Advertising Media Planning, Sixth Edition [Hardcover]

Jack Sissors (Author), Roger Baron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2002

The bible of media planning for more than 25 years, Advertising Media Planning gives you the proven essentials of planning, purchasing, and evaluating the effectiveness of advertising

Discussions of media planning as the “noncreative” side of advertising miss the boat entirely. A successful media plan requires creative decisions on media, time frames, dollar distribution, and more. In addition to having in-depth knowledge of available media resources, the best media planners must also be strategic experts in marketing, advertising, research, and finance.

Through five previous editions, Advertising Media Planning has proven to be essential to the success of both practicing and aspiring media planners. Now in its sixth edition, it continues to provide valuable insight and comprehensive coverage of media plan construction, reach and continuity measurement, and more, along with timely updates that include:

• The latest in academic research and professional best practices
• An all-new hypothetical media plan, providing a top-down perspective on real-world media planning
• Illustrative examples of the Internet and other new media integrated throughout the text

Advertising Media Planning explains the complexities of planning in a fast-moving, noncomplex style. As we enter the new century of transformed advertising techniques and marketing challenges, this all-inclusive yet highly readable reference--an artful blend of long-standing fundamentals and the latest tools and approaches--remains the one must-have resource for anyone interested in creative, results-based media planning and buying.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jack Z. Sissors has more than 30 years of experience teaching media planning and strategy at Northwestern University.

Roger Baron is the senior vice president and director of media research at Foote, Cone & Belding in Chicago. A member of the ARF Media Communications Council, he is the past president of the Media Research Club of Chicago.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 445 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 6 edition (June 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844215635
• ISBN-13: 978-0844215631
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #30 in Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Multilevel

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great primer and information resource!, July 28, 2003

By 

Sonya L. Svaty "Sonya" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Advertising Media Planning, Sixth Edition (Hardcover)

I've worked in the media departments of two major advertisers and a major advertising agency--and I use this book all the time when I need help on any training sessions I am conducting. It is very thorough with all information you need, but also concise enough not to get bogged down.

For my own use, I find the section on Media Planning Resources on the Internet and invaluable tool to find more information.

A must for any media planner's or buyer's bookshelf!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great for beginners... but for directors and managers... not, July 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Advertising Media Planning, Sixth Edition (Hardcover)

Unless you want to refresh your memory on what GRPs, impressions, and reach and frequency are, or unless you want to know the definitions of these terms, this book isn't for you.

An earlier edition of this book was one of my first books when I have just entered the ad media planning field and I found it really interesting.

However, now that I have more than 8 years of working in the field, it seems to be a bit superficial. There's limited information on the debates between effective frequency, recency, and the proposed 'mid-point' of effective recency. There's also limited discussions on the role of ad media research as the media world explodes (e.g., R&F for the Net?), or the role of different channels/media beyond TV, radio, press, direct mails, and magazines.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sound Media Basics, February 13, 2003

By 

Roderick White, Editor, ADMAP, Feb, 2003 (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Advertising Media Planning, Sixth Edition (Hardcover)

One of the mysteries of the UK ad scene is that there is no good, up-to-date, practitioner-written textbook on media planning, so the arrival of an updated version of an established US text is doubly welcome.

Jack Sissors and (mostly, as a result of Mr Sissor's ill-health) Roger Baron have done a very thorough and comprehensive job of explaining and illustrating the basics, from how to get information about any given medium to how to put together a strategy and a detailed plan.

Unsurprisingly, the material is purely US-based, and therefore includes, for example, considerable discussion of the problems of reconciling different area definitions; but analyses such as how to weight a plan by region or medium can apply, suitably modified, anywhere.

There is a wide range of suggestions for (mostly) websites from which to seek detailed information, some of which may be both unfamiliar and useful to non-US readers - the MPA's analysis of the effects of position and ad size in magazines is a good example....

Many of the references may seem old, but, as the authors make clear, they have gone back to the classic originals of basic thinking - and much of this still holds good today.

The new edition is up-to-date, with quite extensive discussion of the internet as a medium, and slightly more limited coverage of cross-media and multi-media planning. Conversely, data fusion barely gets a mention - and is not in the index. Nor are optimisers, which are not discussed in any detail - merely treated as a tool of the trade - or modelling, which gets a brief half page on p374.

If the book has a weakness, it is in the area of evaluation, which gets several mentions, but little detailed discussion. In an era where effectiveness has marched up advertisers' list of priorities, this may need addressing next time.

Nonetheless, any would-be media person should read it, and learn.