com database, we offer media planning data on more than 22,000 local and national websites. The right digital sites are out there. It’s up to you to explore the possibilities.

Hopefully this makes the world of online advertising a little bit more approachable. Just like other media types, every campaign should be backed by a well-thought plan, including objectives and specific metrics to determine if your digital effort is successful.

Stay on the lookout for our digital media planning white paper that delves deeper into these topics and more!

 

Music for this Episode

• Intro music for this episode: "Ode to Earl" from Alabama Tory by Grass It Up
• Outro music for this episode: "Route 5 Rag" from Grass It Up Live by Grass It Up

Even if you’re not planning to attend the ARF Audience Measurement 8.0 Conference in New York next week, there’s a chance you could still hear two great presentations – for free!

Our colleagues at Kantar Media are welcoming SRDS.com users to attend the following learning sessions without having register for the full conference. Here are the details.

• Monday, June 10th 2013 - Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway, New York NY

             8:15 - 8:45 AM: Beyond Demographics: Accelerating Automotive Advertising Success - Empire Room, 7th floor

• Tuesday, June 11th 2013 - Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway, New York NY

             8:15 - 8:45 AM: Understanding the Hispanic Audience - Majestic Room, 6th Floor

If you’d like to attend either session, click here to pre-register.

Make that another cha-ching for BuzzFeed. According to a recent press release, BuzzFeed is launching its new Social Storytelling Creator Program, which trains agencies on how to create BuzzFeed-like branded content. Really it’s a way to teach interested advertisers on how to produce high-quality sponsored content (native advertising) that will ultimately appear on BuzzFeed.com.

Agencies that complete the program are “accredited” by BuzzFeed. They receive a badge to place on their website, gain access to a new analytics tool as well as other benefits. You don’t have to pay BuzzFeed to enlist in the program either. But the company does plan on requiring minimum budgets from the agencies' clients, meaning if you join the program, you should be ready to spend major bucks to advertise on BuzzFeed and show off what you’ve learned in the program by creating some star-quality content

Once an agency completes the program, they can post stories directly to the BuzzFeed site, although BuzzFeed staffers will review the articles before they’re live.

The pilot program will launch in Q3 with VaynerMedia as the first agency to sign on. The pilot will include:

• Training on the BuzzFeed platform from team members that work exclusively on branded content
• Kickoff workshops with each client participating in the program
• Weekly joint content reviews between BuzzFeed team members, agency team members, and agency clients piloting the program.
• Aggregate reporting for agency across all clients to determine best practices and successful content formats
• Staff exchange program between agency and BuzzFeed
• Early access to new BuzzFeed features, and creative/ad products

It sounds like a no-brainer win for BuzzFeed.

As a recent college graduate, I’m always interested in career-related articles, like “the top-paying jobs for people in their 20s” or “the most popular majors for Generation Y.” So when I saw iMedia Connection’s list of the 5 hottest job opportunities in digital marketing, curiosity struck and I clicked.

Good news for SRDS.com users. Digital media planner made the list!

According to the article, “While the traditional media planner of yesteryear is somewhat of a one-person department (or even merely a name on a list of approved outsource vendors), the digital media planner and buyer might be part of a department in the making.”

But while digital media planner is a hot career, that doesn’t necessarily make the industry any easier to break into. Read on for 7 things you need to read to help you get the digital media planner job of your dreams.

1. What is Media Planning? – Walk before you run. Let us give you the basics on media planning. Simply put, it’s one of the four key disciplines within advertising, along with account management, brand planning and developing creative. Typically media planning is a role that falls to an outside agency, but some companies choose to keep it in-house. More >>
2. Digital Media Planning Guidelines – Last year, our friends at Milward Brown analyzed the evidence from several of their studies to create straightforward, evidenced-based guidelines for marketers who want to make the most effective use of digital media as part of an integrated campaign. It’s a must-read for any on in the online advertising space. More >>
3. 7 Best Practices for Digital Media Planning - There’s no reason to fear digital if you’ve done your homework, says Ginny Ewing, one of our in-house digital experts. Smart planning, smart targeting, as well as relevant and powerful creative are your best tools to fight the fear. More >>
4. Top 5 Marketable Skills for New Media Planners and Buyers – It’s nice to hear that digital media planner is one of the hottest jobs right now, but do you have the skills needed to land the role? We asked SRDS.com users, “What advice would you give to new graduates looking for a media job at an agency?” More >>
5. Our 40 Favorite Websites on Media, Advertising & More – When you’re in the business of loving media, staying up-to-date with industry news, tips and trends isn’t just optional, it’s a necessary obsession – and a fun one at that! Check out the favorite industry newsletters/sites of Kantar Media SRDS employees at the link.
6. Media Planning in 2013 – At the end of 2012, Jacki Premak shared her predictions for what the changing world of media planning would be like this year as well as recommendations and considerations to keep in mind. Her main takeaway: Media planning in 2013 will consist of innovations and opportunities mixed with the everyday challenges we’re all accustomed to. More >>
7. How To Find the Best Digital Advertising Opportunities - Ad pros know that time is money when you’re crafting a campaign. While Google can be great for basic information, it can be frustrating to use when you’re looking for advertising opportunities for your plan. Simply put, website ad rates are hard to find through a search engine. Find out how to easily get the right information on digital ad opportunities here.

Have a question about the role Kantar Media SRDS has in the digital advertising world? Let us know.

Once again, our friends at San Diego State University put together a helpful video on how to use SRDS.com, specifically the SRDS Business Publication Media database.

You might remember the video they created last year on SRDS Local Market Audience Analyst™ (LMAA). This new video is just as useful for both SRDS.com beginners and experts looking to brush up their skills.

Marketers and advertisers use the SRDS Business Publication Media database when searching for media planning data on trade media, including websites, publications and direct marketing lists. Organized by vertical market, the Business Media database helps you easily find the right b-to-b media that meets your needs. It includes:

• 5,000+ trade publications
• 5,000+ b-to-b websites
• 25,000+ direct marketing lists
• 80+ media brands with iPad and tablet apps at the SRDS Tablet Media Library
• Over 190 market classifications

Watch the walkthrough at the university’s website if you need to refresh your SRDS.com searching skills. Our thanks to Brittany Cronin and the entire SDSU Tutorial Development Team!

When you need to know the types of ads a website accepts, look no further than SRDS.com.  We’ve just started adding ad sizes and formats to our digital listings so you’ll have a more complete view of the countless online advertising opportunities on the Web.

Organized by IAB standard or Non-IAB standard, this section reports the ad sizes (ex: skyscraper) and formats (ex: Flash) that were served on that website within the most recent three months. We’ve added this information to nearly 15,000 digital media listings so far and are reporting on 73 different ad sizes and 3 formats.

We will also provide users with a link to current IAB standards and guidelines. We hope that this data and the IAB references provide you with all the information you need on creative standards/practices and simplify the process of buying, planning and creating digital ads.

From SRDS.com search results, click through to the listing detail and then hit the Ad Sizes & Opportunities tab to see what this looks like:

If you don’t currently have access to the digital database and need to incorporate Web sites into your plans, let us know. We have detailed advertising information on almost 23,000 national consumer, b-to-b and local websites, as well as audience metrics, site images and now ad sizes and formats.

If you have other ideas for enhancements to SRDS.com, drop us a note. User requests and feedback are critical as we decide to make upgrades and changes to the site.  

This week, I had the opportunity to host another Media Mixology event in NYC, bringing together the SRDS community of media buyers and sellers. We networked, enjoyed some hospitality and heard a few insights from industry professionals, Mary Poscik of G2, Kevin Moeller of Media Behavior Institute and Ki Mae Heussner of GigaOm.

This event was actually a make-good because we had to postpone it from November in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. But despite the rescheduling, more than 100 professionals showed.

The discussion centered on the challenges agencies face when integrating emerging media into our clients’ plans, and how agency professionals can be better partners for their clients.

In prepping for the discussion, I was struck by the number of big headlines that have occurred in our industry in the last three months since we postponed. It made me appreciate even more the challenge agencies and marketers face as they try to stay ahead of the consumer’s ever-changing habits.

Across the media research, advertising and technology landscape there have been a number of big headlines:

• In Media Research: Consolidation of audience media measurement firms continues, as Nielsen announced its plans to buy Arbitron and the industry weighs the benefits of single source providers.
• In Technology: The mobile wars continued to escalate with Apple introducing a new iPhone and a mini tablet, Microsoft releasing Surface Pro, Samsung gaining traction with Galaxy, and now RIM is seriously pursuing a comeback with its latest (and strongly reviewed) Blackberry.
• In Digital Media: Facebook has introduced a whole new media: social search. Now there is speculation that they will acquire Atlas ad server technology from Microsoft to help super-size their display ad business.
• And in TV: This time of year, the entire ad industry is watching new campaigns break on the big screen for major events like Golden Globes, the Super Bowl, the Grammys and the Oscars. But how many of us have already seen these ads on the smaller screen? That’s why we also have to watch social media, especially the Twitterverse for analysis and ROI insights. And so not surprisingly, Twitter announces the acquisition of Social TV researcher Blue Fin Labs.

And that’s just the big stuff.

Through all of this, marketers don’t just expect their agency partners to stay on top of news coverage and understand the changing players as well as their new line-up of offerings. No, what marketers really need is help in understanding how their audiences are adopting and using these new technologies and how their behavior is being measured. They are anxiously relying on us to advise them how to participate in this new environment, while still doing our day jobs.

It’s a major opportunity and a reason why we love being part of our dynamic media industry. It’s how each of us keeps learning – and pushing our clients to try new things. And it’s why we all want to come together at these events, share ideas on what’s working, or not, and blow off a little steam.

Thanks to our speakers, Mary, Kevin and Ki Mae. Thanks to our sponsors for making the event possible. Thanks for spending some time talking with me and the SRDS team about your new challenges. Thanks for giving me a reason to stop and reflect on what’s happening so quickly. It’s why we love media.

Thanks to everyone who made this week’s Media Mixology event such a success. More than 100 media planning and buying professionals came out on Fat Tuesday to socialize with representatives from our media company sponsors. They shared ideas, snacked and sipped cocktails in a cool NY lounge.

Our purpose for these after-work gatherings is to bring together the entire SRDS community – the buyers and sellers of advertising – in a relaxed yet chic setting. It’s another way for you to mix fun and networking with media insights and information. At each event, we invite a few thought leaders to share their insights on an important topic.

This week, Mary Pocsik of G2 and Kevin Moeller of Media Behavior Institute, with industry reporter Ki Mae Huessner of GigaOm moderating, shared how they make decisions about integrating new media into client media plans, what media they have found effective and how they measure success. Mary and Kevin also presented to a Chicago Mixology crowd last fall, and your Chicago colleagues found different takeaways to use with clients.

It was a fun evening, with small conversations dominating. In fact it had such a great flow that a fair number of the group stayed to socialize an extra hour.

We’re getting all the photos ready, and will put up audio from the Chicago event, Mary and Kevin’s presentations and links to a few of Ki Mae’s articles. We’ll keep you posted.

Thanks to our sponsors who make these events possible:

• SaleSpider Media
• American Classifieds / Thrifty Nickel
• Architectural Record
• Bloomberg Businessweek
• The Purple Network
• IEEE Spectrum
• Marketing Profs
• PaidContent / GigaOm

Interested in Kantar Media SRDS hosting a Media Mixology event in your city? Let us know – we’re looking for places we can assemble a good group from both sides of the buy.

For years, many businesses focused their marketing and advertising efforts at a national level. But with the rise of social media, search and mobile, the game has changed. It’s clear that the key to cost-effectively reaching your best prospects is to laser-target campaigns and go local. In fact, an updated BIA/Kelsey forecast expects advertising revenue for all local media to reach $147.1 billion by 2016, at a 2.1% annual growth rate.

On the surface it may seem difficult to adapt a national marketing plan for a local market, but the creative itself doesn't necessarily need to change too much. It's all about determining how to best make it resonate for that audience and more importantly, where to place it so it reaches your target audience. Many marketers use SRDS.com to get the data they need to make informed decisions about local advertising opportunities. Here's why:

1. Any Media Type: Access detailed information on every available media property that accepts advertising, including websites, newspapers, radio stations, TV & cable stations, magazines and out-of-home opportunities.
2. Every Market: Conduct a DMA drilldown with comprehensive local media data for all 210 DMAs across the U.S.
3. Background Check: Research new markets with consumer demographic data.
4. Due Diligence: Even if you work with an outside agency, guarantee that they are selecting the right ad opportunities for your brand in markets you may be unfamiliar with.
5. Actionable Data: Listings include all the data points you need to compile a plan, including rates, contact info, audience metrics and much more.
6. Smart Spending: Small businesses, retailers and restaurants all use SRDS.com to find innovative and affordable ad placements that go beyond the budget-breaking TV buy.
7. Ask Around: Don’t miss out on this unique service. Marketers from Kohls, Dr Pepper, Crate & Barrel, Shoe Carnival and possibly your direct competitors already rely on SRDS.

See SRDS in action and let us know how we can help with your local marketing needs.

Usually, we visit a webpage for either content or utility. Sometimes when we’re lucky, we get both. So it’s no wonder that in the past few years we’ve  seen the rise of content marketing in an attempt to combine the best of both worlds. 

When I visit a site intending to buy something transactional, utility is the table stake to get me there. I also want to find out as much as I can before I buy anything; give me reviews, industry news and a way to see what other folks like me are buying. It’s a huge advantage if I can do all of these things without ever leaving your website. Bonus for me because I get everything I want in one stop and bonus for you because not only do I stay on your site, I come back again and I tell my friends about my great experience.

How do we find the sites we visit? If we know where we want to head, we type in the URL and off we go. If we aren’t sure, we typically visit a search engine, throw in a search term and see what it cranks out.  If we’re lucky, we have a recommendation from a friend (perhaps through social media) and find exactly what we want.  For most of us, I would guess this last approach is the preferred method for finding most things online. After all, a friend’s opinion generally carries more weight than a site’s SEO.

Consumers aren’t the only ones to notice this preference. Erik Qualman has been telling us for the several years in his video “Social Media Revolution” that “we will no longer search for products and services…they will find us via social media.” How will the products and services find us? They will find us via the continuing explosion of social media usage and referrals. 

In his October 2012 article in the Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal points out that across the same sites, social sources were responsible for 18% of referral traffic and search sources were responsible for 22%. 

How is it possible that social referrals will surpass search in the coming years? Social referrals will continue to rise as our activity increases on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, where we share things that we love with others. Instantly we can electronically share information with thousands of people whereas in the past we probably would have had ten to twenty face-to-face conversations. This idea of products and services finding consumers is accelerating as we continue to use social media as a way to share what we like, love, need, are looking for and don’t like.

Facebook has just stomped on the gas pedal. By introducing “Graph” search across its massive hold of user preference data, you can group your Facebook search into a specific subset, such as "my friends who like hockey," or more precisely "my friends who like hockey and live in Chicago." You can also filter for things like music or movies my friends like.

For advertisers, by becoming more well-liked on Facebook, they are more likely to be found by folks who are actively looking for their products and services as well as the products that are similar to them. If you haven’t heard of the term contextual search, get ready because that’s how we’ll refer to this new Facebook search capability. And certainly others will be looking for ways to replicate this contextual search functionality. 

Similarly, Google introduced its social network Google+, which is unlike other social networks in that it’s not accessed through a single website. Google has described Google+ as a "social layer" consisting of not just a single site, but rather an overarching "layer" which covers many of its online properties. The company clearly recognizes that social referrals will continue to rise in number and in importance and this is a way for it to maintain market share.

All of this brings me to a central question: how will this affect our search behaviors and the ways marketers optimize their pages to be found? As Greg Levitt pointed out in his MediaPost  entry from Jan. 9, this changing of the search guard will force marketers to optimize social media content distribution versus tweaking their interaction with search engine algorithms. 

Marketers and advertisers must optimize their media plans beyond just SEO. Social recommendations and sharing may end up being much more important. It isn’t just about someone typing in a search term and happening upon your site.

Can users share information about your product on Twitter? Can they send your product as gifts on Facebook? How many users are sharing information about your service on Facebook graph? Are there images of your products on Pinterest and Instagram? These questions will become the norm in the coming years and social media usage and the phenomenon of social referrals continue to rise.

Marketers/Advertisers: How will this affect your channel planning and optimization schemes?

Media planning is one of the four key disciplines within advertising, along with account management, brand planning and developing creative. Typically media planning is a role that falls to an outside agency, but some companies choose to keep it in-house.

Media planning entails finding the most appropriate media platform to advertise the company or client’s brand/product. Media planners determine when, where and how often a message should be placed. Their goal is to reach the right audience at the right time with the right message to generate the desired response and then stay within the designated budget. Sounds like a piece of cake, right?

Clearly, media planning can be a challenging role, involving multiple areas of expertise. Media planners must always keep in mind audience, timing, message and desired response—all while staying within the budget.

That’s why thousands of media planners use SRDS.com. At SRDS, we collect every bit of data we can organize about U.S. advertising opportunities, no matter the media type, and standardize it to help media planners find, consider and understand the best media for their plans and campaigns.

Now that you have some background into what a media planner does, here’s how a media plan is developed:

Media Planners: What do you enjoy most about your job? How would you describe media planning to someone just getting started?

Media buyers/planners and media companies are increasingly promoting the efficiency of the video media kit. In the SRDS planning platform,  you may have noticed that we’ve added more video media kits in the past few months. Here’s why.

Media buyers are often too busy to meet face-to-face with media companies and don’t want to request and read through pages of media kits. A two-minute video media kit trumps a 25-page print media kit every time.

On the media side, companies are increasingly using videos to deliver a consistent, focused message in an engaging and dynamic medium. Brand portfolios are more complex now than ever. Most media brands have multiple formats. There’s a website, an app, a tablet publication and the list goes on and on. With a video media kit, publishers can give a quick topline overview of all their advertising and marketing opportunities. It’s like bringing an editor and publisher on every sales call.

SRDS Video Media Kits work by pulling a media brand’s existing video into a simple interface that appears in their SRDS listing and search results. A brand’s SRDS Video Media Kit can even be used on the brand’s own website and social media channels.

Here are five of our newest video media kits:

1. WNBC NYC
2. Campus Media Group
3. BH&G
4. CRN
5. RMI Direct

Media Companies: Do you have a good video aimed at media buyers you want in your SRDS listing?

If you’re interested in adding this service or other SRDS Marketing Services to your SRDS profile, contact Tara Clifford.

Marketers and agencies must drastically transform their mobile advertising strategy in 2013 if they want to succeed.

According to a new study from Forrester, seven out of ten mobile users say that automatically served in-app advertisements are disruptive. Two-thirds of respondents label these ads as annoying and 88% say they aren’t engaging.

This study is one of many I’ve seen this year confirming that mobile ads aren’t resonating with consumers. Most of these reports call out mobile ads for not being relevant, interesting or valuable to the user. For example, in November, we posted about an Adobe survey, which found that 45% of respondents prefer to see an ad in their favorite print magazine versus the 0% that prefers to see an ad in a mobile app.

For agencies and marketers, effectively using mobile advertising is both a major challenge and an opportunity in 2013. Mobile cannot be overlooked. Each brand needs a unique approach on this channel for many reasons, but for starters because it’s here to stay.

Here’s what you need to know to convince execs that a mobile strategy is no longer optional: 

Mobile has quickly become the media platform of choice for Millennials. Smartphones allow us to stay in constant contact with friends and family, have ready access to data and information and be able to be productive or relax at any given moment. If you’re looking to reach Millennials, mobile is the way to do it.

Consumers now use mobile phones to purchase products more than ever. This Cyber Monday, mobile transactions accounted for 22% of online sales, an increase of 100% over last year. Retailers cannot overlook this trend.

The good news is that at the very least, most companies are considering a mobile marketing strategy. Some have actually done a phenomenal job using apps, mobile-optimized websites and smartphone deals to reach consumers. But there’s still a long way to go.

According to the TNS Mobile Life study for 2012, many Chief Marketing Officers say it’s no longer OK for companies and marketers to just watch and wait. Experimentation is central to the mobile approach for many brands, with an emphasis on ‘learning by doing’ across marketing and business operations. Urgency is the keyword here.

In order to stay relevant and reach consumers, marketers and agencies must research, plan, develop and execute on their mobile strategies. And after it’s all said and done, they must find a way to serve users ads that aren’t annoying, obtrusive or irrelevant. It may be tough, but it’s necessary.

Another key point from the Forrester study for marketers/agencies to know is that:

“A significant portion of mobile users were open to mobile ad targeting based upon their personal interests (49%) and current location (43%).”

Consumers tolerate ads that have some sort of tie-in to where they live or what interests them. But with the rise of “Do Not Track” and Ad Choices, which allow users to opt out of behavioral targeting, it might be time for marketers to go back to the drawing board.

One idea, which is already being used at Google (no surprise!), is to treat consumer data as a currency and offer incentives for it. The company Enliken is trying to give users the ability to edit, control and prioritize the data they want advertisers to see, making the data richer and more valuable. If an ad is more relevant to the consumer, it’s not as annoying and can supply the user with information he/she is actually interested in.

But targeted ads still need to look good! Ten years ago, banner ads faced a similar dilemma. They had to back out of the scam-like ads offering free trips to the Bahamas, and start incorporating strong creative, interactive visuals and unique storytelling. Advertisers and marketers should take note.

Those three features, coupled with targeted content, can help elevate mobile to a new level of advertising in the coming years.

How will your mobile strategy evolve in 2013?

"Out with the old, in with the new." 

"New year, new you."

We hear these clichés often this time of year. I have been trying to come up with a saying to summarize what’s ahead for media planning in 2013 and, quite frankly, am stumped. The best I can think of is this: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

I think media planning in 2013 will consist of innovations and opportunities mixed with the everyday challenges we’re all accustomed to. Needless to say, it’s going to be an interesting ride. Here are some recommendations:

1. In 2013, media planners must focus on the best way to embrace and use the latest and greatest "big thing," namely online videos, mobile messaging and content marketing. Those will be the game changers of the year. Media planners and marketers that can execute on those three will be primed for success.
2. Media planners must work with the rest of the advertising department along with team members in marketing, PR and communications to determine who will be responsible for each of the three buckets listed above. Accountability and execution are key.
3. Media planners must develop metrics to track results and improve. Metrics should guide you as you revise and update your plans.

Even though the year will undoubtedly be filled with challenges, I recommend that you not overlook the basics. Here are three important considerations to keep in mind:

1. Focus on your audience. You could have the best campaign in the world, but if you're not getting the message to the right demographic and targeted consumer your client will not be happy.
2. Keep in mind the current picture of the consumer you need to reach and create your plan according to his/her media consumption habits. Want to reach seniors? Don't underestimate the number of seniors utilizing their laptops, tablets and cell phones. Integration is the key because these same seniors still rely on their printed newspaper, radio and tvs for news and information. Want to reach males ages 18-35? You might want to consider in-game messaging in the plan. 
3. Don’t overlook the power of the message. Creative content is necessary to get and keep attention in this era of efficiency. 

In short, while you can’t forget about digital components, audience, message and channel will continue to be the essentials of media planning. Sounds like everything old is new again.

Here at Kantar Media SRDS, we are wrapping up and putting a bow on another strong and successful year for our business.

This is the 94^th year that SRDS has served the media industry and I am very proud of how much our team has accomplished in 2012. Our data and research offerings continue to evolve to meet the digital and multimedia needs of the buyers and sellers of advertising.

A few weeks ago, I spoke at our company's holiday lunch and focused on why our business has managed to stay strong in an industry that is in continuous disruption from the forces of digital media innovation and consumer adoption redefining the way marketers must deliver messages to their target audience.

In very simple terms, I described the SRDS approach to managing through these changes by way of a four-step process which I coined 4-D:

1. Disruption: Understand what is happening and where things are headed. Think about the present and its impact on the future.
2. Dealing: Put organizational plans in place at strategic and tactical levels which will allow the business to manage through the disruption over the short term and enable it to grow strongly over the long term.
3. Doing: Commit to working the plan (executing), on all levels, all the time.
4. Delivering: Measure the results. Stay accountable and make changes to continuously improve.

For me personally, as a full-time resident of a New York coastal community that was impacted by Hurricane Sandy, I couldn't help but draw a 4-D parallel to what my family and neighbors are experiencing as we manage through the impact of a different but very real disruptive force.

1. Disruption: In my community, when the ocean waters flooded our streets and destroyed many of our homes, schools and places of worship, it was relatively simple, as we inspected the resulting carnage, to understand where things were headed if we didn’t fix our town.
2. Dealing: Through the tears, it was comforting for us to see that our local, state and federal authorities had a plan to help us recover.
3. Doing: Neighbors and volunteers from around the country "worked the plan." They cleared homes, removed debris and continue to make progress every day. Seven weeks later, the results are truly amazing.
4. Delivering: In two weeks, power, sewage and potable water were restored. Schools reopened in less than three weeks. While we're not entirely back in action yet, we are seeing very real and measurable results.

It’s that reflective time of year, and 2012 has truly provided me with plenty of moments that, disruptive or not, leave me deeply grateful for and proud of the accomplishments of many both at home and at work. Here’s to a wonderful new year.

There were 9,125 magazine-related apps available for download this October, a figure that more than doubles the 4,299 available only a year before, according to an analysis from McPheters and Co. iMonitor. In an industry that’s striving to be innovative, digital and profitable, magazine publishers are committed to using tablet apps as a viable channel for their content. Unsurprisingly, Hearst is the leader among group publishers with 89 apps, followed by Time (84), Conde Nast (83) and Future Media (82).

However, of all the magazine apps available for download, only 256 are reporting their digital circulation in Alliance for Audited Media (formerly Audit Bureau of Circulations) reports. Among those reporting circulation, digital versions accounted for 1.7% of overall magazine circulation in the first half of 2012, or 5.4 million. A year ago, that number was less than 1%, or about 2 million.

With such a small sample size of apps, we have to take the statement “digital magazine circulation is growing” with a grain of salt, but it does brings a larger issue to the surface. Publishers are still in the early days of reporting circulation figures for their apps. They’re quickly adding more and more, but they’re not providing key metrics that are necessary for advertisers making media planning decisions.

In the SRDS Tablet Media Library, we are constantly adding to our growing list of over 1,400 media apps that accept advertising. We include apps for iOS, Zinio, Android, Nook as well as tablet browser-based advertising opportunities.

Publishers: Does your media property now have an app? Do you report circulation figures?

Agencies: Do you need audience metrics before you’ll consider an app for your plan?

For years, mega-sized advertising agencies beat out their smaller counterparts 9 times out of 10 because they could access large-scale media buys for a better price. But Matt Murphy, Founder and Executive Director of fusion92, believes that this trend may be slowing, as hyper-local advertising allows “mid-sized and smaller firms with broad regional knowledge and full-service advertising capabilities that include digital expertise” to gain a clear advantage.

Hyper-local advertising targets individuals at the neighborhood or ZIP code level and delivers timely, relevant ads that often have a local component in the creative or messaging. Consumers are inundated daily with ads on every media channel, with most being ignored because they don’t have any relevance to the user. But hyper-local advertisers can create smarter, more targeted approaches that vary by location.

Agencies already use SRDS.com to reach targeted markets by DMA. They have access to media planning data for local websites, print magazines, newspapers, radio, TV and out of home.

But just because these agencies are tailoring their campaigns for local markets doesn’t mean they are ditching large national campaigns. On the contrary, it’s more about using data and technology to customize a large campaign so that it is better matches the targeted audience.

It makes sense that a message incorporating something about your neighborhood (a free appetizer at the Chili’s down your street, for example) has a greater chance of resonating. And not just for you, for everyone in your ZIP code. For users in Chicago, Chicago Bulls imagery or a sound clip from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra might make strike a personal (and memorable) note.

Another reason agencies should consider hyper-local advertising is that it’s cost-effective. Digital technology such as Foursquare encourages users to share location information, making it easy for advertisers to reach their target markets, both through traditional methods and digital channels. According to Murphy:

“Advertisers can segment target audiences to ZIP-code levels, build customizable creative for local components of national campaigns and use digital and traditional advertising channels to distribute hyper-local ads and generate market share gains across multiple regions.”

The ad industry is only going to get more competitive, but if smaller agencies can take the bull by the horns and become more agile, then they have a big opportunity. Plus, the technology and data is already there, so why not use it?