Media management companies are pretty self-satisfied these days. After years of being an afterthought, media is finally being recognized as a valuable part of the advertising process, often taking the lead with strategic approaches such as product placement, tailored content and integrated convergence campaigns.

But are these just isolated programs or do media execs really have something to crow about?

Bob Reaume, VP of media and research for the Association of Canadian Advertisers in Toronto, says each marketer places a different emphasis on media planning, depending not only on category and product, but also on the relationship it has with its agencies.

He says media certainly does take the lead in a number of cases but that depends not only on the company, but also the market and how it wants to organize creating advertising.

‘Peter Case, who used to be the VP of advertising for Royal Bank, said publicly just before he retired that in the future all agency presidents should come from the media stream in the agency – not the creative or the account executive streams – because media is becoming so much more important in the overall thing,’ says Reaume. ‘I agree with him that media in the last 15 years has risen to the top in terms of importance in advertising – but to extrapolate that all planning must begin and end with the media function, I can’t say that.’

Dominic Mercuri, VP advertising for TD Bank Financial Group in Toronto, says for the past several years TD has started its campaigns by first determining media channels – particularly since the advent of the Internet, specialty TV channels and the growing fragmentation of media vehicles. He says the primary focus of all TD campaigns today is complete integration.

‘Fragmentation definitely makes things more complicated than in the past, but I think it provides some opportunity because you can get your message to the specific target you want to address. It just makes the planning process and execution more complex than when you had narrower choices.’

Mercuri adds that TD is about to do something a bit different in media using a creative idea from its media agency, The Media Company of Toronto.

Manfred Braunl, national marketing manager at BMW Group Canada, says his approach to media buying has changed in a couple of ways over the last three or four years. One is that rather than thinking short term, BMW is now locking up premium positions for a year at a time in newspapers such as The Globe and Mail and magazines such as TIME.

With the launch of its new Mini brand, BMW also ventured into non-traditional media, such as washroom ads and out-of-home executions featuring a full-size Mini on the wall.

Braunl says that all campaigns are team efforts, with the marketing department, the creative and media agencies all sitting down together to generate ideas.

‘Media is always part of the planning process. You cannot just sit down with your creative agency and then tell the media company what to do. Very often the media company can influence the creative part. If you don’t have media in your initial discussions, I think you can waste a lot of time.’

Braunl also says it’s very important to have the agency focused on one brand, particularly since BMW would tend to take priority over Mini, so he has separate media and creative firms for the Mini and BMW accounts. The Media Company has BMW and Gaggi Media of Toronto was recently hired for Mini.

The media planning process is definitely more significant than it was five years ago, agrees Tracy Hanson, VP marketing and communications for MasterCard Canada in Toronto. MasterCard has been building on its ‘Priceless’ campaign since 1997 and she says it’s very important that in addition to regularly developing new creative extensions, the company keep its media choices fresh and relevant.

Hanson says the MasterCard marketing group has weekly meetings with its media planners and buyers as well as its creative team.

‘We actually look at the medium first and then design something for it. Years ago when I was on the agency side, I think we always looked at building the creative and then dropping it into media wherever we could.

‘The best media for ‘Priceless’ up to this point have been broadcast and print because they tell a great story – but we’ve been looking at newer, more selective, much more targeted media as well.’

Hanson says MasterCard is now using both digital mall posters and in-taxicab screens because they are both places where people are using their MasterCard, particularly since the taxi pilot was in the dining and theatre district of Toronto.

Cheryl Smith, director of refrigerated products marketing for Toronto’s Parmalat Canada, had first-hand experience with innovative media plans last year when handling marketing for the company’s Lactantia cream cheese brands. At that time, she began an ongoing relationship with Chatelaine magazine that involved an integrated, cross-platform ad and promotional campaign.

Media choices have always been critical but, says Smith, they are even more so today because of all the options available. She says how you’re going to reach your consumers should always come before setting down what you’re going to say.

‘I think it comes down to a pragmatic approach. When you do your annual plan or you’re in launch mode, you know you have to be out there in a big way, but it may be a new product dependent on trial. If it’s trial and awareness, you really have to make sure the consumer knows you’re out there – and that has certain media choice implications.’

Sharon Litwin, marketing manager, healthcare, for London, Ont.-based 3M Canada Company, also worked with Chatelaine last year when she was marketing Scotch Tape and Post-It Notes on the consumer side of the business – and took the leap into new media.

Her challenge was to link two mature brands – 77-year-old Scotch tapes and 22-year-old Post-It notes – in one campaign, since they both had the same overall objective: to drive home consumption of the products. Both products had been refurbished to appeal beyond office use with licensed Disney graphics and seasonal graphics, as well as Post-It notes in different shapes.

She worked with London, Ont. agency The JWA Group to bring Chatelaine into the equation for an integrated Web and print ad and promotion campaign that included a micro promotional site.

Litwin says marketers shouldn’t be afraid of trying new things and, in fact, they should put 3% to 5% of their marketing budgets into a new activity each year – a notion she picked up from one of the speakers at last September’s Maximizing Media conference in Toronto (produced by Strategy parent Brunico Communications of Toronto).

‘I think the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over. So if you’re trying to introduce a new product using the same old tactics, that is not always the best thing.’

But while comments like that seem to show a very progressive mood among clients – one that welcomes media to the driver’s seat – Canada’s media titans should remember that there are many clients who, often because of the type of business they’re in, still see media as secondary.

Toronto’s Hallmark Canada, for instance, tends to stick to its traditional media approach says Roger Baranowski, the company’s SVP, marketing and sales.

‘As a rule we don’t choose the medium and then figure out what the message is. Our product is very emotionally based and is usually best executed in television because there’s not a lot of rational sell going on. You have to be able to capture the moment, the Hallmark moment. So we don’t have a media-driven strategy – but that doesn’t mean we haven’t looked at it.’