Craft

How to read a media plan

A media plan is a table of proposed placements. It is not yet a buy. Reading it means checking that the columns are complete, that the dates form a flight you can explain, and that the unit of weight is named.

Most plans, in print or in a spreadsheet, repeat a small set of columns: the channel or title, the format or unit (a page, a 30-second spot, a defined digital placement), the flight dates, some measure of weight, a cost, and a remarks field. If a column is missing, ask for it before you argue about the idea of the plan.

Weight is where plans become hard to compare. Some rows use gross rating points or target rating points. Some use impressions or a reach and frequency note. Some only show a cost. The plan should name the unit and, where an estimate is used, the source of that estimate. A number without a unit is not a weight.

A flight is the period a line is on. A burst is a short, heavy flight. Continuity is a longer, lighter one. Neither is automatically better. What matters is whether the dates line up with the offer, the season, or the production date of the work. A line that starts before the finished work can be delivered is a scheduling error, not a media idea.

A plan also differs from a buy. The plan is a proposal. The buy is what was actually ordered, at the rate and in the positions that were confirmed. Make-goods, moved dates, and dropped lines belong on the post-buy, not as silent changes inside the original plan. If you are asked to "sign off the plan," you are approving the proposal as written, including its units and its dates.

This article does not publish sample rates or claim a current cost for any title. Those figures change and should be read from the estimate in front of you.