MEDIA AUDIT

 Media auditing is the practice of checking that the media that a client has bought is in the right places, at competitive prices. Being in the ‘right places’ is critical here: firstly, the audit has to establish that the media was transmitted, and if that is so, then that its placements are appropriate for the target audiences, environments and tasks that the advertising client needed for his brands.

 

Why media audit?

Media is typically the single largest line-item in the marketing budget (the making of the ad itself is typically about a sixth of the size of the media spend). For some organizations, media space or time (i.e. airtime on the TV or radio) is actually the single biggest purchase they make – ahead of any single raw materials cost. Because the sums involved are large, and because they can be cost-controlled via a media audit, it is simply good business practice.

 

Who uses media auditing?

Most major advertisers use media auditors in markets where developed solutions are possible.

At the basic level, media audits help marketers to check media rates they’re paying vis a vis the competition.

At a tactical level, media audits can report on the efficacy of media plans for a given time period. This includes suggesting alternate media options available to replace / supplement the existing mix.

And finally at a process level, media audits can track processes deployed at the marketer’s end and map them vis a vis “best practices” in the industry.

Thus, a media audit can be seen as a periodic review of the constantly evolving media scene from the advertiser's viewpoint.

 

Scope of Media Audit

An independent media audit team acts as independent consultant to brand marketers to assess whether the marketer’s media agency & their offering are aligned to the business needs of the client. In order to do that a media audit team provides the following services:

· Process Audit

· Planning Audit with New Media Options

· Buying Audit

Thus, Media Audit scrutinizes processes of media buying, scheduling, planning, rates across media and compares it with a benchmark. Media Audit essentially examines whether client got what it ordered, and if you they are paying for what they intended.

 

There is various aspect of Media audit.

 

a. Financial Audit: This audit essentially examines whether client got what it ordered, and if they are paying for what was intended.

Another aspect of financial audit is the payment. Client pays Media Buying Agency (MBA), who in turn pays the media supplier. Did the client money reach them, and did it reach on the due date? That involves reconciliation between what client paid for and where it went. Apart from this, there is also a need to check if the authority is being exercised correctly.

 

b. 'Return of rebates and discounts': The second type of audit is what is called 'return of rebates and discounts', which some media owners give the MBA directly for space or airtime bookings in excess of a certain volume.

So MBAs push advertisers to spend on a given medium or channel to gain volumes, and thus rebates. It is called agency volume discount. Advertisers would want that discount passed back to them, in proportion to their spends.

 

c. Critique: The third aspect of media audit is a critique on the way media planning has been done by the agency. Media audit examines if where client advertised was correctly optimized, both in terms of cost and in terms of thinking. A critique can, therefore, go into the kind of media chosen and then make qualitative assessments and comments. The media auditor audits the media plan to examine if the plan was fair and optimum.