With the continual growth of digital media distribution opportunities, media planning has evolved significantly as the modern age brings more and more interactivity, social dialogue and mobile technology. As this trend continues to grow the importance of including references to digital interactivity throughout all media distribution gets progressively more campaign success critical. The same can be said for taking advantage of online and digital media opportunities, mobile media interaction and including digitally enhanced variants of traditional media.

Make a digital statement

Incorporating references to online communication channels has become a must have inclusion to all media planning strategies. In fact many brands have gone further than this and made online interaction the main campaign message throughout their entire media plans. At its simplest, this is the addition of website and social media channel mentions in advertising messages, but at its most complex it is a compelling mix of media planning to increase the level of online interaction to facilitate a long term and socially charged relationship with target audience groups. However, there have been a number of warning shots to learn from as this process has evolved, including the classic addition of QR codes as the central messaging in media placements in London’s Underground platforms. Needless to say, without any mobile reception down there, they were campaigns that delivered no real return on investment.

Online media opportunities

The most obvious and long lived digital development in media planning is the online placement opportunities. These have been capitalised on since the very early days of the internet and as technological advancements and social streams have developed, so has the sophistication and complexity of the placements. With many different types of online media, there are more opportunities than ever to engage with target audiences, including within the videos that they watch, their conversations with their friends, the sites that they visit and in the many online searches that they make.

Mobile media interaction

The modern age is a mobile age and mobile media interaction is the latest in the line of digital encroachments in the media planning process. Whether it’s placements in android or iPhone apps or displays in the tablet delivery of magazines and newspapers, there’s a real proliferation of new ways to interact with target audiences wherever they are. In addition to this there is also the push location based strategy of delivering offers to mobile devices as they move around. It’s pretty compelling to get a 2 for 1 offer from a cinema or restaurant as you walk by it.

Digital traditional

With all of these advancements it’s easy to feel like they might be the proverbial nail for traditional media, but the reality is that they simply present new opportunities for the established old order. One of the most compelling of these is the progression of digital traditional media delivery. This can include video billboards and Underground escalator screens, tab-mags and moving pitch-side advertising.

However you look at it, digital media is a huge part of the media planning mix and it’s one that will grow, seed and channel cross-pollinate more and more as new and interactive developments are added to the digital age. The big question is how brands will embrace it, rather than whether they will.