Channel Planning Tool Shows Print Editorial Most Powerful Medium

The first installment of data from Compose, a new channel planning tool developed jointly by WPP’s Kantar Media Research unit and Dutch software developer pointlogic, shows that the most powerful overall medium is print editorial content, Mediapost reports. TV advertising ranks next, followed by in-store advertising, newspaper advertising, magazine ads, company websites, online search, radio ads, and free customer magazines.

Outdoor ads, direct mail, cinema advertising, branded internet advertising, and transit ads ranked much lower in the study.

The new system was designed to bring the same thoroughness to channel planning that agencies have traditionally used for media planning. Big media shops have been increasingly embracing the idea of communications channel planning, and many have come up with their own methods of measuring the mix.

Compose, similar to another system known as Media Contact Audits, is based on three elements: a survey of 2,200 U.S. consumers, a survey of 60 U.S. media planning and buying executives, and a computer modeling system that processes the data. The system is designed to be installed on the desk of every media planner within the agencies that subscribe.

If that happens, media buyers could begin to use it as a tool for testing various mix scenarios, said Sarah Power, vice president-director of consumer strategies at Carat. That’s because when specific consumer attributes - such as the ability to generate awareness of a brand, communicate the price of an advertising message, or convey trust - major differences in communications channels emerge, allowing for a possible shift in conventional thinking about the role of media.