Mel has a skill for, well, having a lot of skills. The Minnesota native has lived an extensive and colorful life, graduating from American University in Washington, D.C. with a degree in political science. Recently, she helped launch and run a startup sports technology company in Raleigh, North Carolina.
She brings passion and a keen mind for analyzing data and strategic planning to our clients. Melissa enjoys turning new ideas into reality, which explains why she is even a patented inventor!
Just a few of her skills…
Q&A with Mel
In a nutshell, what benefits does a Media Specialist provide to clients?
With all of the media buying channels and strategies, it can be an overwhelming task for a business to undertake on their own. That’s why having an agency that specializes in media planning and media strategy is so important.
Media Specialists can increase the effectiveness of advertising campaigns by having the expertise to determine the best strategy to reach campaign goals. That includes negotiating the best rates, and evaluating campaign performance to maximize the rate of return.
When it comes to strategy, how do you plan a media buy?
Many factors go into planning and developing a successful media strategy. The first step is to evaluate the client’s overall goals and determine which media strategies are best suited for the campaign.
Media placement needs to take into account the target audience, available ad space, desired reach and frequency, as well as a budget, to create the most impact.
It is also important to remember that no two media plans are the same. Even from one year to the next for the same client, changes and adjustments are required. We personalize a plan for each business based on their budget, their needs, their goals and modify when we need to.
The lines between “traditional media” and “digital media” are getting harder to define. When you plan a media buy, how do you plan both traditional and digital media into your strategy?
The goal is to find the right balance between traditional media buying and digital media buying. Both play unique and important roles in a marketing strategy.
Traditional and digital each have benefits and downfalls. The key is understanding the client’s specific marketing needs, considering the budget, and understanding the target audience.
Both traditional and digital play important roles in the buyer decision journey. As an agency, our goal is to deploy the right media at every level of the decision journey. In essence, we “funnel” the buyer from broad awareness to specific action.
Traditional media is typically at the very top of the funnel and digital is often at the very bottom of the funnel. That’s why everything we suggest is meant to work together. Even though we have digital strategist and media strategist, when we present a plan, we present a combined and comprehensive plan.
What are you Crazy Obsessed about?
Excel Spreadsheets. I am a proud data nerd.
