Most TIER-1 companies employing a full media mix to promote their services need to effectively allocate the media budget among their ad channels. Banks and other financial companies with a wide regional branch network are a typical example of this. Here we will delve into the specifics showcasing how AdoptoMedia can lend a hand in navigating these investment strategies.
1. Customer profile
The principal goal of any large bank’s marketing department is to manage marketing activities, and this includes allocating the media budget among products, regions, media channels and ad media within each channel.
The bank uses a full media mix to support its marketing activities:
- TV;
- radio;
- OOH advertising;
- Internet;
- printed press.
Below are the specifics of how the bank’s marketing department operates:
- ad campaigns take place in over 70 cities, while media buying and placement are managed by all regional offices and the central marketing department;
- the regional offices handle the local ad suppliers, providing daily support for the ad planning and buying processes. The central marketing department controls and coordinates all regional office activity, as well as conducts planning and buying from national ad suppliers;
- over 10,000 ad media are purchased annually for all media channels. All ad media purchases are logged manually in a single XLS table;
- the bank’s annual ad budget is allocated between national and regional placements;
- the allocation is based around legacy data;
- no research has been conducted to assess the efficiency of particular channels in the media mix.
2. Description of solution
The bank requires a media budgeting management solution that calculates the optimum budget share between national and regional marketing as well as all types of media.
Here are the key factors behind the choice of the solution:
- Optimum allocation of budget between channels (TV, Radio, Online, Digital, Magazine, OOH) while respecting the established restrictions (lack of budget, lack of available channels, focus on KPIs only, etc.)
- Real-time adjustment when a campaign is in progress
- The solution must follow a stage-by-stage implementation scenario without disrupting the marketing department’s workflow.
AdoptoMedia platform meets all of the above requirements due to its following features:
- a set of reliable consumer behavior models (through machine learning and BigData);
- predictive analytical capabilities;
- ability to provide optimum budget allocation for various scenarios;
- media plan manager module;
- analytical reporting.
AdoptoMedia platform functionality:
- Calculation of optimum media budget for each banking product.
- Optimum budget allocation among advertising channels (based on the econometric modeling technology).
- Regional budget management: grouping of regions, calculation of optimum share of regional and national budgets for each group, reallocation of regional budgets between regions.
- ROMI (return on marketing investments)-based analytics for each type of media.
3. Implementation of AdoptoMedia platform
The platform is implemented in two stages:
- Model development.
- Model launch and adjustment.
and consists of the following modules:
- media mix tool;
- media plan manager.
Model development in AdoptoMedia platform
For implementing the project, we selected the number of loan applications as the bank’s main marketing KPI.
The project has two stages:
- annual budget optimization;
- regional marketing management.
| Task | Result |
| Develop a forecasting model for the number of loan applications on the national level. |
|
| Perform region clustering (divide regions into several groups) for the purposes of regional marketing management |
|
| Optimize ad budget for Y2017. |
|
Model launch and adjustment
On the second stage of implementation, the platform is focused on automating the ad budgeting process. Automation enables marketers to independently improve the product – and regional budgeting without outsourced consultants.
| Stage | Description | Result | Term |
|
|
Initial data for the modeling uploaded | 4 weeks |
|
|
Modeling processes implemented | 4 weeks |
|
|
Media plan manager implemented | 2 weeks |
|
|
User access levels set up | 1 week |
|
|
Reporting system implemented | 2 weeks |
4. Implementation results
| Task | Current level | Results achieved |
|
Ad budget management: |
||
| Annual ad budget allocation | Benchmarking-based | Optimization based on the achievement of KPI (number of issued loans) |
| Media mix modeling | Based on legacy data | |
| Allocation of ad budget between regional and central departments | Based on the number of loans issued by each regional office throughout the past year | |
| Frequency of budget reassessment | Once annually | Once monthly |
| Regional marketing management | Full autonomy of regional marketing | Grouping of regions into 6 clusters with the following goals:
|
| Marketing department KPIs | Marketing budget/volume of loans granted | ROMI |
|
Efficiency assessment |
||
| Assessment of value-for-money channel by channel | None | 15% ROMI increase due to elimination of inefficient ad channels |
| Efficiency assessment of regional media buying | Non. |
|
|
Marketing process automation |
||
| Management of the ad campaign budget | None, operating in MS Excel | Ad budgeting module integrated with media plan manager |
| Support for national and regional media plans | None, operating in MS Excel and via email | Media plan manager module with filtering by region, access level and user type (agencies, regional marketers, central department marketers). |
