You may not know the name Erwin Ephron, but if you’re a marketer, you certainly know his influence on marketing and media planning. Ephron, a highly influential media planner and consultant, left behind a legacy of marketing best practices that are still relevant today. Certainly you’ve had to figure out where best to place your ads so that they are exposed to the most people; or you’ve danced the line of how many ads you will need so that your desired audience sees the ad often enough to remember but not so much that they grow weary. How to effectively use reach, frequency, and engagement when media planning were all cornerstones of Ephron’s expert advice. It is also why he was called the “father of modern media planning” by so many.
The concept Ephron’s most known for is the importance of recency over frequency. For Erwin, reaching people closest to their time of purchase was considerably more valuable than how often your ad was being seen (frequency) or to how many people (reach). During Ephron’s career (up to the mid-2000s), radio was the ad medium closest to point of purchase for the potential customer. Today, mobile phones and tablets reach the on-the-go consumer. Studies have shown that almost 70% of mobile search users complete an action related to their search within an hour. It is a testament to how well Ephron understood the nuances of media planning that his advice is still so applicable to today’s media landscape. We rarely endorse products, but we highly recommend Ephron’s book, ”Media Planning – From Recency to Engagement.” It’s no media planning formula but he simplifies an often complex subject of strategic ad placement and planning for marketers. Check it out and get to know Erwin Ephron.
Until next time, why not be someone else’s guru by sharing our media planning tips with someone you know.