Independent & Objective Media Audits

Why a media audit?

Media expenditures often represent one of the largest expense line items in an organization’s advertising budget and in some instances, their overall budget.  Consequently, an objective third party media audit is a small, worthwhile insurance policy to make sure you’re reaching your target audience in the most efficient way possible.  For a relatively nominal fee, Blue Onion can evaluate your media plan to see if what you originally ordered is being delivered and if the media mix is appropriate for your target audience.  Often, we find areas of opportunity that more than offset the cost of the media plan itself.

Did you get what you paid for?

Believe or not, media stations don’t always deliver what you ordered.  When we conduct a media audit on your behalf, we will determine if you received everything that was promised.  We will be able to determine the following:

  • Did your schedule deliver the ordered gross rating points or GRPs?
  • Did your spots run in the correct day parts?
  • Did your spots run in the correct programs?
  • Did the correct mix of :15’s, :30’s or :60’s run as ordered?
  • Did you get charged the promised cost per point (CPP)?

Any shortfalls in the above can translate into large sums of money, aka lost opportunity costs.  When you hold the stations accountable and receive what you’ve ordered, you media budget works harder for you, which means more awareness, sales and profits.

Is your current media strategy aligned with your target audience’s consumption habits?

Not only should you be confident that you’re getting what you paid for, you should also be confident that your messaging is running on the right channels (media mix), day parts and in the ideal programming to reach your desired target audience.  Even if your media buy is delivering or exceeding the ordered GRPs, if the audience you’re reaching isn’t the right audience for your product or service, your money is being wasted.  With our research tools, we know the media consumption habits of nearly every consumer cohort and therefore can advise as to whether or not your existing media strategy is on target.

The Process

  1. Execute a MNDA so both parties can share information freely
  2. Conduct an initial discovery session to determine objectives, target audience and scope of the audit
  3. From this, we will prepare a list of documents needed from client
    1. Demographics/psychographics of desired audience(s)
    2. Current media plan
    3. Station affidavits and/or Google Analytics
  4. Blue Onion re-creates your media buy in our system and compares your station affidavits (proof of performance, aka invoice) against same to determine underperformance and/or opportunities for make goods, no-charges or value add
  5. Blue Onion makes recommendations on media mix alterations to achieve client’s stated ROI objectives more efficiently
  6. Blue Onion provides a comprehensive report detailing all our findings, recommendations and back-up supporting same

Why Blue Onion is the perfect partner for a media audit

  • We invest over $300,000/year in research, tools and software that we leverage in our media audits, making it affordable, objective and quick.
  • The data alone is not sufficient.  Our experienced personnel’s ability to improve upon and create innovative media strategies is the winning combination to a meaningful audit.  We analyze both what’s happened in the past and what we you can do moving forward to improve.
  • We are a highly reputable firm, prided ourselves on objective decision making for a full service media planning and buying clients as well as our audit clients.
  • Over our 30+ years of being in business, we have planned, negotiated and bought media in nearly every DMA in the country.
  • We are not looking to displace current media partners or vendors.  We work for you and want to provide an objective, meaningful analysis of your current media plan, mix and efficiencies.

Call us today to have a free, initial conversation about your business and your respective media situation, needs and objectives
(303) 232-1100!