Media Strategy & Planning: What is going wrong in Media Briefing?

Purpose – In the light of the turbulence, innovation and complexity seen across advertising and media it is suggested that the formulation of the media strategy, traditionally the key starting point for any media plan, is changing. The focus for this paper was to look at the commencement of the strategy making process, the media briefing, to see if this still reflects the theoretical approach and best practice advice offered through the literature, or whether new issues are identified. Design methodology – Building on the work of Cowen & Abratt (1999) the research used open ended survey technique, distributed by seeding into known agency planners and buyers within UK agencies, culminating in over 100 responses over two survey periods. Findings – This research identifies that despite a stream of best practice advice from both academic and industry sources, briefing remains superficial, with media planners expressing frustration around unmet information needs, particularly in the area of creative content, historic data and analytic support. Practical implications – Planning is undergoing change as digital becomes the new normal, practitioners are required to be more rigorous in the face of rising disenchantment amongst consumers, generally accredited to poor targetting, excessive personalisation, intrusive use of data and misuse of privacy (Alps, 2019). By reflecting on and improving the way teams are briefed we might move away from some of the tactical errors and regain trust